Squares V1.1 Introduction Squares is one of those games that I played in grade school with a pencil and a piece of paper. The game is played on a rectangular grid of dots, with each player taking turns drawing a line between any two dots. The object of the game is to complete a box. The player completing the most boxes at the end of the game wins! Some of the features are: It's completely free! (it's best feature) It runs on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP Very easy to learn and play. If you have the VB5 runtime installed, it's a quick download. A complete install - uninstall program is available There are 4 levels of play ranging from Easy to Genius (Genius is VERY hard). What's New April 10th 2003. Yet again nothing new to report, except thank you for all your kind emails about the game. They really are appreciated. March 1st, 2002. Nothing has really changed with the game for a long time now. I've been busy with other things, but I do plan on updating the game sometime in the next 6 months. February 20th, 2000: I've updated Squares to include a help file. February 16th, 2000: Wow. Squares was rated 4 COWS on the TUKIDS web site. I'm flattered. August 9th, 1999: First release of Squares to the public. Hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed writing it. August 1st, 1999: Developed this web page to promote the game. July 12th, 1999: Started to develop the game in my spare time. Game engine was ported from a C++ version that wrote several years ago, so developing the Visual Basic "Front end" was relatively easy. May 1st, 1999: Started to learn Visual Basic 5.0 Not bad Microsoft! Two thumbs up! How to play Squares Playing Squares is simple. Turns are taken between players by making a horizontal or vertical line between two dots on a playing grid. If a turn completes a box or boxes, those boxes are "owned" by the player making the move. For every move that completes a box, the player completing the box is given another move. Play continues between the players until the entire playing grid is completed at which time the player with the most completed boxes wins the game. The button on the lower right of the playing field is a "random" move button. I incorporated this button to allow more "seasoned" players to get the game off to a quicker start. The button will make a random move for you as long as there is a move that will not give the computer a chance to make a box. Future enhancements One of the big changes that I'd like to make with Squares is to provide a two player option over the Internet. Let me know if you think Internet play would be a good feature. I am also considering porting this game to Java (pipe dream?). If you would like to see any other enhancements, please let me know. Awards: Squares was rated 4 COWS on the TUKIDS web site. Download Squares 1.1 The program can be downloaded either as just the game itself (squares.exe) or as a compressed zip file that contains an installation program and all the necessary system files. I recommend you try just the .exe file first. It's a much quicker download! If you are unable to run it because of missing system files, download the full installation program. It will install all the necessary runtime files (i.e. VB5 DLL). Squares.exe - uncompressed (94kb) Try this first! Squares.zip - compressed (1,433kb) Full installation program Feedback Send questions, comments and suggestions to squares@retailerdeals.com.