The Kolf Handbook

# The Kolf Handbook

Jason Katz-Brown `<jasonkb@mit.edu>`

reviewer: Paul Broadbent
Revision KDE Gear 21.08 (2021-08-06)

Legal Notice

This documentation describes the game of Kolf version 21.08

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction

# Chapter 1. Introduction

### Gametype:

Arcade, Sport

### Number of possible players:

Ten

Kolf is a miniature golf game with 2d top-down view. Courses are dynamic, and up to 10 people can play at once in competition.

Kolf comes with a tutorial course. Playing this course is the easiest way to get started.

Chapter 2. How to Play
How to Play

# Chapter 2. How to Play

### Objective:

Put the ball into the hole with the least possible hits.

Kolf's game-play is simple. It is the easiest to learn how to play hands-on, and thus a tutorial course is included to guide you through the basics. This chapter will guide you through this tutorial. To start the tutorial, choose the Help → Tutorial menu item.

## Hitting the Ball

To aim the ball, either line up the mouse behind the ball so the putter aims in the direction you want to hit it or press one of the Left arrow (counterclockwise) or Right arrow (clockwise) keys, to rotate the putter.

### Tip

To rotate the putter more quickly with the keyboard, hold down Shift while pressing or holding the arrow keys. To rotate more slowly, hold down Ctrl.

To hit the ball, press and hold either the left mouse button or Down arrow key. The longer you hold down the key or button, the more strength the putt will have. It will take practice to get a good feel for speed.

### Tip

To stop the putt while you are still holding moving the putter back in your stroke, press Esc.

Hit the ball into the hole to move on to the next.

Slopes
Slopes

## Slopes

Slopes are slanted areas of the course that the golf ball rolls down in an expected manner. The light of the golf course is from the upper-left, so the brightest slopes will push the ball towards the upper-left corner of the hole. Choose the Hole → Show Info menu item to see an arrow that points in the direction the slope will roll the ball.

On this tutorial hole, hit the ball onto the upward-pointing slope and let it roll into the cup to move onto the next hole.

### Directions

On the next hole, experiment with the other kinds of slopes. There are elliptical, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal slopes in Kolf. Hit the ball into the hole.

### Steepness

The next tutorial hole has two slopes of differing steepness. If you choose the Hole → Show Info menu item, the steepness of the slope will appear as a number from 1-8, where 8 is steepest and 1 is shallowest. Hit the ball into the hole and continue to the next hole.

Walls
Walls

## Walls

Balls bounce of walls as one would expect them to, with a little bit of dampening. Deflect the ball off the walls and into the cup to advance to the next hole.

Puddles and Sand
Puddles and Sand

## Puddles and Sand

### Puddles

Puddles are blue. When your ball rolls into a puddle, a penalty stroke is added to your score and you must then choose where you want to take your next shot from: either next to the puddle or from the same place as where you just took the last shot.

### Sand

Sand is yellow. Balls roll through sand very slowly.

Hit the ball around the puddles and through the sand into the hole to continue to the next tutorial hole.

Windmills
Windmills

## Windmills

Windmills are compound objects with brown border walls and a moving arm on one side. Half-walls create the opening to the windmill, which the black arm swings across. It takes practice to be able to time the stroke of the ball to pass through the opening. Hit the ball through the windmill into the hole to continue.

Black Holes
Black Holes

## Black Holes

When you hit your ball into a black hole, it is transported to the exit and ejected at the angle of the exit at a speed directly relational to the speed your ball was going. Choose the Hole → Show Info menu item to see which Black Hole goes to which exit and which direction the ball will come out of the exit. The rim around Black Holes are the same color as their corresponding exits. Hit the ball into the black hole, which will then eject the ball into the cup so you can go to the next hole.

Floaters
Floaters

## Floaters

Floaters are moving platforms that carry a ball that lands on it. Floaters' speeds vary. This one is a pretty slow floater, but you still must time your shot so you can go over the wall and into the cup.

Bridges
Bridges

## Bridges

Bridges are simple - they just lift the ball above the things below them, like slopes, sand, and puddles. They can have brown walls on their perimeter.

Chapter 3. Game Rules, Strategies and Tips
Game Rules, Strategies and Tips

# Chapter 3. Game Rules, Strategies and Tips

Here's in-depth description of Kolf's basic features.

## Starting a Game

To start a game, choose the Game → New menu item. This opens a dialog where you can configure your new game.

### Players Page

To add a player to your game, click the New Player button.

To change the name of the players, change the text in the text boxes.

To remove a player, click the Remove button next to the player's name.

### Course Page

To choose the course that you want to play, click its entry in the list box on the left of this page. Kolf comes with many built-in courses that you can play.

To add a course that you have downloaded or made, click on the Add… button on the bottom of this page, and choose the course file in the file dialog.

### Options Page

On this page you can choose whether or not this game will be played in Strict mode. In strict mode, there is no undo, moving holes, or editing of the course. This mode is generally for competition. Only in strict mode are high scores kept.

Saved Games
Saved Games

## Saved Games

Kolf can keep a history of your rounds that are still in progress and save them to disk so you can load them and play them later. Saved games include the current hole, names and colors of all players in game, and the scores of the players.

### Saving Your Game

To save your game while still playing, choose the Game → Save Game menu item. If you have not saved a game on this game before, you will be prompted for the file to save to.

### Loading Your Game

To load the game that you saved, choose the Game → Load… menu item. You can then choose the saved game to open.

Practicing
Practicing

## Practicing

There are a few features that make practicing your golf easier. These features are not enabled during strict mode.

### Undo

To undo a bad shot, choose the Hole → Undo Shot menu item.

### Switching Holes

The Go menu contains many menu items for switching to different holes that are quite self explanatory. See the Go menu reference.

Putting Options
Putting Options

## Putting Options

Kolf has a few ways to putt. The basic putting method is described above.

The mouse is enabled by default. This means that whenever the mouse is moved, the putter aligns to the line between the mouse and ball.

If you prefer to only use the keyboard and arrow keys, you can disable mouse putting by unchecking the Settings → Enable Mouse for Moving Putter menu item.

### Advanced Putting

Advanced putting can be enabled by checking the Settings → Enable Advanced Putting menu item. This putting mode is slightly more challenging than the regular click-and-hold mode, and can be used with either the mouse or keyboard.

To putt in this mode:

1. Click or press the Down arrow key once to begin the swing. The putting indicator will appear, and the strength gauge will start filling up with a color, which changes as the gauge fills up.

2. Click or press the Down arrow key when the strength gauge has filled up the amount that you want. The farther around the circle the strength gauge has filled up, the stronger the putt will be. It takes practice to be able to get the correct strength on putts.

   After this, the color in the putting indicator will start to wind down back to where it started.

3. Click or press the Down arrow key again when the strength-indicator is as close as possible to the center line of the putting indicator.

The closer the final click (or key press) is, the more true the putt is to the original line.

Chapter 4. Interface Overview
Interface Overview

# Chapter 4. Interface Overview

## The Game Menu

Game → New (Ctrl+N)

  Start a new game.

Game → Load… (Ctrl+O)

  Load a previously saved game.

Game → Save Course (Ctrl+S)

  Save the current course using its current file name.

Game → Save Course As…

  Open a file dialog allowing you to save the current course using a new file name.

Game → Save Game

  Save the current game with the last saved game filename, or under a filename you specify if you have not saved the game yet.

Game → Save Game As…

  Open a file dialog allowing you to save the current game with a filename of your choice.

Game → End Game (Ctrl+End)

  End the current game, without closing Kolf.

Game → Show High Scores (Ctrl+H)

  Display the high score table.

Game → About Course…

  Show name, author, and number of holes of the course.

Game → Quit (Ctrl+Q)

  Quit Kolf.

The Hole Menu
The Hole Menu

## The Hole Menu

Hole → Edit (Ctrl+E)

  Switch to editing mode to edit the current hole.

Hole → New (Ctrl+Shift+N)

  Create a new hole. (Only while editing.)

Hole → Clear (Ctrl+Del)

  Remove all objects from the current hole. (Only while editing.)

Hole → Reset (Ctrl+R)

  Reset the current hole to its starting position, so that you can start over.

Hole → Show Info (Ctrl+I)

  Show information about objects on the current hole.

Hole → Undo Shot (Ctrl+Z)

  Undo the last shot you made.

The Go Menu
The Go Menu

## The Go Menu

Go → Switch to Hole

  Go directly to another hole within the course. A list of the hole numbers allows you to choose which hole you wish to go to.

Go → Next Hole (Alt+Right)

  Go to the next hole.

Go → Previous Hole (Alt+Left)

  Go to the previous hole.

Go → First Hole (Ctrl+Home)

  Go to the first hole in the course.

Go → Last Hole (Ctrl+Shift+End)

  Go to the last hole in the course.

Go → Random Hole

  Go to a random hole from the current course.

The Settings and Help Menu
The Settings and Help Menu

## The Settings and Help Menu

Kolf has the common KDE Settings and Help menu items, for more information read the sections about the Settings Menu and Help Menu of the KDE Fundamentals with these additional entries:

Settings → Enable Mouse for Moving Putter

  Allow the use of the mouse to move the putter.

Settings → Enable Advanced Putting

  Enable the advanced putting mode, as described in its own section.

Settings → Show Putter Guideline

  Toggle on and off the putter guideline.

Settings → Play Sounds

  Toggle on and off the sound effects.

Settings → Enable All Dialog Boxes

  Re-enable any dialog boxes that you disabled by clicking on Do not show this message again or similar.

Help → Tutorial

  Start the tutorial course of Kolf.

Chapter 5. Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions

# Chapter 5. Frequently asked questions

5.1. I want to change the way this game looks. Can I?
5.2. Can I use the keyboard to play the game?
5.3. I cannot figure out what to do here! Are there hints?
5.4. I want to design my own golf course. Can I?

5.1. | I want to change the way this game looks. Can I?
| No. At this moment Kolf features only one theme.
5.2. | Can I use the keyboard to play the game?
| Yes. Use the directional keys to control the putter.
5.3. | I cannot figure out what to do here! Are there hints?
| No. Kolf does not have a hint feature.
5.4. | I want to design my own golf course. Can I?
| Yes, you can. To enter the edit mode use the Hole → Edit (Ctrl+E) menu item. Click here for more details.

Chapter 6. Course Editor
Course Editor

# Chapter 6. Course Editor

Kolf comes with a versatile editor for its course file format. Courses can have any number of holes, and there is no limiting the creativity of the course designer.

## Creating a New Course

To create a new course, choose the Game → New menu item. Go to the Course page of the dialog, and choose the Create New course. Make sure that, under the Options page of the dialog, Strict mode is unchecked.

### Note

To play this new course later, click the Add… button to add the course to your list of courses.

Adding Holes
Adding Holes

## Adding Holes

Switch to the edit mode using the Hole → Edit menu item. Choose the Hole → New menu item to add a new hole at the end of the course.

### Tip

You can restore a hole to a blank state, similar to when it was first created, by choosing the Hole → Clear menu item.

Two items will appear on new holes: a cup, and a white ball. The white ball marks where players' balls start the hole.

Editing Basics
Editing Basics

## Editing Basics

The basic building block of Kolf courses is the “object”. Holes are made up of a bunch of objects. Objects can be moved to any location, and the different kinds of objects each have different properties you can set.

To start editing a hole, toggle the Hole → Edit menu item, or press the pencil icon on the toolbar. To leave editing mode, uncheck this menu item (or the toolbar icon).

### Adding Objects

To add a new object to the course, choose its name in the list box labeled Add object:. The object will appear in the center of the course.

### Caution

Bridges and signs will cover up new objects if they were already in the center of the hole.

### Moving and Resizing Objects

Move your mouse cursor over the object that you want to move, and the mouse cursor will change to a hand cursor. Then click and drag the object to where you want it.

Puddles, sand, floaters, bridges, and signs can be resized by dragging the small circle at their lower-right corner.

### Note

Walls can be moved by clicking and dragging their endpoints, or you can move the whole wall by clicking and dragging on the middle part of the wall as normal.

### Objects' Settings

Objects' properties can be changed in the area at the lower-right corner of the Kolf window. To edit an object, move your mouse cursor over it until the cursor changes to the hand cursor. Then click. Various controls for that object will appear in the lower-right corner of the Kolf window.

#### General Hole Settings

To edit general hole settings, click an area of the hole that is not covered by an object. When this is possible, the cursor will be the normal pointer cursor.

Course name:

  This is the name that is shown in the New Game dialog and in the Course Information dialog.

Course author:

  This is the author name that is shown in the Course Information dialog.

Par:

  The par of the hole.

Maximum:

  The maximum number of strokes a player can take on the hole.

Show border walls

  Whether or not to show walls around the border of the hole.

#### Slopes

Type

  Choose the type of the slope - Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Opposite Diagonal, Circular. Diagonal and opposite diagonal slopes are triangles, while circular slopes are circles. Vertical and horizontal slopes are rectangles of course.

Reverse direction

  Whether or not to reverse the slant of the slope. For example, consider an elliptical slope (a circular slope). When it is not reversed, it pushes balls outward like a mound. When it is reversed, it sucks balls inward like a hole.

Unmovable

  Whether or not this can be moved by other objects, like floaters.

  ### Caution

  If a floater overlaps with this object at any point on this path, and the slope is large and thus won't move the floater, you must make the slope Unmovable, or Kolf will suffer poor performance!

Grade:

  Choose the grade (steepness) of the slope by moving the slider so the grade moves towards 0 or 8, where 8 is steepest and 0 is flat. Steeper slopes push the ball more.

#### Puddles and Sand

Puddles and Sand have the same configuration options as each other.

Enable show/hide

  Checking this enables the flashing of this puddle or sand.

  The more towards Fast the slider is, the faster the puddle or sand flashes.

#### Bridges, Windmills, Floaters, and Signs

Bridges, windmills, floaters, and signs all have similar settings for configuring on which sides there are border walls. To show the wall on a side, check the check box for that side.

There are also some more specific options for windmills, floaters, and signs.

##### Windmills

Windmill on top

  Whether or not the black windmill arm is on bottom or top - the default is that it is on the top. The two half-walls will always be with the arm. Note that you cannot enable a border wall on the side that the arm is.

Speed

  The more towards Fast the slider is, the faster the black windmill arm moves.

##### Floaters

The path the floater moves along is shown by the wall it's connected to.

Moving speed

  The more towards Fast the slider is, the faster the floater moves. If the slider is all the way at the Slow end, the floater will stop.

##### Signs

Sign HTML:

  You can enter any valid HTML here. For example, entering `Hit it <i>softly</i> towards the slope!` will create the text “Hit it softly towards the slope!”.

Chapter 7. Credits and License
Credits and License

# Chapter 7. Credits and License

Kolf

Kolf copyright 2001, 2002 Jason Katz-Brown

Developers

- Jason Katz-Brown `(jasonkb AT mit.edu)`

- Niklas Knutsson

- Ryan Cumming

- Daniel Matza-Brown

- Paul Broadbent

Documentation copyright 2002, Jason Katz-Brown

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.