TrianGO full manual documentation NOTE: These docs include 4 Apple preferred GS SHR pics. The files are named TRIANGO.FIG.1 through TRIANGO.FIG.4. Use any GS paint program or GS page layout/desktop publishing program to print these pictures out. INTRODUCTION: Congratulations, You about to experience a game that provides all the challenge and excitement of your favorite board games, but is a new and unique. TrianGO combines the mental stimulation of chess and the strategic cunning required to play GO in a colorful innovative game. The following text explains the rules of this game and how to play it on your Apple //GS. So turn on your GS, boot up the game, and enjoy hours of entertainment. GETTING STARTED Place the TrianGO diskette in the disk drive [or select it from your menu program (Finder, ProSEL, Hyperluanch, ect.) to run TrianGO from your Hard Drive]. Turn your monitor and GS on and start up the game. User interface: All moves in TrianGO are made by pointed with the cursor and selecting items on the screen. Use the mouse to move the cursor. Press the mouse button to select and item or to pull down menus from the menu bar. Highlight the desired command and release the button to select. GAME ELEMENTS TrianGO Board: TrianGO is played on a unique playing field which is different from that of any other board game (see figure 1). The perimeter, or outer edges of the playing field, is composed of 6 double lines. The remainder of the hexagon-shaped field is composed of 21 lines which cross to form the many triangles that make the game TrianGO so exciting. The board contains 55 points (where the lines intersect) on which a player may place his stones. Stones: The pieces in TrianGO are round, colored stones which are placed on the points of the playing fields. The stones in TrianGO are available in four colors. The color of each stone is dependent on your computers's graphics capability. Each player begins the games with a total of 14 stones of a given color. These stones are located in each player's box. Stones which are captured by a player during the game are also placed in his box. Players: The game of TrianGO can be played with up to four (4) players. When playing TrianGO against your GS as the opponent, you may only have a two-player game. When there are three or four players involved in a game, the screen is adjusted to include these players (see figure 2). The order in which the players place their stones on the board (ie. who starts first) can be determined in the following ways: 1. While in edit mode (see "Edit Board" command), you can select one of the players to be the active player. The last active player selected when you exit edit mode will be allowed to make the next move. 2. You may use the "Change Sides" command to change the order of turns. When playing against your GS, the default is for you to start the game. NOTE: Regardless of the order chosen, turns will always alternate in a clockwise direction. As mentioned before, you can play against your GS, or against one, two, or three players. When you play against you GS, you will have the option of choosing one of five skill levels for you GS opponent. These levels, listed in ascending order of difficulty, include: Novice, Intermediate, Expert Master, and Grand Master Computer. The more difficult the skill level chosen, the longer your GS will take in making a move. For example, if you are playing your GS at the Grand Master level, your GS, on its turn, will take a few minutes to evaluate its possible moves. If you don't want to wait for the computer, you can use the CONTROL key to force your GS to make a move. When you press the CONTROL key, wait a while, until the computer finishes the current evaluation of one of its possible moves and makes its move on the board. NOTE: If you do interrupt your GS, it will make its move based on the information it evaluated before the interruption. HOW TO PLAY TrianGO is played by placing stones on the empty points of the playing field. Play begins with an empty board. The first player begins by placing a stone (from the upper right box as the default) on any point on the board. The second player (counting turns in a clockwise direction) places a stone next, and play continues with players alternately placing stones on unoccupied points on the board or capturing stones. Stones are placed on the board in an attempt to create triangles and capture opponents' stones. Object of the Game: The object of the game of TrianGO is to be the last player able to make a move. Placing Stones: To place a stone in TrianGO, select the appropriate unoccupied point on the playing board. When a point is selected, the player's stone will appear on that point. The top stone on each player's stack will be highlighted as it is about to come into play. The following rules apply when placing stones on the board: 1. You can place a stone only on an unoccupied point. 2. You may not place your stones on all three points of a perimeter (marked by double lines). You may place stones on both or one of the end points of the perimeter, or only on the center point (see figure 3). 3. You may have a maximum of six stones in total on all points of the perimeters. If you try to place a stone on a perimeter, and you already have six stones placed on the perimeters, the stones will not be placed, and your GS will beep. Once a stone has been placed on the playing field, it may not be moved. The only way a stone will be moved is if a capture is involved (see the text on Capturing). If a player makes a capture, all of the player's stoned which were in that triangle are retrieved. They can then be brought back into play. Any of an opponent's stones that have been captured by a player are permanently out of the game. Creating Triangles: a triangle is created when one player's stones are positioned on three points (the corners of the triangle) that can be connected with straight lines (the borders of the triangle) which contain one or more points. A triangle must contain a minimum of six points. There are two types of triangles that can be created in TrianGO. These are empty and full triangles. EMPTY triangles don't contain any of an opponent's stones (but they may contain a player's stones). An empty triangle creates territory that is controlled by the player who formed that triangle. FULL triangles contain one or more of an opponent's stones. Only a full triangle can be removed (captured) from the board. TrianGO provides you with the feature of outlining triangles that have been created. If there is an opponent's stone within a triangle, the triangle is shaded to show that it is a full triangle. The outlining and shading of triangles matches the color of the player's stones. In the situation where two or more triangles overlap, the colors will merge to create a shaded area that shows where the two triangles overlap. After a triangle has been captured, the outlining or shading will disappear (see also "Hide" commands). Capturing: When you create a triangle which has an opponent's stone(s) within it or on its borders, you have the option of capturing all the stones contained in that triangle. On each subsequent turn, the CAPTURE button will appear on the screen. This sign will tell you that you have the choice of capturing the triangle or placing another stone. (The only time you will be forced to capture is if you have no more stones to place.) If you continue to place stones, you can create more than one full triangle, and the CAPTURE button will continue to appear until all your full triangles disappear. The triangle can disappear in two ways: you make a capture that removes the triangle from the board, or your opponent makes a capture that removes one or more of the three stones on the corners of your triangle. If you choose to capture, select the CAPTURE button. If you have only one full triangle, it will be automatically removed from the board. If you have two or more triangles on the board which contain an opponent's stone, you must indicate which triangle to capture. This is done by selection enough corner stones which make up the desired triangle, such that the triangle is differentiated from your other full triangles. A capture is treated as a turn in TrianGO. When a capture is made, the player removes all of his, as well as his opponent's stones from within the triangle and along the borders of the triangle. The player's stones that were recovered can then be reused in play. The opponent's stones that have been captured are out of the game. Scoring: Players continue to place and capture stones until there is only one player able to make a move. The last player able to make a move wins the game and receives one point. When a game is completed, a message will appear on the screen announcing the winner of the game. NOTE: The number of stones that have been captured has no effect on scoring. This is an important factor to remember when planning your TrianGO strategy. Three or Four Players: TrianGO allows up to four players per game (see figure 2). Each of these player's stones are displayed in a different color on the Apple //GS. When there are three players, the fourth player and the extra set of stones will not appear on the screen. The players decide among themselves which color of stones they will use and who will start first. Then, using the Change Sides (or Edit Board) command, they indicate to the computer which player (color) makes the first move. The three- or four-player game is played almost exactly like a two-player game (the computer is not involved in these games), but there is one difference. During play in a two-player game, if a player runs out of stones, that player has lost. In a game with more than two players, this is not always the case. If, for example, the third player is out of stones, but still has an empty triangle on the board, and an opponent places a stone within that triangle, the triangle can be captured on player three's turn. The stones that are recovered from that capture can then be brought back into play. The winner is the last player who has a stone to place. When playing a game with more than two players, you may capture more than one player's stones within a triangle. Also, a game that involves more players concentrates more on capturing, because there are fewer opportunities to maintain safety along the edge once a player has a substantial lead in the game. STRATEGY Once you have learned to play the game of TrianGO, you will want to improve your playing strategy. The following section offers a few suggestions to help you improve your playing strategy and to make TrianGO that much more fun to play. o It is not always the best idea to capture full triangles too quickly. When your capture a triangle, you weaken your board position. If you have a large, full triangle which controls quite a bit of territory, you can fill it with stones, create other triangles, and at the same time control a majority of the board. o When you have full triangles on the board (triangles which are eligible for capturing), it is often a good idea to fill these triangles with your stones. When you do finally capture the triangle, you can recover more of your stones and have them available for further use in the game. o Try to avoid placing stones in the center of the board on points which will not be occupied by your full triangles. The points in the center of the board are the weakest positions to place your stones. Also, try to avoid creating triangles which will be destroyed when a capture takes place. o Try to force your opponent to take full triangles as soon as possible. This is done by creating your own full triangles which contain the corner stones of your opponent's full triangles. TRIANGO MENUS The commands available in TrianGO are invoked through the use of a number of pull down menus located at the top of the screen. The commands are categorized by their functions, and each menu contains commands which relate to a different aspect of the game. File: The FILE menu will display mainly commands which involve reading or writing information to the disk. When you select FILE, a pull down menu of these commands will appear. o New Game: The NEW GAME command will erase the current game, clear the board, and reset the stones for a new game. you can select this command at any time to start a new game. If you are in the middle of the game at the time the new game command is selected, a message will appear to ensure that you want to start a new game. If you start a new game and do not save the current game, it is erased from the computer's memory. NOTE: The NEW GAME command must be selected after each completed game in order to start the next game. o Save/Load Game: The SAVE GAME command will save the current game to the disk. When save game is selected, a dialog box with the files of the current directory is displayed. Enter the new name or select a file name displayed in the directory to overwrite an existing file. All moves that have been made in the current game as well as the score count of games played will be saved to the disk. You can also use the save game command to save the current score, if you decide to change the number of players in the game. The LOAD GAME command will load a previously saved game, including the saved scores. When a dialog box appears displaying the files of the current directory, select the file name for the game you would like to load. Select OK to load the game. Select CANCEL to return to the current game. NOTE: I you wish to keep the current score, select CANCEL when the question "Restore saved score?" appears. o Save Log: The SAVE LOG command will save an ASCII file of all moves that have been made during the current game. When the save log command is selected, a dialog box appears displaying the files of the current directory. Enter the file name for the log you would like to save and select OK. o Print Log: Selecting the PRINT LOG command will print the current log. This log includes every move that has been made from the beginning to the present point in the game. The log describes moves on the board using numbers. These numbers correspond to points on the board shown in figure 4. You may print a log of a game until you issue a New Game command. When you start a new game, a new log is begun. If you want to cancel the Print Log command, you must remember to turn your printer on. o Quit: The QUIT command allows you to exit the program. a dialog box will be displayed to confirm that you would like to quit. Selecting OK will exit the program without saving the game. Selecting SAVE (which only appears when the game is in progress) will save the current game and then exit the program. Selecting CANCEL returns you to the current game. EDIT The EDIT menu contains commands which edit the game and game board. This includes editing before, during and after a game. o Edit Board Selecting the EDIT BOARD command allows you to rearrange the positions of stones on the board as well as to indicate which player will start the game. When you select this command, it is indicated by a check mark, and all CAPTURE buttons are displayed on the screen. The following rules apply when the Edit Board command is selected: 1. The top stone on the active player's stack will be highlighted. The active player is the player who is most directly affected by the editing actions. For example, you can manipulate the active player's stones on the board, or add to and/or subtract from the active player's store of captured stones. 2. In order to make a player active, use the cursor to select any stone on that player's stack. If there are no more stones in the player's box, select the area of the box where the stack is normally located. 3. To place an active player's stone on the board, use the cursor to select any valid point on the board. 4. Selecting a player's stone on the board brings that stone back to his box. 5. Selecting an opponent's stone on the board captures this stone and removes it to the active player's box. 6. Selecting a captured stone in a player's box places this stone back in the respective opponent's box. 7. Selecting a captured stone in the opponent's box captures this stone to the active player's box. 8. Selecting the opponent's CAPTURE button moves the active player's stone from his box to the opponent's box. 9. Selecting the active player's CAPTURE button, captures the player's full triangle (if any) from the board. If the active player has more than one full triangle on the board, he must select the triangle to capture by clicking on the corners of the desired triangle such that the triangle is differentiated from other full triangles on the board. 10. When exiting from the Edit Board command (this is done by selecting Edit Board again), the game will resume at the current board position, and the last active player is the who how makes the next move. The last rule can be used to choose which player starts first. For example, if you're playing against you Apple //GS, and you want the computer to make the first move, select the Edit Board command, make the computer the active player by selecting its top stone, and exit the edit mode (see also the Change Side command). o Change Sides: The CHANGE SIDES command is normally used when you are play against a computer opponent. When the Change Sides command is selected, the stones you were playing will be played by your GS, and the computer's stones are now yours. In other words, if you were playing player 1's stones and you select Change Sides, you will now play player 2's stones. When playing against your Apple //GS, you can use Change Sides and Edit Board commands to indicate the player who starts first and the color he uses. Below is a list of possible choices and the actions needed to implement those choices. 1. Player wishes to start first and wishes to play the box on the right side of the board: This is the default for the game. No further action is needed. 2. Player wishes the Computer to start first, playing the box on the right side of the board: Use the Change Sides command to switch places with your GS. 3. Player wishes the Computer to start first, playing the box on the left side of the board: Use the Edit Board command to select the top stone in the left-hand box and then exit the edit mode. 4. Player wishes to start first, playing the left-hand box: Use the Edit Board command to select the top stone in the left-hand box. Select Change Sides command and then exit the edit mode. The Change Sides command can also be used at the beginning of two-, three-, and four-player games to indicate the player who starts first. o Undo Move: The UNDO MOVE command allows you to back up the game, one step at a time, until the very beginning of the game. When you are playing against a computer opponent, selecting this command will remove the last stone that was placed by the computer as well as the last stone placed by you. When the Undo Move command is selected, the last stone to have been placed will be removed from the board and returned to the appropriate player's stack of stones. If the last move is a capture, all stones that have been removed during the capture will be returned to their original positions on the board. Each time you select the Undo Move command, a stone will be removed from the board (or stones will be returned to the board, if the last move was a capture), until you are returned to the beginning of the game. NOTE: If you undo the last move of a completed game, the score for that game will be erased. The score will return when a final move is made. o Hide Commands: The HIDE commands are used to suppress the display of players' triangle. This means that when a triangle is created, both empty and full, the shading will not appear on the screen. This adds an extra difficulty to the game, because the players must keep track of the triangles mentally without seeing them on the screen. There are four Hide commands available, one for each player. The format of the Hide commands will look like this: Hide (color/Player) The color will correspond to the colors of the stones used by each player. For example, if you select Hide Blue, the shadings for all triangles formed by the player using blue stones will not appear on the board. Selecting the color for the player whose triangles you would like to hide. You can hide the triangles for all the players in the game, or for a selected few. When you are playing a two=player game, the Hide command will only hide the two colors being used. The Hide command for the third and fourth player will be dimmed. When any one of the Hide commands is selected, they are indicated with a check mark. To re-display triangle, select the appropriate command a second time. PLAYERS The PLAYERS menu contains the commands which allow you to choose the number of players for the game. You may choose between playing against your computer or playing against one, two, or three human players. The Players menu also contains the commands which determine the skill level at which the computer opponent will play. The first half of the Players menu contains the commands which determine who will play the game. Select the Computer vs Play command when you want a computer opponent. Select 2 Players when you want a two-person game. Select the 3 Players command when you want a three-person game, and select 4 Players when you want a four-player game. When you select wither the 3 Players command or the 4 Players command, the screen will be adjusted to include the additional stacks of stones. A check mark next to the command will indicate which command has been selected. The first command, Computer vs Player, is the default. NOTE: When you change the number of players, the computer will ask you if you want to clear the current score. The current score it is referring to is the cumulative score total for games played so far. Select OK to clear the current score count of games played. If you want to save the current score count, you must save the current game using the Save Game command before changing the number of players. The second half of the Players menu contains the commands which tell the computer at what skill level to play. The choices are: Novice Computer, Intermediate Computer, Expert Computer, Master Computer, and Grand Master Computer, with Novice Computer being the least difficult and Grand Master Computer being the most difficult. The command which has been selected will be marked with a check mark. NOTE: The skill level chosen will affect not only the way in which the computer plays, but also the time the computer takes to make each move. As the skill level increases, the computer will take longer to make each move. For example, the Novice Computer opponent will take a few seconds to make a move, while the Grand Master Computer opponent will take several minutes. To force the computer to make a move, based on the information it has collected so far, press the CONTROL key and wait until the computer finishes its current evaluation and makes a move. OPTIONS The OPTIONS menu contains and assortment of different game options. These options can be used to help you in playing the game, showing you the game standings, and in altering other aspects of the game. o Clear Score: TrianGO will automatically keep a running total of the number of games that have been won by each player. The Clear Score option, when selected, will return each player's score to zero. When you select the Clear Score option, a message will appear on the screen to confirm that you want to reset the scores to zero. Select OK to confirm. Select CANCEL to return to the current game. o Show Score: When you select the Show Score option, a box will appear on the screen displaying the current scores. If there are only two players, there will only be two scores displayed. If there are a additional players, the score box will show the scores for all players in the game. Select the OK button to return to the current game. o Print Move The Print Move option allows you to print a continuous log of a game, as it is played. This log describes moves on the board using numbers shown in figure 4. When Print Move has been selected, it is marked with a check mark. This option can be turned on or off at any time. o Last Move The Last Move option allows you to see the last move made on the board. This option can be useful when playing against the Master or Grand Master Computer opponent. o Sound Off The Sound Off option will turn the sound of the game on and off. The default is to have the sound on. When you select this option for the first time, the sound will be turned off. A check mark next to this option will indicate that the sound has been turned off. To turn the sound back on, select the Sound Off option a second time. o Hint The Hint command allows you to get help from the computer as to the best moves that you should make, given the present board positions. there are three levels of hints that you can use: Expert Hint, Master Hint, and Grand Master Hint. The quality of the hint improves as you move from Expert Hint (default level) to Grand Master Hint. The time that the computer takes to give the hint increases as well. Once you have selected the appropriate level of the hint, select the Hint command in order to view the hint that the computer suggests. NOTE: You can use the CONTROL key in order to force the computer to give you a hint based on the information it evaluated before the interruption. When you press the CONTROL key, you must wait until the computer finishes the current evaluation and blinks your stone in the suggested position on the board. NOTE: The Hint command can only be used in a "Computer vs Player" or a "2 Player" game.