CHECKERS (VERSION 1.00) Copyright (c) 1995 Ziff Davis Publishing Company ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CHECKERS by Michael J. Mefford First Published May 14, 1996 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT CHECKERS Checkers is one of the world's oldest games. It has the intrigue of chess but is simple enough for players of all ages. And like chess, checkers is purely a game of skill-the best player always wins. This software version of checkers can be played with two people or against the computer. USAGE To install Checkers, copy the program files CHECKERS .EXE and CHECKERS.HLP to a subdirectory on your hard disk and create an icon for Checkers in your shell. Checkers is a 16-bit Windows program and will run under Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT. When you launch Checkers, you'll see a picture of a checkerboard, set up for a new game, with program option controls along the right edge. Under the label "Against:" you'll see two buttons. Click on the button with a picture of a computer to play against the computer; click on the button with a picture of a person to play against a human opponent. Play is accomplished by dragging a checker to a new square using the mouse. When you drag a checker, the cursor changes from a standard pointing arrow to a hand that grasps the checker. When you drag a checker to a square where it can legally land, the grasping hand opens up, indicating you can drop the checker there. If you attempt to drag a checker that cannot legally be moved, the cursor remains an arrow and does not grasp the checker. The inability to pick up a checker is the only clue that it is an illegal move; there are no annoying beeps. Checkers keeps a record over sessions of the number of wins for both the red and black checkers. You can clear this record back to zero by clicking on the Clear button. You can quit Checkers by either clicking the Quit button or pressing Esc. To review the rules of checkers and some winning strategies, press the Help button. SUPPORT Help for PC Magazine's free utilities can be obtained electronically in the Utilities section of ZD Net's Tips Forum (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors of current utilities generally visit this forum daily. You may find an answer to your question simply by reading the messages posted in the forum. If the author is not available and the forum sysops can't answer your question, the Utilities column editor, who also checks this forum each day, will contact the author for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michael J. Mefford is a contributing editor of PC Magzine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------