Educational Games run with Zillions

Game: Hexxagon

Hexxagon © 1999-2000 by Roland Johansson

Hexxagon is a kind of Attaxx/Blobs in a hexagonal form.
The game is a distant relative of reversi.

Object: Capture all of your opponents pieces. You can drop a new piece on any position next to one of your pieces, or you can "jump" an existing piece by moving it two squares in any direction(s). All opposing pieces in the six squares adjacent to where your piece lands change color to become your pieces.

There are several different boards to play with, including boards with blocks you cannot move onto.

Try not to leave any holes in your positions, since they can be easily occupied, capturing many pieces. Jump moves are especially vulnerable to leaving dangerous holes. Early in the game, make drop moves and try to move towards the center.

Updated 5/1/00: now with 3-player variant.

You should extract from the downloaded zip file preserving path names.

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Game: HighGround

Invented and implemented by John Nickerson, March 2001.


HighGround is a game intended to simulate the advantage of occupying strategic locations. The outer, or lower, layers of the board must be full before pegs can be placed on the inner, or higher, layers.

Pieces can be captured in either of two ways: a piece surrounded by two enemy pieces can be captured; if a higher layer is completely controlled by one player, they may capture pieces on the layer below it.

In the higher two variants, control of the third layer of a black board allows a player to capture the third layer of an adjacent white board.

Try to set up gaps between your pieces where your opponent will be forced to play at some stage. It is preferable not to play the final piece onto the second layer, since it is very good to occupy the top layer of the board.

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Game: Hnefatafl

Implemented (and 3 variants invented) by Karl Scherer, December 2000.


Source: Book 'Board & Table Games I' by R.C. Bell.

Object: White wins if four of his men (Hunns) surround the king (Hnefi) orthogonally. Black wins if the Hnefi reaches the border of the board.

All pieces move like chess rooks, but the Hnefi only one square. Enemy Hunns are captured by trapping a Hunn between two of the player's pieces on rank or file. A piece may move between two enemy pieces without being captured.

Variant 2 : the Hnefi may move up to two squares at a time.
Variant 3 : the Hnefi moves like a chess rook. This is the version I found in a book, but I suspect it to be wrong, since it makes the king too mobile and (imho) gives Black an easy win.
Variant 4 : the Hnefi moves like a chess rook, but is immobilised as long as it is trapped between to enemy pieces on rank or file.

Hnefatafl was played in the Middle Ages. It originated from the game Tafl, of which no description has survived.


For more freeware as well as real puzzles and games see my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Updated 07/07/01
improved board colors.

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Game: Holmen

Created by Markus Salo, July 2003.

Win by moving a stone to the opposite home space to be promoted to a king and then move the king back to your home space.
Both players have six pieces.
The White player starts from the left end of the board and can move his stones east, northeast and southeast and capture by replacement northeast and southeast. A king moves to the opposite directions.
The Black player starts from the right end of the board and can move stones west, northwest and southwest and capture northwest and southwest and kings to the opposite directions.
Captures are not mandatory.
The player can either move a piece or drop a new one on his own home space.

This game is a variant of Tyska Torget on Hageby board and was inspired by W.D.Troyka's outstanding games Ugly Duck Breakthrough and Zonesh.

Holmen is an island in the Motala River where the old and beautiful factories from the early industrial era were build in my beloved Norrköping, Sweden.

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Game: Hop for Two

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, September 2000


Object: Capture or stalemate your opponent.

First you click a place to drop your piece.
Each colours of the tiles represents a certain distance you can hop. The colour code may change from variant to variant.

You cannot move to a place that has been stepped on before. A bubble will pop up to indicate this fact.
You lose if you have been captured or if you cannot move anymore.

In the default variant you play with a Rook (only orthogonal hops). In some variants you play with a Queen (diagonal hops allowed).


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page: karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

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Game: Huntsmen

Invented and implemented by Jeff Roy, July 2000.


In this game, capturing your opponent's pieces makes their remaining pieces more powerful.

Each player begins with four pieces. On his move, a player may move one of his pieces n spaces, where n varies depending on the number of pieces she has remaining:
Four pieces remaining: one space per turn
Three pieces remaining: two spaces per turn
Two pieces remaining: three spaces per turn
One piece remaining: four spaces per turn.

A piece may capture an opposing piece by moving onto it. If a piece makes a capture before it has used all of the spaces available to it that move, it may continue to make additional captures until it has moved its limit. A piece may move over intervening pieces. The player who captures all of his opponent's pieces wins.

In the Ist variant, a piece may move n spaces in any combination of diagonal or orthogonal directions.
In the IInd variant, pieces may move n spaces in any combination of orthogonal directions.
In the hex variant, pieces may move n spaces in any combination of hexagonal directions.
The three variants above each have a 'free' variation, in which your pieces start off the board. Each turn a player may either place a piece or move a piece that is already on the board.

Updated 09/08/01
added variants; new graphics.

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Game: Hyperspace

Created by W. D. Troyka, © 2000


The object of Hyperspace is to construct a hyper-dimensional Thing of Beauty ("tob") in 5-space. The players take turns placing pieces on the board. There are three variants, each with its own tob:

4D Cross - a piece surrounded on four sides by friendly pieces.

5D Box - a space surrounded on all five sides by friendly pieces. The space itself may be empty or occupied by a piece of either color.

Diag - formed by placing a piece in a space surrounded on five diagonals by friendly pieces. The space must be so surrounded at the time the piece is played.

The Hyperspace board is 5-dimensional (2x2x2x2x2) and is constructed as follows: The two 2x2 boards on the bottom left form a regular 3D board. The two 2x2 boards on the bottom right also form a regular 3D board. These two 3D boards are connected through the fourth dimension, such that each space in one 3D board is orthogonally adjacent to its counterpart in the other. The two 3D boards on the bottom thus form a 4D board. The two 3D boards on the top also form a 4D board. These two 4D boards are connected through the fifth dimension. The entire 5D board is symmetrical. Any eight spaces that share two common dimensions may be considered a component 3D board, and any sixteen spaces that share one common dimension may be considered a component 4D board.

In the illustration below, the black piece in the bottom left is surrounded on four sides by friendly pieces, forming a 4D cross. The empty space in the upper right is surrounded on all five sides by white pieces, forming a 5D box.

Hyperspace is a placement game that allows you to explore the five axes of 5-space. For a move-based game played in five dimensions, check out Skava.


You should extract the game preserving path names.
Updated 12/30/00
Improved implementation; added sounds.

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Game: Isola

Developed by Bernd Kienitz.
Implemented by L. Lynn Smith, May 2002


Isola is a two player game on an 8x6 field.

Each player must move their King one orthogonal or diagonal vacant point, then must drop one Soldier onto any vacant point of the field.

The game is lost by the first player who is unable to preform their move.

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Game: Ithaka

Invented and implemented by L. Lynn Smith, January 2002.

Ithaka is a two-player game. The pieces are neutral and can be moved by either player.

A piece may be moved any number of empty spaces in a direct orthogonal or diagonal line. A player may not move a piece which was last moved by the opponent OR which is not adjacent to one of its own color..

The object is to form a directly adjacent orthgonal or diagonal line of three pieces of the same color or to NOT leave your opponent a move. The game is lost with third move repetition.

Looks easy, well go for it.

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Game: Jackrabbits

Created by Chris Huntoon.

Two players take turns placing rabbits on a board.
The following round after a rabbit has been placed it will begin to reproduce itself. This means if there are any open spaces in any of the orthogonal directions surrounding a rabbit, they also will be filled with rabbits. These rabbits will also reproduce themselves on subsequent rounds. Each turn the board will become progressively more crowded.

The player forced to fill in the last remaining space, loses.

Updated 9/9/00
Improved zrf implementation by Jens Markmann and Patrick S. Duff.

Updated 10/28/00
fixed image problem with Windows NT/2000.

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Game: Jeremy's Nightmare

Invented and implemented by Ingo Althofer, August 2003.

Jeremy is a little mouse: three feet high, one foot wide. Jeremy went to bed in good mood, but now he has a horrible nightmare. There are witches and red candles - and the most terrible thing: cat eyes all around.

Jeremy and the cat move in turn, and the board is filled poe-a-poe with little mice and threatening cat eyes. A player wins if the opponent can not drop anymore. Between the two eyes of a pair no other cat eye is allowed. But mice or witches or candles may stay between them.

The whole scene is somewhat surrealistic - just like in a full-fletched nightmare.

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Game: Jeson Mor' (9 horses)

Implemented by Roger Cooper, 2000.

Jeson Mor' is a traditional Mongol game. The name literally means 9 horses. 9 horses fight 9 horses for control of the center.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, David Pritchard.

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Game: Jul-Gonu

Implemented by Seo SangHyeon, October 2001


Zillions-of-games does offer Kono, which certainly belongs to Korean Gonu category. But there are more Gonu-s other than Four-field Kono you offer. Indeed, there is more common Gonu played in a 4x4 board. And it is called Jul-Gonu(line-Gonu).

Stones move one square orthogonally, and make interception captures. Multiple captures are allowed. If one player has stones less than two, he cannot capture, so it is a loss. A stalemate is a loss, too. Repeating moves back and forth three times is a loss.


Remember captures are made only when an interception is caused by your opponent's move. A stone intercepted voluntarily is not captured. Since players cannot pass their turn, it is a good idea to make all stones 'stuck', so that your opponent must retreat. In this way you can usually win by stalemates.


Jul-Gonu is a type of Gonu, which is one category of Korean traditional board games, usually played on a board hand-drawn on the ground and with distinguishable stones, so it can be easily played without any equipments. The name of this game 'Jul' means 'line', for the board is drawn with lines. There are many variants due to regions. They differ in the size of the board, the number of stones, the initial position, etc.

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Game: Jeu de Dames (International Draughts/Checkers)

Implemented by David GLAUDE, November 2000;
game logic from HexDame rules file by Ed van Zon.

Object: Capture all your opponent's men by jumping over them, or stalemate the opponent so he has no moves.

If you are looking for the full official rules, you should check http://www.fmjd.nl/Rules/.
Be carefull the game is very different from the 8x8 checkers.
More info on the game can also be found at David Glaude's site.

Summary of the Rules:

A Man can only move forward (in 2 directions) by sliding to an adjacent empty square, or he can jump over an enemy piece in any direction to a vacant square on the other side.
Jumping over a piece captures it.
Capturing is mandatory, and you must keep jumping and capturing as long as it is possible.
You must even choose beforehand the series of jumps that captures the most men.
When your Man ends a move at the other end of the board it becomes a King and can then move and capture forwards and backwards and for any distance.
A King also jumps to capture, but only one Man at a time. A King doesn't have to stop a jump just behind the captured Man but can continue to slide.
A King must also choose the move that captures the most.

Included in the download are two problems, one from the FMJD site and one from the author, that demonstrate the power of the game, but also show some detail about the rules for capturing the opponent.
Please note: Jeu de Dames requires Zillions of Games version 1.2 (or higher)!

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Game: Joust

Implemented by Gerry Quinn.

Two knights battle on a chessboard. Each time a knight moves, the square it was on vanishes. The first player without a move loses.

White clicks anywhere on the board to start. A White and Black piece are each placed randomly on their respective first ranks. After this, White and Black alternate.

Joust is based on an old Amiga game. Gerry Quinn also wrote a freeware PC Joust program with a strategy guide, which can be downloaded from his site. It has a few extra options including Knight's Tour variants and different board sizes.

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