LineUp

Playing the Game

Line Up is played on a 9 x 9 grid. The playing pieces that can be placed on this grid consist of 7 regular playing pieces, a wild piece and a bomb piece. These pieces each have a different color on a color Windows CE device or a different shape on a Grayscale Windows CE device.

Object

The object of Line Up is to move matching pieces on the grid so that they form horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines.

When 5 or more pieces of the same color or shape are in a line, that line is removed from the playing grid and points are awarded. The more pieces in a line the more points awarded.

Starting the game

A new game can be started at any time by selecting Game|New from the menu or by pressing the New Game button on the toolbar.

When a new game is started, the game board is cleared and 3 pieces are placed randomly on the board.

Play

To move a piece, you select the piece and then tap on the new location. There must be a path on the board from the starting postion to the final position of the piece. If other pieces block the path then the move is cancelled and you may move another piece.

Here is an example of a valid move of a black circle piece to a square adjacent to another black circle piece.

This is an example of an invalid move. Since there is no valid path to move the gray diamond piece in the upper right corner down to the line of gray diamond pieces, the move is aborted.

After every move one of two things will happen.

• If the piece caused a line of 5 or more matching pieces then the line will be removed, you will be awarded points based upon the number of pieces removed. You may then move another piece.

• If no line resulted from the move then new pieces are added to the board. The number of pieces added is dependent upon the current score. For a score under 500, 3 pieces are added. For a score of 500 to 999 four pieces are added. This progression continues, for each multiple of 500 points. If the piece being added results in a line of 5 or more matching pieces then the line will be removed and the appropriate score added to the total score.

Wild Piece

A wild piece is denoted by a rainbow colored circle on color screens or a smiley face on grayscale screens. A wild piece can represent any color in a line. For example if a wild piece is placed in a line of 4 blue pieces then the wild piece will be treated as a blue piece and the line will be removed (because there are 5 in a row).

A wild piece can represent more than one color at a time. For example if a wild piece is in a horizontal line of blue pieces and in a vertical line of red pieces, it will count as a blue piece in the horizontal line and as a red piece in the vertical line.

Bomb Piece

Like a wild piece a bomb piece can represent any color in a line. When a line is removed (because there are 5 or more matching pieces in the line) which contains a bomb, then every piece on the board that matches that line color (or shape in a grayscale device) is removed from the board.

Example : There is a line that contains 4 blue pieces and a bomb piece. The line is removed and in addition every blue piece on the board is also removed.

The score is only calculated based upon the number of pieces in a line and not the number of pieces removed because they matched the bomb color.

End of the game

The game ends when no more pieces can be added to the board. If your score is higher than previous scores then you will be prompted to enter your name for the High Score list.

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