CHINESE CHECKERS vers0.2 (FREEWARE) FOR JAVA Copyright (C) by Miltiadis Mitrakas 1996 email: mmitraka@cs.strath.ac.uk web-page: www.strath.ac.uk/~cadp44 REGISTRATION: by just sending e-mail to the above e-address. If you could provide some useful comments and machine specifications as well, I would be very happy :-) NOTE: This IS NOT AN APPLET, if you would like an applet version of the game just visit my web-page and download it from there. For OS/2 Users: you need Java virtual machine 1.0.2 (even beta) For the rest: you need Java virtual machine 1.0.1 _____________________________________________________________________________ THIS IS A FREEWARE PROGRAM AND AS SUCH YOU ARE PERMITTED TO DISTRIBUTE IT WITHOUT CHARGE PROVIDED THAT ALL FILES ARE DISTRIBUTED TOGETHER, AND DUE COPYRIGHT IS OBSERVED. THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. _____________________________________________________________________________ THE AUTHOR: Miltiadis Mitrakas 4th year Student [Computer Science at Strathclyde university in Glasgow] email: mmitraka@cs.strath.ac.uk web-page: www.strath.ac.uk/~cadp44 _____________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS: 0. INSTALATION 1. WHAT YOU NEED TO RUN THIS GAME 2. THE RULES OF THE GAME 3. THE INTERFACE 4. PROGRAM HISTORY 5. TROUBLESHOOTING 6. WEB-PAGE 7. THANKS TO 8. FIXES ______________________________________________________________________________ 0. INSTALATION For OS/2 (Merlin) you need Java 1.0.2 (even beta), for the rest you need Java version 1.0.1 or later. Unzip CCJ.ZIP in a directory that you created, use a program that preserves long file names. Remember Java uses long file names and it is 'case-sensitive'. Run the program using by using "java CCJ" (or "javapm CCJ" for OS/2). Note: It takes a couple of seconds to load all the graphics.... ______________________________________________________________________________ 1. WHAT YOU NEED TO RUN THIS GAME _For OS/2 (Merlin) you need Java 1.0.2 (even beta), for the rest you need Java version 1.0.1 or later. _Preferably more than 256 colors SVGA graphics although it will run "happily" on 256 colors (actually this is the color depth that I use, 256). IF YOU USE ONLY 256 COLORS AVOID USING OTHER PROGRAMS THAT ALTER THE PALETTE OF THE SYSTEM, THIS WILL PREVEND THE PAWNS FROM SHOWING TRANSPARENT AND THE COLORS OF THE GAME LOOK STRANGE !!! _Preferably more than 640x480 resolution. _A mouse (not a real one). _If you try this game please send me your comments and some specifications of the system you are using. It will be very useful to me, for farther developing and supporting this product. _ OS/2 users: please read the TROUBLESHOOTING section... ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. THE RULES OF THE GAME: CCJ (Chinese Checkers for JAVA) is the Java implementation of a traditional Chinese game for two to six players. Each player has ten pegs of one color at one starting point of the star. The objective of the game is to occupy the star point directly opposite. The first player to accomplish this is a winner. Of course if in the same round more than one players reach the end point all of them are winners. Each player moves in turn, (in this implementation clockwise). A move consists of placing a peg into one of the adjacent holes or jumping over any other one peg into a hole beyond. The direction of the move has to be one of the following: left/right, forward left/right, backward left/right with respect with the players position on the board. Only one move is made at a time, except when jumping. Then the player can make any number of jumps in any direction as long as all the moves are consist of jumps. A player can jump their own or their opponents pegs. No pegs are removed from the board during play. _____________________________________________________________________________ 3. THE INTERFACE: The whole game is split into two main panels, the "Game Setup" panel and the "Game Board" panel. Using the "Game Setup" window you can choose the number of players you want in the game, positions and colors. _Using the red button you can choose the number of players. _Using the green button you can change the order of the players on the board. _Using the blue button you can choose the color of the players. All the changes you make affect the order, the color and the number of the dragons on the middle of the panel. By clicking the dragons you can choose between computer or human player. Finally (for this panel) you can press the "Play" button to start a game. When you choose the "Play" button the "Game Board" Panel appears and the game starts immediately. On the top left of the screen you see the color of the player the is currently making a move. On the bottom left you see the "Stop" button which stops the game and brings you back to the "Game Setup" panel. The most of this panel is covered by the board of the game. This is were you see your pawns and you make your moves. When is your turn to play you can choose your move by following these steps: _Choose the ball that you want to move by clicking on it. _Choose the first move by clicking on a free position, for near moves only one selection will be allowed, for far moves (jumps) you can choose as many as you can (according to the rules). _When you have "drawn" your path you double-click on the last position of your move and the computer moves the pawn. _If you want to cancel a move you just click on the selected pawn and the computer will erase the move path. ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. PROGRAM HISTORY: CCJ is a port of the successful CC2 version, a 32Bit, multithreaded Presentation Manager program for OS/2. The only thing that is missing from this version is the sounds (sorry). ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. TROUBLESHOOTING: If the pawns do not look transparent although you are using 256 colors then a program altered you system palette. I get this problem when I load a painting program for example. A way around this is to increase the color depth, or re-log-in, or reboot the machine. For OS/2 users: You need Java 1.0.2 (even the beta version). Previous versions will not do. ______________________________________________________________________________ 6. WEB-PAGE http://www.strath.ac.uk/~cadp44 ____________________________________________________________________________ 7. THANKS TO: _The University of Strathclyde for giving me permission to port this game as part of my fourth year project. _Chinese people for creating such an interesting game. _All the OS/2 users who supported me during the implementation of CC2, the list of names is too big to be included here. _Sun for giving me such a hard time with Java's Panels and Canvases. _You for suggestions and comments you will provide in the future.