The game play area of Dots & Boxes consists of an 8 x 8 grid
of "dots". A players' turn consists of connecting two horizontally or vertically
adjacent dots with a line - diagonal lines aren't allowed and the dots
must be next to each other. A point is scored each time a player completes
a square. When a square is created, the turn stays with the player who
made the square, otherwise the turns alternate.
Notice that the player must complete the square to get points - even
if you provide three of the sides, if your opponent fills in the fourth
side, he gets the points. It's customary to fill in the square with the
initial of the player who won the square. Since both players usually avoid
putting lines close together until they have to, when it becomes possible
to make one square, there's a whole cascade of possible squares. The player
who makes the first square in such a cascade can elect to take any or all
of the possible squares - there are some strategic schools of thought that
say it's better not to take them all. The game is over when all the dots
are connected and 49 squares have been made
Restart - Clicking on Restart sets both players' scores to
0 and clears the gameboard of any previous activity. You can always press
Restart when the game first comes up (although it's unnecessary at that
point), to restart in the middle of the current game, or to start another
game after a previous game has been won.
Help - Clicking on Help will display a text description of the rules of the game and use of the game controls.
Quit - Closing the main window will cause the game to exit to a DOS window. No confirmation is required. You can quit at any time.
Score - Displays the current score for Player 1 and Player 2. They are initially set to zero and updated as play progresses.
Status - The Status area is used for prompting the players to take an action, to display error messages, and to announce wins or ties.
Selecting Dots - Use your mouse
to select the line segments between two dots by clicking between them.