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XTIC(1)			    General Commands Manual		       XTIC(1)

NAME
       xtic - X	version	of a simple but	tricky board game

RULES
       The  board  is made up of 4x4 squares and 16 pieces. The	pieces carry 4
       properties each,	namely:

       o Black or brown

       o Horizontal or vertical

       o Solid or hollow

       o Round or square

       This makes a total of 16	possible pieces	 and  there  are  exactly  one
       piece of	each type (so each piece can be	represented by a binary	number
       of length 4).

       Initially,  the	board  is  empty  and  it  is successively filled with
       pieces. The game	is over	when a row, a column or	a  diagonal  has  four
       pieces  carrying	 a  common property in it, e.g.	four black pieces. The
       player who places the fatal piece loses.

       The game	is a two-player	game, although in the  current	release,  only
       the  human-computer  combination	 is supported.	Player 1 (the human by
       default)	chooses	one of the 16 pieces. Player 2 (the  computer  by  de-
       fault)  places  this  piece  on	one of the 16 squares of the board and
       chooses a piece out of the remaining 15 pieces which he gives to	player
       1, who places this piece	on one of the  remaining  15  squares  on  the
       board, etc.

       As  mentioned  above,  the game is over when a player places a piece in
       such a way that a row, a	column or a diagonal (but see below)  contains
       four  pieces  carrying  a  common property.  The	player who places this
       piece loses. If there is	no empty square	left, we  have	a  draw	 (yes,
       this can	happen).

MENU COMMANDS
       There are two menus, the	Actions	Menu and the Options Menu.

Actions	Menu
       New game	- You start
	       Starts a	new game of xtic, ending the previous one abruptly and
	       letting the human start.

       New game	- I start
	       Identical  to  "New  game - You start" except that the computer
	       will begin the next game.

       Quit    Exist from xtic.

Options	Menu
       Level trivial
	       The easiest level. The computer only tries  to  place  the  se-
	       lected  piece  in  a way	that it	does not lose immediately, and
	       chooses any free	piece to give away, i.e. it  thinks  only  one
	       move ahead.

       Level easy
	       The computer thinks two moves ahead.

       Level medium
	       The computer thinks three moves ahead.

       Level hard
	       The computer thinks four	moves ahead.

       Level very hard
	       The computer thinks five	moves ahead.

       Level don't try
	       The  computer  thinks  six  moves ahead.	This can be quite slow
	       (and hard).

       Game Type: normal
	       In addition to the rows and columns, the	two main diagonals are
	       dangerous (can make the game end).

       Game Type: nodiags
	       Only the	rows and columns are dangerous.

       Game Type: torus
	       All 8 "diagonals" are dangerous.	This corresponds to playing on
	       a torus.

BUGS
       Probably	plenty.	Report any you find to mjo@math.kth.se

AUTHOR
       Mattias Jonsson,	Dept of	Mathematics, Royal  Institute  of  Technology,
       S-100 44	Stockholm, Sweden.

       email: mjo@math.kth.se, URL: http://www.math.kth.se/~mjo

Mattias	Jonsson, KTH		      X11			       XTIC(1)

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