xchain(6)							   Games Manual 							 xchain(6)

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 reac-
       tion.

       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)