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NAME

     gomoku - game of 5 in a row

SYNOPSIS

     gomoku [-bcdu] [-D debugfile] [inputfile]

DESCRIPTION

     gomoku is a two player game where the object is to get 5 in a row
     horizontally, vertically or diagonally on a 19 by 19 grid.  By
     convention, black always moves first.  With no arguments, gomoku will
     display a playing board and prompt for moves from the user.  Valid moves
     are a letter for the column and a number for the row of an empty board
     location.  Entering ‘‘quit" or ‘‘resign" will end the game.  You can save
     the current state of the game by entering ‘‘save" and supplying a file
     name when prompted.  The optional file inputfile can be used to restore a
     saved game.

     The options are:

     -b      This option sets background mode.  Input moves are read from
             standard input, the computer picks a move, and prints it to
             standard output.  The first input line should be either ‘‘black"
             or ‘‘white" to specify whether gomoku has the first move or not
             respectively.  This option was intended for game tournaments
             where a referee program handles the board display and pits one
             program against another.

     -c      Computer versus computer.  gomoku will play a game against
             itself.  This is mostly used for testing.

     -d      Print debugging information.  Repeating this option more than
             once yields more detailed information.

     -D debugfile
             Print the debug information to debugfile instead of to the
             standard output.

     -u      User versus user.  This is mostly used for testing.

AUTHOR

     Ralph Campbell

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

     The board display routines were based on the goref program written by
     Peter Langston.