Gem Cadenza User's Guide
Gem Cadenza is a checkers program for Atari ST computers. This
program is in the public domain, so you can make and distribute
copies of this program. Since many people have forgotten some of
the rules of checkers, please read all of the rules before playing.
Enjoy the program!
The Rules of Checkers:
Squares on the checkerboard are numbered as follows:
TOP
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| | 1| | 2| | 3| | 4| [Red's king row]
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| 5| | 6| | 7| | 8| |
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| | 9| | 10| | 11| | 12|
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| 13| | 14| | 15| | 16| |
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| | 17| | 18| | 19| | 20|
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| 21| | 22| | 23| | 24| |
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| | 25| | 26| | 27| | 28|
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| 29| | 30| | 31| | 32| | [Black's king row]
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BOTTOM
Moving the pieces:
Black makes the first move, and players alternate until the
game is over. A player must make a move if possible i.e. he/she
may not pass. A move is either a simple move or a capture.
A simple move for a black piece is a move to an empty
adjacent diagonal square in the downward direction. A
simple move for a red piece is a move to an empty adjacent
diagonal square in the upward direction. If a piece makes
it to the opposite end of the board (its king row) it is
crowned and may move to any of the four squares adjacent to
it that are empty.
Capturing:
A piece or a king captures in the same direction that it
moves. A capture is possible when one's piece or king can
jump over an enemy piece placed in a square that otherwise
the capturing piece or king could move to, and land on an
empty square on the diagonal immediately beyond the jumped -
over enemy piece. A captured piece is removed from the
board. If after a capture the capturing piece is eligible
to capture another piece, it must. The only exception to
this rule is when a piece makes a capture and is thereby
crowned - then it must wait for the next turn before
capturing again. In general, whenever there is at least one
capture available to a player during his/her turn, he/she
MUST make one of the captures.
Winning:
The game is over when during his turn a player cannot move
(either because all of his pieces have been captured or
because he/she cannot legally move his remaining pieces).
This player is the loser of the game.
Playing the Computer Game:
The program is available in two forms, as a regular program,
and also as a desk accessory. To run the program,
double-click the file named "cadenza.prg". To run the desk
accessory, place the file cadenza.acc in the root directory
of your boot disk. (In other words, do not place this file
in a folder).
As your pieces are black, you will be making the first move
of the game. Black pieces, black kings, red pieces, and red
kings are represented by "*", "**", "O", "OO", respectively.
To make a move place the mouse in the square from which the move
begins and then press the left mouse button. Then move the mouse
to the square being moved to, and press the left mouse button.
Cheating is not allowed, so moves will be accepted until a
legal one is entered. The game ends when either player wins,
or when the human player's patience is exhausted. A record
of the game (in standard checkers notation) is stored in a
file named gamerec.txt. (Note: the desk accessory version
of this program does not create the gamerec.txt file).
If you enjoy this program, please send $5.00 (USA) to one
of its authors:
Eric Bergman-Terrell Robert Fischer
1704 Imperial Ridge 80 Killdeer Road
Las Cruces, NM 88001 Hamden, CT 06517
USA USA
Program Source Code:
Complete commented source code for the program (in O.S.S.
Personal Pascal) is available. Send $10.00 to either of
the authors, and he will send you a disk containing the
source code.