Introduction
HopQuad is a new invention and the goal is to achieve four-in-a-row; a quad (the word 'quad', or 'quadruplet', means "a combination of four of a kind") . 'Quads' on the diagonals don't count. The game is played on a chess/checkers board, alternatively the smallest Go board, when the 8x8 cells are used. Counters are dropped on the board, one by one. White must always drop the second counter on the rim (to reduce first-move advantage). Between drops, and also after all counters have been dropped, they can move one step in all directions (also diagonally), and also hop over any piece in any direction. Multiple hops are allowed. Note that it's admissible to move a counter before all counters have been dropped. Similar to Go-Moku, 'overlines' don't count (i.e., 5-in-a-row, or more).
Discussion
This game belongs to the Halma family, as piece movement is the same as in Halma and the goal is also similar to Halma, namely to achieve a certain aligment of the counters. The game can be played with differing amounts of counters. I have implemented versions with 12, 15, and 20 counters. It is also possible to play the game with only orthogonal movement, so I have also implemented three versions which use orthogonal movement only (i.e. no diagonal movement).
© M. Winther 2005
You can download my free HopQuad program here (updated 2005-12-19), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it.
