Provided by: xchain_1.0.1-9_amd64 
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)