To start a new game of Four-in-a-Row choose Game ▸ New Game.

The game board consists of seven columns and six rows. Above it, a special row indicates the current player and the marble about to be played. Each move consists of dropping a marble in one of the columns. The marble lands on the topmost empty row of the chosen column.

To make a move, click on a column with the mouse. To play with the keyboard, move the marble in the top row with the left and right arrow keys, and drop it in place with the down arrow key. Your marble will drop into the topmost empty row of that column.

Four-in-a-Row's Main Window

The game is won when one of the two players manages to line up four of his or her marbles horizontally, vertically or diagonally. If the board fills up without a win, the game ends in a draw.

To take back a move, choose Undo move (Ctrl+Z). If you're playing against a friend, this will undo one move. If you're playing against the computer, this will undo the computer's last move and then yours. Repeating this will return the board to its initial state.

Choose Hint (Ctrl+H) to get a suggestion from the computer for your next move. This is shown in the status bar.

Choose Scores to show a tally of wins and draws for the current playing session. The scores will be reset to zero if Player Selection is changed in Preferences.

To change the game's settings, select Preferences from the Settings menu. This opens the Preferences Dialogue.

Configuration options in the Game tab are:

Finally there is a Controls tab to change the keyboard controls. To change a control, double click the appropriate entry and then press the new key.

Four-in-a-Row's tile sets contain six tiles of equal size, lined up horizontally. From left to right:

Figure 1 An example tile set

Tiles three and four will be repeated over the game board and top row unless a full window background image is specified in the theme file.

For a full window background image, there's a bit more work to do. Let's say your tiles measure 50 by 50 pixels each. The game's display measures 7 by 7 tiles, including the top row, so the ideal background image for your tile set measures 350 by 350 pixels.

So, you now have a tile set and perhaps a background image to go with it. The next step is to put them in the right place.

The last step is to put your image(s) where Four-in-a-Row can find them. You could put them in Four-in-a-row's install directory (which will depend on your particular system), but your home directory's probably a better idea.

Make a ~/.gnect directory, and a ~/.gnect/pixmaps directory. Those names are important, as Four-in-a-Row won't look anywhere else.

Copy your image(s) into the pixmaps directory.

If you start Four-in-a-Row from the command line, it'll give you clues about any problems it has with your new theme. If it has none, you'll find your new theme listed the Preferences Dialog.

Have fun!

The Four-in-a-Row connection dialog is shown initially when starting a new network game. This dialog allows you to select a server to connect to, and the username that you will have while connected to that server.

It is possible to connect to a server with either a guest account or a normal registered account. Guest accounts allows you to anonymously login, while a normal login account allows you to reserve your own username which is protected by the password that you choose.

The Guest Login option should be selected if you want an anonymous guest account. If you want to create a new login account, then select the First-time Login option, with the username, password and email of your choice. If you have already created your account, you can connect by selecting the Normal Login option, and enter the username and password that you have chosen.

To connect to a server, click on the Connect button.

Figure 2 The Four-in-a-Row network connection dialog.

Once you have successfully connected to a server, you can choose which game room to join. To play a multiplayer game of Four-in-a-Row, select the Four-in-a-Row room. If you want to host your own game, then click on the Launch button. This creates a new table where other players can participate in a game against you. If there are any other games already started, then you can double-click on an existing game table to join it. The list of game tables on the right shows you the number of available seats, which means the number of players that can join the game table.

Figure 3 This Four-in-a-Row network dialog allows you to join a game room to find other players.

When creating a new table for Four-in-a-Row games, a preference dialog is displayed which allows you to customize the game, such as set the minimum number of players for the game. Once the total number of seats have been taken, then no more players are allowed to join that game table.

It is possible to chat with other players in network games. Ask for advice or help playing the games, but please be polite against other players.

Once you have successfully joined a game table, then you have to wait until enough players have joined the table. The Players List menu item allows you to see a list of the players who have joined the game. The game will begin immediately when the total number of players in the the game have been reached.

Multiplayer Four-in-a-Row games have pretty much the same rules as normal Four-in-a-Row games, except that you are now playing against human players. This means that other strategies might possibly be better than when playing against AI players.

Once a player has won, the game ends and you can return to the initial network game screen. Then you can play yet another game of addictive Four-in-a-Row multiplayer!