                                     Ishido/
                                  Game Rules/
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Welcome to Ishido!/
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From the first move of this ancient game and beautiful puzzle your deepest powers of strategy and concentration will be called upon as you match 72 stones on a board of 96 squares./
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Stones & Game Board/
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*  A Stoneset consists of 72 stones.  Every stone has two attributes: a color and a symbol/shape.  There are 6 colors and 6 symbols/shapes in each stoneset, thus creating 36 unique stones.  Each stone comes in a pair, hence 72 stones in each stoneset./
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*  The Game Board is 8 squares high by 12 squares wide./
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*  The "Beyond" is the dark squares around the outer edges of the board, and the "Within" consists of the light interior squares.  Only stones placed in the Within score points.  Stones placed in the Beyond do not score points, but are strategically valuable./
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*  The Touchstone displays the next stone to be played./
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*  The Scoreboard shows the number of points scored (at the top) and the number of 4-Way matches achieved (at the bottom)./
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*  The Pouch shows a representation of the number of stones remaining to be played./
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NOTE:  It is possible to see the actual stones and their order of play by pointing at the pouch and pressing the left mouse button./
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The Basic Game/
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To begin play, select New Game under the File option in the menu./
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The game begins with the unique opening tableau of six stones on the board and a pouch of randomly ordered stones.  The opening tableau consists of stones placed at each of the four corners and at two center squares.  Each of the 6 symbols/shapes and 6 colors are represented./
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The basic objective of the game of Ishido is to empty the pouch of stones, placing them all on the board.  Certain rules must be followed, and the more "4-Way Matches" that are achieved, the better the game./
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In the Modern mode, the higher the score the better the game.  The highest scores are achieved when the pouch is emptied and a significant number of "4-Ways" have been made./
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Rules for Placing Stones/
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Stones are placed on the board, one at a time, after first being displayed on the Touchstone.  The stone is placed from the Touchstone to the board by pointing the cursor arrow at the square where the stone is to be placed and then pressing the left mouse button./
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Each stone must be placed adjacent (above, below, to the left or right--not diagonal) to another stone./
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A stone can only be placed beside another stone when the two stones have at least one of the two attributes in common./
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If a stone is placed such that its sides are adjacent to two other stones (2-Way match), it must match a different attribute in each of those two stones (symbol/shape of one, color of the other).  The same attribute cannot be used to match both adjoining stones./
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For instance, if a black stone with a circle were placed next to a white one with a circle and a gray one with a circle, it would not be an allowable move because it matched both stones with the same attribute--the circle./
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If a black stone with a square were placed next to a white stone with a square and a black stone with a circle, that would be a legal move--it matched one stone with the square, and the other stone with the black./
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A 3-Way match requires each of the two attributes to be present.  For example, a white stone with a square could be placed next to a grey stone with a square, a red stone with a square and a white stone with a circle--it matched two stones with the symbol and one stone with the color./
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A 4-Way match, when a stone is placed in the center of four other stones, requires matching two of the stones with one attribute and matching the other two with the second attribute./
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4-Way matches are rare, and it takes practice to learn how to create them. Yet,they are desirable and a primary goal of the game./
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Within and Beyond/
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When playing the Modern mode, players receive points only when they place a stone Within (light region).  There is no score if a stone is placed in the Beyond (dark border region)./
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Scoring/
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In the Modern mode scoring for a legal match is determined by the number of sides the stone touches other stones (above, below, left, right) as it is played:/
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   1 point for matching a single side/
   2 points for a 2-Way (two-sided) match/
   4 points for a 3-Way (three-sided) match/
   8 points for a 4-Way (four-sided) match/
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When a 4-Way is made, a bonus is paid and the points made for subsequent matches are thereafter doubled (ie, after the first 4-Way is scored, a single-sided match is now worth 2 points, a 2-Way is given 4 points, a 3-Way is scored 8 points and a 4-Way is worth 16.  After the second 4-Way this is again doubled, and so on.)/
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Bonus points paid are:/
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   25 points for the 1st 4-Way/
   50 points for the 2nd 4-Way/
   100 points for the 3rd 4-Way/
   200 points for the 4th 4-Way/
   400 points for the 5th 4-Way/
   600 points for the 6th 4-Way/
   800 points for the 7th 4-Way/
   1,000 points for the 8th 4-Way/
   5,000 points for the 9th 4-Way/
   10,000 points for the 10th 4-Way/
   25,000 points for the 11th 4-Way/
   50,000 points for the 12th 4-Way/
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There is a bonus given at the end of the game when there are fewer than three stones left in the pouch:/
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   100 points with 2 stones left/
   500 points with 1 stone left/
   1000 points if the pouch is emptied/
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Ending the Game/
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The game ends when:/
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*  The player finds no more stones can be played and chooses "End Game" from the "File" area/
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*  A stone cannot be placed legally/
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*  The entire pouch of 72 stones has been emptied/
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Winning/
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In the Ancient mode the player wins whenever the pouch is emptied.  However, emptying the pouch with three 4-Ways is a more skillful win than emptying it with one 4-Way./
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In the Modern mode any score of over 300 with two to four 4-Ways (without emptying the pouch) should be considered good, as should scores of over 1300 when the pouch is emptied./
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As skill develops the player will be able to attain scores of over 2000 points with five to six 4-Ways./
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Ultimately, the player will discover that eight (or more) 4-Ways are possible with scores of over 7000 points.  The Legend of Ishido mentions players who have achieved nine--even ten 4-ways--in a game.  A nine 4-Way game would score approximately 10,000 points./
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Patience, practice, concentration and the luck of the draw are all critical in attaining these higher levels of play./
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Other Games/
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Ishido can be played as a Solitaire game or in three other ways:/
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Cooperative/
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This game is the same as Solitaire except that players take turns placing the stones.  The players work together to score the highest possible score./
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Tournament/
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In Tournament play, you and any number of players take turns playing entire identical games, with each player receiving the same opening tableau and drawing the stones in the exact same order./
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Each player earns a separate score and the player scoring the highest is determined the winner.  There is a separate scoreboard for Tournament Play./
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Challenge/
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In Challenge play, you and one other player take turns placing the stones to complete one game.  You can also play against the computer./
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Good Luck!