Introduction

4digits is a guess-the-number puzzle game. It's called Bulls and Cows, and in China people simply call it Guess-the-Number. The game's objective is to guess a four-digit number in 8 times in as less times as possible. It is similar to Mastermind, but the four digits are different to each other. 4digits has both graphical user interface version and textual user interface version. This manual demonstrates the GUI version.

Installation

Before playing 4digits, you need python, python-gtk and python-glade installed in your computer.

Linux

Python is usually already installed in your computer if your are a using a modern Linux distribution. You can install python-gtk and python-glade from the software repository of your distribution. Add a launcher of 4digits to the panel of your desktop, then you can start to play it easily.

BSD's and Unix's

Install python, python-gtk and python-glade for your system.

Windows

Click here to download PyGTK for Windows. Clink here to download libglade-bin for Windows. Install PyGTK then unzip and copy the contents of the bin directory of libglade-bin to %gtkdir%/bin. If you still have problem, see here.

Mac OS X

Fink has PyGTK for mac. You can try. I do not know more.

Playing 4digits

When you start a game, what it looks like is show in Figure 1. You are given eight times to guess a four-digit number. A digit is marked A if its value and position are both correct, and marked B if only its value is correct. You win the game when you get 4A0B. Good luck!

4digits main window

Figure 1 The main window when you start a game.

In Figure 2, the answer is 5184, which is known somehow. The first guess is 1234, then you get 1A1B. Why? 1A because '4' in 1234 and 5184 has the same value and position, and 1B because '1' in 1234 and 5184 share the same value but different position. If you enter 3456 then, you get 0A2B, because the values of '4' and '5' are right but there positions are not correct.

start a game

Figure 2 You get 1A1B when the answer is 5184.

A typical game in which the player wins is shown in Figure 3. The answer 7564 is guessed in 96.3 seconds.

win a game

Figure 3 When you win a game.

Belowe in Figure 4 is a game in which my brain fails me.

lose a game

Figure 4 When you lose a game.

Authors

4digits was written by Pan Yongzhi(<panyongzhi@@gmail..com>).

License

4digits is free software you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

4digits is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with 4digits if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.


First update: 21 Mar 2007
Last update: