# The &kreversi; Handbook

Clay
Pradarits

    gasky@winfire.com

Mario
Weilguni

    mweilguni@sime.com

Developer
Lauri
Watts
Reviewer

    lauri@kde.org

2003-09-18
1.3

&kreversi; is a simple one player strategy game.

KDE
kdegames
game
KReversi

## Introduction

### What is &kreversi;?

&kreversi; is a simple one player strategy game played against the computer. The playing field is an 8 by 8 square board divided into 64 squares. The game piece used is a colored stone - one side of it is red, the other blue. If a piece is captured by an opposing player, that piece is turned to reveal the color of that player. A winner is declared when one player has more pieces of his own color on the board and if there are no more possible moves.

### Object of the game

The object of the game is to control the majority of squares on the board.

## Playing

### Basics

A move consists of outflanking your opponents disc(s), then flipping the outflanked disc(s) to reveal your color. A move is performed by placing the mouse pointer over the desired square then &LMB; click.

To outflank means to place a disc on the board so that your opponent's row(s) of disc(s) is bordered at each end by a disc of your color. A row may be made up of one or more discs.

The game starts with each player having two discs automatically placed in the center four squares of the board in the following pattern:

&kreversi; opening position
&kreversi; opening position

Board Layout

Menu Bar

  The Menu Bar contains four choices of drop-down menus. These are Game, Move, View, Settings, and Help. &LMB; click or &Alt;the underlined letter to show the drop-down menu.

The toolbar

  Provides the player with icon shortcuts for commonly used actions. These are New Game, Stop Thinking, Continue Thinking, Undo Move, and Get Hint. Place the mouse pointer over any of these icons and &LMB; click to activate.

Game Board

  The game board consists of a 8 by 8 square board divided into 64 squares.

Status Bar

  The status bar contains useful information such as whose turn it is, which color represents each player and the number of squares each player controls on the board.

### Rules

Blue always moves first.

If on your turn you cannot outflank and flip at least one opposing disc, your turn is forfeited and your opponent moves again. However, if a move is available to you, you may not forfeit your turn.

A disc may outflank any number of discs in one or more rows in any number of directions at the same time - horizontally, vertically or diagonally. A row is defined as one or more discs in a continuous straight line.

You may not skip over your own color disc to outflank an opposing disc.

Discs may only be outflanked as a direct result of a move and must fall in the direct line of the disc placed down.

All discs outflanked in any one move must be flipped, even if it is to the player's advantage not to flip them.

Once a disc is placed on a square, it can never be moved to another square later in the game.

When it is no longer possible for either player to move, the game is over. Discs are then counted and the player with the majority of his or her color discs on the board is declared the winner.

It is possible for a game to end before all 64 squares are filled.

### Tips

Try to place pieces on the edges whenever possible. Your opponent cannot outflank these pieces.

Avoid placing pieces on one of the three neighbor fields of a corner unless you are absolutely sure that your opponent will not be able to put a piece on a corner.

Sometimes it is better to offer some pieces to your opponent

Try to put pieces on fields which prevent your opponent from moving.

Try to force your opponent to put a piece in a neighboring field of a corner.

## User Interface

### Game Menu

&Ctrl;N Game New

  Starts a new game.

&Ctrl;O Game Load...

  Loads a saved game.

&Ctrl;S Game Save

  Saves the current game.

&Ctrl;H Game Show Highscores

  Shows the highscore table.

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &kreversi;.

### Move Menu

&Ctrl;Z Move Undo

  Removes your last move as well as the computer's last move from the board.

H Move Hint

  The computer will provide a hint for your next move.

Move Switch Sides

  Will make you the opposite color.

&Esc; Move Stop Thinking

  Stops the computer's depth search, then you choose the computer's next move, or select the Continue Thinking menu item to continue the computer's thinking process.

Move Continue Thinking

  Continue the computer's thinking process if it was previously stopped using the Stop Thinking menu item.

### View Menu

&Ctrl;+ View Zoom In

  Enlarges the game board.

&Ctrl;- View Zoom Out

  Shrinks the game board.

### Settings Menu

Settings Show Toolbar

  Toggles whether the toolbar is visible.

Settings Show Statusbar

  Toggles whether the statusbar at the bottom of the window is visible.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Opens a dialog which lets you configure all the hotkeys which are available in &kreversi;.

Settings Configure &kreversi;...

  Opens the configuration dialog which lets you tweak a lot of &kreversi;'s options.

### Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Configuration

Selecting the Settings Configure &kreversi;... menu item will open a configuration dialog which lets you adjust many of &kreversi;'s options.

Grayscale Chips

  Check this box to use grayscale chips instead of blue and red ones; this might improve the look on very low color displays.

Animation

  If this option is checked, a short animation will be shown when a die changes it's color.

Animation Speed

  If the Animation option is enabled, you can use this slider to define how fast the animation should be played; move the slider to the left for a slower animation, moving the slider to the right will play the animation faster.

Computer Skill

  This slider lets you define the skill level of the computer player. There are seven different skill levels available, ranging from beginner to expert. Move the slider to the left for an easier opponent, or to the right to get a more difficult opponent.

Background

  Here you can define the appearance of the playground. Select the Color option and press the colored button at the right if you want the background to have a single color. Select the Image option and enter the path to a picture in the input field at the right in case you want to use a specific image as the background wallpaper.

## Credits and License

Program Copyright 1998-2000 Mario Weilguni

Mats Luthman - Designer of the move engine.

Original documentation by Mario Weilguni

Edited by Robert Williams

Documentation re-written and updated for &kde; 2.0 by Clay Pradarits gasky@winfire.com

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

&install.intro.documentation;

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;