FOUR - A STRATEGY GAME 4 PEOPLE AGED 8-101
(ORIGINAL GAME CONCEPT (c) BY RAVENSBURGER SPIELE, GERMANY
 ORIGINAL NAME (c) "VIER GEWINNT")
PROGRAMMED by Thomas Goetschi, Hartmannweg 15, CH-4500 Solothurn, Switzerland
VERSION 1.1 - November 1996

=> I hope I don't break any laws releasing this smashing board-game on PSION.
   Otherwise send a metal saw to the jail of Solothurn, Switzerland.

DEDICATED TO THE PSION COMMUNITY (FREEWARE).
Please send small tokens of appreciation (size: 14.8*10.4cm => postcard)
instead of money or chocolate. (Hey, I'm Swiss, as we say in Switzerland:
"Don't carry water to the sea").

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Hi folks,

Hint of the day: (Did you know that...)
YOU SHOULD NOT WASH YOUR HANDS WITH THE "SOAP on a ROPE".

If you didn't know, then send me $100 of consulting fee... :-)

A few lines about the game:
- It should be self-explaining. Just press help to get some short info.
- You can play against the PSION or against a friend.
- There are 4 levels of difficulty, when you play against little PSION. 
  Level 1 = Rookie (random moves, forced move, when 4 pieces in a row)
  Level 2 = Semi-Professional (calculating the most pieces in a row)
  Level 3 = Expert (better in tactics than 2. No - I won't tell you how...)
  Level 4 = Master (tries to handle forced moves)
- You can choose the board size, if you like.
- NEW***HOT***INCREDIBLE***: You can save your games!

Feedback possiblitites: (Please report bugs, ideas, storms of enthusiasm to:) 
- me: Via snail mail (see above). I'm very old-fashioned...
- a friend with eMail: Peter Steiner (unistein@isbe.ch). Please mention
  "FOUR" in the subject field of your mail.

Installation
- If you are a happy RCOM-User, then run 4.bat
- Otherwise read instengl.bat. You will see what files you need.
- Oder de lisisch eifach 4chb.bat. Inschtalliert die B„rnttschi Version.
  (That was Swiss-German. Dont' worry.)

OK. Now, I wish you good fun with FOUR. (And don't send this file to my
english teacher...)
Greetingzzzzzz
Tom
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HISTORY
*******
Sep. 1995: The very beginning of programming FOUR. I'm programming while
           commuting from Solothurn to Berne (40 minutes one way). So, you
           can imagine, that there was only slow progress... And the 
           other commuters in the train thought: "Who is this crazy guy 
           staring at this nice spectacle-case all the time???". So, my
           reputation was spoilt.
Nov. 1995  Uhhh. Four is still so weak. I always win, but my brother-in-law           
           Urs (sorry, Urs, to publish that on the Internet) loses one time.
           So, I decided to go forward.
Dec. 1995  Nearly stopping the project because of fear of legal problems:
           I stole the game idea from (c) Ravensburger Spiele. But, as I ask
           for no money, I hope that will be alright.
May  1996: Finishing Four V1.0. Decision to release it with only 3 Levels. 
           It's too hot to program OPL. Known bugs: None. 
           FOUR is very user-friendly:
           You have got a good chance to win (if you know how...)
June 1996: Four available on CompuServe (GO PALMTOPA) and the Internet
           (comp.binaries.psion). (Thanx, Peter!).
July 1996: Some bug-fixing.
Aug. 1996: Quick and Dirty Visual Basic Prototype to enhance algorithm.
           There were some bugs in the algorithm (what a shame...). Then
           I tried to handle forced moves. Now, I think that I reached the
           maximum without using a recursion.
Nov. 1996: Right-sizing of the Visual Basic Prototype on the PSION. 
Dec. 1996  Release of FOUR V1.1 in two languages: Englisch and swiss-german (weisch:
           "schwyzerttsch").