GOFOURIT Copyright 1984 by Donald W. Miller, Jr. The object of GOFOURIT is to get four of your playing pieces in a row; horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The GOFOURIT board consists of a 6 x 7 grid holding 42 playing pieces. At the top of this board is a cursor. The cursor will be either black, or white, depending on whose move is next. The right and left arrow keys move the cursor from column to column. Pressing the [return] key will cause a playing piece to drop from the top of the board at the current cursor position. The pieces will then stack upon the previously played pieces. MENU PAGE After booting the game disk, the first thing you'll see is the menu page. You can always return to this page by pressing the [esc] key (except when the computer is thinking). On this page is a list of options, and one of these options is highlighted in inverse. Pressing either of the arrow keys will change the highlighted option. Pressing the [return] key will cause the option to be executed, or will change the option value. PLAYERS The first group of options determine who will play GOFOURIT. White always plays first. When either of the two colors (black or white) is highlighted, pressing the [return] key will toggle the player value between human and computer. Use of this option will allow you to play against the computer, or for two people to play against each other, or you can even watch the computer play itself (even at different skill levels!). LEVELS The next group of menu page options lets you choose the computer skill level. Again, by pressing the [return] key, the level values will change, from one through three. With level one, the computer looks ahead just one move, level two looks ahead two moves, and level three looks ahead three moves. Of course you can set the computer skill levels to anything, but only when the computer plays do these levels mean anything. You will see how fast the computer thinks at each level by watching the cursor move across the top of the board, as the computer considers each move. PLAY NEW GAME Selection of this option, clears the gameboard, and starts an entirely new game. RETURN TO GAME If, during the middle of a game, you press the [esc] key, you will return to the menu page. At this point, you can now change the players, or the computer skill levels (advanced players can also change the weight parameters). To resume the previous game exactly where it was suspended, simply select the RETURN TO GAME option. The game will continue, but now with possibly different players, or skill levels. This option will let you experiment right in the middle of a game with move options, or let you watch what the computer may do in a certain situation. REPLAY GAME Selecting the REPLAY option, clears the gameboard, and makes the first move of the prior game. To continue the replay, keep pressing the [return] key. At anytime thereafter, pressing either of the arrow keys will end the process, and the game will continue from that point, set up according to the options selected on the menu page. HELP This option will remind you of the various commands available for you to play, and enjoy, GOFOURIT. QUIT Quit means quit. The Apple will return to Basic. FEATURES 'T' - TAKEBACK Pressing 'T' will takeback the last move. If you keep pressing 'T', you can remove every piece from the gameboard. Touching any other key will resume the game. There may be times when, after you triumph against the computer, you may feel the computer made a stupid move. Most of the time when this happens, it's because any move the computer would make, you'd still win. You can test this by pressing 'T' twice, immediately after your win. You'll now have control of the computer's move, and you can force the computer to make the move you thought would be it's best. Sometimes these situations are not obvious at first glance, and this feature gives you a second glance. 'S' - SOUND Press 'S' and the sound will toggle on/off. 'A' - ADVICE When the computer plays at levels 2 or 3, you can find out what the computer thinks your best move is. After pressing 'A', the cursor will go to the column indicating the computer's advice. Watch this advice carefully though. When the computer thinks at level two, it's advice is based only an a level one search, and on this basis, the suggested move is not necessarily your best move. Advice at level three is a level better, but has the same relative limitation. WEIGHT PARAMETERS (advanced players) When the menu page is visible, pressing 'W' will present an option to change program parameters. Changing these parameters can greatly influence the skill with which the computer plays GOFOURIT. Listed are six parameters and an option to reset these parameters to their original values. The parameter values can be changed from values of $01 to $30. The recommended parameters can always be recovered by selecting the reset option. It is very possible a different combination of parameters could make the program play better than the default values will allow. The program will certainly play worse, or even bizarrely, if even slight changes are made to these parameters. Simply, you can think of each of the weight parameters as a measure of how hard the computer tries to achieve a combination of pieces that will eventually lead to four pieces in a row. The- 'C parameters are a measure of the computer's efforts to further it's own causes, and the 'H' parameters measure how hard the computer tries to block the opponents opportunities. The numeric values 1-3 correspond to the number of computer, or opponent, pieces that are, or will be, present in an open row of four. For example, if H3>C3 the computer will try to stop the opponent from getting three pieces in a row, at the expense of forming it's own three in a row. If C1>C3 the program will try harder to get more one in fours, at the expense of forming three in a row. And finally, if H2 - move cursor, or change selection [esc] - escape to menu T - take back move(s) A - advice on move S - toggle sound on/off W - change weight parameters