LaserChess 98 The Rules ============================================================================== This file is also available in HTML format, in the file rules.html. It is highly recommended that you read that version, as it contains images of the different game pieces. ============================================================================== Welcome to LaserChess 98! Game Objective -------------- Like chess, the objective of LaserChess is to capture the opponent's king. Game strategy focuses on setting up board positions which help you achieve this goal. In LaserChess 98, the only way a king can be captured (killed) is if it is shot by a beam. Therefore, you should focus on building up a board position that will allow you to direct a laser beam at your opponent's king. Gameplay Overview ----------------- LaserChess 98 is a two-player game, in which turns alternate between players. When it is your turn to move, there are essentially three things you can do: Move a piece Rotate a piece Fire your laser Rotating a piece and firing the laser only count as half of a turn each; so, in any given turn, you may rotate two pieces; fire the laser twice; rotate a piece and fire a laser; or, you may move a single piece. When a laser is fired, it travels in a straight line until it either hits a piece or goes off the board. When it hits a piece, it reacts differently depending on the type of piece and its orientation. Beams can be deflected, absorbed, reflected back, passed through, or they can simply blow up the piece they hit. For the specific behavior of each piece, please see the section on Game Pieces. The Blue player goes first. Turns alternate between players until one of the kings has been destroyed, or until the game has reached a stalemate. Whoever is left with a king on the board is declared the winner; if both kings are destroyed in the same turn, then the game is a draw. Stalemate can also occur if both kings are still alive, but there are no lasers or pawns (for piece promotion) left on the board. You can read a more detailed description of the actual game controls in the file rules.html (or rules.txt). Game Pieces ----------- This section describes each of the LaserChess 98 game pieces. Each piece can be described by its legal moves, and by how it behaves when struck by a laser beam. When describing the legal moves for a piece, assume that the player's side is on the bottom of the board; moving "up," for instance, means to move toward the opponent. A word about beam behavior: in general, refelctive surfaces are indicated by a white surface. When beams strike these surfaces, they usually are deflected. Pawn Legal Moves Pawns can move either up or down by one square. Each Pawn can move up by two squares on its first move. Pawns cannot capture other pieces by landing on them. Pawns can also be promoted; by advancing a pawn to your opponent's end of the board, you are allowed to replace that pawn with a piece of your choosing (except a king). You are presented with a piece selection dialog box, in which you can select the piece to replace. When a Pawn is promoted, the replacement piece is placed on the board in the same rotation orientation as that Pawn had before it was promoted. Beam Behavior Pawns are triangles with one reflective side. When a beam strikes the reflective side, it deflects at a 90-degree angle away from the reflective side. If a beam hits either of the other two sides, the Pawn is destroyed. A Pawn can also be destroyed if it is hit on its reflective side by a charged beam. Diagonal Mirror Legal Moves Diagonal Mirrors can move vertically or horizontally by any number of squares, until they are blocked by another piece in that direction. Diagonal Mirrors cannot capture other pieces by landing on them. Beam Behavior All sides of a diagonal mirror are reflective. When struck by a beam, it deflects at a 90-degree angle away from the reflective side. A Diagonal Mirror can be destroyed by hitting it with a charged beam. Straight Mirror Legal Moves Straight Mirrors can move vertically or horizontally by any number of squares, until they are blocked by another piece in that direction. Straight Mirrors cannot capture other pieces by landing on them. Beam Behavior When struck by a beam perpendicular to its surface, a Straight Mirror reflects it back toward its origin. The beam becomes "half-charged" and turns orange when this occurs. (If a half-charged beam strikes another Straight Mirror, it will bounce back red -- fully charged! More about charged beams later...) When a beam strikes a Straight Mirror parallel to its surface, it simply passes through to the next square. A Straight Mirror can be destroyed by hitting it with a charged beam perpendicular to its surface. Beam Splitter Legal Moves Beam Splitters can move diagonally by any number of squares, until they are blocked by another piece in that direction. Beam Splitters cannot capture other pieces by landing on them. Beam Behavior When a Beam Splitter is struck on its tip by a beam, it splits it and sends beams out both sides, perpendicular to the incoming beam. When struck by a beam on any other side, the Beam Splitter gets destroyed. (Note that if a beam is reflected back at a beam splitter from one of its sides, it will get destroyed!) A Beam Splitter can also be destroyed by hitting it with a charged beam on its tip. Charger Legal Moves To put it simply, Chargers move like knights in chess. They move in a 2-1 "L" pattern; for instance, they can move 2 squares left and one square up, or 1 square left and 2 squares up, etc. Furthermore, Chargers can jump over other pieces. Chargers can capture other pieces by landing on them. However, they cannot capture a king by landing on it. Beam Behavior When a beam enters the chamber of a Charger from the back (the wider opening), it gets fully charged and re-emitted out the front. Charged beams can destroy any other piece, even if they are struck on reflective surfaces. If a beam hits a Charger from any other direction, it gets destroyed. Blocker Legal Moves Blockers (a.k.a. Absorbers) also move like knights in chess, the same as Chargers. However, Blockers can NOT capture pieces by landing on them. A Blocker can not be rotated. Beam Behavior Blockers block all incoming beams except charged beams. When struck by a charged beam, a blocker is destroyed. Laser Legal Moves The Laser can move one square in any direction. It cannot capture a piece by landing on it. Beam Behavior - Firing Lasers are the main offensive weapon in LaserChess 98. A player can fire his Laser by double-clicking on it. When you fire the Laser, the beam exits from the gold tip. When a beam is travelling around the board, it doesn't matter who fired the beam; a beam which you fire may very well destroy some of your pieces. Beam Behavior - Incoming When a beam hits a Laser from any direction, the Laser is destroyed. (It is important to watch out for beams getting reflected back into your own laser when you fire!) King Legal Moves The King can move one square in any direction. It can capture a piece by landing on it; however, it cannot capture another King. A King can not be rotated. Beam Behavior When a beam hits a king from any direction, the King is destroyed and the game is over. Advanced Features ----------------- Explosions Occur Incrementally When a piece is struck by a beam and is going to explode, that explosion happens in about the time it would have taken the beam to pass through two squares. Once the piece has exploded, it is possible for other beams on the board to pass through that square. Hit counts prevent loops If you encounter the unfortunate situation of a laser loop (this actually is possible if one of the pieces in a cycle of mirrors gets destroyed), then don't despair! Each reflective surface on the board can sustain a maximum of ten hits on any one turn; if a reflective surface gets hit more than this number of times on any given turn, then that piece is destroyed. Castling There is no castling in LaserChess 98. Changes from Original Rules The original, 1987 Compute Magazine version of LaserChess had slightly different rules than LaserChess 98. This is partially on purpose, and partially because I couldn't find the original version. First of all, half-moves (rotations, laser fires) were defined differently; players were allowed to move pieces as half turns, as well as rotate pieces. In the new model, only laser fires and rotations are half-turns. I believe the new model adds to the game by allowing a player to strategically set up multiple laser paths, tricking the opponent into thinking that the beam was going to go one way, and then rotate and fire on the same turn in a direction which the opponent might not be expecting. In the original, a laser fire was a full turn (I think), which made it impossible to "sneak up" on your opponent - he always had a turn to move before you got to fire. Furthermore, LaserChess 98 does not have the hypersquare or hypercube. These elements of the original game teleported pieces randomly around the board. I purposely eliminated these because I thought that degree of randomness took away from the strategic nature of the game. Any other differences resulted solely from the fact that I was never able to get a copy of the original (or the magazine) to try out. LaserChess 98 Gameplay ============================================================================== This file is also available in HTML format, in the file gameplay.html. ============================================================================== This page talks about the various controls which you will need to play LaserChess 98. Whose Turn Is It? ----------------- You can determine whose turn it is by both the color of the Lasers in the "LaserChess 98" title graphic, and by the color of the square highlight. For instance, if it is Blue's turn, the lasers in the graphic will be blue and square highlights will show up as blue. You can determine how many moves you have left in your turn (either a full move or a half move) by the number of Lasers in the graphic (2 lasers for a full move, 1 for a half move). Additionally, the square highlight dims when you only have half a move left in the current turn. When you start a new game, the blue player goes first. Moving a Piece -------------- When the mouse is over a piece that you can move, the mouse pointer will change to a hand. Moving a piece is as simple as drag-and-drop. Just select the piece you want to move with the left mouse button, and while holding the button down, drag the piece to the square where you want it to move. Make sure that the mouse pointer (not just the piece itself) is over the square that you want. To drop the piece, just release the mouse button. Where Can I Move? ----------------- LaserChess 98 can automatically highlight the legal moves for a given piece. Simply hover the mouse over one of your pieces, and it will highlight in yellow those squares to which that piece can move. To disable these legal move hints, select the menu item Options / Legal Move Hints. This option can be useful for learning how to play the game. Rotating a Piece ---------------- When the mouse is over a piece that you can rotate, the square highlight will contain a small "handle" in the lower-right corner of the square. Notice when you the mouse pointer is over the handle, the pointer will change to a rotation icon. If you click the left mouse button on this handle and drag, you can spin the piece to the orientation that you want. So, if you drag the handle to the upper-left corner, you will have rotated the piece by 180-degrees. Try it a few times to get the hang of it. Pieces can only be rotated in 90-degree increments. Kings and Blockers can not be rotated. Firing the Laser ---------------- To fire your Laser, simply double-click on it. Starting a New Game ------------------- To quit the current game and begin a new game, select the menu item Game / New. Saving a Game ------------- You may save a game already in progress with the menu item Game / Save. You may save the game under a different filename from the currently loaded game using the menu item Game / Save As. The default extension for LaserChess 98 game files is *.lc. Restoring (Loading) a Game -------------------------- You may load a previously-saved game with the menu item Game / Open. LaserChess 98 comes pre-packed with a few interesting game layouts for you to try in the "Saved Games" directory; simply load the game (*.lc) files and fire the blue laser to try out some neat effects. Disabling / Enabling Background Music ------------------------------------- You may toggle the background music on/off with the menu item Options / Background Music. Exiting LaserChess 98 --------------------- To exit the game and quit the application, select the menu item Game / Exit. LaserChess 98 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) by Chris Fuchs Shareware Release 1 FAQ version: 1.0 Q: Is there a computer player or network player? A: No. I know, the game would be MUCH better if there were, but the reality is that Shareware is only a hobby of mine (I do have a day job), and unfortunately I didn't have the time to do either of those in this first release. Q: The colors look funny and ugly. Why? A: LaserChess 98 does not run (well) on a video display with less than 16-bit (65,536) color. Sorry... maybe next version. Q: The board doesn't fit on my screen. Why? A: LaserChess 98 requires at least an 800x600 display. Q: I get an error about DirectSound not starting. Why? A: If you are using another application that is using sound, LaserChess sound may not start up. Q: LaserChess 98 doesn't start, or it says that it's missing libraries. Why? A: To run LaserChess 98, you may need to install additional drivers or libraries, specifically, the Microsoft DirectX libraries, version 2.0 or higher. These libraries are probably available from Microsoft at this location on the World Wide Web: http://www.microsoft.com/DirectX/Resources/Downloads/dx5eng.exe Q: These questions are all answered in the file readme.txt. Why? A: Because more people read the FAQ than the readme. =)