Abalone v1.1 Copyright(c) 1999, Sven Boden All Rights Reserved Thank you for trying Abalone v1.1 for the Palm Pilot. The latest version of this game can be found at www.palmgear.com and any of the larger palm pilot archives. The game can be registered at www.palmgear.com 1. Installation As with all software installations, you should back up your Palm Pilot before installing new software. You are responsible for assuring that your pilot has been properly backed up before installation. Ensure you have enough free memory before attempting to install the program. Delete any previous versions of the program before installing this release. Use the standard Pilot installer to install the .prc to your Pilot. 2. Game play This is a computer version of the board game Abalone. The goal is to push six of your opponents' pieces off the board. You may move one to three of your pieces in a single direction. Your move may push the opponent's pieces if there are fewer of the opponent's (e.g., two pushes one, three pushes two or one). You can also move up to 3 pieces sideways. You can find more detailed rules and examples on the Internet. Search in any search engine (e.g. www.profusion.com) for the words "Abalone, board, game". There's also a fish called "Abalone", but that besides the point. A little bit more explanation on how you can move your pieces. If you select a piece it will switch from white to "gray". If you then tap on a surrounding piece (empty or full) you will move the piece into that direction. When other pieces are present in that direction they will be pushed (if the move is valid of course). How can you move sideways. Select a first piece, do not release the pen but move it over the other pieces that you want to move. Then tap into the place that you want the first piece (you selected) to be moved to. This mode of moving takes some getting used to, however it's one of the few I found workable on a small screen. By the way, you always play with the white pieces. The menu options that are available: Commands New... Shows a dialog that can be used to start a new game. You can choose the player mode: You vs Pilot and Pilot vs You. The pilot will always play with black Furthermore you can specify the strength of the computer player here. Statistics... Shows statistics on the played games. Who has won, lost how many games. These numbers are only reset when you press the reset button. Help About... The mandatory about screen 3. Registration --------------- This program is shareware. The shareware version won't save your game when you exit the program and only 1 level of play is available. The shareware version can be played 10 times, after which it will exit automatically. In the registered version two more levels of play are available, level 2 which is a bit more aggressive variation of level 1. And also level 3 which is for the people with accelerator software or for the very patient. The problem with writing an algorithm for Abalone is that the number of moves that can be made is very large and that searching through all of them takes a long time (even with alpha-beta and cutoff algorithms). When 3Com makes faster version more levels of play will be made available. Registration can be done by contacting PalmGear H.Q. at www.palmgear.com When you have registered with PalmGear H.Q. your email address and id information will be mailed to me. I will mail you the registration info for the MS-DOS registration program. The Palm Pilot Id that you specify at registration should be the name as HotSync ID that you use on the desktop application (the id is case sensitive). Allow 4 days for delivery of the key. Normally you should receive it within 48 hours, depending on the speed of processing. You should note your registration key, as it will be required should you wish to take advantage of future releases of the application, or if your Pilot batteries fail. 4. Support ---------- Support for either an unregistered version or a registered version of this product is neither offered, nor implied in any way. However, we will do our best to answer any questions. You are encouraged to email any problems and/or bugs to sboden@crosswinds.net where registered users will be given resolution priority. 5. Disclaimer ------------- Users of Abalone must accept this disclaimer of warranty: 'Abalone' is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assume no liability for loss of data, damage, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of "Abalone 1.1". 6. History ---------- v1.1 02/10/1999: - Beta testing showed a small bug, solved. v1.0 24/09/1999: - First playable version (actually the second version) 7. Future --------- I did not implement every feature that I thought of. I implemented only what I use most. What follows is a list of not implemented features. Write me a mail to vote for the ones that you think should be incorporated in a next version or if you have other ideas for future features: * Interruption: Be able to interrupt the computer player at all times. This was not implemented yet since the computer player does not think too long. Implementing it would make the thinking a little slower and some way of interrupting the game would have to be devised: some sort of suspend/resume command via the menu's. * Undo ability: This is implemented in the game (because of the algorithm for the computer player), but it is not visible to the user. I found it unfair towards the pilot. He can't undo your moves, can he? If you have an idea for a fun board game on a pilot that doesn't exist yet and that you would like to be able to play on the pilot, write me. If I implement it, you will get the registration version of the rest of my pilot games. 8. Contacts ----------- e-mail: sboden@crosswinds.net Copyright(c) 1999, Sven Boden All Rights Reserved 9. Other games by the same author --------------------------------- Connect 4: This game can be found at the following URL: http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=3221 It's an implementation of the "Four in a row"/"Connect 4" game with a higly intelligent opponent. Checkers: This game can be found at the following URL: http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=3526