Using the app

Start on the TV

1. Open your TV's web browser and go to mex-train.app/tv.
2. Choose Start a room. The TV shows a QR code and a 5-letter room code.
3. Choose How to play any time to read the rules together.

No browser on your TV? Open the same address on a computer plugged into the TV, and make the browser full screen.

Join from a phone

• Scan the QR code on the TV with your phone's camera, enter your name and tap Join. You're in at once.
• Or type the code: go to mex-train.app, enter the room code and your name. The host lets you in.
• Or use an invite link: anyone in the room can tap Invite someone to send a link by text or email. It gets you straight in.

The first person to join is the host, who sets up and starts the game.

The waiting room

Players appear on the TV as they join. On the host's phone:

• Add a bot fills an empty seat with a computer player.
• House rules set how this game plays (see the rules).
• Gray out tiles and trains that can't be played: off, each player chooses, or on for everyone. The host can change it during the game too.
• TV display: pip colors, marking open doubles, the number each train needs, where fun messages appear, sound effects, bot speed and color-blind friendly colors.
• Start the game when everyone's in. You need at least 2 players, counting bots.

Playing your tiles

• When it's your turn, your phone says Your turn. The bar at the bottom shows the trains you can play on, with the number each one needs.
• Tap a tile to pick it, then tap a train to play it there.
• Double-tap a tile to turn it around. Press and hold a tile, then drag, to arrange your hand however you like.
• First turn of a round: tap tiles in order to build a chain on your own train, then tap Play. Clear starts the chain again.
• Draw when no tile fits, and Pass when the tile you drew doesn't fit either. When drawing or passing is all you can do, your phone tells you.
• Everything else, like every train, whose turn it is and the scores, is on the TV. If you can't see a TV, turn on I can't see a TV in Settings to see the whole table on your device.

The TV remote

• OK opens How to play during a game.
• Back asks whether to end the game for everyone or have this TV leave the room.
• Anyone can also put a rules page up on every TV from their phone, under Settings → Show rules on the TV.

During the game

Tap the ⚙ button on your phone for Settings:

• The room code and Invite someone, for anyone joining late. Someone who joins after the start takes over a seat a bot is playing, with that bot's tiles and score. The host picks which bot.
• Hand my seat to someone shows a QR code. Whoever scans it takes over your seat, tiles and score on their own phone, and yours leaves the game.
• Leave the game: a bot finishes the game in your seat.
• The host can also give a player's seat to a bot, change the TV display, and End this game.

At the end of each round everyone sees the scores, and the host starts the next round. After the last round, the host can Play again or go Back to the waiting room to change the players or rules.

Playing with another home

1. On the other home's TV, open mex-train.app/tv and choose Join a room from another home.
2. Enter the room code. The host lets that TV in.
3. Players there join from their phones the usual way: scanning their own TV's QR code, or with an invite link.

Both TVs show the same live game. Use a phone or video call to talk while you play.

If something goes wrong

• Your phone went to sleep or lost connection: open the page again, or go to mex-train.app. You're put back in your seat with your tiles. After 12 hours away, tap Back to game on the start screen instead.
• The TV asks for your name instead of starting a room: it opened the phone page. Go to mex-train.app/tv instead.
• Stuck on "Connecting…": check the internet connection, then tap Cancel and try again.
• Still stuck? Tell us what happened.