NAME

       xchain - Chain Reaction, Strategy game for 2-4 players

SYNOPSIS

       xchain [-v] [--version] [-h] [--help] [path to wish]

DESCRIPTION

       Rules of the game

       Chain  Reaction  is  played on an 8 by 8 board. Players take turns to move.  On each move,
       the player may select an empty square, or one they  already  own.   Squares  belonging  to
       other players may not be chosen. If the square was unowned, it becomes the property of the
       player, and is given a value of 1.  If the square was owned by the player,  the  value  is
       incremented.

       If  the  value of a square ever exceeds the maximum permitted of that square, it explodes.
       Squares in the corner have a maximum of 1, squares touching an edge, but not on  a  corner
       have a maximum of 2, and squares in the interior have a maximum of 3.

       When  a  square explodes, it becomes unowned, and it's value is reset to 0.  The 4 squares
       touching it become owned by the owner of  the  exploding  square,  and  their  values  are
       incremented.  If  any  of  these are above their maximum, they explode, giving rise to the
       chain reaction.

       If, at the end of a move, any of the players have no squares, they are dead,  and  get  no
       more turns. When there is only one person left, they are the winner.

       Game options

       On  loading  the  game, a 2 player game with a blank board is loaded. To change this, edit
       the settings to suit, and click on "New Game". Clicking on this in the middle  of  a  game
       will abandon it, and start a new one.

       To  select  the  number  of  players, click on the numbered radio buttons. To the right of
       these are entry boxes to fill in player names, if desired.  The background to these  shows
       the  colour of the players' squares. Names and colours are only updated when "New Game" is
       clicked on. To the right of these, are counters of the number of squares belonging to each
       player.

       If  a  shorter game is desired, squares can be set for the players before the game starts.
       This can be up to 4 rows and columns, or a random placement.  For  2  players,  up  to  32
       squares  each  may  be  chosen.  For 3 players, up to 21 each, and for 4 players, up to 16
       each.

       Whoever goes first has quite an advantage. To offset this, a random first  person  can  be
       chosen. On clicking "New game", the status bar below the board shows who this will be.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       -v, --version
              Show version of program.

       path to wish
              Chain   Reaction   requires  the  wish  tcl/tk  interpreter.  By  default  it  uses
              /usr/bin/wish (The default for Debian GNU/Linux, and most other Unix-like systems).
              Use this option to force a different location.

FILES

       /usr/bin/wish
              Default location of wish tcl/tk interpreter.

BUGS

       Not  guaranteed  to  be  free  of  potential  buffer overflows. Do not use setuid, or with
       greater privilege than the players using it.

WISH LIST

       Network support.

       A way to save game settings - either environment variables, or a settings file.

HISTORY

       First seen many years ago on the (as  it  was  then)  Acorn  Archimedes.  Original  author
       unknown. Written for Unix by Alistair Cunningham <ac212@cam.ac.uk>

       http://thor.cam.ac.uk/~ac212/xchain/

                                                                                        xchain(6)