QUOD (VERSION 1.00) Copyright (c) 1996 Ziff Davis Publishing Company ---------------------------------------------------------------------- QUOD by Michael J. Mefford First Published June 25, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT QUOD Quod, a game invented by G. Keith Still, has simple rules, but playing well requires sophisticated strategy. The goal is to place pieces on a grid so that they form a square. The player who makes a square first wins. DESCRIPTION Quod is played on an 11-by-11 square grid board with the four corners missing. Players take turns placing pieces on the board. Each player begins the game with 20 attacking (colored) pieces and 6 blocking (white) pieces. The object of the game is to outmaneuver your opponent and be the first to outline a square, called a quod, by capturing its four corners with your colored attacking pieces. You use the blocking pieces only for blocking your opponent's squares; they don't count toward making squares of your own. On each turn you place one attacking piece on the board. Optionally, you can place any number of blocking pieces, up to the six allotted, before placing the attacking piece. If both players run out of attacking pieces before either has made a quod, the player with the most unplayed blocking pieces is declared the winner. If each has the same amount of blocking pieces (or if neither has any), the game is declared a draw. A winning square can be any size and orientation, and this is why playing Quod well requires strategy. To install the Quod program, copy the files QUOD.EXE and QUOD.HLP to a subdirectory on your hard disk and create an icon for Quod in your shell. Quod is a 16-bit Windows program and will run under Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT. When you launch Quod, you'll see a picture of a Quod board set up for a new game, with program controls along the right edge. You can obtain information on rules, strategies, and program operation by pressing the Help button. SUPPORT Help for PC Magazine's free utilities can be obtained electronically in the Utilities section of ZD Net's Tips Forum (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors of current utilities generally visit this forum daily. You may find an answer to your question simply by reading the messages posted in the forum. If the author is not available and the forum sysops can't answer your question, the Utilities column editor, who also checks this forum each day, will contact the author for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michael J. Mefford is a contributing editor of PC Magazine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -