Copyright: Copyright c


Go Professional II Index
Contents

History of Go

Rules of the Game

Features

New Game Dialogue

Menu Items

Network Play

Technical Support

Copyright © Oxford Softworks 1998


History of Go

Go, one of the oldest games in the world, is thought to have originated over 4000 years ago in the orient. Now the national game of Japan, Go is ranked higher than Chess and players are rated according to their strength like Judo.

Go is a fighting game. The board represents the uninhabited world bounded by the sea. The object of the game is to acquire territory by surrounding vacant areas of the board with stones. The player who achieves this most economically is the winner.


Rules of the Game

The board and the stones - There are 361 intersections or points formed by 19 horizontal and vertical lines. The points are identified by numbers along the board with 1,1 being the top left point. Beginners can play on a smaller board (9 x 9) or (13 x 13) as the game is then simpler and quicker.

Starting with an empty board, Black places a stone on an intersection. The opponents, by alternately placing stones on strategic areas on the board, try to enclose as much territory as possible. Once placed, the stones remains stationary unless captured.

The Winner - The game is over when players agree that neither can increase their territory or the number of prisoners. After all captured stones have been removed each player counts the number of points they have enclosed and then deducts this from the number of points lost as prisoners. The player with the highest number wins.

The program, displaying unoccupied territory and dead stones as squares of the appropriate colour, performs this calculation for you.


Features

•	1 - 9 levels

•	Time controlled game

•	Setup and handicap game

•	Nework Play (DirectX 5.0 or above required)

•	BGM and SFX (DirectX 5.0 or above required)

•	SGF format export

•	Click on the move list to go to a move

•	Annotation window allowing you to enter comments relating to the current move

•	Different board and background bitmaps

•	Digital or analogue clock

•	Animation


Menu Item
Menu Items

File menu

Action menu

Special menu

View menu

Help menu


File menu

•	New : Starts a new game.

•	Open : Loads a saved game from disk.

•	Save : Saves the current game to disk.

•	Save As : Saves the current game with a different name or different format.

•	Print : Prints the current game in black and white.

•	Print Preview : Previews the print-out of the game before printing.

•	Exit : Quits the program.


Action menu

•	Pause/Resume : Pauses or resumes the game while the game is not in human vs human mode.

•	Jump to Start : Jumps to the beginning of the game.

•	Take back : Takes back a move.

•	Replay : Replays a move.

•	Jump to End : Jumps to the end of the game.

•	Hint : Shows a hint move on the board.

•	Move now : Forces the computer to stop thinking and make the best move found so far.

•	Pass : Inputs a pass move.

•	Resign : Resigns and aborts the current game. If you resign, you lose the game.


Special menu

•	End Marking Score : Should you not agree with the program's evaluation of the score at the end of the game, this menu item should be selected once you have finished marking the territory yourself.

•	Disconnect : Disconnects from the opponent in a network game. If you are playing over the internet, please remember to disconnect from your Internet Service Provider!


View menu

•	Options : Sets graphics, animation and sound options.

•	Message Window : Displays the message (chat) window in network play.

•	Toolbar : Hides or shows the toolbar.

•	Status Bar : Hides or shows the status bar.


Help menu

•	Help : Shows this file.

•	About : Displays information about this product.


Network Play

DirectX 5.0 or above is required to play the network game.

Network Play is selected from the New Game dialogue box which can be opened by clicking the New menu item under the File menu. (Note that if DirectX 5.0 or above is not installed in the computer, the Network Play option will be disabled.). You will have the option to install DirectX 5.0 from the game CD-ROM

Four methods (protocols or services) are provided in DirectX for Network Play :

1.	IPX Connection for DirectPlay (play over a Local Area Network)

2.	Internet TCP/IP Connection for DirectPlay (play over the Internet via your Internet Service Provider vs an opponent anywhere in the world)

3.	Modem Connection for DirectPlay (play between two computers connected by their modems)

4.	Serial Connection for DirectPlay (play between two computers connected by a serial cable)

After the protocol is chosen, there are two options :

1. Create a network game

or

2. Join a network game


Create a network game

The person wishing to act as the 'host' should choose this option, and create the 'network session'. The session has to be created first, allowing the remote player to join afterwards; this applies whichever method of connection is being used.

If you choose to play via your internet service provider, you will need to discover your IP address, and pass the information to your opponent via an internet chat message, or by telephone, etc. You can discover your IP address after you have connected to your Internet Service Provider by running a program called winipcfg.exe.In order to run winipcfg.exe, press your START button, and select RUN. Type 'winipcfg.exe' in the dialogue which appears, and press OK.

Before creating a new game, the player should select his colour in the game. You also has an option to choose nigiri.

Then you can click finish to create a new game and wait for your opponent to join.


Join a network game

If you are wishing to join an existing session, you need to select this option; you will become the 'guest'.

If you wish to play using the Internet TCP/IP Connection for DirectPlay option, you will be prompted for your opponent's IP address. Your opponent can run a program called winipcfg.exe to find out the IP address, and will have to pass this information to you via an internet chat message, or by telephone, etc.

Then the dialogue box will list all the available sessions for you to join. Please note, however, there may not be any available sessions; should this happen, you may have to start again. If you join a session, you may need to guess the nigiri if the host has selected this option.


Nigiri

Nigiri is a traditional method used to decide which player plays black or white if the abilities of the two players are similar. White player takes some white stones without showing them to the other player. Then the black player has to guess whether the number of stones is odd or even. If the black player guesses correctly, he plays black If the black player guesses incorrectly, he plays white.

Below is a summary of the nigiri in Network Play.

Host refers to the player who creates the game.

Guest refers to the player who joins the game.


WINIPCFG.EXE

This program allows you to discover the IP address for your connection to the Internet; please note that this will be change every time that you connect to the Internet, unless your Internet Service Provider enables you to specify an IP address (please check with your Internet Service Provider for details). After the computer has connected to the internet, winipcfg.exe can be run. Below is a sample screen shot of the program winipcfg.exe from one of the computers in our office.

The IP address of the machine is clearly stated in this program.


Technical Support

In the unlikely event that the master disc fails to load please write to us with a clear description of the problem to :

Technical Support

Oxford Softworks

Stonefield House, 198 The Hill

Burford, Oxford OX18 4HX, England

Or, try to visit our web site at:

http://www.oxford-softworks.com


New Game Dialogue

•	Black / White Player: Select either human or computer player. Computer levels 1 (weakest) to level 9 (strongest).

•	Board size: Select either 9x9 (beginner) to 19x19 (expert)

•	Handicap: Give yourself or the computer the advantage with handicap stones. White plays first with handicap stones.

•	Network Game: Allows you to play against a remote opponent, who must also own a copy of the program.

•	Setup: Allows you to recreate a scenario for you to play.

•	Komi: If the two players have different skill levels, Komi allows you to make the match fairer by giving the weaker player a head-start. 5.5 is the default and is used for evenly matched players. The point advantage is awarded to the white player.

•	Timed game: You can choose the total time and the countdown time. The total time represents the time allowed for the game. At the end of this period, the player must make every subsequent move within the countdown time chosen. Either player failing to make a move within the chosen countdown time automatically loses.