4 in a Row Help File

Index

Main Menu

One is able to direcly Start a Game, change the options, view the high scores or view the help file. The help of these forms can be found below.

Options Menu

In the options menu, you're able to change the settings of the game. You can adjust the size of the playing field by selecting the width and height, as shown below:

  1. You can change the number of human players in this area
  2. You can change player 1 and player 2 (if you're playing with two human players) in this area
  3. You can add users by filling the name in the text box and pressing "add". An overview of all players can be found in the white text box.
  4. Change the controls of the game by selecting one of both radiobuttons
    (note: when playing with two human players, it is only possible to play with the keyboard)
  5. You can change the grid size by changing the radio buttons
  6. You can change the difficulty level by changing the bullets in area 5
  7. You can save all the changes you made by pressing "Save" or restore the defaults. If you want to cancel the operation, press "cancel" and all changes are discarded.

Start a game

You can start a game direcly in the main menu by pressing "Start Game". If you never set the options, the initial settings are loaded. The playing field is set to 7x7, the difficulty level is set to Very Easy and the default player is "John Doe". In the playing field window, a move can be made by clicking on a column. The aim of the game is to place four stones in a horizontally, vertically or diagonally line.

Against the computer

One can start a game against the computer by changing the number of players to one in the options menu, as described before.

Against another human player

One can start a game against another player by changing the number of players to two in the options menu. You have to select player 1 and player 2 in the options menu

Play the game

If you have selected the keyboard contols, you can play the game with the arrow keys left and right and you can drop a disc with the arrow down key. If you play with two players, player two uses the 'a'-key to select the column to the left and the 'd'-key to select the column to the right. Player two can drop a disc by pressing 's'.

If you selected the mouse controls, you can drop a disc by clicking on a particular column.

Objective

The objective of the game is to create as soon as possible four in a row in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal way. You must drop one disc into the playing field in a turn. The disc drops to the lowest position in that particular column.

View the high scores

You can view the high scores by clicking high scores in the menu.

  1. In the upper part of this window, you can retrieve the scores of a multiplayer game. Select two players, one in the first combobox and one in the second combobox. When a user changes, the score is updated. In the text field, the total wins against that player is shown.
  2. In the lower part of this window, high scores are viewed against the computer. You can select a difficulty level in the combobox and the top 10 players are shown for last day, last week and all time.