Pabalone

The goal is to push six of your opponents' pieces off the board.

Pabalone v1.1

Copyright(c) 1999, Sven Boden

All Rights Reserved

Thank you for trying Pabalone 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

[email protected] where registered users will be given

resolution priority.

5. Disclaimer

-------------

Users of Pabalone must accept this disclaimer of warranty:

'Pabalone' 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 "Pabalone 1.1".

6. History

----------

09/10/1999: - Changed name to Pabalone.

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: [email protected]

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