Widgetational Software

Universal
A-Cro-K1.1.2 — donationware

Lewis Carroll's "Arithmetical Croquet" for Dashboard

Download (0.4 MB) for Mac OS X 10.4+     View Version History

Reviews:

» "Featured Widget" — Apple.com Dashboard Widgets page

A-Cro-K is a widgetized interpretation of "Arithmetical Croquet", a mental recreation devised in 1872 by Lewis Carroll (author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and numerous other works, including books on mathematics and logic).

In the original game, players would progress through a croquet course consisting of the numbers from "1" to "100" (the "winning-peg"), capturing "hoops" at each multiple of 10. Rules governed how each player could move in each turn, how each hoop could be "taken" or "missed", and how a player could get "trapped" in a hoop.

A-Cro-K recasts the game as a competition played on parallel paths, each with 100 spaces and with "hoops" every ten spaces. Double-headed croquet mallets move each player's ball along the course. The double-headed nature of the mallets, and the fact that a player keeps his mallet during the opponent's turn, reflects Carroll's curious(er?) rule barring a player from making either the same move or nine-minus-the-same-move just made by his opponent. A-Cro-K automatically enforces other rules in a similarly straightforward manner, simplifying gameplay somewhat.

The widget's flip side gives the complete set of rules, both Lewis Carroll's originals and A-Cro-K's interpretations. Also available are an option to adjust the length of the croquet course, and options to set one (or both) players to be controlled by the computer.

Artwork Credit
"Alice" and "Cheshire Cat" illustrations by Sir John Tenniel.

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Version History

  • (1.1.2) Minor tweaks for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") compatibility
  • (1.1.1) Minor interface adjustment, and under-the-hood tweaks
  • (1.1) Added score tallies
  • (1.1) Added option to set which player (left or right) plays first

Widget Installation Instructions

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is required.

If you're using Safari and have set Safari to open "Safe" files after downloading, click the "Download" link. When the widget download is complete, show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar, and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

If you're using a browser other than Safari, or have set Safari not to open "Safe" files, click the "Download" link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it, and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Then show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar, and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.