HEXPLODE v1.0 1 September 1997 HEXPL11 v1.1 2 August 1998 (added top-5 lists, menu, setup remembered and some bugs fixed) Written by Andre van Linden (from a idea originating from J. Ansell). Tested only on 2Mb Psion 3c (when anything is known about other machines, please inform me). Installation For installation of the game the file HEXPL11.OPA should be in the \APP directory and installed by PSION-I. When you want to see (or use) the source file the following two file should also be copied to your PSION: \OPL\HEXPL11.OPL \OPD\HEXPL11.PIC The HEXPL11.GIF and HEXPLODE.TXT are just for illustration within your PC. History In 1982 the idea for this (then) original game was written by J. Ansell in the PCM (Personal Computer Magazine). The basic program was written for the BBC computer and only enabled to play between two human players. Later on I wrote a freeware version of the game for the IBM personal computer in which I added some artificial intellegence so one person could try not to be beaten by the computer! Now finally the version for the PSION is written. The program is thinking with a mixture of strategy and straight forward calculations. Because the calculations take a lot of time the strategy is more important in lower levels and this makes the (simple OPL) program remarkable quick for an already rather strong player. Playing the game The purpose of the game is to win and to beat the computer as often as you can! The board consists of 25 hexagons. Each of the players on his turn will put a count in one of the hexagons. You can do this by using the arrow keys and give ENTER when it is the one you want. Each of the hexagons can contain as many counters as it has neighbours. When checking the graph, this means: 3 4 4 4 6 4 4 6 6 4 2 6 6 6 2 4 6 6 4 4 6 4 4 4 3 At the moment a hexagon is reaching this maximum amount, it (h)explodes to its neighbours. Any number of counts in these neighbouring hexagons will be taken by the exploding hexagon and will increase the total number of the player. In this way you can win or loose counts. When one of the players is out of counts he looses. Especially when the board is almost filled, one explosion can give a chain reaction changing the whole outlook of the board! When starting you will have several options: Skill from 1 to 5. Skill level of 1 gives thinking times of 2 seconds, at 2 this will be around 6. Level 4 will need 20 to 30 seconds and level 5 needs approximately 6 to 10 minutes for each move! This level is therefore only interesting on a good PC with the emulator. Level 3 is in between 2 and 4, meaning under 30 counts total, it behaves like level 2 and after like level 4. Status will show a figure for how good the computer thinks its move is (this is also very much depending on the playing level) and this shows a line for his thinking activity. One dot represents one hexagon to be checked! Last Move tells you what the computer actually did Player can play black or grey Show time will show the time for each player, only updated after the move has been made. Qualify will make your game qualifying for the top-5 lists. During the game you can use the MENU for further options. All kind of Psion buttions do work, see the menu (Psion-X is Exit). The program has a top-5 list for each level. Your last setup is remembered. All is done in a \OPD\HEXPLODE.ODB file, which is automatically created and updated. The best strategy you will have to find yourself. In general in the beginning you should go for the spots which can explode easiest, so corners and sides. The points in a qualifying game are made up out of direct won points, the number of counts needed and time needed. You can only cheat by using the emulator on a PC. Postware. I very much like the idea of freeware. I would however very much like to have some reactions to the program and of course I like to have nice mail and postcards. Therefore the only thing you could do to make the maker of the program happy is to write me a nice postcard to: Andre van Linden Albert Plesmanlaan 4 2171 RE Sassenheim The Netherlands (Of course you could sent me some cash, so I will try to keep you updated when new versions of the program will be written). Or send me a some email to: . You can find this software and other Psion info on the following web page: .