Difference between revisions of "TicTactics"

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(Ugly)
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===Ugly===
 
===Ugly===
* There's just not much to do with the game. You can play tic-tac-toe, and that's it.
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* There's just not much to do with the game. You can play three versions of tic-tac-toe, and that's it.
* For some reason, the game doesn't even allow you to play against a human player. You're forced to play the AI.
+
* The game is lacking some obvious features. For example, you can't play against a human player, but are instead forced to play the AI. You also can't choose your color.
  
 
==Media==
 
==Media==

Revision as of 16:54, 9 July 2019

TicTactics.

TicTactics is a tic-tac-toe game developed by Robert Donner and published by Microsoft in their Microsoft Entertainment Pack For Windows for Windows 3 in 1990. In addition to traditional 3x3 tic-tac-toe, the game includes 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 boards and three varying levels of AI.

The expert level AI will always win or tie on a 3x3 or 3x3x3 game if it goes first, and, while a 4x4x4 game has been mathematically solved, the AI doesn't employ the algorithm, so you can still win if you're the second player.

This was pre-loaded on my family's Packard Bell 386SX computer, and I played it a little in 1991. At 11-years-old, I could always beat or tie the AI in the 3x3 mode at any difficulty, but I was rarely able to beat the AI on 3x3x3 or 4x4x4, even on beginner difficulty, so I didn't play it much. Years later, in 2018, I tried again and was finally able to beat the AI on expert mode on the 3x3x3 board with first move, and the 4x4x4 board even with second move.

Status

I do not own this game, but I have beaten the expert AI on all boards with first move, and the 4x4x4 with second move.

Review

  • Overall: 2/10
  • Best Version: Windows 3

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The game nicely implements the rules of three tic-tac-toe boards.
  • The AI features three levels of difficulty.
  • The graphics are quite nice for such a simple game.

Bad

  • The game is media challenged. There's no music, sound effects, or interesting animation upon victory.
  • The game doesn't scale to larger screen resolutions, even though it could have been made to do so fairly easily.

Ugly

  • There's just not much to do with the game. You can play three versions of tic-tac-toe, and that's it.
  • The game is lacking some obvious features. For example, you can't play against a human player, but are instead forced to play the AI. You also can't choose your color.

Media

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-TCRF.png