Velena Engine Source Code V1.00  (written by Giuliano Bertoletti)
Copyright (C) 1996-97 Giuliano Bertoletti & GBE 32241 Software PR

Released 27/07/1997
=========================================================================

This is a Connect 4 AI core engine. Please download Velena for the whole 
documentation.

Velena can be found at the following adresses via Internet:

http://www.ce.unipr.it/~gbe/velena.html  (official homepage)

ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming/ai/velenaXX.zip
   where XX is the current version of Velena (now is 18).

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Acknoledgements

Velena Engine Source Code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
modify it under the following conditions:


1 - If you make a derived work, the full source code must be distributed 
    and placed in public domain.

2 - You must not charge a fee for this software nor for any derived work 
    in which this software is included.

3 - You must not delete the copyright notices in the source code
    (but of course you can make your own layout for graphics and copyright notices on
    the screen, provided it's clearly expressed that you used the Velena Engine Source
    Code and that's a derived work).



Disclaimer

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but 
without any warranty; including but not limited to implied warranties 
of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose with respect to 
the software and accompanying written materials.
The author takes no responsibility for use or misuse of this software.
Although every effort has been made to produce a solid and efficient product 
the author cannot assure that the operation of the software will be 
uninterrupted and error free. The user takes every risk. 

Actually the source code has been tested under Watcom C/C++ V10.0 and
Linux gcc compiler. The default makefile is for linux. If you want to
compile the code under watcom use makefile.wcc



Greetings

During Velena development I have been helped by many persons:

This program is based on the knowledged approach of L.Victor Allis which 
designed and  implemented a sophisticated AI engine in a program called 
Victor. Velena is basically the same, except that even newer concepts and 
techniques were introduced in order to reduce the problem complexity (of 
solving the game) to a more tractable factor of magnitude. Moreover Velena 
is available to anyone, while Victor (currently) is not. I thank L.Victor 
Allis for his support while I developed Velena and for the theory he made 
for solving Connect Four. Without him this program wouldn't have come to light. 

I also thank Filippo Ghilardi who helped me to build the opening book data base
which took several days of work on his Pentium 133 computer, and Davide Mazza 
who created the Velena intro logo (MSDOS version).

===============================================================================

                                                       The author:
                                                       Giuliano Bertoletti
                                                E-mail gbe@ce.unipr.it
                                                       gbe@netsis.it