The objective of this game is to capture more of the squares on the gameboard to your color. The game ends when:
a) There is only one color of square left on the board
b) The opposing colors are separated by tiles and will never come in contact
On your turn you...
a) Using the keypad 7 8 9 or q w e select two directions for you arrows
4 6 a d
1 2 3 z x c
to point.
b) Click on any square that is your (square) color.
That's it! Your tile will be placed, and it will turn the corresponding squares your color. The squares turn to your square color proceeding outwards until they hit the edge of the board or a tile. Your recently placed tile is updated first, then the rest are, proceeding down in the opposite order that they were placed. I know this sounds confusing, but the game is really very intuitive. If you just mess around with it a little, I'm sure it will make perfect sense.
Computer Opponents:
Curley: perhaps the best all-around computer opponent. Likes his own color, hates others'
Mo: this guy just wants as many squares as he can get.
Larry: probably the worst opponent, but he comes up with some good games. He just hates other colors.
Hints: if your player 1 is a computer opponent, he will not start thinking right off the bat. Press any key to make him start.
If all of the players are computer opponents, once they start thinking, the only way to get them to stop is to either wait for the game to end and do a option-apple-esc force quit of the program.
Menus:
File Menu
New Game: comes up when the program is launched, and can be used to start a new game at any time. Choose from two the four players (any of which can be computer controlled.). Choose a new color for your squares by clicking on the colored square. The tile color is calculated automatically. Select the size of board you would like (I recommend 10x10, that's the only size that really looks good, but experiment with others. Warning: don't set it higher that twelve (12)).
At the beginning of a game, you are giving opening squares, these are pre-set for 2, 3, or 4 players. They are still in the 10x10 format, but will work on the other settings.
Save and Open: these work (barely). I recommend saving only on your hard-drive or a disk, the program doesn't like to save inside folders for some reason. Also make sure you don't call the game "Untitled1" if you have important "Untitled1"'s somewhere save. But except for these things, saving and opening is safe. Oh... and this only saves 10x10 games I believe.
Quit: duh?
Options Menu
Undo, Redo, Undo All, Redo All: pretty self explanatory. Note: if you undo, then do a different move, sometimes you may still be able to redo.
Number Tiles: This pretty much only works well in 10x10 mode. It numbers you tiles in the order they are placed.
Have fun!!!
Warnings:
> Read the warnings under Save and Open before attempting these commands.
> Under custom sized gameboards, don't attempt a board with an axis larger that 12 squares.
> I've only run this on my Macintosh LCIII and a PowerBook 520c. No problems there, but no guaranties. I'm not responsible for any damage to your computer or sanity.
> Please pay me $5 if you keep the program...or else...(I might cut you some slack, since it is an alpha version.)
In case you were wondering, it's pronounced "eek-ah."
If you have any thoughts, comments, ideas, etc. or if you want the c code or the latest version:
my e-mail address is: emmons@sonnet.com
or mailing address: Caleb Emmons
17141 Table Mountain Road
Jamestown, CA 95327
You may distribute this game if this file is included.
