Terrace Main
Terrace

Objective

Rules

How to Move

Freestyle Editor

Modem Play

Game Recording

Replaying Games

Controller

History

Standard Notation


Terrace Objective
Objective

To capture the opponent's "T" ( the small marked piece) or to move your own "T to the lowest square across the board.


Terrace Rules
Rules

Captures:

A piece can capture any piece which is the same size or smaller by moving diagonally down to the next lower level into its square.  The captured piece is removed from the board.

Moving On The Same Level:

In a single move a piece can move to any vacant square on the same level which it can reach without jumping over an opponent's piece.  It can jump over its own pieces.  It cannot move across the centerpoint of the board.

Moving Up:

A piece can move straight up or diagonally up, one square per turn to a vacant square on the next higher level.

Moving Down:

A piece can move only straight down, one square per turn, to a vacant square on the next lower level (diagonal moves down are for capturing only).


How to Move

To select a piece to move, simple place the mouse pointer on the desired piece and press the left mouse button.  This should cause the piece to blink on and off.

To cancel a selected piece(s) press the right mouse button.

To move a single piece place the mouse pointer on the space that you want to move to, and press the left mouse button.


Freestyle Editor

An editor has been provided so that you can reposition, remove and create pieces..

You must first select the freestyle editor option in the pull down menu or from the editor push button.

During the freestyle session only one piece may be moved at a time.  To move a piece you first select the piece.  Once the piece begins to blink you simply select a empty spot to move the piece to its new location.

To remove a piece place the mouse pointer on the piece and press the right mouse button.

To create a piece place the mouse pointer on a empty space and press the left mouse button.  A dialog box will appear to pick the piece type to create.


Selection Pieces

To select a piece to move, simple place the mouse pointer on the desired piece and press the left mouse button.  This should cause the piece to blink on and off.


Modem Play

It is possible to play Terrace against another player using the phone lines.

First both players must configure the serial port.

Players need to decide ahead of time who will be the caller and who will be the receiver.

The caller then enters the opponent's phone number.

The caller always plays the blue pieces and always moves first.

The receiver waits until the call comes in and determines that a connection has been established.

The receiver always plays the red pieces and cannot make the first move.

During game play writing messages can sent to one another by clicking the Talk option from the pull down menu.


Serial Port Configuration

A dialog box will be used to allow you to set Baud rate Comm port used, and parity settings.


Game Recorder
Record Game

While a game is being played it can also be recorded.  Recording a game can serve as a tool to allow the user to review any previously played game.

To record a game simply press the record push-button or select record from the pull down menu.

To save a recorded game select the save game option from the File pull down menu.  Recorded game should be saved with the .GAM extension.


Game Replayer
Replaying Games

Once a game has been recorded it can be replayed at any given time.  To replay a game select the Replay push-button.  Once pressed the push buttons will change to display the various replay options.


Command Panel
Controller

Here you can select various control attributes within Terrace.  These controls consist of  following:

Freestyle Editor.

Player Options.

Record Game.

Replay Game.

Coordinate Options.

Sound Options.

Timer Options.

Undo Last Move.

Redo Last Move.

Pause Game.


History

     Anton Dresden, born in 1915, remembers that as a young boy in Holland he seldom won many of the chess games he played with his brother and friends.  He decided to create a strategy game on his own...one that would be easy to learn.  In 1950 he designed the terraced board and semi-spherical pieces which are the hallmark of today's game.

     Buzz Siler shared Dresden's passion for strategy games, especially chess.  One day in 1989, quite by chance, Siler saw an early wooden version of the Terrace board in the basement of Dresden's home.  He was fascinated by Terrace's distinctive look.  However, he soon discovered that the game rules were seriously flawed, and proposed that the two men form a partnership to perfect the game.

     Dresden and Siler recognized that chess rules were complicated and intimidating to many game players.  In addition, chess games were too lengthy for modern lifestyles and restricted to two players.  In pursuit of an entirely new game which solved these problems without sacrificing a shred of intellectual challenge, they focused on simple rules which would transfer the complexity of play into the hardware.  The terraced board and four different sizes of pieces, all of one shape, allowed the inventors to write just four rules for the game.  Siler increased the uniqueness even more by introducing the concept of capturing your own piece to advantage, another hallmark of Terrace.

     In 1992 Siler and Dresden introduced Terrace to the world at the New York International Toy Fair.  It won every major game award that year and continues to win worldwide praise.  Also in 1992 they teamed up with Michael Gilbert and Ken Hartley at Mercury Software to create a computer version of the game.


Notation
Notation Of Moves.

  It is sometimes useful to describe game moves in writing.  This allows you and others to discuss specific moves and play games by correspondence, or to read about moves you may wish to try.  Following are the official codes for the pieces, designation of squares on the board, formula for notation of moves and notation of board setup.

Official Codes For The Pieces:

Each piece is described by a single letter t,a,b,c,d (with d being the largest piece) for one player, and T,A,B,C,D for the other player,  If there are more than two players, then t,a,b,c,d (in italics) are for the third player and T,A,B,C,D ( in italics) are for the fourth player.

Designation Of Squares On the Board:

For two-player games, the board is positioned so that the lowest square is on the player's left ( and the highest square is on the player's right).  Each square is described by a lowercase-lettered column and a numbered row (see diagram of starting setup).  For example, the lowest square on the first player's left is designated a1, while the lowest square across the board is designated h8.

Formula For Notation Of Moves:

(Piece) (Original Position) - (New Position) : (Captured Piece)

For example , d-a2-b3 means that one player's largest piece moved from square a2 diagonally up to square c3.  A capturing move D-c5-b4:c means that the other player's largest piece moved from square c5 diagonally down to square b4 and captured the opponent's third largest piece on that move.

Notation Of Board Setup:

To depict Terrace board setups, showing the position of the pieces on the board in two dimensions, use a monotype font such as COURIER, which provides the same spacing for each character regardless of its actual width.  For example, the following diagram shows the starting setup of a typical two-player long game.

Note:  The computer is always player A and plays the red pieces.