Connect4 - play the popular game now with an improved graphics and against the computer

About Connect 4

Connect Four (also known as Captain's Mistress, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Four in a Row, Four in a Line and Gravitrips (in Soviet Union)) is a two-player connection game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically suspended grid. The pieces fall straight down, occupying the next available space within the column. The objective of the game is to be the first to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of four of one's own discs. Connect Four is a solved game. The first player can always win by playing the right moves.

Connect 4 Rules

Your objective Connect four of your checkers in a row while preventing your opponent from doing the same. But, look out -- your opponent can sneak up on you and win the game! The first player begins by dropping one of his/her discs into the center column of the game board. The two players then alternate turns dropping one of their discs at a time into an unfilled column until one player achieves four in a row -- either horizontally, vertically or diagonally; the player that does so wins the game. However, if the game board fills up before either player achieves four in a row, then the game is a draw.

Connect Four History

It is not clear exactly when the first Four in a Row game appeared. The earliest claimed ancestry is a legend surrounding early explorer Captain Cook. The author has spent some time investigating the veracity of this but has found no hard and fast evidence. The first appearance of the story found so far is on a version of the game called Captain's Mistress sold by North West Corner of Washington copyrighted in 1987. This company produced several historic games that have since been copied - a copy of the Captain's Mistress game was produced by British company Nauticalia for some years. On both versions it is stated that Captain Cook spent so much time stuck in his cabin playing the game against his fellow travellers naturalist Joseph Banks and botanist Daniel Solander on his voyages that it become known as the Captain's Mistress. Whether this was just a sales-led invention or if perhaps there is a grain of truth in it remains to be seen - more certain is that Milton Bradley (now the Hasbro games giant company) started selling their massively successful version of the game called Connect 4 in February 1974 (1976 in Britain).