The Manual Exploding Atoms

Disclaimer
 This game is a conversion from an ancient game that I had for my MSX home computer, I can't remember who made it then and since my MSX computer has died I won't find out anytime soon.

If the origional authors of the game find this java-port offending, please email me and maybe we can come to an agreement.
Licence


All graphics and code ©1998 8Hz productions.
We grant you the right to play this game as long as it comes from our site.
Directly linking to files, other than the main page, on our site is forbidden. Copying graphics or class files to another web-site or any other form of media is forbidden (with exception to the caches that proxies and webbrowsers maintain without direct knowledge of the user) without permission from the autor : A.R. van Ballegooy

Introduction


The objectives to the game are simple, the first player to own all squares on the board wins. But don't be fooled, altough the game is based upon a few simple rules it is difficult to master. Chain reactions caused by explosions triggering each other can have stunning effects.

If you're new to te game I would suggest that you take the time to read and understand the rules before trying to tackle the computer player. To help you understand the game and it's rules, it would be wise to 'play' a few games against yourself with the 2 player version of the game.

Enjoy, Alex...

About the applet


The applets have been tested with a variaty of web browsers and unfortunately there are some problems.

  • Netscape Navigator 4.0 trough 4.0.4 aren't able to run this applet. The applet is correct, but the java implementation in these versions of netscape sucks. As of version 4.0.5 Netscape Navigators Java implemantation seems to be good enough again to run this game.
If you have problems running the game on another web browser please tell me, I try to keep the compatability as high as possible.
The Rules


I will first summarise the rules :

  • The game is played on a board of 6*6 squares.
  • Initially all squares are neutral (Black).
  • There are two players, Red and Blue.
  • The first player to own all squares wins.
Players have turns in placing atoms, the rules concerning the placement of atoms are:
  • A player MUST add exactly one atom to the board each turn.
  • A player can not add atoms to squares owned by the opponent.
  • If a player adds an atom to a neutral square, he owns the square (the square changes color and an atom appears).

So far there is nothing special about the rules, but as soon as a player adds too many atoms to a square, it explodes. Explosions are essential to the game, they are the only method to take squares from your opponent. Squares can hold only a small number of atoms before exploding, one less than the ammount of neighbours it has.
  • A corner explodes as soon as it contains 2 atoms.
  • An edge explodes as soon as it contains 3 atoms.
  • A center square explodes as soon as it contains 4 atoms.
The explosion moves the atoms to the neighbouring squares (one to each neighbour). If the atoms explode to a square owned by the opponent the square and atoms that are already there change color. If the squares the atoms exploded to now contain more atoms than they can hold, they will in turn expolde and thus cause a chain reaction.


Bugs


I am not aware of bugs in the game at this moment, but the current version(s) that are online are still beta versions and are likely to contain bugs.
If you find a bug, please tell me and I will try to fix it.

Also, if you have problems running the game on your web browser please tell me, I try to keep the compatability as high as possible.
At this moment there are 2 seperate versions,
a 2 player version and a sepereate single player version in wich the computer plays at a reasonable level and the player always begins.

The future will (probably) bring an integrated 1/2 player version with the posibility to choose the level of 'smartness' for the computer. And probably audio (kaboom :>) if I ever get the damn AudioClips to work...