BattleGrid/Help/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.