Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!agate!ames!decwrl!decwrl!uunet!news.sprintlink.net!crash!hale!alien From: alien@hale.cts.com (Jeff Graham) Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom.reviews Subject: reply to 7th guest help Message-ID: Date: Sun, 31 Jul 94 08:30:46 PDT Organization: Hale Telecommunications Inc. Lines: 27 In reference to the 7th guest "puzzle" in the microscope... It is not so much a puzzle as a strategy game. I have solved it a number of times, you just have to be careful that you strike from "protected areas" only (at least in the middle portion of the game.) be cautious and don't do alot of "Jumping" where the piece jumps over a position and lands two away from its origin. rather do a lot of growing to positions directly adjacent to the origin position. You should only do jumps if: a) you can jump into a good place for converting the computers pieces. b) if you are in danger of being converted by a upcoming computer conversion of your pieces (at least 2 or 3) in the next few moves. c) if you really need to move accross the board quickly. d) or if you really want to... not strategic but human. The game has actually been around for at least a few years, and has recently been released in a (to the best of my knowledge) shareware version called hexa[something]. The secret is just to play awhile and try new strategies, my roommate (who was also working on the game) couldn't solve it either, but he let himself get stuck in a rut and kept repeating the same losing tactics over and over. It is a little similar to othello or gomoku in how easy it is to go from just a few (I have won games where I was reduced to as few as three [carefully placed] pieces.) "men" to winning. Good luck! alien@hale.cts.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hale Telecommunications Inc./Public Access Internet Site 619/280-7775 V.32Bis