Four in a Row
Four of yours in a line, across, up or on a slant, before the computer makes its four. Six levels, and an owl who shows which columns win.
How to play Four in a Row
Four in a Row is a two-player game played against the computer. The window has seven columns and six rows. You take turns dropping a disc into a column, and it falls to the lowest free square. The first side to line up four of its discs in a row, in a column, along a row or on a diagonal, wins. If the window fills with no four, the game is a draw. You play the suns and the computer plays the moons.
The levels
There are six levels. Every level plays perfectly through the opening, until 12 discs are down. After that the easier levels get some moves wrong, so a game against them turns on a plan and not on a lucky blunder.
| Level | After 12 discs |
|---|---|
| 1 | About every other move wrong; can miss a four in a row |
| 2 | About one move in three wrong; can miss a four in a row |
| 3 | About one move in four wrong; always takes or blocks a four |
| 4 | About one move in seven wrong; always takes or blocks a four |
| 5 | About one move in fifteen wrong; always takes or blocks a four |
| 6 | Never makes a mistake |
Beating a level marks it on the home screen. You choose the level and whether you or the computer goes first before each game.
Controls
- Tap or click a column to drop a disc in it, or press 1 to 7 on a keyboard.
- Take back, in the bar at the bottom, or Z on a keyboard, takes back your last move and the computer's reply.
- A game in progress is kept, so closing the page loses nothing: the home screen offers Continue.
- The gear opens the settings and, in a game, the next game's level and who goes first, a new game and the home screen.
The owl
The owl reads every column before each of your turns and shows, above the window, whether a disc there wins, draws or loses with the best play from then on. It speaks every turn, or only when you press Ask the owl if you turn its hints off in the settings. What it says is worked out from the position, never guessed: it tells you when you can win now, when you must block, when a column is one not to play because your disc would hand the computer a four on top of it, when a move makes two ways to win at once, and how odd and even rows decide who gets the last squares.
When the game ends
The end of a game shows the four, if there was one, and the owl names the turning move: the first of your moves that gave away a better result, and the column that would have kept it. Press Play from that move to try it again from there, or start a new game at the same level.
Your settings, the levels you have beaten and the game in progress are kept on your device.