How To Play

How To Play 3D Tic Tac Toe

Three-dimensional tic tac toe is played on a board with four levels, see Figure 2. Each level has sixteen squares, arranged as four by four. The object of the game is to get four of your pieces in a straight line before your opponent does. Four winning pieces may be in any straight line, e.g., left-to-right, up-and-down, front-to-back, diagonally in two dimensions or diagonally in three dimensions. In Figure 2 the grey player (Computer) has blocked a possible four in a row by the blue player (human) with the highlighted piece.

Figure 2 - A TTTCube game in progress

Playing 3D Tic Tac Toe with TTTCube

To start TTTCube, click Start»Programs»TTTCube»TTTCube. This assumes you accepted the default installation setup. Alternatively you can click the TTTCube icon on your desktop.

At the beginning of a game you can select Easy, Medium or Hard play in the Difficulty submenu. When you start TTTCube the difficulty is Hard. If you change the difficulty it will remain in effect until you change it again or until you close (Exit) TTTCube.

Click the mouse button in a square to move. A blue game piece will mark your move. The computer will respond with its move in grey. The computer will move first if you select the Edit submenu's Move item. You and the computer alternate moves until one of you wins by getting four pieces in a row or a tie is reached. The computer will highlight a winning row. You can save a game at any point during it.

The latest move in a game is highlighted in bright grey or bright blue. Also, four winning pieces are highlighted in bright grey or bright blue.

You can Undo or 'take back' your latest move in the Edit menu; the computer's move that followed yours will be taken back also. Two moves will always be taken back with an Undo: the computer's move and your move.

Use the View submenu's Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counterclockwise items to rotate the TTTCube board 90° at a time. A fluorescent red line on the bottom level's border shows the orientation of the board.

You can copy a game's moves to the clipboard as numeric coordinates with the Edit submenu's Copy item. A three-digit number (XYZ) represents each move. No matter how the board is turned, copying the game always writes the coordinates as if the board's fluorescent red were at the back. Each digit ranges from 1 to 4. Assuming the fluorescent red line is at the back, X increases left-to-right, Y increases front-to-back, and Z increases bottom-to-top.

You can paste a game's moves from the clipboard (as numeric values in the format described in the previous paragraph) with the Edit submenu's Paste item. Pasting always orients the board so the fluorescent red line is at the back of the board.