The game has 72 stones, with a total of six colors and six symbols.
There are two stones for each combination of color and symbol.
Initially, the board has six stones on it, chosen to have all six colors and all six symbols. You place the remaining 66 stones one at a time, adjacent to existing stones, subject to the following rules.
— Adjacent to one stone, you must match the existing stone either by color or by symbol.
— Adjacent to two stones, you must match one by color and the other by symbol.
— Adjacent to three stones, you must match one by color and the other two by symbol, or one by symbol and the other two by color.
— Placing a stone adjacent to four stones creates a “four-way”. The new stone must match two of the stones by color and the other two by symbol. Creating four-ways can greatly increase your score.
The game ends when you have placed all the stones, or when there is nowhere to place the next stone.
Initially, the board has six stones on it, chosen to have all six colors and all six symbols. You place the remaining 66 stones one at a time, adjacent to existing stones, subject to the following rules.
— Adjacent to one stone, you must match the existing stone either by color or by symbol.
— Adjacent to two stones, you must match one by color and the other by symbol.
— Adjacent to three stones, you must match one by color and the other two by symbol, or one by symbol and the other two by color.
— Placing a stone adjacent to four stones creates a “four-way”. The new stone must match two of the stones by color and the other two by symbol. Creating four-ways can greatly increase your score.
The game ends when you have placed all the stones, or when there is nowhere to place the next stone.
The scoring starts out as follows.
— Placing adjacent to one stone: 1 point
— Placing adjacent to two stones: 2 points
— Placing adjacent to three stones: 4 points
— Placing adjacent to four stones: 8 points
— But you get no points for placing a stone in the squares along the outside edges.
Creating a four-way doubles the above schedule, for each four-way. Additionally, four-ways get the following bonus points.
— First four-way: 25 points
— Second four-way: 50 points
— Third four-way: 100 points
— Fourth four-way: 200 points
— Fifth four-way: 400 points
— Sixth four-way: 600 points
— Seventh four-way: 800 points
— Eighth four-way: 1,000 points
— Ninth four-way: 5,000 points
— Tenth four-way: 10,000 points
— Eleventh four-way: 25,000 points
— Twelfth four-way: 50,000 points
Finally, placing all stones gets a bonus of 1,000 points; all but one a bonus of 500 points; and all but two a bonus of 100 points.
— Placing adjacent to one stone: 1 point
— Placing adjacent to two stones: 2 points
— Placing adjacent to three stones: 4 points
— Placing adjacent to four stones: 8 points
— But you get no points for placing a stone in the squares along the outside edges.
Creating a four-way doubles the above schedule, for each four-way. Additionally, four-ways get the following bonus points.
— First four-way: 25 points
— Second four-way: 50 points
— Third four-way: 100 points
— Fourth four-way: 200 points
— Fifth four-way: 400 points
— Sixth four-way: 600 points
— Seventh four-way: 800 points
— Eighth four-way: 1,000 points
— Ninth four-way: 5,000 points
— Tenth four-way: 10,000 points
— Eleventh four-way: 25,000 points
— Twelfth four-way: 50,000 points
Finally, placing all stones gets a bonus of 1,000 points; all but one a bonus of 500 points; and all but two a bonus of 100 points.
The easiest way to place a stone is to click on the destination
square.
A more elegant way is to click on the new stone to pick it up,
then click again to place it at its destination.
In either case, you can click on the newly placed stone again to pick it up and move it somewhere else. This is true even at the end of the game.
Your current point total is displayed on the scoreboard at the right. When the game ends, you can click there to start a new game.
The bottom-right panel displays the remaining stones (not including the one you are about to place).
The “Boards” button cycles through the available designs of boards and stones.
Ishido was invented in 1989 by Michael Feinberg, and the original Macintosh program was written by him, Ian Gilman, and Michael Sandige. It has been abandoned by its copyright owner, and is now public domain.
This version was implemented from scratch by me, Andrew Birrell. Copyright © 2008
In either case, you can click on the newly placed stone again to pick it up and move it somewhere else. This is true even at the end of the game.
Your current point total is displayed on the scoreboard at the right. When the game ends, you can click there to start a new game.
The bottom-right panel displays the remaining stones (not including the one you are about to place).
The “Boards” button cycles through the available designs of boards and stones.
Ishido was invented in 1989 by Michael Feinberg, and the original Macintosh program was written by him, Ian Gilman, and Michael Sandige. It has been abandoned by its copyright owner, and is now public domain.
This version was implemented from scratch by me, Andrew Birrell. Copyright © 2008
