Tactrix! © 1994 Hard Core Game Design A division of Almo Enterprises Tactrix! is Shareware. A $5 fee is requested, and may be mailed to: Ethan Larson 1010 W. Benton 316F Iowa City, IA 52246 or, to be safe, Ethan Larson 1506 Phillips Brownwood, TX 76801 In the event that enough interest is shown in this game, I will write an artificial intelligence, so you won't necessarily have to find another person to play. Also, I have plans to make Tactrix! II, which would have more strange pieces, and would generally be further from chess in play mechanics. This program is © HCGD, except the stuff in the l directory, which is © Absoft. The l directory contains the run-time libraries for the Absoft AC/BASIC Compiler. This archive is freely distributable, so long as all files remain intact. To install the game, just drop everything into one directory, with the exception of the l directory. Copy these files to your l: directory if you are using hard disk, or just put l in the root directory of the floppy you intend to run it from. Then double click the Tactrix! icon. Make sure FastMemFirst is executed before you run it, either by you or in your startup-sequence. It runs noticably faster if you do. I've heard there are problems if your workbench font isn't set to Topaz, but there are definitely problems if you are set for 60 column mode, rather than 80 column mode. If you have any questions or comments I can be reached by e-mail at: ewl@astro.physics.uiowa.edu How to play General Rules Players take turns moving their pieces on a 10x10 board. To capture an opponent's piece, just land on it. All of the empty squares at the beginning of the game have chips in them. By moving onto these, you collect them; they do not regenerate. You can purchase new pieces with these chips. The Interface Just click the piece you want to move, then click the square you want to move it to. For information about a piece, you can click the Tutor button, followed by clicking the piece you want to know about. Tutor will tell you the name of the piece, how much it costs to buy, and all of its current legal moves will be highlighted on the board. Use Tutor to figure out which pieces are which when you first play. The Tutor also works on your opponent's pieces. When it is your turn, just click the Buy button to purchase a new piece. The Dialog box will give further instructions. Clicking New twice will start a new game, and clicking Quit twice will exit the program. Clicking Load or Save will initiate the Load or Save sequences; you will be asked for the device and directory first, then for the name of the game file. For example, "df0:games/" would work for the device and directory, and "Game1" would work for the filename. Tactrix! will automatically add ".tac" to the filename when both loading and saving. Make sure you remember to add the trailing "/" when specifying a directory. At either prompt you can just hit retrun to cancel load or save. You can click anywhere in the window when you want to cancel a selection. Odd Situations There are times, as in chess, when capturing your opponent's king will become impossible. The problem is that the pieces in Tactrix are different those in chess, so those situations are a bit different. The one that remains the same is that if it is one king and two jumpnars versus one king, capturing the lone king is impossible. If you encounter any others, please let me know about them, so they can be included in this doc file. I suspect such problems will be found in connection with the wrapnoid, since it has such odd restrictions on movement. The pieces Jerk These are the small circles that line the front row of each player's army. These can move one space forward, unless capturing. They can only capture by skipping a space up, down, left or right. When capturing, it doesn't matter if there is a piece between them and their target; they actually jump over that space. If you get a jerk all the way to the other side of the board, you get a 25 chip bonus, and the jerk disappears. They cost 3 chips to buy. 1234567 The star represents a jerk on the board. The m is where 1 he can move if unopposed, and the x's are where he could 2 x capture. The #'s are other pieces. Note that they do 3 m not oppose his capturing move. 4 x *#x 5 # 6 x Jumpnar These are the small circles surrounded by squares. They move just as knights in chess. They move two spaces in one direction, then one space to either side, ignoring all other pieces that might intervene. These cost 6 chips. 1234567 The * is the jumpnar, and the m's are where he can move 1 or capture. The #'s are other pieces. Note that the 2 m#m #'s don't get in the way of the jumpnar's movements. 3 m## m 4 ##*# 5 m m 6 m m Wrapnoid These look like a circle enclosed in parenthesis. They are weird pieces. They can move to any adjacent space, except for those immediately to their left or right. To move left or right, they jump a space, ignoring any piece that may be there, and then can slide up to 3 spaces. When moving left or right, they can also "wraparound" at the edges of the board, appearing on the other side. These cost 9 chips. 1234567890 In this diagram, the *'s are wrapnoids, the m's are 1 mmm 1 where they could move or capture, and the # is a piece. 2mmm * mmm 2 Note that the wrapnoid SLIDES after its initial jump, 3 mmm 3 so that it can be blocked by another piece. It could, 4 4 however, opt to capture that piece. Also note the m's 5 5 in columns 9 and 10 in row 8. This is how a wrapnoid 6 6 wraps around the edges. 7 mmm 7 8m * m# mm8 9 mmm 9 0 0 Verticon These look like spots with vertical lines through them. These pieces can move one space in any direction, or slide any number of unoccupied spaces vertically. These cost 12 chips. 1234567 The * is the verticon, the m's are where he can move or 1 m capture. The # is another piece that blocks the 2 mmm verticon's movement. He could capture the #, though. 3 m*m 4 mmm 5 m 6 m 7 m 8 # 9 Diaganoid These pieces look like a large "X". They move like bishops from chess, except that they can also move one space up, down, left or right. They can slide any number of unoccupied spaces diagonally. They cost 15 chips. 12345678 The * is the diaganoid, the m's are where he could 1 m move or capture, and the # is another piece. Again, 2m m the # blocks him from moving farther, but he could opt 3 mmm to capture the #. 4 m*m 5 mmm 6m m 7 m 8 # 9 Regeneroid These look like ripples radiating from a splash in a puddle. They move like kings in chess, one space in any direction; but they can't move vertically past the half-way mark on the board. They also have a very special function. When you purchase a new piece, it must be placed on a space adjacent to the regeneroid. When you place the new piece, it can be placed in a space occupied by your opponent, thereby capturing your opponent's piece. If you lose your regeneroid, you cannot buy any more pieces, no matter how many chips you get. You cannot buy a new regeneroid at any time. 123456 The * is the regeneroid, and the m's are where it 1 could move or capture. 2 mmm 3 m*m 4 mmm 5 6 King These look like a crown. They also move like chess kings, one space in any direction. These also have a special purpose; if you lose your king, you lose the game. There are no rules for check and checkmate in Tactrix!, so if you can take your opponent's king, do so. You cannot buy another king. There is no rule for something like castling from chess. 123456 The * is the king, and the m's are where he could move 1 or capture. 2 mmm 3 m*m 4 mmm 5 6