BABYLON - Goal: Push six of the other player's marbles off the board. Play: The player who controls the white marbles goes first. A move is made by selecting one marble, and then selecting the marble you would like to "push". Players must have an advantage in pieces to be able to push a marble. Examples follow. X = Black, O = White, the arrow indicates which direction Examples : Black player has the advantage -> XXO XXXO XXXOO Examples : Neither player has the advantage XO XXOO XXXOOO XXXXOOO XXXXXOOO XXOX XXXOOX OOOOXXO Examples : White player has the advantage -> OOX OOOX OOOXX As you may have noticed, advantages count on only three marbles, if a player has four marbles against another's three, the "extra" marble does not count. Also, a player can't push his own marbles with the enemy's, as seen in one of the non-advantage examples. A marble is pushed off the edge when the direction of the push will place the last marble off the board. Moves may be made in any of the six directions possible on the board. Examples: White player pushing his own marbles E = empty space -> OOOE A player may push his own marbles into an empty space, shown above. The player may only push up to three marbles this way. The two boxes on the right side of the screen show how many marbles of each player has gone out. The box with the white marble inside shows how many white marbles have gone out, and the same is true with the black box. If a player attempts an illegal move, the screen will flash. If a player attemps to select another player's marble, the screen will flash. If you are ever confused as to which player's turn it is, just select a marble. If that action causes the screen to flash, it is the other player's turn. *******************************MENU OPTIONS******************************** ******Project Menu New : This menu option will put up a requester for a new game. If there is a game in progress, it will ask if you really want to start a new game.The requester contains six gadgets. The gadget in the middle states whether this player shall be human or computer. If a mouse is showing, it is human. If a computer is showing, it is the computer. The gadget at the right is the player name. The marble on the left indicates which row corresponds to which player. The OK gadget on the lower left means you are satisfied with these choices and wish to start a new game. The CANCEL gadget on the lower right means you wish to abort the new game creation. If there is a game in progress you will be returned to that game. Open : This menu option brings up a requester for a filename. Either enter the name or click on the name to load it. Babylon will then attempt to load the game, and if any problem occurs it will display the error. Save : This menu option will save a game under an already supplied name. If you have not earlier supplied a name with Save As, Babylon will put up a file requester. If the file you supply already exists, Babylon will ask whether you wish to overwrite the file. Save as : This is the same as Save except it always puts up a file requester. About : This menu option will bring up a requester giving you information about the program. Quit : This menu option will quit Babylon. It will ask you if you really want to quit. ******Edit Menu Undo Move : This menu option will undo the last move made. Babylon has a 2000 move memory, which is probably large enough for most games. You can go back all the way to the beginning if you like. ******Game menu Help Me : This option brings up the help file. You may press to go forward in the file, or to quit. Clicking the window's close gadget also quits the help viewer. Force Move : This option will force the AI algorithm to choose a move. CHECKERS - This game is simple to play. Two options are available, 1 play the computer 2 another player. No illegal moves are allowed either playing the computer or a friend. Game play is controlled by the mouse, select the piece to move with mouse and press the left button. The selected piece will be outlined with a circle. Now select where you want to put it and press the left button and the piece will move to that spot. If a jump was made, then of course the opponent's piece will be taken off the board. If another move is possible after the jump the computer will inform you with a message. You have to move this piece. It is possible to escape from an initial move and make another choice if only the selection is made and the destination has not been selected. To cancel this way press the ESC key and select another piece. That is all there is too it. CHECKERS_CONQUEST more checkers). To erase checkers, you can click on the empty space on the side, between the other checkers. When you are done, click on Edit Board resume doing what you were doing immediately before. SHOW THREATS: You can see if there are any spaces that you can be jumped in, ifyou move there, or if a checker is already threatened. Such squares are marked in a white box. e you also have the possibility of making three or four jumps in a row. FORFEIT MOVE: You can give avay a move if you want to, but it may be considered cheating (yeah, right, as if the edit board feature isn't considered cheating). FORFEIT GAME: If you get bored with a situation and want to start fresh, then click here to kill the current game. TOGGLE SOUND: If you get sick of hearing these mind wrenching sounds, as they are often repeated non-stop throughout the game, then you know what to do. TAKE BACK MOVE: This will let you take back up to 100 moves, as this is usually enough to get the game back to the beginning anyway. SWITCH SIDES: If you get jeallous of the enemy side, or if you are winning and want a challenge, then this feature will let you play the other side's situation. CHANGE PLAYERS: At any time, you can use this to go gack to the main control panel and change the players or the checker's designs. CHESSII - The Menus Load Game This will bring up a requester allowing --------- you to chose the game you want loaded. When you have specified the game, place the pointer or the accept gadget and press the left mouse button. Save Game This will bring up the same requester --------- but will allow you to specify a file to save the current game. Set Board This allows you to set up a chess board --------- however you want. The requester includes a help gadget which will explain how you set up the board. When done, place the pointer over the OK gadget and press the left mouse button. List Moves This will print the moves to the window ---------- or bring up the standard requestor to allow you to specify a file. Colours This brings up a colour requester which ------- will allow you to setup the colours to your own preferences. To make them permanent, place the pointer over the save gadget and press the left mouse button. Read Docs Will allow you to read this file or it --------- will produce a background task to send this file to the printer. Quit This or the close gadget to end a game. ---- If you are in the middle of a game you may consider saving it first! Switch Sides If you were white you are now black and ------------ if you were black you are now white. Reverse Board Reverses the board for you. ------------- Set Time Limit Brings up a requestor allowing you to -------------- set the response time. Use the backspace key to change it to whatever you want. Skip Move If you have switched sides you may want --------- to do this. Undo Move Undoes the last move if possible, if not --------- use the set board menu. Hint Obvious ---- Credits Just for showing. ------- DOMINOS - D O M I N O S... The game can only be played with one player and the computer. The game rules are based on the standard game of dominos as defined by the book 'According TO Hoyle', by Richard L. Frey and published by Ballantine Books. Each player starts the game with seven dominos. The player with the highest doublet starts the game. The opponent plays by selecting a domino which matches the previously played domino. The player and computer alternate turns until one's dominos are exhausted or until neither player can move. If unable to play in turn, dominos are drawn automatically from the boneyard until able to play. If the boneyard is exhausted and still unable to play, the turn passes. The first to play all his dominos wins the game. Sometimes neither player can play and the boneyard is empty, the game ends in a block. The game is then won by having the most points (highest score). The score is determined by totalling the number of domino dots in the opponents hand. The game gives the human player the option of cheating (peeking in the opponents hand and what's in the boneyard). It would be disgraceful if someone would use this option to beat a dumb machine like the Amiga at such a simple game. But as luck will have it, Murphy's Law enters the picture: If something can go wrong, it probably will. DRAGON_TILES - LEVEL SELECTION SCREEN. At the top of this screen you should see 15 boxs which contain the different levels available. All you have to do is click the left mouse button in one of these boxs, this will then take you to the actual game screen. The difficulty of the levels ranges from very easy to very hard, there is no order to which the levels have been setup, you will have to find out which is which for yourself. hint: probably the easiest level is the second box of the second row THE GAME. You should now see a pile of tiles on the screen, This pile contains 120 tiles. There will always be 4 of each tile in a pile. The pile can be up to 4 tiles high, the higher the tile is the lighter the shade of blue. The object of the game is to remove all tiles from the screen. You can only remove two tiles at a time and both must have the same picture. To make things more difficult you can only select a tile if it has an empty place on either its left or right hand If you get to a position in which you can remove no further tiles then all you can do is click the mouse in the stop box, this will return you to the intro screen. GO_MOKU - GO is a strategy played on a 19x19 grid, each player takes turns to place a colour 'stone' on an intersection of the grid, the first player to complete a line of five stones either vertically, horizontally or diagonally, being the winner. Click the "NEW GAME" button to start a new game, "Take Go" makes the computer take the next go and "Suggest Go" makes the computer work out what it thinks is your best move. Other Features: Pressing F1 will make the computer play against itself until until there is a winner. Pressing F10 allows you to adjust the weightings given for each combination of stones (1,2,3,4 or 5 in a row) for each player. Exactly how these work is beyond the scope of this document but in general terms changing the weightings for each combination will affect the way the computer plays and which it considers are important. HUSKER_DU - The Object: Is to complete five levels of play within the time allotted. The Rules: Are very simple. Each level, or board, has eight columns. Your goal is to stack different colored bricks on each column. The only restriction is that no two bricks can exist in the same column. If you try to place two bricks of the same color in the same column, all previously placed bricks in the column will disappear and you will have to start that column all over again. There are ten different blocks for each level. Once you place all ten bricks in a column, in any order, the column is 'finished' and no further bricks can be added to the column. If you 'finish' all eight columns within the alloted time, then you have completed the board and you will advance to the next level, or board. Completing five levels wins the game. Brick Selection: Is done via the three bricks placed at the top of the screen. You have your choice of either of the three. Use the keyboard controls to highlight the brick you want. If none of the three are acceptable, you may change the color of all three by pressing the appropriate key. Use this option judiciously as you have a limited number of changes. Once you use up all of your changes, you must select one of the three bricks, even if it means putting two bricks of the same color in the same column. Of course, this will wipe out the column. Brick Placement: Is done by moving the arrow below the columns and pressing the appropriate key. The brick selected from the three at the top of the screen will then be placed in the column you have selected. Scoring: Depends on the skill level chosen. The higher your skill level, the more points you get for each brick properly placed in the column. Points are deducted for placing two of the same bricks in the same column. If you complete the board with time remaining, then you are given bonus points for each unused second. The higher your skill level, the more bonus points you get. High Scores: Are loaded in from disk when the game is first started. If you make the top ten, your score will be saved to disk. Keep all of the Husker Du files in the same directory to avoid problems saving or loading. Skill Levels: Determine both the scoring and the time available for you to complete each board. The higher the skill level, the less time you have to fill up all eight columns. Skill levels also determine how many times you can change the colors of the three bricks at the top of the screen. The higher the skill level, the fewer changes you can make. The Menus: Are pretty much self-explanatory. Sound effects may be toggled on or off. Skill levels can be chosen. The game can be paused or stopped. A shortened version of this documentation file can be accessed online. The Keys: Control the selection of the brick from the three at the top of the screen and the placement of the selected brick in the column you choose. In recognizing that people have different opinions regarding which keys are the most comfortable to use, I have set up the game to allow two separate keyboard combinations, one using the numeric keypad and the other using keys at the bottom of the keyboard. The key selections listed below can be used independently or in combination with each other. KEYPAD KEYBOARD Move Arrow Left: 1 or Z Move Arrow Right 3 or / Place Brick in Column: 2 or space bar Select Top Brick (left): 4 or A Select Top Brick (right): 6 or ' (apostrophe) Change Top Bricks: 5 or KAMIKAZECHESS - A Chess game by Jim Kent with a twist. In order to win the game, you must lose all your pieces. Use the menu options or their keyboard equivalents to control the game. LORD-OF-HOSTS - WHAT IS "LORD OF HOSTS" ? ========================= Lord Of Hosts (from now on referred to as "Lord") is a strategy game for two players. It's played on a 8x8 board. Each player controls seven knights and one king. The goal of the game is to manoeuvre the opponent's king into a situation in which he can no longer move, i.e. to checkmate him. Another way of winning the game is to capture six of the opponent's knights. RULES ===== The rules are fairly simple. On each piece, there's a number indicating how many squares this piece HAS GOT TO move. After the move, a different number may appear on this piece. The pieces may move only horizontally or vertically, *NOT* diagonally. One right-angle turn per move is permitted. For example, one piece bearing the number 3 that is standing in the middle of the board may - move 3 squares up - move 1 square down and 2 to the left - move 2 squares to the right and 1 square up - etc. There are only a few restrictions: Firstly, a piece cannot jump over any other piece. Then, it's not possible to go forwards and backwards in one single move. There is also a situation in which an otherwise legal move will not be permitted: When a player's king is threatened by an enemy's piece ("CHECK !"), only moves that lead the king out of this threat are valid. It's just like in chess. Similarly, if a player attempts to move his king to a square on which he could be beaten, or if he tries to do a move that exposes his king to danger, he will not be able to do so. Any piece can capture an enemy's knight simply by moving onto the square that the knight is occupying. Remember that this is a way of winning the game: beat six knights and victory is yours. The idea of check and checkmate is directly taken from chess. So, if you manage to create a situation that leaves the opponent's king no escape, you win the game. Of course, the computer will tell you so if this happens. As soon as one player does a move after which his opponent's king is beatable, a message is displayed "Player x announces 'CHECK!'". As long as it doesn't also say "Player y's King is checkmated!", there is at least one valid move for player y left. Well, that's about all for the rules. There also is a menu option "Rules" to be found in the "Game" menu (keyboard shortcut RIGHT-AMIGA-?). ONE WORD ABOUT THE MOUSE POINTER ================================ Since this is a mouse-controlled two player game, I had to find a way to give both players a chance to move the mouse pointer (one after the other, of course). Since fewest Amiga users have got two mice, I decided to have player 1 take the mouse and to have player 2 take a joystick. After player 1 has finished his move, the mouse will be switched off internally and player 2's joystick will become the new "mouse mover". So don't panic if the system seems to have crashed (a motionless mouse pointer IS a frightening thing, I admit); just give your joystick a little nudge and watch the pointer float majestically over the screen (I'm getting carried away with this, sorry). The joystick's fire button will act just like the mouse's select button (the left one, okay?). Unfortunately, joysticks don't have menu buttons yet, so if you really have to make a menu selection while the joystick is controlling the pointer, you have to depress RIGHT-Alt-RIGHT-AMIGA to simulate the menu button. If you don't like the JoyMouse's speed, you can change it by selecting "Set JoyMouse Speed" (Special Menu), keyboard shortcut AMIGA-J. And if you don't like the idea of mouse/joystick swapping, you can turn the whole thing off by selecting "JoyMouse Off" (also Special Menu). And if you don't have a joystick or if you are a fanatic keyboard addict, you can still use the keyboard to move the mouse pointer (left AMIGA key plus cursor keys [plus optional SHIFT key]). HOW TO PLAY LORD OF HOSTS ========================= This is really easy. First, select "Begin Game" (Game Menu). You will be asked to enter your and your opponent's names. After you've done so, the computer consults his random number generator to decide who starts the game. Click on "Resume". You can always see whose turn it is by looking at the two boxes containing the players' names. The words "Player 1" turn blue when it's player 1's move. The same applies to player 2. Player 1 gets the red pieces; player 2 gets the white ones. Let's suppose player 1 starts the game. He should now choose the piece that he wants to move. This is done as follows: - move the mouse pointer over the piece - click the left mouse button (or the joystick fire button). A box will be drawn around this piece to show that it's the active one. Player 1 can now either change the active piece by clicking on a different piece of his or select the piece's destination square (also by clicking on it). If there is a valid way to move the active piece there, the move will be executed, and player 2 will now get control over the mouse pointer. That's it. AND NOW FOR ALL THE EXTRAS ========================== The Amiga is an extraordinary computer. Therefore a game for the Amiga must have extraordinary features. And here they are: * Full Undo/Redo. Take back as many moves as you want and/or replay them. * Three different help modes for each player. * Load/Save Game facility. All the Undo/Redo information will also be saved. * Four different kinds of boards - Infinite variability => Every game is different from the last one. * On-line help facility. Detailed description of the extras ================================== UNDO / REDO (Special Menu): Selecting Undo (shortcut: AMIGA-U) takes back the last move. Selecting it again takes back the move before that one. And so on. The limit to the number of undo opeations is 500. In other words, a game that last over 501 moves can not be undone upto the first move. However, this limit is so high that I doubt whether anyone can reach it in a normal game. Redo (shortcut: AMIGA-R) does just the opposite: The last move that has been undone is "played back". This can only work if no new moves have been made since the last undo operation. LOAD / SAVE GAME (Game Menu): Selecting Load Game (AMIGA-L) will bring up the CygnusSoft File Requester which is the best one that I've ever seen (I didn't program it, Bruce Dawson and Colin Fox did)! On the left side, the files and subdirectories within the current directory are displayed. On the right side there is the list of all mounted devices (DF0:, RAM:, RAD:, C:, LIBS:, etc.) There's a Parent gadget to get you one level up in the directory tree and some other rather self- explanatory things. Select a game file by double clicking on it. If a directory is changed by a different program, "Lord" will not be aware of it until you reload that directory using the "Get Dir" gadget. Saving a game is just as easy: Select "Save Game" (AMIGA-S), change to the desired directory and enter the filename under which the game should be saved. If the file already exists, you will be asked to confirm whether you really want to write over the old file. Remember that the old contents of a file are lost when it's overwritten. HELP MODES: Normally, none of the players receives any help from the computer. However, it might be desirable to find out what value a certain piece will have after a move. On the standard board, it is possible to deduce this value (I won't tell you how, haha!), but if you want to get a hint anyway, you can instruct the computer either - to show you the new value if the piece has visited this square before (i.e., it "knows" this square's value) or - to show you the new value in any case, regardless of whether the piece has been there before or not. This works as follows: In the Special Menu, there are two menu items, "Player 1 Help Mode" and "Player 2 Help Mode". Choose between "No Help", "Show Known Values", and "Show All Values". If you choose one of the "Show..." subitems, the way to move a piece will change: - Select the piece you want to move. - Select the destination square. If the move is valid, the piece will move there. If you selected "Show Known Values" and the value is not known, a question mark will be dis- played. Otherwise, the new value will be displayed. Now the words "Player 1/2" will change from blue to yellow. This indicates that the computer is now waiting for you to confirm or to cancel the move. You can now - confirm the move by clicking again on the destination square. If there was a question mark, it will be replaced by the new value. - Alternatively, you can cancel the move by clicking on any other square but the destination square. The move will be taken back, allowing to select a new destination or even a different piece to move with. DIFFERENT BOARD TYPES: "Lord" is based on a board game. On this board, the pieces' values are determined by little magnets hidden under the board. This leads to a regular pattern of values (that you can find out by reading the program's source code or simply by playing the game (if you're smart enough)). This board is simulated by "Lord". It's called the Standard Board. If this board is rotated by 90°, the patterns change. There's a menu called "Board" in which you can change the type of board. The two items "Standard Board" and "Standard Rotated 90°" have just been explained. Since the generation of (pseudo) random numbers is possible, you can also select a "Random Board". Random Boards come in two flavors: - Balanced: When generating the random value patterns, the computer ensures that the values are distributed evenly. So, each knight gets exactly 16 squares where his value will be 1, 16x2, 16x3 and 16x4. The kings gets 32 squares of 1s and 32 squares of 2s. - Unbalanced: The computer doesn't force himself to distribute the values evenly. Thus it is possible that p.e. one piece has a value of 4 on every single square (but highly improbable [1 against 3.4028e38]). ON-LINE-HELP: There's a menu item "Rules" (mentioned earlier). Also, the item "Explain Invalid Move" (Special Menu, AMIGA-E) will tell you why the last unsuccessful attempt to move had failed. MOSAIC - "The objective of the game is to get your line of pieces in numerical order so that each piece has a higher value than the piece to it's left. You take it in turns with the Amiga to exchange any one of your pieces with the "centre" piece. You exchange a piece for the "centre" piece by clicking on the piece to be discarded. The strategy is to get your own line in the right order but not to discard pieces that will be of use to your opponent. If the centre piece is of no use to you, you can click on that piece instead to exchange it for a "new" piece. If the "new" piece is of no use either, clicking on it will end your turn" OCTOTHELLO - is OTHELLO, but on an octaganal board with 8 sides AND corners! WHAT - yet another REVERSI/OTHELLO game? Well OCTOTHELLO does to reversi what ARKANOID did to BREAKOUT! There are hundreds of variations, with resizable boards, different corner shapes AND a play-to-lose mode! It can also play normal OTHELLO and a mean game it plays, too! Our tests also indicate that OCTOTHELLO out-plays other shareware OTHELLO games, and I believe the full version is the strongest commercially available one around. The latest documents are available from within the program itself. This is a mini-document FOR OCTOTHELLO the shareware version of FLIP-IT, designed TO be only 30K long! The registered version has detailed documents about how to win at OTHELLO learn what EVAPOURATION is, or what a STONER TRAP is! Extra Notes: when you see an evaluation score of over +/-20000 points, the computer has searched to the end of the game and is playing 'perfectly'. if the score is over +20000, a forced white win is on. If its under -20000, a forced black win is on. The amount it exceeds 20000 indicates by how many points the win is, although this amount may be inaccurate at the 'fringe' of its search depth, ie. IF it can only just see a win. A draw returns a score of zero. The corner patterns are worked out by binary codes - Square A1=1, B1=2, B2=4 AND C1=8 (mirrored to all sides and corners) - Just add together these numbers to get the shape you want, or just experiment! This innovation was invented by PC Solutions! See the advert within the program itself FOR details on how to register for the full version. OTHELLO THE RULES REVERSI is traditionally played on an 8 by 8 board, with square A1 at top left and H8 at bottom right with OCTOTHELLO you may alter the board size/shape. You object is to capture your opponent's pieces by 'sandwiching' them in a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical line. So IF you have a piece on C5 and I have one on C4 you can move to C3, capturing mine on C4. This is easier to see than describe, so have a go - you can view legal moves with F1, or even hit F3 for an automatic demo! Note that a move is only legal if it captures pieces - you cannot just move TO any old vacant square. If you have no moves at all, you must PASS a go, by hitting F1. When neither side can move, the game is over and the higher score wins - unless you selected play-to-lose mode! HINT Aim TO capture the unassailable corner squares, AND keep your mobility high, but keep your score LOW until the very end. Please support quality shareware like this, AND REGISTER! PARANOIDS - is a traditional board game played by drawing cards, rolling dice and moving pieces around the board. Each player has six pieces four patients and two doctors. The object of the game is to get all of your patients out of the asylum. Your doctors are for protecting your patients and making trouble for your opponents pieces. The agressive stratigies that work for many other board games don't work as well as cautious stratigies. PARCHEESE - is an Amiga version of the classic board game with the same name. After loading you must tell the computer who is going to be playing. You choose the players using the program menu. The players type can be human or one of the three levels of computer player. So you can select any combination, ranging from two to four players, and from an all humans game to an all computers one, with any colours you choose. Once you have selected the players,you have only to select Start Game from the Project menu. Using the program Using PARCHEESE is very easy. As told before, you can always control the program with the mouse. To move a piece under human control,you must place the mouse pointer over it and double click. During the game, you can change the kind of players too. You must also pay attention on the title bar. It tells you who is going to move and indicates any special situation of the game.In PARCHEESE the computer always rolls the dice. Once the game has started, you can leave it by selecting the End Game option from the Project menu. Then you can start a new game or quit the program. On the other side, when the game is over, a requester asks you if you wish to quit the game. Menu Options In PARCHEESE,there are three menus,with the following options: Project menu: Start Game: Starts a new game. Quick Start: Starts a game with a man in play for each player. End Game : Ends the current game. About : Informs you on the program and the author. Load Game : Loads a previously saved game. Save Game : Saves a game in any moment of the play. Quit : Exits inmediately PARCHEESE. Players menu: There are one option for each colour. Each option has got four suboptions corresponding to the four types of players. They are these: Human Player: Set this one to control the player. The computer can play for several opponents with 3 levels: Level 1 : This is an entry level. Level 2 : Sets a computer level a bit easier than the third level but the computer plays inmediately. Level 3 : This is the challeging level. The computer plays deeper combining logic and strategy. With this level the computer takes longer to respond, depending also on the players number. A special case occurs when the player's going to move 2 or more successive times,for example, with a six. Then the computer evaluates this different situation and takes 2 or 3 times longer than usual to move. Special menu: There are four options: Continous Play: With this option activated,the game doesn't stop except when the program prompts to select a man. Game Speed : It allows to adjust the delay time to read game information and to select options from the menu. This is done by means of a potenciometer which ranges from 0 to 20 seconds. A 0,or so,delay in an all computer players game is not recommended because there isn't enough time to select menu options. Statistics: A window will appear with statistics about all the competitors in play. It will display four columns : "Advanced squares": This one indicates you who leads the game.The program counts the advanced squares of all pieces for each player. "Own taken men" : It tells you how many pieces of yours have been taken by your opponents until now. "Opponents taken men" : This one shows you how many men have been taken by you. "Dice pts. per turn": Here, PARCHEESE averages all dice points you've rolled until now. Warning: If you rolls a 6 and plays again, the program counts them as an unique roll. For example,if you,at the first move,roll a 6 and then a 5,the computer will display 11 and not 5.5 (11/2). Undo : This option allows you to change a move you've just made.This option is only available before the next go. In a computer player move, this choice is left as a repeat option and for flexibility to the user. The Rules PARCHEESE rules are exactly the same as in the classic board game. The aim of the game is to get all of your markers safely around the board to your home base. Besides,there are some other important subjects : Movement rules: You can't go across a square with two markers placed on it, whatever their colours may be.The only exception occurs with the initial square, explained later. If your man lands on one of your opponent pieces, then it must return back to the beginning and you move 20 points. The unique squares where markers can't be taken are the ones with a circle on it. There you must form a blocked square with your opponent. In case you can't make any movement, whatever you roll, then you must pass and the turn skips to the next player. Other rules in PARCHEESE: Rolling a 6 : Like many board games, a 6 allows you to roll the dice again. But be careful! at the third 6 your last moved man must go back to th beginning and starts again. There are two exceptions for this : - When the most recently moved man is on one of your last coloured squares,near your base, - or when you can't make any move. If some of your pieces is blocking a square and you rolls a 6, you're forced to move it. On the other side, if you haven't got any man at the beginning, you advance seven squares instead of six. Rolling a 5: If you've got some piece at home and your initial square is unoccupied, you must place one in this square. In PARCHEESE the program makes this for you. When your initial square is blocked (two men on it) : - If it contains one opposing piece, then you take it. - If it is occupied by two opposing men, you'll take the last arrived to this square. Bonus points : Two bonus points in PARCHEESE: - Each opposing man you've taken gives you twenty points. - You get 10 points for each own piece that arrives to the end. POKER_SQUARES - is a card game for one player. There are some instructions in the game itself under the options button but they are brief as it`s a fairly simple game to learn. The best way I have found to play the game is to go for flushes vertically and try and get as many pairs/full houses/threes of a kind etc going across. I reckon scores of over a hundred are pretty good and anything over 115 is excellent. If you exit the game by clicking on the "Quit" button (in options) with the left mouse button your high score can be saved.. QUINZEE - How To Play After your name has been entered, the game is ready to be played. Quinzee works like most games of this type, with the following rules : · You may take up to three dice rolls to complete a turn. · You may select which dice to roll and which dice to keep by clicking on the dice with the left mouse button. Dice that you wish to keep will have the word "Hold" written beneath them, and dice that will be rolled will not. · A turn is complete when you have selected an appropriate score for the dice that are displayed. "Good" scores will be highlighted in boldfaced text and a brighter colour than the other scores. If a score is not highlighted, you will receive 0 points for selecting that score. · The game is complete when you have filled in the entire score card. Menu Items New Game Starts a new game from scratch, clearing the current score. Set Player Sets the current player name. The player name is only used for the purpose of the high score table. You may change your name during a game with no ill-effects. Undo Score This menu item is only available after you have picked a score for a set of dice. If you change your mind after selecting a score (or perhaps you just hit the wrong button), you can undo your selection using this menu item and pick another score. One important note - if you have rolled twice, pick a score and then undo that score, you cannot roll again. This is intentional. Colours >> This menu item leads to ten sub-items, each of which is a different colour scheme for Quinzee. When you exit Quinzee, the currently selected colour scheme will be saved along with the high score table and will remain in effect the next time you run the program. About Displays some version information in a window along with the author's name and some very large dice. Select the "Okay" gadget or press a key on the keyboard to continue. Quit Saves the high scores and current colour scheme, then exits *immediately* with no confirmation. The High Score Table High scores are saved to the file "Quinzee.scores" in the same directory as the main program. They are saved whenever a new score is achieved and when exiting the program. If you tie a high score you will be placed ahead of the score that you tied. If you wish to clear the high score table, simply delete the "Quinzee.scores" file and a new one will be generated. Our highest score to date is 2434 points. Can you beat this? On-line Help If you install the "Quinzee.guide" file that came with this distribution into the same directory as Quinzee, you can have help available at any time, provided you have AmigaGuide installed in your system. To obtain help press the HELP key either while at the main play screen or while selecting menus. The help file is generated by an ARexx script from the documentation, so both files contain roughly the same information. Scoring Scoring follows the standard scoring for a certain copyrighted game that you may or may not be familiar with. The grand total, however, comes from the grand total for the first column plus double the grand total of the second column plus the triple the grand total of the third column. Standard scoring for each item is as follows : Ones : The total of all Ones showing on the dice. Twos : The total of all Twos showing on the dice. Threes : The total of all Threes showing on the dice. Fours : The total of all Fours showing on the dice. Fives : The total of all Fives showing on the dice. Sixes : The total of all Sixes showing on the dice. Total : Calculated by adding the totals of all Ones through all Sixes. Bonus : If your Total is 63 points or over (see notes below), you get a score of 35, otherwise 0. Upper Total : The sum of Total plus Bonus. 3 of a Kind : The total of all 5 dice or 0 if you don't have Three of a Kind. 4 of a Kind : The total of all 5 dice or 0 if you don't have Four of a Kind. Full House : 25 Points if you have a Full House, otherwise 0. Small Straight : 30 Points if you have a Small Straight, otherwise 0. Large Straight : 40 Points if you have a Large Straight, otherwise 0. Quinzee : 50 Points if you have a Quinzee (5 of a kind), otherwise 0. Chance : The total of all 5 dice. Quinzee Bonus : 100 Points each, filled in from left to right for each Quinzee Bonus you receive. (See "How To Get A Quinzee Bonus") Lower Total : The total of the previous 8 items. Upper + Lower : The Upper Total plus the Lower Total. Triple Quinzee : For the first column, the Upper Total plus the Lower Total. (same as Upper + Lower) For the second column, twice the Upper and Lower total of that column, and for the third column, three times the Upper and Lower total of that column. Grand Total : The sum of the three "Triple Quinzee" totals. Scoring Hints The Bonus in the upper section can be achieved by getting a minimum of three of a kind in each of the Ones through Sixes score boxes. Because the totals are multiplied by three in the third column, it makes sense to score certain columns from right to left. For example, you should almost always score Quinzees in the third column first since you may not get another two Quinzees during the game. The same goes for items like Small Straight, Large Straight and Full House where you get a fixed score for that column. How To Get A Quinzee Bonus First, you have to get three Quinzees (5 of a kind). This is more difficult than it sounds. Now, assume you have received three Quinzees, they are all scored in the correct box, and you roll another Quinzee. You will get a Quinzee Bonus if and *only* if you score that Quinzee in a valid box. This isn't terribly hard to do unless you are toward the end of the game and only have items like Small Straight and Large Straight left. RAGS-TO-RICHIES - GAME ICONS There are 7 different icons on the board and these are explained below. SELF-DESTRUCT Much better than END, STOP, or QUIT but it does just that. You will be asked if that's what you want to do. STATS Opens a seperate screen showing the various statistics such as:- How many Hotels you own Whether you have automatic planning permision etc. Current Bank Account Status What materials are needed for your Hotel LOAD Fairly obvious really. SAVE Another obvious one. ABOUT Brings up a screen telling you about us (Oh, and it reminds players about the shareware fee as well!!) KEY Opens a screen showing what all the different board squares mean, whilst playing a tune. CONTINUE Ends a players turn. You can also press the Spacebar instead. THE GENERAL IDEA OF THE GAME In order to build a hotel the players must obtain the necessary items in the following order:- a) Blueprints b) Planning permission c) Materials (in any order) which are:- Electrical supplies Plumbing Bricks & Mortar d) Workforce (Staff) for the hotel On the next monthly update the hotel will be liable for costs and income. The game is played in rounds of one week. At the end of the month (4 weekly period) the following will take place:- a) Income will be paid to any player who has a hotel built. b) Running costs will be deducted for any hotels built. c) Staff wages will be deducted from Players who own hotels. d) Interest on Bank loans will be deducted from the players Bank accounts. As will any interest on overdrafts. PLANNING Blueprints: When a player lands on this square he will be given the opportunity to buy plans for any available hotels, or upgrade Hotels already built. Once the plans have been bought nobody else can build on the plot. The cost of the plans will depend on the location of the Hotel and it's star rating. Initially, players will only be able to buy 1 star plans. If a player has already built a Hotel he will be given the opportunity to upgrade it by 1 star (up to the maximum 4 Star). There is no restriction on the number of hotels a player can own (providing he can get them before other players!) but players have to finish one building project before starting another. There are 8 Hotels which are graded as follows:- Spain: Miguel's Inn = Grade 1 Costa Lotta = Grade 2 Africa: Toot&Cum Inn = Grade 3 Swazi Hilton = Grade 4 England: Park Road = Grade 5 London Hitlon = Grade 6 America: Okla Home = Grade 7 White House = Grade 8 A Grade 1 Hotel is cheaper to build but earns less income. Planning Permission: If a player has Blueprints when he lands here, he will be able to seek planning permission. However, the officials are not always obliging! There are also two squares which will give the player 'Automatic Planning Permission' . If a player lands on one of these he will automatically obtain planning permission when he lands on the 'Planning Permission' square. Not wishing to make the game too easy, there are also two squares that will cause players to lose their blueprints if they have any. On the board (and in the Commerce Cards), there is the opportunity to buy the blueprints at half the normal cost. This only counts once per blueprint (you can't land twice and get them for a quarter of the cost!). However, if a player loses his plans he may buy new ones at half price providing he lands on this square AFTER he loses his plans. FINANCE On landing on the Town Hall the player will receive a grant towards the cost of building his hotel. Only one grant will be allowed per building project, but there is nothing to stop a player receiving a grant for building a Hotel, and another grant when he upgrades it, providing he lands on the Town Hall at the right times! There are several 'Government Grant' cards in the Commerce card pack (See Commerce and Destiny cards). This card will enable a player to receive double the amount should he land on the Town Hall square. Only one 'card' can be held at a time. There is a Casino square where players can gamble on the turn of the number reel. 1 2 or 3 loses, 4 5 or 6 pays the amount gambled (plus his stake). There is a House limit of £100,000 and players cannot exceed that, or the amount in their Bank account. There is a Race Course square where players can gamble on one of four horses. There is also a house limit of £100,000 and the same restrictions apply. The Bank and Start squares enable players to get or repay loans. There is no restriction on the number of loans but there is a maximum loan limit of £2,000,000. All loans and overdrafts are subject to interest which can increase or decrease during the game. There are a number of other squares which will increase or decrease the size of your Bank balance. You'll just have to play the game to find out about them! MATERIALS The materials are divided into 3 main types. Electrical Supplies, Plumbing, and Bricks & Mortar. Providing the player has the following:- a) Blueprints b) Planning permission c) Sufficient cash then the required amount will be deducted from his Bank balance when he lands on the squares, and the materials will be bought. There are also three squares which will raise the cost of the building materials by 10%. The increase only applies to the first material that is bought, after that the prices are normal (unless a player lands on the square again!) STAFF When a player lands here he will be asked if he wants to Upgrade current Staff levels, enlist New staff, or Quit. Pressing the appropriate key will open the relevant screen. There are four different levels of staff that can be hired from the Staff squares. The Higher the level the more income is generated but the higher the cost of the monthly wages and the higher the initial recruitment fee. If a player upgrades his hotel the current staff's contracts are cancelled and he must therefore re-enlist new Staff before the income on the upgraded Hotel will be generated. Until such times, income will be for the previous setup (Grade and Staff level). COMMERCE AND DESTINY CARDS When a player lands on one these squares the contents of the card will be displayed and acted upon. Commerce cards generally affect your Bank balance (obvious really), and Destiny cards affect other aspects of the game (lose plans, get free materials etc.) GENERAL SQUARES The following is a list of squares that affect the general game. Arrow Squares: The Arrow squares point to the different Hotel areas. If a player lands on one of these squares and a hotel, owned by another player, has been built on the site to which the arrow points, he will be liable for a small amount of money which will be paid to the player owning the hotel. Start square: This is obviously where the players start! It is also where players can Increase or pay off existing loans. If a player's Interest rate has been increased it will be dropped to the base rate of 5% when he lands here. A player must land here to drop the Interest rate, passing over the square doesn't affect the rate. Bank: Here a player can Increase or pay off existing loans. As mentioned before, there is a maximum loan limit of £2,000,000 REVERSI - (also known as Othello) is a version of this well known game for the amiga computer. The board consists of 64 fields, where the four in the middle are occupied by two blue and two yellow stones. The players now put a stone on a free field (by clicking on it) alternately, in a way that one or more rows (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) of the opponents stones are enclosed at the endpoints by two stones of the own color. The enclosed stones are turned to the own color then. If a player cannot enclose at least on stone he must not move, until he can enclose some again. The game ends when all fields are covered, or none of the players can move. The winner is the player who has the most stones at the end. With this program supports three varietys: human vs. human, human vs. amiga and amiga vs. amiga. The special feature of this program is, that the computer ssems to think, that means, he tries to find the best move. After starting the program, a titlescreen appears, and after you've clicked the mousebutton, the playfield appears. On the left side there are several displays and gadgets: The displays tell you whose turn it is, and how many stones each player has. Below you can see, who has the yellow, and who the blue stones, and also the playing strength of the amiga is shown there. (the more computerfaces, the better he plays) Below that, there are six gadgets: Force Move Makes the computer move immediately. Pause ( [||] ) Toggles the pause modus. All other gadgets can only be used in the pause modus: left arrow undo moves. right arrow redo moves, that where taken back with left arrow. New start a new game. Quit quit reversi. In pause mode, you can also select the player and the computer strength for the two colors. For that, you click above ore below the small faces. The human face means a human player, the computerfaces mean the computer. The more computer faces you select, the better he plays. SCRABBLE - This program allows from one to four players to have a game of scrabble. The part of any or all of these players can be played by the computer. The first thing you should come to is a panel with two buttons giving you the option to either play an old game or start a new one. If you choose to play an old game you will get a file requestor asking you for the name of a game previously saved to disk. If you choose to play a new game, you will now come to a panel that lets you choose how many people are playing, thier names and wether or not they are played by computer. The screen is split up into four parts with each part giving information on one of the players. To change the name of a player you click on the box on the left and enter the new name. To decide whether or not a player is in the game and if he is, whether or not he is played by computer, click on the white box on the right. If you keep clicking you will find it alternates between COMPUTER, HUMAN and REMOVED. If it says REMOVED, that player isnt in the game. If it says COMPUTER or HUMAN then the part of that player will be played by a computer or a human. Once youre happy with this panel, click on OKAY. If the part of the first player is not done by the computer you should now come to a panel which says who is to move. If that person clicks on okay you will come to the main game screen. If the first player is the computer the screen will go blank and a message will come up telling you that the computer player is moving. You will then have to wait about a minute for it to take its move. On the main game screen you will find, on the left half of the screen, the board with the players letters below it. On the right side you will find, starting from the top, the score of each player with his score from last go in brackets, the number of letters left, the points values of each letter, the type of bonuses squares and at the bottom some gadgets for entering words. To enter a word what you do is click on the board where you want the word to start with the left mouse button, then click on the rectangular box in the bottom right hand corner below the buttons and type in your word. Normally you should type your word in in lower case but if you want one of the letters to be represented by a blank you should type it in as a capital. Once you've done this you click on either 'ACRS' to place the word across or 'DOWN' to place it down. If the word you put down includes a blank then the blank will be printed on the board as the letter it represents in red. If you want to swap some letters you type in the letters on the bottom right as before and then click SWAP. If one of the letters you want to swap is a blank just type it in as any upper case letter. If you want to pass just click on SWAP while leaving the bottom right box blank. If you make a mistake then the computer will come up with a message saying so and you will have to try again. There are some other buttons here, heres what they do: SAVE - Saves the game to disk. A requestor will come for you to choose the name of the file. LOAD - Loads a game from disk. QUIT - Ends the game. The score for each player is totalled and the winner printed. Unless some one clicks QUIT, the game will end under two circumstances. (A) All the players pass in a row (B) One of the players uses all his letters and there arent any more to pick. SEIGE-OF-THE-BEAST - The game is played similar to the way the board game FOX and GEESE is played. However, for those of you who have never heard of this game (the majority) I'll explain. The setting is at an old medieval village called Tarikan. Life here was once pleasurable for everyone until THE BEAST arrived. The beast is a giant snake that has a voracious appetite. For a while, the inhabitants of the village have been able to survive with only minor losses. But now, the beast is on a rampage and the village must make a last stand against it in order to survive. You were elected to be the leader. First you must select the number of soldiers you would need for assistance. Then you have to use them to trap the beast so that it can no longer move, and then it can be killed. You must use your men wisely. It is not possible to surround the beast with 8 men or less. Even though the snake looks wild and unorthodox, it is intelligent enough to find out the unprotected soldiers, and eat them. If it eats enough so that you have only eight men left, then it is too late, the snake wins the battle and slaughters everyone. However, if you can trap it so that it can't move the village will be saved. The game is played on a 9x9 square board. You and the snake take turns moving around it. When it is your turn (the screen prompts you) click the mouse over the square the man you want to move is standing on. You will hear a sound, and the man you selected will be highlighted. You can move in any direction you want (up, down, left, right, diagonally), but only one square at a time (ie. to any adjacent square). Simply click over the square you want this man to go to, and he will do so. The snake can also move in the same directions. However, it can also eat your man if he is unprotected (ie. the space behind him is empty). This is similar to the way you would jump a man in checkers, except the snake can also do this going up, down, left, right, in addition to going diagonally. For example, if the snake is on the square just above one soldier, and the square below that soldier is unoccupied, then the snake can eat the soldier. To protect this soldier you have to put another soldier just below him. The same logic goes if the snake is to the left of the soldier, and there is an empty space to the right of the soldier, etc. You select the number of soldiers you want in the opening screen. The game ends if you can siege the beast, or if the beast kills most of your men and you have only eight left. When you have a lot of men on the screen, the game plays a little slow because of the graphics, but hopefully it is not slow enough to be annoying. SHANGHAI_93 - This is a brief set of instructions (who needs a detailed set?) to explain the rules and one less obvious feature of the game. The game starts (after the intro and menus) with the board being drawn. The board consists of 144 or 100 tiles.(depending on which game you select) The object of the game is to remove the tiles two at a time until there are none left. Only tiles that are free can be removed. Only matching tiles can be removed together. A tile is free if there are no tiles partially covering it (above it) and the tile is not blocked by tiles to either the left or right. Matching tiles either have the same symbol on top or are a special case. There are four of each tile except for the special cases. Special cases are tiles from the last column of the select tiles screen. (The 100 tile game has no special cases) There are only one of each special case on the board so they can match another special case from the same set (i.e. Crimes,Signs). To play the game use the mouse to click on a tile that is free and then click twice on a matching tile to remove them. Continue until the board is cleared or you can find no moves. Restart. This feature allows you to reset the board to the same configuration as when you started playing the current game. Quit. Quits back to the intro/options screens. Backup a move. Allows you to back up as many moves as you want if you get stuck or make a mistake. Peek. ----- Choosing this option forfeits the current game. It allows you to remove any tile one at a time until none are left. Only New Game and Quit work after you select this. New Game. Reshuffles the tiles and draws a new board. Help. This option is not on the menu. Clicking the right mouse button calls up the help function. There are two times when you can do this. 1) When you havn't selected any tiles. This shows all possible moves one at a time. left mouse-next move right mouse-exit help 2) When you have selected one tile. This shows all tiles which are free and match the selected tile. The Main Menu. These are very straight forward as they do exactly what they say. Choose Game allows you to choose which game you wish to play. Choose tiles allows you to select the sets of tiles you wish to use in the game. The fourth column contains the special cases. Play Game (nuff said) Quit (You really want to know?) On the choose tile screen each column has "Choose X" written below it. You must click on X boxes in each column. Click on finished when you have done this. SORRY - When the game starts, it defaults to a 4-player human game. Using the menu options, you can start a new game at any time. When starting a new game, click on the raised gadgets to toggle between human players and Amiga players. The string gadgets may be changed to any identifying string you desire. The string you select will be displayed during game play at the top right of the screen. To continue the current game, select Abort. To start the new game, select Play. The rules of the game Sorry! can be read from the menu. Other options can be selected from the menu also. Select Show Choices to see where all possible moves are during game play. Select Diamond Squares Passes PlayPieces for a more challanging game. The game starts out by shuffling the deck of cards and selecting a player to go first. Each card holds the instructions that the players are to follow. When a player can make a move, simply click the mouse button over the game board square that you would want to move to. The playpiece that is blinking is the one that will move. To move another playpiece, click the mouse button on the 'Next Piece' gadget. If there are any other moves possible, the other moves will be displayed. If a player cannot make a move, or the option to forfeit the turn is given, the 'Forfeit Turn' gadget will be displayed. To forfeit the turn, select this gadget. When the Amiga is a player, it will make its move and then wait for you to continue the game by selecting the 'Continue' gadget. TRIPLE_YATCHT - I'm not going to go into the rules of Yacht as it's a pretty widely known game. If you don't know about the basic game you can either buy the game Yahtzee by the E.S. Lowe Company, 200 5th Ave, NY, NY-10010, or get a copy of Hoyle's book of games (at least my old version had Yacht in it!) Triple Yacht-Z differs form normal Yacht in that all scores in the 3rd column of your scorecard are worth 3 times as much as the normal value, those in the 2nd are worth double. Note that these values are only show as doubled or tripled in the net score space, and NOT in the the individual columns. The 35 Bonus Points for having at least the Average on the upper section is also doublable or triplable. Each Yacht-Z after the 3rd is worth an extra 100 X Column used in. You MUST score with the Yacht-Z to get these bonus points, if you score a 0 with it no bonus points will be rewarded. In Single Yacht-Z after the first Yacht-Z each extra will be worth 100 points. These extra Yacht-Z's (unlike in Triple Yacht-Z) may be scored anywhere on the lower scoreboard (that still available!) or in the appropriate upper space. That's pretty much it for differences. There's no fancy fanfare for the winner (maybe some later version...), he/she just get's his scorecard highlighted. The top 10 high scores for both Triple and Single Yacht-Z are recorded so you can prove how well you did (Of course you could always edit the high score file... :-)) To reset the boards just delete the ty.high1 or ty.high3 files! The Single Yacht-Z game plays just like the Triple Yacht-Z game but there's only 1 column available to score. I only played it to make sure it works, but I included it for those who like the original game. Note the computer player strategy was geared towards the Triple Yacht-Z version, so don't cry to me if they don't play as well in Single Yacht-Z! MATCHES A match is a series of games (up to a maximum of 51 games). After each game the net score for each game as well as the Big Grand Total of all the nets will be displayed for each player, and the player inb the lead will be highlighted. Using a match will allow you to even out the chance part of the game. Allowing you to recover from a game that you did really bad on. While in match mode the current values for the number of players, and the game type (i.e. Triple or Single Yachtzee) will be taken from the current match settings rather than the Menu settings. So if you'd like to add a new player to the match, I'm sorry, you'll just have to start a new match. To play the next game in a match you must use the CONTINUE option from the match menu. To get into match mode you must select either NEW MATCH or LOAD MATCH from the match menu. The only way to exit (without quitting the game completely) match mode is by using the NEW GAME option from the FILE menu. Once a match has been exitted by this means it is forgotten!!! So make sure you save the match before you select new game if you wish to continue it later! NOTE: If the Req.Library is either disabled (see the -r flag) or unable to be openned Triple Yacht-Z will use "ty.match" for ALL loads and saves of game matches! WINDOWS Score Card - This is where you will be placing your scores. Dice Table - This is where the dice are rolled, and the roll and score gadgets are located. Computer Moves - This is where the computer will let you spy on what it is doing. You can use the slider to adjust the speed at which he rolls. High Score - This is where the Triple Yacht-Z champions are immortalized! If the color of the player is red, then he is the computer. MENUS AND GADGETS The spaces in the Player column are actually string gadgets!!! To give a name to the player just simple click on the space and enter your name. To give the computer a chance to have fun as well, just make sure the first 4 characters of the players name (under the column you want the computer to control) are "COMP" (This isn't case sensitive). Computer opponents will be save as "COMPUTER" and highlighted in red on the high score list. If your name happens to be Compton or some such, then I'm sorry, because if you enter that as your name the computer will want to play for you... I'm not claiming the Computer is that good of an opponent as this was my first attempt at writing code for a computer opponent, but with good roles it can beat you! :-) The names can be changed at any time in the game. So if you're playing against four friends, and the third decides he's losing too badly and quits, you can always change his name to "COMPUTER", and let the computer finish for him. Then he can always blame the computer for losing the game. This can also be used if you have computers playing against themselves and decide that your memory could be put to better use. You can change one of the computer oppenents names so that it would no longer be in control and allow you to quit the game. Of course if I was the computer and you so rudely interuppted one of my games, I'd probable do GURU on you... The FAST-SLOW Slider Gadget allows you to alter the speed of the copmuter display. If you'd like to watch what the computer is rolling at a nice leisurely pace, just shift the knob all the way to right. If you don't give a darn what the computer is doing put it on the left and it'll zip on throught it's turn. It's kind of fun to put it at this speed, turn off the sound, and then what four computer players play... To roll click on those dice you'd like to keep. These will be highlighted by a box drawn around them. Then clock on the ROLL gadget, and those dice without a box around them will be re-rolled. The program will politely show you all the places where you could possible place your roll in red. The numbers in the spaces are the number of points that would be received for choosing that space. To choose a space just click on it (you can do this at anytime during you turn). Now that was easy wasn't it? That's pretty much the normal operation of the game. Now lets hop to the menu choices. FILE NEW - If the game is waiting for a game to start this will start it immediately. If a game is already in progress, Triple Yacht-Z will give you a chance to confirm you really want to be a quitter before starting another game. When a game starts the number of players is determined by the current location of the checkmark under the players menu. NOTE: The use of this way to start a game will automatically stop any match in progress. But You'll be warned if this is the case. END GAME - Using this option will end the current game if you so verify. You are then free to select a new match or some other such option. QUIT - This will of course be the least used option in the whole game. (Clicking on the Close Window gadget on the Score Card window will produce the same results) You will then be given the option to correct your obviously mistaken attempt to do something else more productive. ABOUT - This is just here because everyone else does it, and it lets me give my ego a little boost. Seeing my name in it and all... :-) SAVE PREFS - This will auto-magically add the current window locations (or lack thereof as in the case of a closed high-score window), and the Computer Speed, sound, number of players, and game type settings to the ty.prefs file. The old file will be deleted if it existed! HIGH SCORES - If the high score window has been closed this will re-open it for you. Isn't that special? COMPUTER - Does the same thing as HIGH SCORES except it opens the Computer Moves window. PLAYERS You can select the number of players you want in the game by choosing the correct item. This value is only read at a new game attempt. MISC UNDO - Lets you UNDO one move. You can't UNDO a computer move. You can also use this to cheat by giving you another chance to roll that extra 4 you needed to get a yacht-Z. WARNING: Only do this if your opponents are looking the other way! As I said before, I'll take no responsibility for your friends beating you up because you cheated. But then if your already big (such as a linebacker or such) then why not?!?! Although it's probably good ettiquete to make sure that all the rest of the players allow your use of the UNDO function because you want to be fair right?!?!? SOUND - This is a toggle. If there is a checkmark next to this item you will be able to hear the astounding sound effects. If not then you can enjoy the sounds of silence. If this item is ghosted then that means there was an error allocating a sound channel, couldn't find the Dice.snd, or some other fatal sound problem, and you will not be given the opportunity to listen to the sound until after you quit and restart. NOTE: Turning the sound off will considerably speed up the game as it won't have to play the dice rolling sound each times it rolls. So if you wanted to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for playing the most Triple Yacht-Z games in an hour, this is the option for you! PALETTE - This calls up a color requester to allow you to alter the colors to your own choosing! VERSION SINGLE YACHT-Z - Use the Single Yacht-Z rules TRIPLE YACHT-Z - Use the Triple Yacht-Z rules Note that the current value of this menu is only checked at the start of a new game. So don't expect to screw your opponnent over by switching to Single Yacht-Z when he gets up to go get a Coke. (Note Coke is a Trademark of the Cocoa-Cola company. But we all know that programmers drink Jolt. :-)) MATCH (NOTE: This menu will only be active while the computer is waiting) (for a new game to start. Thus if you are in the middle of a game ) (And you friend drops by to continue your match you'll have to use) (END GAME to be able to access this menu! ) NEW MATCH - This will start a new Match for you. CONTINUE - This will start the next game in the match. LOAD MATCH - This will load the currently saved match and allow you to CONTINUE where you left off. SAVE MATCH - This save the current match so you can come back and play later. PREFERENCES The ty.prefs file consists 3 Letter mnenomics (is that how it's spelled?) starting on the first character of a new line. Their arguments follow directly. This was done as a quick-and-dirty type implemtation, and isn't really forgiving on format. Don't leave any blank lines because that will make it cause you trouble! MNENOMIC COL This will change the default colors. Each subsequent hexadecimal digit will be assigned to the following locations. (Note white space is ignored!) 1st - Color to Change (Range of 0-3) 2nd - Red Value 3rd - Green Value 4th - Blue Value EXAMPLE: COL0F0F This will set color 0 to a purple color (15 bits of Red, 0 Bits of Green, and 15 bits of Blue) WIN The first int read in is the window number which refer to the following: 0 - ScoreBoard Window 1 - Dice Window 2 - High Score Window 3 - Computer Moves Window the next two integers will be the x,y pixel locations of the upper left corner of the window. If the value supplied will put the window over the edge of the window, a maximum value will be substituted. All number here must be seperated by a non-digit character! NOS Means start game without openning the high score window. NOC Means start game without openning the computer move window. END This signifies the end of the prefs file. If you don't use this you'll get an error message, but all previously accepted commands will be used. SND The next character immediately following the directive will be the current setting of the sound flag. The settings available are: 0 - Sound is Turned OFF 1 - Sound is Turned ON 2 - Sound is out for the rest of the game. (As in the -s runtime flag SPD The integer following this command will be the current percentage of full delay for the computer. The integer must be in the range of 0 and 65535 (where 65535 = 100% and 0 = 0%). The higher this number the slower the computer display will be! It's probably best to just slide the knob where you want it and then use the save prefs command. PLY The number immediately following the dirrective will be the number of players to start with GAM The number immediately following this directive will be the current value of the game type flag. Current available settings are: 0 - Single Yacht-Z 1 - Triple Yacht-Z V_CHESS2 - A Chessgame for Amiga-Computers Starting VChess The easyest way is to start VChess with a Double-Click on its Icon. But of course you can start it from Shell by typing its name and then pressing the -Key. (VChess needs no parameters.) If there is the file VChess.config in the Drawer of Vhess, then the program uses this file for the startup-configuration, otherwise defauls are used. First Steps Before you go on reading this text, it is better to start VChess now and try it out. When the program has started, you can see three windows. The big one with the chessboard is the main-window. The both other windows are only help-windows for showing some information. If the mainwindow is active, then you can press the right mousebutton to take a look on the Pulldown-Menu. ( Don't be sad if the display looks ugly at this time. Many things like colors, fonts and screen-resolution can be changed.) Please select now the menuitem "Config/Reset to defaults" to reset all adjustments to defaults. Start the game by selecting "Project/NewGame". Now you play with the white stones against the computer. To move a stone, simple click on it with the left mousebutton. Now this stone is marked. Now click on the destination-square. If this was a legal move, the stone will move from source to destination, and the computer will answer with his move. Now it's again your turn, and so on. Don't hesitate to test some of the menu-functions. The meaning of most of them should be clear, just try it out. Of coure you can resize the windows, or close the helpwindows. Before I go on describing the use of VChess, I will explain two terms: To click on a stone or square: Move the mousepointer over the stone (chessman) or square, and then press and release the left mousebutton. Menu: This means always the Pull-Down-Menu, which you see if you press the right mousebutton. Playing-Strength Of course it is a big difference if you play with a 68000- or 68040-processor. On my A3000 I lost most games against the computer, if I play with fair conditions. Fair conditions means, that I don't take back moves, and that I don't use more thinking-time as the computer. I can't make precise statements about it, because I have too many possibilities to compare VChess with. But I think that the playing-strength is not very great. The playing-algorithmen is fully a development of my own, and I spent "only" 400 hours for it. I think that other people thought much more about it. The best is if you test the playing-strength yourself. I think, if you loose more than 50% of all games, then the playing-strength is big enough for you. Note: If you would loose nearly every game, it would be very frustrating. Of course, if the playing-strength would be very high, it would be possible to degrade it artifically. But if you win againt the computer, but you know that the computer have played intentional bad, you will not be very glad about your win. If you think that the playing-strength is too low, you can tell it to me. If many people think so, I will try to increase it. For my own the playing-strength is currently big enougth. The Use of VChess After starting VChess, you will see the mainwindow, and perhaps the two other windows. The behaviour of the windows is like the windows of the Workbench. You can move, resize and close it. If you close the mainwindow, the program will terminate. Please note that you can only do menu-operations if the mainwindow (the one with the chessboard) is is active one. To move a stone, simple click on it and then on the destination square. (To do a rochade, simple move the king. The rook is moved automatically.) If you clicked on a stone, and this click was a mistake, just click again on it to delete the selection. In the window titled "All Moves" you can see all moves of the current game. The algebraic notation is used. "2. W: B f1-b5" means, that White moves the Bishop from square f1 to square b5, and that this is the second move of White. The letters behind the colon have the following meanings: P Pawn k Knight B Bishop R Rook Q Queen K King The "P" for a move of a pawn is substituted by a space in most cases. The other window titled "Thinking..." shows the valuation of all currently possible moves. The numbers on the right side are the valuation of this move. The number 100 is equal to the gain of a pawn, -25 is equal to the lost of a quarter pawn and so on. "3-3 P e4xd5 50" means the following: If the pawn on square e4 would hit the stone on square d5, this would result for the active player to a gain of one half pawn. The characters "3-3" describe the deep of thinking, in this example three halfmoves. (A halfmove is a move of a white or a black stone.) In this example the computer has calculated for each possible move of the active player a move of its opponent, and for each of these moves of the opponent again a move of its own. From these three halfmoves the total gain of this move is calculated, and the computer will select the move with the highest total gain. Note that in the average a player can make one of 30 possible moves. And for all of these 30 possible moves there are again 30 moves as a response, and so on. This means, if the computer calculates 3 halfmoves deep, the computer must process 30^3=30*30*30=27000 halfmoves. You can think about it as the computer would build a tree for each possible move. The first halfmove is the root of a tree, and from this root there are 30 branches to a opposite move, and from each opposite move there are again 30 branches to the opposite-opposite-moves and so on. Of course such a tree don't have to be totally simetric, some branches can be longer (more nodes) and others shorter. Because of this you will see often "3-4" instead of "3-3". This means that the computer has generated a tree for this move, and that all branches of this tree have 3 nodes, but some interesting or important branches have four nodes. Playing- and Build-up-Mode There are two modes: Playing-Mode, and Build-up-Mode. In the Build-up-Mode you can move stones without any restrictions. In Playing-Mode you can do only legal moves, and the chessclocks run. You should note the following: If you change the board in Build-up-Mode, you may destroy the current or loaded game. And then you can't save it (from the beginning) any more. Titleline of the Mainwindow The windowtitle is used for displaying various information, for example error-reports or the last move. If the computer has done a move, you can see in () which opening the computer uses, or the computing-power of the computer in moves per second, Mps. Chessclocks At the top of the boardwindow you can see three chessclocks. The clock on the left displays the total time for the white player, and the clock on the right the time for the black player. The clock in the middle shows the time for the active player. The Menu If the mainwindow is active, you can select one of the following functions with the right mousebutton: Project New Game With this item you start a new game. All stones were build up at their initial position, and it is white's turn. Start Game With this item you also start playing, but the stones stay at there former places. Solve for Mate With this item you can activate a special playing-mode: The computer will go on thinking until the computer sees a mate or stalemate. You can use this mode for solving chess-tasks, but don't exspect too much about this: To find a mate which the computer can't see in the range of five halfmoves, much time is needed to find it. Stop Game Terminates the current game. Save Game With this function you can save a game, to go on playing it later or to analyse it later. You can save it in Build-Up-Mode and in Playing-Mode. But you can't save, if there is no legal game on the board. Please note the following: Whenever you make a saving-operation, like "Save Game" or "Print Movelist", or when you add a game to the Opening-Library, then the game is saved only to the current position in the game. This means, if you have take back a move with "Extras/Undo", then this move is not saved. Or if you load a game with "Set Up/Load Game" and you want to print the movelist of this game, then you have to select the Menuitem "Set Up/Last Move" before you can select "Project/Print Movelist" to print the game. Save Movelist The actual game is saved as a textfile in algebraic notation. Print Movelist The actual game is printed as a textfile in algebraic notation. Give Up You can use this item, if you play against the computer, and you want to give up. Offer Remis Use this to propose a remis. About This item displays the adress of the author of VChess. Quit Terminates the game. Players Human-Human Two human players play against each other. Human-Amiga A human player plays with the white stones against the computer. Amiga-Human The computer plays with the white stones against a human player. Amiga-Amiga Computer plays against computer. Time With this menu you can change the thinking-time of the computer: 10 Secs, 20 Secs, 30 Secs Thinking-time is 10, 20 or 30 seconds. 1 Min, 2 Mins, 3 Mins, 5 Mins, 10 Mins, 30 Mins Thinking-time is 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes. 1 Hour, 3 Hours, 8 Hours, 12 Hours, 24 Hours Thinking-time is 1, 3, 8, 12 or 24 hours. Infinite The computer calculates until a mate is found. Custom With this function you can enter a custom thinking-time. With the four gadgets you can determine if your input is in seconds, minutes or hours. If you only press , then your input is assumed to be in seconds. Equal ? If this item is marked, the computer will adapt the thinkingtime to the thinkingtime of the human player. Exact ? If this item is marked, the computer strictly regards the given maximum thinkingtime. If this item is not marked, then the computer will sometimes think a little bit longer, but in average will regard the given thinkingtime. Display Show Movelist The helpwindow, which shows the moves of the current game, is opened or brought to the front. Show Thinking This function will open the window, which shows the valuation of all currently possible moves, or brings this window in front of other windows. Rotate 90+, 180, 90- With these items you can rotate the board. Change Colors White Stones, Black Stones, White Squares, Black Squares With these items you can change the colors, which are used to draw the squares and stones. Simple click on the desired color, and then on "OK". You can only select one color at a time, for example the color of the white stones. If you are using a custom screen, you can use the sliders to change the color-values too. But if you play on a public- or workbench-screen, it's better to select only colors, and not to change color-values. Change Patterns White Stones, Black Stones, White Squares, Black Squares, With these items you can change the patterns, which are used for drawing squares and stones. If the display looks ugly on your screen, you should try other colors and patterns. The defaults look nice on an hires-interlace-screen with OS2.0-colors, but if you have to play on a screen with lower resolution, it's a good idea to try other colors. Setup Mode ? The board gets a border on the left and right side. On this border rest some chessmen. In the buildup-mode, you can select these stones and use them to build up a position. Also you can move stones on the border to throw them away. In playing-mode the border has no function. Coordinates ? If you turn of coordinates, you have more room for the stones. But I think this is only necessary if you have to play on a screen with very low resolution. Chess Clock ? You can turn of the clock. If you have turned of coordinates, clock is always turned of too. Squareframes White ?, Black ? If one of this item is marked, a border is drawn around the squares. You can only see this border, if the squares are displayed not monochrome. Change Screen With this item you can select if you want to play on the default public screen, on a public screen or on a custom screen. If you want to play on a public screen, you have to type in its name. If you want to play on a custom screen, it is recommended to use a screen with four colors. It is possible to use a screen with only two colors, but this will not look very nice. More than four colors are not recommended, because VChess currently don't use more than four colors. Please keep in mind, that screenresolution and number of colors may affect the calculatingspeed of your computer. For example on my A3000 calculatingspeed is degraded about 50% if I use a hires-16-color-screen or Productivity-Mode. Note that parts of the pulldown-menu may be invisible if you use a large screenfont and a screen with a horizontal resolution of only 320 points. Screenfont If you play on a custom screen, you can select a font which is used for menus and windowtitles. Textfont With this function you can select a font which is used in the windows. Selection of a proportional font may give strange results. Set Up You can access this menu only if you are in build-up-mode, maybe you have to select "Project/StopGame" before. Load Game With this function you can load a game, to analyse it or go on playing it. For example you can select the item "Next Move" multiple times to go to a desired position in a game, and then select "Project/StartGame" to start playing from this position. First Move Jumps to the first (really zerost) move of the actual game. Last Move Jumps to the last move of the actual game. Next Move The next move is performed. Previous Move Takes back the last move. Clear Board All stones are removed from the board. (Caution: This function and the next three functions will destroy the actual game, so you can't save it any more. Bould Up All stones are moved to their start-position. White's turn The white player has to do the next move. Black's turn The black player has to do the next move. Config You can save all settings in a configuration-file. Load Loads a configuration and activates it. Save Saves the actual settings as defaults. The program will use these settings at the next start. Save As With this function you can save additional configurations, which you can load and activate again with "Config/Load" . Last Saved This function activates the configuration which was used at the start of the program, or which was saved with "Save". This is the file named VChess.config. Reset to defaults Resets all settings to defaults. Extras Help The computer is always thinking for the active player, even if the active player is a human player. If you select this item, then the list of all currently possible moves together with their valuation is displayed. Of course the valuation may change with time, because the computer is thinking deeper and deeper. So if you select this item after some time again, the valuation will be not the same. You can also select "Help" if the computer is the active player, to see how the computer valuates the different moves. Sort This function is identical to help, but the display is sorted. The best move is always displayed at the top of the list. Valuation The computer will valuate the current position. But this valuation is only an approximation, only the stones on the board and their strategic positions are taken into account. It is not regarded if one stone can capture an other stone, or if a mate will occur after some moves. Break With this function you can force the computer to make his move. Useful if you are not very patient. Undo Last Move With this function you can take back the last move. The chess-rules don't allow this, but I think some people will use this function sometimes. Of course you can take back many moves by selecting this function again and again. Redo the Move The move which you have taken back is again performed. Pause This function stops the chessclocks, and sets the thinking-process to a very low priority, so no computing-power is consumed. The break automatically end, if an userinput is registered. Set Task Pri. With this function you can modify the priority of this program. Generally you will not need this function. Because a permanent modification of priority is not useful, it is not stored in configuration files. At the next start of Vchess, the priority will be again zero (if started from workbench) or equal to the priority of the shell-process (if started from shell). The priority of the thinking-process is always one point lower than the priority of the mainprocess. So userinput is always processed in real-time. Create Icons ? With this item you can select if the program shall create icon for saved files. If the program has to make Icons, then the following icons are copied if they exist, or defaults are used. Filetype Used Icon (if it exists) ------------------------------------------ Game Game1 or Games/Game1 Configuration VChess.config Textfile Text1 or Text/Text1 Use Openings ? If this item is marked, then the computer will use the openings-library. The filename of this library is VChessOpenings. Using this library means that the computer needs no thinkingtime for the first moves, and the playing-strength of the computer is greater. Of course the library can only be used, if the game starts from initial position with white as the active player. Note that the opening-library is loaded if playing starts. This means, if you deactivate this item before you start playing, the library will not be loaded in memory. This will save some memory, so that it may be possible to use VChess on Amigas with only 512 K. Teaching ? With this function you can switch on a teaching-mode. If you are playing and it is your turn, and you click on a stone, then all squares on which the stone can be moved are marked. This is very useful for children learning chess. Sound ? If this item is activated, then a sound is generated when the computer makes its move. Random With this item you can make the play of the computer more interesting. Principle the computer would do always the same move in the same situation, because he calculates the best move. But to the result of the calculation a random number is added. With this function you can select the upper border of this number. 100 points are equal to the (virtual) win of a pawn. 0, 25, 50, 100 The random value is in the range between zero and 25, 50 or 100. If you select "0", then the computer always will do the same move in the same situation. If you select "50", then to each calculated gain a random number between 0 and 50 is added. Custom With this function you can enter a custom upper boundary for the random number. If the boundary is high, then the playing-strength of the computer will decrease. But maybe this is what you want. Blinken 0, 1, 3, 5 If stones are moved, they blink some times. So you better can see which move the computer makes. You can select between 0 to 5 blinks. This blinking is also used if you have loaded a game and replays it with "Next Move" or "Last Move". Openings With this menu you can modify the opening-library. Most people can ignore this menu. Add this Game If you select this item, then the current game is added to the opening-library. With this function you can expand the opening-library. There is only room for 32 halfmoves of a game in the opening-library. If the current game has more moves, the remainder is ignored. Of course you can add only regular games, this means games started from their initial position and white as active player. If you will add an opening from a chessbook, it is recommended to do it in this way: Select "Players/Human-Human" and now "Project/NewGame". Now you can play the opening from the book, and then select this item to add it to the library. You have to enter the name of this opening, the name may not have more than 32 characters. If this name already exists, you will get an errormessage. Try another name. (Currently all names of openings are german names. The reason is that I have only german chessbooks, and it's diffical to find good translations for the names.) If an opening, which you will add to the library is already in this library, but with another name, then there are two cases: If the opening in the library contains more moves, then an errormessage is displayed and your opening is not saved. But if your opening is bigger, then your opening will overwrite the old one. You should only add your own openings (games) to the library if you are a very strong player, because an opening may contain only very strong moves. If there is only one weak move, then the computer may do this weak move and the playing-strength decreases. Please note the following: If you want to add new entries to the Opening-Library, it is necessary to load the existing library in memory before you add new entries. So ensure that the menuitem "Extras/Use Openings" is on before you select "Project/New Game" to enter a new Opening. In this case the existing Opening-Library is loaded automatically. Delete actual With this function you can delete the actual opening, this means this one which is just used by the computer. This can be useful, if you are playing against the computer and notices that the computer uses a wrong or weak opening. Delete by name With this function you can delete an opening by name. Dump to File This function writes all openings to a file in algebraic notation. You can look at this file with a textwiever, or print it out. Save new Entries If you select this item, then the opening-library is saved. If you forgot this, all modifications are lost. YAHZEE - Playing Yahzee.. Most people have played a certain dice-game before so it shouldnt be too hard working out just what is required of you! The aim (as with most games) is to score as many points as possible by getting different `hands` with the die. On every turn you have 3 goes to try and make the best hand you can. After the first go you can roll some or all of the dice again, if you feel you can get a better hand. This is similar to 5 card poker, you are trying for straights and pairs/4 of a kind/3 of a kind/5 of a kind etc etc. Just click on the die to roll again and click on roll. After your third go, you choose which score you will get as the combinations are shown on the left. Eg if you get the following hand of die.. 4 4 4 5 6 this can be a pair of 4's (worth 8) three of a kind (worth 12 - 3x4) Fours (worth 12) What you must decide is which option to go for! You can only have 1 four of a kind, 1 hi-straight (6,5,4,3,2), 1 lo-straight (5,4,3,2,1) they neednt be in order, 1 five of a kind, 4 of a kind, 3 of a kind, pair, 2pairs. You should be able to work this out by looking on the left hand side! Note: there is a section called YAHZEE this is five fives and must be got to end the game... Chance is any hand, if you get stuck or if you have a high hand (such as 4 6`s etc) and 6`s or 4 of a kind has gone. Play keeps going until you have `used` every slot on the card. After each player (1-4) has filled up the card, the scores are compared. Enjoy it, strange at first but very playable once you get into the swing of things!