susan is a board game orginally developed by stephen linhart. see http://www.stephen.com/sue/sue.html for more informations.

susan is played against the computer on a hexagonal board with 61 spaces, using two sets of playing stones. most spaces have six neighbors. the edge spaces have four neighbors and the corners have three. (see pictures below)

to begin the game, you decide who goes first. on each turn you can place a stone in any empty space, or slide a stone that you already have on the board. when you slide a stone, you move it to any neighboring space that's empty. if both players (you and the computer) slide three turns in a row (three slides for each player makes six total), the game is a draw. you can't pass your turn. the object of the game is to surround any one of your opponent's stones. you surround a stone by filling in the spaces around it - a stone can be surrounded by any combination of your stones, your opponent's stones and the edge of the board. but be careful; if one of your stones is surrounded on your own turn (even if you surround one of your opponent's stones at the same time), you lose the game! remember that your stones can be surrounded by your own stones, as well as your opponent's stones and the edge of the board. having more stones on the board is not always better.

see the full manual for further explanations.

software written by

• mailto:rschlegel<at>bbb.ch">roman schlegel (core functionality),
• mailto:dkocher<at>icu.unizh.ch">david kocher (core functionality) and
• mailto:rothen<at>iamexwi.unibe.ch">jan rothen (3d stuff)

this is what susan looks like:

(click on a thumbnail to see a larger version of the screenshot.)

you need a java 2 runtime environment probably already installed on your system, otherwise available from sun microsystems at java.sun.com.
susan has not been tested with jdk 1.4.

download susan now for free:

• susan (3d version) - jar file for unix/windows:
  Susan3d.jar
  
  attention: the 3d version does only run on a plattform supporting java3d.
  you will need the java3d libraries from sun. you can download them here if they are not already installed on your system. current supported platforms are solaris, aix, irix, windows, linux and probably others.
  note:
  java3d has not yet been released for macintosh.
  we encountered problems with the directx version of the java3d library under windows, therefore we recommend downloading the opengl version.

• susan (2d version) - jar file for any java 1.3 environment:
  Susan.jar

• susan (2d version) - mac os x application bundle:
  Susan.dmg

on any unix flavor, cd to the downloaded file and unpack the archive with tar xzvf cyberduck.tar.gz. do not unpack the jar file. to launch cyberduck cd to the directory where you moved cyberduck.jar to and type into the shell java -jar cyberduck.jar . if you are running windows, you can probably just double click the downloaded jar file to launch the application. if this doesn't work, open a console and launch cyberduck as described above with java -jar cyberduck.jar.

you must have a java runtime environment installed. if this has no shipped with you operating system, look at java.sun.com for further informations.
there is no installation needed to run susan itself. just unzip the file you downloaded and doubleclick the .jar to run susan - or if this won't work type into a console/shell java -jar susan.jar

susan is distributed free of charge. susan may be distributed through free online services, provided only the original unmodified archive is distributed. if you wish to distribute susan through any other medium, please contact the authors through email for permission. susan may not be distributed through any commercial or for-profit means, except with prior, written, consent from the authors. you acknowledge and agree that the use of susan is at your own risk. susan, and all related files and documentation are provided as is and without any warranty of any kind. as a free product, the author of susan cannot be held responsible for any damages or loss of any kind caused by attempting to use this software.