<p>Connect-Four style game played with red and yellow counters. Imagine a vertical grid of 7x6 elements closed at the bottom. In turns each player drops a counter of his colour in the column of his choice, until one of them makes a line of 4 counters of his colour, like in Morpion. Easy you think? But it's not!</p>
<p>The game can be played through the internet, against a friend or an artificial intelligence. It is rendered in three dimensions, displays current scores, players' names, and provides an in-game chat. To easily find players on Internet you can connect to our server and play with all the players connected on the server. To play the game just download and launch the program - no installation required - so you can send it to friends.</p>
<p>You may download the game from the <a href="http://www.beroux.com/?id=2">iPuissance 4D home page</a>.</p>
<hr />
<table border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="140" valign="top">
<a href="#install">1. Install</a><br/>
<a href="#local">2. Play a local game</a><br/>
<a href="#internet">3. Play on internet</a><br/>
<div style="padding: 0em 0em 0em 1em;">
<a href="#registration">3.1. Login</a><br/>
<a href="#chatroom">3.2. The chat room</a><br/>
</div>
<a href="#rules">4. Game rules</a><br/>
<div style="padding: 0em 0em 0em 1em;">
<a href="#rule_classic">4.1. Classic</a><br/>
<a href="#rule_nofillc">4.2. No Fill C.</a><br/>
<a href="#rule_10x10c">4.3. 10x10 C.</a><br/>
<a href="#rule_twocounters">4.4. 2 per turn</a><br/>
<a href="#rule_reversed">4.5. Reversed</a><br/>
<a href="#rule_special">4.6. Special</a><br/>
</div>
<a href="#ingame">5. During the game</a><br/>
<a href="#faq">6. F.A.Q.</a><br/>
<a href="#help">7. Get more help</a><br/>
</td>
<td>
<div style="padding: 0em 2em 1em 2em;">
<h2><a name="install">1. Install</a></h2>
<p>Download the latest iPuissance 4D game version from <a href="http://www.beroux.com/">Beroux.com</a>. Go to the folder where you have saved the file and open it. The install program may ask you were you want to put the game. You can leave default settings.</p>
<p>To start the game, go to Start menu, Programs, iPuissance 4D and click on iPuissance 4D. There you can also find some more ressources.</p>
<p>The game works with a mouse or with a keyboard. Click an item, or use arrows, tabulation key and enter key to validate.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a name="local">2. Play a local game</a></h2>
<p>A local game is a solo game versus the computer or a game versus a friend on the same computer. To start a local game click on Local from the main game menu.</p>
<p>The first screen will then help you define the players. To play again the computer, set one of the players (yellow or red) to Computer by clicking on it. The A.I. level is in parenthesis. Click Validate when you're done.</p>
<p>To play with a friend on your computer, leave both players to Human and simply click Validate.</p>
<p>You'll then be asked for the game rules to apply. See the <a href="#rules">Game rules</a> section.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a name="internet">3. Play on internet</a></h2>
<p>To play with other people on Internet, you need an internet connexion. Click on Internet from the main game menu.</p>
<h3><a name="registration">3.1. Login</a></h3>
<p>You can play as Guest, without any user or password by clicking on the Guest button. When you register you gain your own nickname and access to more functions. Registration is free, takes only a couple of second and doesn't send you advertisings on your mail box.</p>
<p>To get a user and password, press the Register button. You will be redirected to our website. There you just have to follow instructions. When you registering in the <a href="http://www.beroux.com/phpBB2/">Beroux.com Forum</a>, you're automatically registered in the game under the same user and password. It means that you can use your forum user/password to log in the forum or in the game.</p>
<p>Press connect button to connect continue using your user/password, or press Guest button to connect as guest. You may have to setup iPuissance 4D in you firewall.</p>
<h3><a name="chatroom">3.2. The chat room</a></h3>
<p>When you're connected, you go to the chat room screen. There you can talk with other players, join or create game rooms.</p>
<p>On your right is the player list. You may be the only one, in which case I suggest you to wait or come back on a more populated hour. Next the players' name is an icon that defines it's status:</p>
<p>On the bottom-half of the screen is the chat. Type your text and press Send to talk with others. To send a privated message from the chat (also works from in-game chat) type <code>/msg PLAYER_NAME "MESSAGE_IN_QUOTES"</code>. This would send MESSAGE_IN_QUOTES to a player named PLAYER_NAME. Note that guests can't use this function. To have a list of functions available in chat, send a message formed only by a single slash: "<code>/</code>" (without quotes). To know how to use one of them type "<code>/FunctionNameHere --help</code>" (replace <code>FunctionNameHere</code> by the name of a listed function)
.</p>
<p>On the upper-help of the screen is the rooms' list. To create a room, press Create. You'll then define the room's game rules to apply and wait to other player to join your room. To join a room created by another player, click it and press the Join button. When two players are in a room, they have to be both Ready before the game starts. Press the Ready button to change your Ready status. When the Ready light right of your name is let, you're set a Ready to start.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a name="rules">4. Game rules</a></h2>
<p>The game rules screen set up the rules that will apply during all the rounds in the game:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Game type</b>: Define the main game rules to apply (see below for detail).</li>
<li><b>Turn time limit</b>: Time allowed each turn. If a player doesn't play during it's time limit, a random column is chosen.</li>
<li><b>Round time limit</b>: Time allowed for the entire round. The count down is only decreased when it's your turn. If timer reaches 0, you lose.</li>
</ul>
<p>Note that you can not have <b>both</b>, turn and round time limits.</p>
<p>Glossary:</p>
<ul>
<li>Turn: Each player switch is a turn.</li>
<li>Rounds: Each game over is a round.</li>
<li>Row: Horizontal grid's line (6 in total).</li>
<li>Column: Vertical grid's line (7 in total).</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="rule_classic">4.1. Classic</a></h3>
<p>Classical Connect-Four game rules. Each player drops 1 counter each turn. The first player making a line of 4 aligned (horizontally, vert., or diagonally) counters of his colour wins. If more than one line is made, more points are won.</p>
<h3><a name="rule_nofillc">4.2. No Fill C.</a></h3>
<p>Like <b>Classic</b> but...<br/>
When the first grid's line is full (i.e. there is at least one counter in each column of the grid) it's dropped and all the counters shift 1 row down. So at least one column will always stay free.</p>
<h3><a name="rule_10x10c">4.3. 10x10 C.</a></h3>
<p>Like <b>Classic</b> but...<br/>
You play on a grid of 10 rows by 10 columns (instead of 6x7).</p>
<h3><a name="rule_twocounters">4.4. 2 per turn</a></h3>
<p>Like <b>Classic</b> but...<br/>
The first turn of the round only 1 counter is played, as usual. Then each turn, each player drops 2 counters of its colour.</p>
If you make a line of 4, your opponent wins (you lose).</p>
<h3><a name="rule_special">4.6. Special</a></h3>
<p>Like <b>2 per turn</b> but...<br/>
When you have to drop your second counter, you can chose between 3 different counter types:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Your colour</b>, like usual 2 per turn rule;</li>
<li><b>Green counter</b>: Deletes the counter on witch it is dropped on and dispears. It can't be droped in an empty column;</li>
<li><b>Double white counters</b>: Drops 2 whites neutral counters in a column of your choice. Those counter can <b>not</b> lead to game over or give any points. They are neutral.</li>
</ul>
<p>If the first grid's line is full (i.e. there is at least one counter in each column of the grid) then you can drop a counter even in a column that is full (i.e. there are counter up to the last grid's line in this column). When that happens, the first line is dropped and all the counters shift 1 row down.</p>
<p>Also note that if you repeat the same grid 3 times then it's draw game. For example: Player 1 drops a counter in column 1 and removes top counter column 2, then opponent drops a counter in column 2 and removes top counter column 1... three times.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a name="ingame">5. During the game</a></h2>
<p>The top header displays the current game rules and players' scores.</p>
<p>On the left are the time-out timers for each player. Once your time reaches zero, it's time-out.</p>
<p>On the right you can choose your counter type. Only the special rule allow you to select another type of counter as your second counter. To play it, click in a column.</p>
<p>On the bottom is the chat. Simply type in your text and press Return to send it. Your conversation will be private with your opponent. The light gray messages are the messages coming from the main chat. When you want to talk in the main chat (make it public) say <code>/g MESSAGE_TO_SEND</code> (where MESSAGE_TO_SEND is your public message).</p>
<hr />
<h2><a name="faq">6. F.A.Q.</a></h2>
<p><img src="icon_question.gif" alt="?" /> <a name="faqBoss"><b>The BOSS key</b></a><br/>
Pressing ESC twice in the game will activate the BOSS mode. In BOSS mode, the application's window is minimized, sounds are muted and the title is modified to something else. If you try restoring the window to it's original size, it'll look like it's not responding but it's just a fake. The use of this function is quite obvious. To turn back to normal mode: Activate the application's window in the task bar, and then press ESC key. You can locate the iPuissance 4D's window by it's icon the task bar.</p>
<p><img src="icon_question.gif" alt="?" /> <a name="faqCheat"><b>What about cheaters?</b></a><br/>
Cheating in the game is really hard but still possible. It's almost impossible to prove that a player is using an AI so please don't report them. Other cheats can be more visible. To report a cheater, <a href="http://email.beroux.com/">send me an email</a> with the suspect's nickname and the date of the suspected cheat even.</p>
<p><img src="icon_question.gif" alt="?" /> <a name="faqAI"><b>Can you increase AI's level?</b></a><br/>
It's possible however the AI's main purpose is to train yourself. Also a really sharp AI working with all the game's rules could be used to cheat (see <a href="#faqCheat">What about cheaters</a>).</p>
If you have some, <a href="http://email.beroux.com/">tell me</a>. I have no asked questions.</p>
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<h2><a name="help">7. Get more help</a></h2>
<p>Visit the <a href="http://www.beroux.com/phpBB2/">iPuissance 4D Forum</a> to see if you question hasn't been answered. You can post your questions there. If you've registered to the game, you can use the same login and password to login in forum.</p>
<p>You may <a href="http://www.beroux.com/?id=54">contact the author of the game</a> by e-mail for support or to report a bug.</p>
