* LANCELOT *

The Program:
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This is a computer version of Roland Sieger's board game
LANCELOT sold by MATTEL.

LANCELOT is Donationware. So if you feel like giving a tip
to the author send your donation (in cash) to:

Alois Felber
Feerstrasse 17
5000 Aarau
Switzerland

LANCELOT may be copied and handed on without restriction as long
as all the files remain together and unaltered.


The Game:
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LANCELOT can be played by up to 5 people. The aim of the game is
to remove a certain amount of enemy counters from the gameboard by
outnumbering them by two within a row of the gameboard.
Don't ask me why this game is called LANCELOT. Perhaps the knights
of the round table played it instead of chopping each other to
pieces when king Arthur finally had united the country and there
was no work left to do - except for searching the holy grail
of course... Who will go roaming the countryside for a stupid cup
when he can play a fine game instead....   :-)

Well, anyway...

When the program is started you at first will have to type in the
amount of (human) players contesting and their names.

After that you can optionally let the computer take control of as
many players as are left.

Finally every player chooses the counters that he (or she) will
play with. (King, Knight, Wizard, High Priestess, Bishop)

Before getting started you can optionally switch on the Excalibur
mode (which is a kind of joker option and will be explained later)
and the diagonal mode (which includes the diagonal rows in the
game - normally only horizontal and vertical rows are significant).

Once the game is on every player places in turn one counter on the
gameboard. This is done by moving the counter with the mouse within
a square on the board and pressing the left mousebutton.

Counters can be placed on every square on the board that is not
occupied already by another counter and if after having placed the
counter a player does not have more than two more counters in a row
than all other players together.

As soon as within a row (vertical, horizontal or optionally diagonal)
there are two more counters of one player than there are counters of
all others those are removed and captured by the player having achieved
the majority.

A player wins, if he has captured a certain amount of enemy counters,
that depends on how many players participate the game.
# of players:       captured counters needed to win:
     2                           7
     3                           8
     4                           9
     5                          10


As a special option you can use Excalibur (a joker counter) to place two
counters on the board in one turn instead of only one. To use Excalibur
just press the right mousebutton once to transform the mousepointer into
it and place it as if it would be a normal counter. Within the turn you
place Excalibur it counts as one of your counters. Afterwards Excalibur
remains at it's place on the board and will be counted as an enemy counter
to all players. Excalibur can only be used once in a game.

To abort the game you have to move the mousepointer outside the gameboard
and press both mousebuttons.