Note: When the game starts you can determine your color and direction of play by the arrow in the upper corner
START GAME
- Click on one of your dice. Your dice are on the right side of the board.
- The player with the highest roll (die) moves first using these dice.
MOVE PIECE
- Click on a piece to select it. Don't hold the mouse button down.
- Move the piece by moving the mouse
- Click on new row (not over a piece unless it is the next slot) to put the piece down
- multiple pieces can be selected by clicking on another piece
Note: If you are already holding a piece when you click on a row, the game has to figure out whether you are trying to pickup a piece or put one down. It uses the following logic to determine its repsonse.
If you are holding a piece it assumes that you are trying to put it down if you either click over a part of a row that has no piece or you click over the next available slot.
It assumes that you are trying to pick up a piece if you aren't already holding a piece or if you are holding a piece and you click over a piece that is not the next available slot.
DE-SELECT PIECE
- Click on the row the piece came from (not over a piece unless it is the slot it came from) or on the word BAR
TAKE BACK MOVE
- Click on the word BAR in the center of the board or pick up the piece and put it back.
BEAR OFF A PIECE
- Bear off a piece by clicking on the piece then on your tray - your tray is the one with your color at the end
CAN'T USE BOTH DICE
- When it is imposible to use both dice, click on the dice to pass play to your opponent
FORGOT WHERE THE PIECE CAME FROM
- click on the word BAR
NEED HELP
- Click on the Arrow in the upper corner or
- Press HELP key or Select a Help-item in the INFO menu or press the H key.
WANT INFORMATION
- Move the cusor along the bottom of the board frame. The cursor will change to the following characters as it is moved along.
P displays the pip count
R displays the rolls to get all pieces off
S show the "best" move choices
M make the "best" move
C show the computers "Best" moves
N bring up the Note Pad
- Move the curor into the Score area between the two trays. Click when the cursor changes to a W. Computer will tell who is ahead.
HIDE GAME QUICKLY (in case your boss is coming)
- Press the ESCAPE key.
- This will hide the board and give a normal looking menu bar.
- To unhide the board press the Escape key again or select Resume under the File menu.
Note: If you have made another program the active program then you will have to select the game again from the application menu, then do the above to unhide it.
Keyboard Input
All play can be done using the mumeric keypad.
First select "Show Row Numbers" from the Options menu.
To roll the dice press the + key
To make a move enter the "from row" number, then
enter a period, then the distance to move, then press the the ENTER key.
e.g. 5.11 would move from the 5 row to the 16 row.
0 is for the BAR row.
- is the same as clicking on the BAR to take back a move
* is the same as clicking on the cube for doubling
+ is the same as selecting YES
- is the same as selecting NO
ENTER key alone repeats the last FROM row using the other die
Enter incorrectly? Just press the ENTER key. Then enter the whole move again.
Custom Board Colors
Your can change the board colors by creating a custom color file.
Use a text editor such as NotePad to create a custom color file. Below is an example file.
BORDERCOLOR 25 90 85
BOARDFRAMECOLOR 0 50 100
BOARDFIELDCOLOR 50 130 70
DARKROWCOLOR 0 50 100
LITEROWCOLOR 0 90 160
DARKPIECECOLOR 180 60 60
LITEPIECECOLOR 220 220 000
The numbers are RGB color values(Red Green Blue). They vary from 0, the least amount of the color, to 255 which is the most amount of the color. Some of the most common colors are:
red 255 0 0
green 0 255 0
blue 0 0 255
yellow 255 255 0
The words must be spelled correctly and at least one space between each item.
Save the file with any name you like with a .col extension. e.g. Green.col
If you leave out BORDERCOLOR the border will be marble.
