GESS
Atari version 1B (05/06/95)
Jean-Etienne Doucet
GESS is a two (human) players game; the
computer is only an assitant. This game
should run on any Atari comp, ST or STe,
and maybe also on TT and Falcon.
Warning: ST-LOW RESOLUTION ONLY !!!
GESS (pronounced "guess") has been
created by the "Puzzle And Games Ring"
of The Archimedeans, a mathematical
society from the Cambridge University,
England. It is played with a Go board
and stones, but moving pieces is so
uneasy that I decided to write a program
to manage with all the boring part of
the game.
RULES
=====
Official rules can be found in the file
OFFICIAL.RUL which is aptly named. So
please refer to it.
PROGRAM
=======
The screen contains the board (on the
left) and an information panel (right)
which contains:
- the player whose turn it is,
- last move played,
- number of remaining stones and
rings for each player,
- help mode buttons: see below,
- control buttons whose function is
explained later.
On his turn, a player may:
- pass: click the mouse right button,
- play: left click on the square to
be the central square of the piece: the
piece will be framed in dark blue, and
its center in light blue. You can cancel
the piece choice with a right click. To
move the piece, left click on the square
where the center should come: the move
is done only if it's a legal move.
After he's played, a player may use the
control buttons to cancel his move (BACK
button) or validate it (NEXT): in this
latter case, hand goes to the next
player.
Help mode: when activated, it will show
all the possible moves for the chosen
piece; colour tells the story:
- red: you lose some of your stones,
- green: you take some opponent's
stones,
- yellow: you take both,
- white: no stones taken.
To change this mode, left click on it
before selecting a piece.
The game ends when one player loses his
last ring (this is the normal ending),
or after the two players have passed:
the game is abandonned.
You may then choose to play another game
(NEW button) or quit (QUIT button).
DISTRIBUTION
============
This program is FREEWARE: you can copy
and distribute it as you want, but you
have to keep these 4 files together:
GESS.PRG, GESS_DOC.FRA, GESS_DOC.ENG and
OFFICIAL.RUL.
However, I'd appreciate if you send a
post card at the following address:
Jean-Etienne Doucet
38 chemin Malclabel
31500 Toulouse
France
or an e-mail message at
doucet@laas.fr
EVOLUTION
=========
Version 2 is almost ready; it will allow
loading and saving games, partial
replays, undoing moves, ...
For now, it uses system's alert boxes
and file selector, but I don't like
their look; so, I'm writing custom
dialog boxes to replace them.
You can contribute to version 2 by
sending me remarks, critics or sug-
gestions at one of the afore mentionned
addresses.
You also can send some of your own GESS
games, to be included in the V2 package,
but you'll have to manually write down
the moves: the "last move" window will
help you.
If you have some ideas about a computer
strategy, I'll be VERY happy to read
them, in case of a version 3. I must say
I have none for the time being.
That's all for today. I hope to hear
from you soon.
Jean-Etienne Doucet,
May 15th 1995.