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-=[ Ultra Power Rubik's Clock Max II ]=- (the return) (the greatest hit) Alpha Turbo

What is this ?

"-=[ Ultra Power Rubik's Clock Max II ]=- (the return) (the greatest hit) Alpha Turbo", but let's call it rubiclox as its short name, is an implementation of the clock of Rubik, a crazy puzzle, done by the creator of the famous Rubik's cube. It is much easier than Rubik's cube, though.

What is the goal ?

The goal is to have all the clocks pointing to 12 o'clock, in both sides of the game. You can achieve other figures too, if you like, but the primary purpose is all the clock on 12.

How to build it ?

Just untar the tarball (seems you already did it because you read this), then do a 'make', everything should compile alright (you need gcc, I guess), then do a './rubiclox', you should see the window appear (well, I forgot to say it works under X-Window).

How to use it ?

You turn the clock at corners by clicking on the arrows. You can push/pull the 4 buttons by clicking on it. If you click on 'turn', yhou'll see the other side of the game.
The pointer will change shape when you go on an activable zone. I think it's intuitive, isn't it ?
You very quickly will notice than by pushing/pulling buttons, when you turn a clock, some other will/won't turn. And in the other side, it will be the same, some clock will have changed, some not. You have to handled it carefully to success in solving the game. I won't explain further, I let you experiment a bit. You have some key-cuts, listed here : F1, F4 - autosave the clock (new in version 2.0.0) F2 - randomize the clock
F3 - reset (put all the clocks on 12, usefull if you want to understand how

       it all works, you then can turn some clock and see what happens,
       and see the differents behaviours with different buttons positions)
  left, right arrows - to turn the current clock on the left or on the
       right (the current clock is the one with the little red point close
       to it, that you can move by pressing up and down arrows)
  up, down arrows - change the current clock (note : the current clock is
       meaningful only when you play the game with the keyboard, the mouse
       does not care of it, but you will understand by playing the game)

4 5
1 2 - push/pull a button (as you see on your numeric pad, it makes a square,

       you can see it as being the buttons mapped to the keyboard) (note : it
       only works with the numeric pad, I use bad X-Window keyboard handling
       functions, sorry)

space - turn the game to the other side escape - to quit

There are other key-cuts :
e r
d f - to select directly a clock (move the red point close to the choosen

       clock). As you see it's a square too, like for the buttons. Easy to
       understand

t - turn the game
y u
h j - same as 4, 5, 1, 2

That's all. Hope it's easy to use. I think you first should start with the mouse, then when you'll know a bit what's going on when you do this or that, you can use the keyboard, for it's much faster to use than the mouse (well, maybe it's my brain that is a bit doomed, though, but I have some troubles with mouses ("mices" do we write, no ?)).

You can change the size of the window if you think it's too small or too big. Normally, it's handled correctly.

When you quit, the game will be saved in the file "saved.rcd" (rcd for Rubik's Clock Data), that will reloaded next time, so you can quit at any time and take the game back again later. You can take a look at the file if you want, it's a very simple format.

Note that I tried to make a clean code, so you are very welcome to read it. If you think some parts are obfuscate, contact me for I make them clearer. Well, don't waste too much your time in it, it's not extremly hardcore code, either.

Where to get it ?

Well, if you read this, you should have downloaded it somewhere (unless a distributor includes the program in some of its distributions, why not ?). So, the original url where you can get it is : http://sed.free.fr/rubiclox/index.html

What are your future plans ?

I'd like some other people's solutions. Mine is a simple algorithm, but I'm sure we can make much better, shorter solutions in number of steps. If you have one solution, contact me.

How can I help you improving this program ?

The only thing I need is a solver, a new one. So, if you have a solver ready or algorithms to send to me or learning oriented stuff, or anything, send it to me ! It just must be non-commercial stuff, free to copy and modify. You can use a licence if you like, like the GPL, but public domain stuff is very welcome !

What licence protects this program ?

None. It's public domain. Go read the file PUBLIC to know why I don't like licences.

How to contact you ?

You may want to contact me, for any reason. My name is Sed Barbouky (not the one my mother gave to me, but I choose this one because I like it), and I can be reached at
sed@free.fr

Enjoy your life.