Treasure Chest

Help

How to Play a Game on GameTable Online

How to get into a game
How to operate a game
How to use the game options
Other help resources

How to Get into a Game
It is easy to play a game on our site. We've also taken great care to make the games work similarly to each other so you'll only need to learn one system of control.

Requirements, All of our games use Sun Microsystems' Java so you will need a computer that has Java version 1.5, or later. You may encounter issues with 1.5 so Java 1.6 is better. As of this writing Java supported platforms include Windows, Linux, Solaris, and with partially supported by Macintosh. *Note: we cannot provide in depth technical support for Linux, Solaris, and Macintosh platforms.

First, enter the game lobby called the Gathering Place by clicking the the Gathering Place button on the homepage. To find out about the games you'd like to play, click on the game images on the homepage or by using the Help menu in the The Gathering Place. The Gathering Place is the where you can chat with other gamers, see there play stats and launch games.

Second, to make your own table click the Create button and select the game you would like to play. If you see a game table that has a status of Open, it is waiting for players and to join the table highlight the table and click the Join button.

Note that from the Gathering Place you can view it in full screen mode or in windowed mode by selecting off of the Window Menu. As this will also be your viewing size for the game and you cannot change this setting in the game, choose your preference now.

Setting Up Your Game, adjust the game settings to your liking. To play by yourself in games with "Solo Play," set the number of players to the total number of players you want to have at the table and the GTO Server will fill the rest of the seats with artificial intelligence players, "AI" players.

Finally, click the Ready box to let everyone know you are ready to play. If you created the session, you need to click Start Game once everyone is ready.

How to Operate a Game

Every game on the site has the same basic controls. The right side of the screen is the interface, and the rest of the screen is the game table.

The Interface:

The top of the interface holds the timer. If you see a countdown timer it is your turn; which is taken for you if the time runs out. If there is a name in the box, it is that person's turn.

Under the timer is usually the card detail display. If you click on a card on the game table, you can see a larger version of it here. For games without cards, the players window is shown here instead (as described below).

Along with the card detail, some games also have command buttons in this location. If a button can be used, it is bright - otherwise it is not shown or is dimmed out. Simply click the button to use it.

Below the timer is the message window. This is a small display which keeps you informed of the current situation of the game.

Under the message window is the chat & players window. This defaults to showing the chat window. Listed here are game updates (in blue), prompts for you to take action (in red), and chat messages from other players (in black). If you click the Players button, then a list of the current game players is shown, along with key statistics from the game (often the score). Get back to the chat window by clicking the Chat button. Update: the games are being changed to use a small toggle button that switches between these two windows.

Along the bottom of the screen is the chat entry field. Click here and then type a message for all of the other players to see. Hit the Enter key or click Send to send the message. After a moment it will appear in the chat window.

In the bottom right of the screen is the game options button (GameTable Online logo) - click it to bring up the

game options.

The Game Table:

You are always sitting at the bottom, or south, edge of the table. Everyone is always in the same relative position (i.e. the player to your right sees you to their left).

Hover your mouse pointer over game elements to see useful information - like the name of the player, the number of cards in a stack, the name of a card, etc.

If you have a hand of cards, they are shown held up off the table on the screen bottom.

Move a card from your hand to the board by clicking on the card and then dragging (holding mouse button down) it to the desired location and then releasing the button. In some games, the card attaches to your mouse pointer just by clicking on it because there are options you can perform to the card before placing it.

If there is only one possible target for a card, double clicking is used as a shortcut for dragging.

Click on the dice to roll them.

Many games have a turn indicator on the table to show whose turn it is.

How to Use the Game Options:

Open the game options menu by clicking the GameTable Online Icon button in the lower right of every game. Then click the button of the option that you'd like to use. Note that some of these options are for possible future use and may not be enabled currently (see below).

The Sound check box is a future option that signals whether or not you want sound activated.

The Chat Filter check box selects whether the profanity filter is being used.

The Mouse Tips check box turns the mouse hover text on and off.

Quick Dice is a future option which will bypass the visual rolling of the dice.

The Show Rules and Show Charts links open up the rules and charts (if the game has any) in a separate window. You can switch between windows on a PC by pressing Alt-Tab.

Show Team (not implemented) is only used for games that have a team with persistence outside of the game, such as your herd in Battle Cattle.

The Pause button is a future option that lets you briefly pause the game, with the box to the right indicating how many game pauses you have left.

If you see a Surrender option - you can click this to leave an active game. If you do this, your surrender tally will be incremented. Please do this very sparingly, as it can ruin the gaming experience for others.

If you see a Leave Game option - you can click this to leave the game without penalty.

The Report Bug button is an easy way to let us know about a bug that you have encountered in the current game. Please be as specific as possible in the text of the bug, including the time you were playing and who your opponents were.

Click Close Options to close down the window.

Need more help or have other questions?

FAQ

Find the answers to our most frequently asked questions on our FAQ page.

Technical Support

Technical Support is available in the GTO Forum.

About Us

Get the details on GTO on our About Us page.

Contact Us

Name:
Email:
Message:

Game Table Online® - The internet center for strategy gaming™