Connect 4 on a General Board

You can try out the classical connect-4 game at:

http://www.mathisfun.com/games/connect4.html.

While the classical connect-4 game is played on a 67 board, it can in fact be played in any nrRowsnrCols board. In your implementation, the user will specify the number of rows nrRows and the number of columns nrCols. A win is obtained if a player has four consecutive pieces in a row, column, or diagonal.

Your program should implement the game for two human players. Extra credit, up to 20 points, will be given for the design of the graphical interface. You could enhance your graphics by using sounds as well.

For additional extra credit, up to 30 points, you could implement a computer-playing strategy. Extra credit points will be given based on the strength of the computer play.

Alternative Projects

As an alternative to connect-4, you could implement:

• Sokoban, see http://www.game-sokoban.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban
• Breakout, see http://www.play.vg/games/10-Breakout.html
• Nine Men's Morris, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine Men's Morris
• Mini-chess, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minichess, the Gardner variant.
• Backgammon, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon

In addition to the interface, the ability of the computer to play the game will be taken into consideration. There will be up to 20 points of extra credits for the graphical design and up to 30 points of extra credit for the strength of the computer play.