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)