This is an ancient game from Tibet, and is often played on a beaten brass board, with figures cast in brass. This Pocket PC version is played by two persons. It is not possible to play against the computer

The tigers (yellow circles or pictures) and goats (red circles or pictures) are placed on the line crossings and can move via the lines in any direction to another adjacent empty point, see figure.

Object of the game

The goat-player has to try and position the goats so that the tigers cannot make a legal move, see figure. In that case the goats win

However, the tigers will try to eat the goats by jumping over them to an empty point, see figure. This can be done in any direction as long as the lines are followed. If a goat is eaten, this goat is put automatically below the board. If the tigers manage to eat 5 goats, the tigers win the game.

Phase 1 of the game

The game starts with the 4 tigers in the corners, and the 20 goats off the board in the herd (left bottom of the screen). In phase 1, you drag a goat from the herd onto a point on the board. After a goat is placed on the board; the tiger has to be moved. After moving the tiger, a new goat is placed on the board, and so on. Until all the goats are on the board, the goats cannot be moved. But a tiger can eat a goat in this phase of the game. After placing all the goats on the board, the goats can be moved too.

With all of your goats in place (with the exception of the already eaten ones), the game enters phase 2. You may move a goat to an empty, adjacent point. The tigers and goats are moved after each other. This will take as long as needed to get a winner.

The application works with a game matrix in the background of the application. This matrix can be seen via the Help menu, see figure. In the matrix window you see the game matrix with numbers in a grey square. These numbers correspond with the tigers (number 1), the goats (number 2) and empty spaces (number 0). Also the amount of locked tigers and lost goats is shown. The reset button can be used if the numbers of the matrix do not correspond with the figures in the game. This occurs very rarely, but if it occurs you can only go on with the game after resetting the matrix.

Symbols

Because the program uses bitmaps, it is possible to change the symbols of the tigers and goats.

These are the bitmaps which are used by the program:

filename	default	width x height (pixels)
geit.bmp		26 x 26
geit2.bmp		26 x 26
tijger.bmp		33 x 33
tijger2.bmp		33 x 32
goatwins		129 x 33
tigerwins		129 x 33

filename	symbol	width x height (pixels)	filename	symbol	width x height (pixels)
goat_ball.bmp		26 x 26			33 x 33
goat_brass.bmp		26 x 26			33 x 33
goat_disk.bmp		26 x 26	tiger_disk.bmp		33 x 33
goat.bmp		26 x 26	tiger.bmp		33 x 33
goat_ring.bmp		26 x 26			33 x 33
goat_user.bmp		26 x 26			33 x 33
goatwins		129 x 33	tigerwins		129 x 33

You can create your own symbols as you like. But you can only save 8, 4 or 1 bit bitmaps (256, 16 colours or monochrome). If you save the bitmaps as a 24 bit file, the program wil not recognize the files and won`t start. 

To use them in the game, copy the files to your Pocket PC:  program filesTigers and Goats

If you create great symbols, please send them to me and maybe I will publish them on this site. Send the files to: santen.roemers@wxs.nl