GameClock v2.2

gameclock image

1. INTRODUCTION

When playing board or computer turn-based games, there are players who take very long to move. The game is then not fun anymore, since most of the time you just wait for someone else to complete their turn. In such cases, a clock is necessary.

2. SHORT DESCRIPTION

The GameClock supports 1-6 players and is intuitive to use. After their turn is complete, players just press SPACEBAR (or N or press Next) and the clock control moves to the next player. It is also possible to switch clock to arbitrary player by just pressing (or clicking on) their corresponding number. The clock can also be paused and control switched during the pause. It supports classic (fisher) and bronstein (delay) increments - players get fixed amount of time added each turn. Moretime function allows adding extra time to all or a specific player. If application is increased or maximized, then each of the clock's size is increased accordingly, including the font size used for clock display.

3. TIME ELEMENTS

TIME - Fill in clock's time in minutes. Default is 5 minutes. If zero, 10 seconds are awarded instead.
INC - Increment in seconds. Default is no increment.
BRONSTEIN - The character of increment. If unchecked, it simply adds INC seconds to the clock after each turn. If checked, Bronstein "delay" system is used. It means that if players make their turn in INC seconds or less, their remaining time remains unchanged.

4. GLOBAL STATUS

Global Status is displayed in the application's title.
READY - After the application starts or you do a RESET. We are ready to go.
RUNNING - One clock is RUNNING, others are WAITING (or FLAGGED).
PAUSED - One clock is READY, others are STOPPED (or FLAGGED).
ALL FLAGGED - All clock's are FLAGGED, we have reached a dead end. In this situation only RESET is possible (or just close the app or turn off your PC).

5. CLOCK STATUSES

READY - Global Status is PAUSED or READY, this clock will start if resumed. Always only one clock can be READY.
STOPPED - Global Status is PAUSED or READY, this clock will NOT start if resumed.
RUNNING - Time is ticking, it is your turn to move! Always only one clock can be RUNNING.
WAITING - Another clock is running, wait for your opponent's turn.
FLAGGED - Time reached 0:00.0, you lose. Still, unless every clock is flagged, you can use the MORETIME function. If flag happens, control is switched to next clock and Global Status is switched to PAUSED. Flagged clock's are then skipped, control can't return to them.

6. CLOCK ELEMENTS

STATUS - Display colored Clock Status - ready (orange), running (green), stopped (red), waiting (blue), or flagged (black&white).
CLOCK - Display remaining time as h:mm:ss. The clock's area and font size changes according to application's size. If the remaining time is less than 10 s, tenths of seconds are also displayed.
BUTTON - Switch control to this clock, ie. set the Status to RUNNING or READY, unless already FLAGGED.
PLAYER NAME - You may edit this for better orientation.

7. BUTTONS

1,2,3,4,5,6 - Small buttons under each clock. They switch control to specific player. Functional during both run and pause.
RUN/PAUSE/UNPAUSE - This button changes its label according to application's Global Status. Starts, pauses or resumes the clock.
NEXT - Switches control to next player.
RESET - Resets all the clocks according to TIME, INC, and BRONSTEIN fields. Sets Global Status to READY, Clock 1 status to READY and remaining clocks to STOPPED.
MORETIME - You can add specific amount of extra time to all players or a specific player. Default is 1 minute and 0 seconds. Launching the dialog also pauses the clock.
PLAYERS - You can set number of players (or clocks), 1-6. If you change the number of players, it is equivalent to RESET, so Global Status changes to READY and more or less clocks appear on screen. Default is two players. Launching the dialog also pauses the clock.
SOUND - Turns sound on/off. Default is off. Flag or warning conditions are always accompanied by Windows sound.

8. TWO PLAYER MODE

If there are exactly two clocks, two more bigger buttons appear for switching the control. Players may alternately use ESC and ADD (big Plus) for switching the control to their opponent.

9. HOTKEYS

1,2,3,4,5,6 - switch to player
R - Run
P - Pause/Unpause
SPACEBAR or N - Next
S - Sound on/off
B - Bronstein on/off
ESCPAPE, ADD - alternate switch in 2-player mode

10. CHANGELOG

2.0
  • first GameClock release
    2.1
  • fixed bug when switching players during pause
  • changed button Resume to Unpause for easier manipulation (P will both pause and unpause)
  • button Next is only available when Global Status is RUNNING
    2.2
  • fixed bug which caused exception on Windows 10

    11. ABOUT

    This software is public domain. It was programmed in C++, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. It took me about 20 hours to create, plus about 10 hours for ChessClock, which is a predecessor to GameClock. Marc Richardme's EasySize (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dialog/easysize.aspx) is used for basic dialog elements, but was not enough to size all the clocks. Comments, RFE's, bug reports etc. shall go to Wir on FICS (www.freechess.org), or wir@quick.cz. Thank you for reading the documentation.

    Download