Title Page
BattleGrid  --  War in a Window

version 2.0 May 1993

Overview	What this program is all about.

Playing Battle Grid	How to play the game.

Strategy	Tips on winning.

Other Notes	Tips on using the interface.

Registration	How to become a registered player.

Registration Form	The form to fill out.

History	How BattleGrid has grown over the years.

Other Products	View a list of other products available.


Overview

BattleGrid is a game of strategy between two players to locate ships placed on a grid by the opposing player.  It is very similar to a classic board game with a similar name.  Among the many differences in this version is the fact that the computer can play one or both sides of the contest.  In addition, there are no playing pieces to lose!

The basic premise of the game is twofold. First, a player must place five ships of different sizes on a 10 by 10 grid with hopes that an opponent will have difficulty locating all of them.  Secondly, the player must attempt to locate all ships placed by their opponent.  Scoring is determined by the number of shots taken during the game.  Basically, if you are familiar with the classic game, then you already know how to play.


Playing
Playing BattleGrid

BattleGrid begins with a blank grid screen.  Open the File menu and select Player Name.  A dialog will appear. Type in your name or handle in the editbox below Left Player.  This will be the name which is appended to any scores you place in the best score list.  If you will be regularly playing against a particular person, enter their name in the editbox below Right Player.  To make these changes permanent, press the OK button.  Press the Cancel button to leave the names as they were.

BattleGrid can be played in three ways.  To choose the game you wish to play, select the Numer Of Players item in the Options menu.  The following choices will apear in a sub-menu:

-Human vs. Human:  the conventional two player game.  The player names are determined by the entries in the Player Name dialog.

-Human vs. Computer: the conventional one player game.  When this option is selected, a dialog will appear prompting for you to select the opponent you wish to play against.  Hal and Eliza are very competent players and use efficient but different strategies in their approach.  The Bob player is rather crude and methodical.  Play against Bob if you

are on a losing streak.

-Computer vs. Computer: this mode is an interesting simulation of gameplay.  The players will always be Hal and Eliza (who wants to see Bob get beat up anyway!).  If you press the BattleGrid window minimize button (in the upper right corner), the window will be reduced to an icon.  The game will continue, and the score will be updated on the icon.

There are three ways of varying the way the game will play.  These can be controlled by choosing menu items in the Options menu.  They are:

-Fast Mode: when checked, the computer player(s) will play at high speed.  You can barely see the turns being taken, but it is helpful for impatient players and for the simulation mode.  If Fast Mode is checked during simulation mode, a new game will start automatically when one player wins.  Otherwise, you must press the OK button in a dialog to proceed.

-Reveal Mode: also known as cheat mode.  Normally when a hit is made on an opponents ship, it is shown as a colorful circle.  However, if Reveal Mode is active, the actual part of the ship which was struck is shown.  This makes it quite easy to decide where the next shot should be taken.  This mode cannot be used to handicap one player, since it affects both grids.  The computer players do not use this information in any way, so it can give you an advantage when playing the  computer.

-Shots Per Round: selecting this menu item, will present a dialog box prompting the user to select the number of shots each player will take during their turn.  The choices range from one to five shots.  The classic game was based on alternating single shots, however this could get tedious when only one mouse must be shared.

Probably the best way to describe how to play BattleGrid is to provide a walk-thru of a game of you against the computer.

Open the Options menu and select Number of Players.  A submenu will open.  Choose Human vs. Comp.  Now a dialog will open, prompting for your opponent.  Select Bob and press OK.  Open the File menu and select New Game.  Under the left grid, a message box will appear.  It will indicate "Set the Battleship".  Move your mouse to any square in the grid and press the mouse button.  The marker that appears shows the front location of the Battleship.  The directions it can be placed in are indicated by the arrow buttons surrounding the marker.  Press one of these arrow buttons to place the ship.  This process continues for all of the ships in your fleet in the following order:

Battleship -- 5 blocks long

Carrier ----- 4 blocks long

Frigate ----- 4 blocks long

Destroyer --- 3 blocks long

Submarine --- 2 blocks long

The message box below the left grid should now indicate: "Left Shots Taken: 0".  This is your clue that the war has begun.  Begin taking shots on the left grid.  When the mouse cursor becomes an hourglass, the computer will take it's shots at your fleet on the right grid.  Hits are indicated by the hit marker and misses are shown with waves.

When all the hits on a particular ship are made, the ship sinks, and is displayed in full.  When all five ships are displayed, a dialog will appear showing the winner's name and the number of shots taken.  If the shot count is less than any of those in the Best Scores list it will be added to it.  You can see this list by selecting Best Scores in the menubar.

Once the game ends, the Show Boats item in the File menu is enabled.  If you select this, all undiscovered boats are shown.


Strategy

There are as many strategies to playing BattleGrid as there are players.  Every one of those beta-testing BattleGrid developed their own methods to reaching the best score possible.  Each was as correct as the next.  There are however several undisputable techniques to get you started:

Locating Ships

Before you can sink a ship, you must find one in that vast ocean.  On an empty grid, space random shots equally about.  Once the grid is filled with various hits and misses, you can make judgements about where the remaining ships might be hiding.  In other words, don't click in a two block opening when the only ship you need to win is a Carrier (four blocks).

Sinking Ships

Once you have a hit, you must determine direction by making selections around the hit.  These should be North, South, East, and West since ships cannot reside on diagonals.  When one of these directions hits, you have your boat.  Continue in this direction until you miss, then reverse direction to the beyond the first hit.  If you have gone as far as you can in both directions and still haven't sunk a ship, you're in luck!  It means that your shots have hit the middle of several other ships.  This situation comes as a result of poor ship placement by your opponent.  Consider this when placing your own ships.  The computer players may make this mistake in their own placements.


Notes

During any game, the New Game menu item is not available.  To start a new game, you must terminate the current game by selecting End Game from the File menu.

As games are played, a running total is kept in the title bar of the window.  The scores can be reset to zero by selecting the Reset Score item in the Option menu.

If you have changed some of the game controls or a new best score has made it to the top ten list, you will be prompted to save this information into the BATLGRID.INI file when you exit BattleGrid.  Select Yes to make the changes permanent and exit, or No to ignore the changes and just exit.  If you do not wish to exit at this time press Cancel.


Registration
Registering BattleGrid

BattleGrid is copyright 1991, 1992, 1993 by Bob Dolan

BattleGrid is distributed as shareware.  This means that if you regularly use the product and benefit from it, you should register with the author (address below).  The software you now have is not crippled in any way.  This indicates a basic trust of the shareware concept by myself and other shareware authors who provide useful products with the hope of some type of return for their efforts.  Basic registration is $10.

If you are a shareware author, you can register by mailing to me a registered version of your product.

Please print the registration form and fill in the requested information.  Mail it with a check or money order in U.S. funds and made payable to Bob Dolan to this address:

Bob Dolan

P.O. Box 16514

Rochester, New York 14616

You may reach me on GEnie at the

following EMail address: DOLAN

Distribution

If you distribute BattleGrid to friends, associates, or to a computer bulletin board system (BBS),  you may only distribute the compressed file including the copyright and disclaimer.

Disclaimer

The Copyright Owner hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The Copyright Owner will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if The Copyright owner or an agent of The Copyright Owner has been advised of the possibility of such damages.  In no event shall The Copyright Owner's liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of the form of the claim.  The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software.


Reg Form
Registration Form

To print this registration form, open the File menu and select Print Topic.

Please register me as a satisfied user of BattleGrid  (ver 2.0):

Amount Enclosed:

                 $10 [  ]  Registration	No disk included

                 $15 [  ]  Register w/upgrade.	[  ]3.5   [  ]5.25

Please note that 720K 3.5 disks will be used unless you request otherwise.

For orders from outside of the U.S., please add $3 to cover additional postage.

Can you UNZIP files?  Yes________  No________

Name:_____________________________________________________

Address:___________________________________________________

City:______________________State:_______Zip:__________________

Phone(optional):_____________________________________________

GEnie/CompuServe/Internet mail address:_______________________

Where did you get BattleGrid ?___________________________

___________________________________________________________

Comments:_________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________


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History
History of BattleGrid

Version 1.00 -- October 31, 1991

First release.

Version 1.01 -- January 15, 1992

Shots per round dialog did not retain the user selected value.  This has been fixed.

Version 2.0 -- May, 1993

-Online Help system added.

-Microsoft 3D control library added.

-A grid is now shown at startup.