The very first thing you'll see after the introduction is Game Options Menu. From Game Options Menu you can access various other menus.
During the game you can always activate Game Options Menu by pressing left or right button of your mouse. You can also activate the menu with F1 key. To get rid of the menu, press F1 or the left mouse button outside the menu. To navigate through menus, use arrow keys or mouse. To activate an option, press ENTER (return) or click left mouse button.
New in version 2.2: Now you can also use a game pad to navigate through menus. To activate an option, press the first key on your pad.
Current active button is marked with blue color. Most of the menus have two common buttons:

- MAIN MENU
Return to the Game Options Menu.

- RETURN TO GAME
Close the menu and continue playing.

The first menu you'll see is the Game Options Menu. From this menu can access all of the game's settings. Press F1 or left mouse button to activate this menu.

- SET UP A NEW GAME?
Click this option, if you want to begin a new 1 player to 2-player game. See chapter 4.4. - New Game Menu

- HELP?
Keyboard shortcuts, meaning of bonus letters etc.

- BROWSE HISCORES?
Top 10 hiscores for each difficulty level. For both 1 player and 2 player games.

- SET SOUNDS?
See chapter 4.5. - Audio Setup Menu

- SET GRAPHICS?
See chapter 4.6. - Graphic Details Menu

- RETURN TO GAME?
Exit menu.

- QUIT GAME?
Just like it says.

During the game you might want to study the meaning of the bonus letters or study the basic rules of Q-Lat2. Since version 2.1 in-game help has it's own screen instead of a menu.

From this menu you can browse through 6 different Top 10 tables. Each of the 3 different difficulty levels has it's own Top 10, for both 1 player and 2 player games. Charts tell you the amount of points the players have scored, their names, and the time it took to collect the score. The color of the score tells also, in which Play Field the score was made.

- NEXT
Move to the next Top 10.

- DELETE ALL TOP SCORES?
Reset all Top 10s. If you choose this, you are asked to confirm, if you really, really want to do this. You can't return the old charts after you have deleted them!

Select this menu, if you want to begin a new game. Keyboard short cut to this menu is F2. From New Game Menu, you can set various settings before you start to play:

- GAME MODE
Use this button to switch between 1 player and 2 player games.

- CHOOSE PLAY FIELD (1-6)
Select one of the 6 Play Fields (see chapter 6.1. Play Field).

- DIFFICULTY
Use this button to switch between 3 different difficulty levels. (see chapter 7. Difficulty Levels).

- PLAYER 1 CONTROLS
Use this button to switch between mouse and keyboard control.
New in version 2.2: If you have a game pad or a joystick, choosing "keyboard / game pad 1" means you can use both at the same time.

- PLAYER 2 CONTROLS
Use this button to switch between mouse and keyboard control.
New in version 2.2: If you have two game pads, choosing "keyboard / game pad 2" allows you to control your ball with keyboard or with game pad.

- ALIVE BALLS (ON/OFF)
New in version 2.2: If this option is on, some of the balls on the playfield move themselves randomly. This feature makes the game more fun but also harder.

- CONTINUE...
After you have set the options the way you like, continue to name your player(s). Type your name to the field using keyboard.
Note: You can type letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, or special characters ([.] [!] [?] [:] [-] [,] [+]). (Ä = Right Shift + A, Ö = Right Shift + O).
After you have given you name(s), press OK and the game begins! If you want to return the options you've made earlier, choose CANCEL.

- MUSIC VOLUME [ + ] [ - ]
Use the Plus and Minus buttons the increase or decrease the music volume.

- CHOOSE MUSIC
There are four songs from which you can choose. The song you've chosen will play during the game.

- MUSIC (ON / OFF)
Or if you don't like any of them, you can turn the music off (or back on).

- SOUNDS (ON / OFF)
This option turns all sound effects off or on.

From this menu you can adjust the outlook of Q-Lat2. Keyboard shortcut to this menu is F5. There are all sorts of fancy details that make the look cooler, but also demand more power from your computer. If Q-Lat2 runs too slow, you might find these options helpful:

- DRAW TEXTURES (ON / OFF)
Draw the balls with or without textures. Textures demand a lot of horsepower so turning them off increases game performance.

- SHADOWS (GOOD, BLACK)
Turning this option to BLACK also increases the game performance a lot. GOOD means that shadows look well... good, and BLACK means that they are just static black. If you have turned textures off, the shadows are automatically turned to option BLACK.

- DRAW BLASTS (ON / OFF)
If you think all those fancy explosions are just wasting processor's time, you can turn them off here.

- FADING TEXTS (ON / OFF)
When you get a bonus, a text appears telling you what kind of bonus you just got. After a while the text fades away. I think it's cool, but if you don't think so, switch this off, and the text just disappears without fading.

- PLAYER ID: (FLARE / GRID)
New in version 2.2. I've got feedback saying that the flare moving around the player's ball can make aiming difficult. So I added a possibilty to replace the flare with a grid (or a cross) over the player's ball(s). It also helps aiming and hiting the other balls.

- AUTO DETAILS (ON / OFF)
Why adjust the details yourself, if the game can do it for you? If you turn Auto Details on, the game automatically drops the level of details, if frame rate drops under 65 frames per second. You can also monitor the frame rate from the upper right corner of the Play Field.

If you want to end your gaming session, choose QUIT GAME from the Game Options Menu or press ESC. You are asked to confirm:

- YES
Exit Q-Lat2 and return to Windows. Why would you do that? :)

- NO
That's the spirit! One more game...