To start a new game of CONFLUX, select the 'Play-Two New Players' option from the FILE menu. A board with 25 squares and a scoreboard with the two players' names will appear. Whoever's name is in boldface chooses first.
In a turn, a player chooses a square, revealing a dollar amount. The player then chooses another square, attempting to match the dollar amount. If the two squares don't match, the other player starts his turn.
On a match, the player wins the amount of money indicated, and two pieces of a puzzle behind the board are indicated. The puzzle is a common phrase of some kind spelled out from left to right and top to bottom behind the squares. But the spacing of the phrase has been randomized, so a phrase like A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS might be placed behind the squares like this:
APE NN
Y F O
RY OUR
T H OU
GHT S
Note that the phrase is still in order from left to right and top to bottom, and that only the spacing has been changed.
When pieces of the puzzle are exposed after a match, the player has ten seconds to try to guess the puzzle. To guess, click the SOLVE PUZZLE button on the scoreboard. This button will go away after ten seconds.
If the player does not guess or makes an incorrect guess, he continues by choosing two more squares. When he fails to make a match, it becomes the other player's turn.
Dollar Amounts: On the board there are two each of the dollar amounts $100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $600, $700, $800, and $900. There are also two TAKE $XXX squares, which allow you to take a certain amount of the opponent's money when matched, and two TAKE HALF squares, which allow you to take half of the opponent's money when matched. There are also three wild cards which match anything. When a wild card is matched, the "natural" match is shown as well, so the player gets three pieces of the puzzle instead of two.
Ending the game: The game ends when someone guesses the puzzle correctly or when all the squares on the board have been matched.
Anyone solving the puzzle correctly gets a $1000 bonus. A player must solve the puzzle BEFORE all the squares are revealed to get the bonus. This prevents a player who doesn't know the puzzle until it is completely spelled out for him from getting the bonus just because he was the last player to make a match.
Whoever has the most money wins the game. Note that this means you don't win the game just because you solve the puzzle. Therefore, you should usually not solve the puzzle unless your money total, with the $1000 bonus added, will be greater than your opponent's total.
If there is only one match left on the board, you must choose whether to make the final match or solve the puzzle, since you cannot get the money for both. Usually the $1000 you get for solving the puzzle is better than the money you get for a single match. A TAKE match, however, is sometimes better than the $1000 bonus.
To play a game with two new players, choose "Play-Two New Players" again. To let the winner continue against a new challenger, choose "Play-Winner Continues." As long as one player keeps winning, he may face new challengers and add to his winnings. A new game may be started during a game, but only one with Two New Players. For a champ to continue, he must finish and win every game. As soon as the Two New Players option is chosen, no "champ" exists and everyone starts with a clean slate.
FILES: Two extra files will be created as you play CONFLUX. One file contains the current game status. Whenever you quit CONFLUX, the current game status is saved. When you start CONFLUX again, the game will be at the exact point at which you left it. This enables a Champion to continue building his winnings the next time CONFLUX is played. If you start CONFLUX and you don't want to continue a game in progress that CONFLUX brings up, just choose "Play-Two New Players" for a fresh game.
The second file CONFLUX will create is a list of the ten all-time highest money winners. You can see this list by choosing the appropriate menu option. These are the people who earned the most money by winning a series of games using the "Play-Winner Continues" option.
If you remove these two files from your disk or move them to another folder, CONFLUX will start new files from scratch.
There are 125 puzzles in the game. If shareware response is favorable, I will make more puzzles available to those who send in the $10 shareware fee.
SHAREWARE
Shareware is a method of software distribution designed to keep a wide variety of software available at a reasonable cost. Shareware programs are freely available from bulletin boards and user groups, and passing programs on to friends is encouraged.
After trying a shareware program, you should either send the shareware fee to the author or destroy all your copies of the program. If you don't send the money, software developers will abandon this form of distribution and software will be available only at high prices from big companies.
The shareware fee for CONFLUX is $10. My address is shown on the screen when you start the game. Questions and comments are also welcome at that address, or through Mark McClure by E-Mail at these addresses:
