A Banqi Game Server
- Install Go and set up a workspace - Make sure your
$GOPATHand$GOROOTenvironment variables are set, and that the appropriate directories are added to your PATH if you want to run executables without usinggo run.- This is the hardest (but probably most important) step. Make sure to follow the instructions in the links.
- Get the pao source:
go get github.com/arbrown/pao
You can fork this repository andgo getyour own version to contribute changes upstream. - Go to the path where the source was installed, and run pao.go
The server should begin running on port 2015. Go to http://localhost:2015/ in a web browser to see the lobby.
If no games are currently running, you can join a new game by clicking the button:
Then, another player can join your game and it will begin.
Have fun!
Banqi Game Notation
The game code uses a character-based notation to store and transmit piece information.
Pieces are represented by the letters in the following table
| Piece | Red | Black |
|---|---|---|
| King | k | K |
| Guard | g | G |
| Elephant | e | E |
| Cart | c | C |
| Horse | h | H |
| Pawn | p | P |
| Canon | q | Q |
Uncovered pieces are represented by '?' and empty squares are '.'.
The board is represented as an 8x4 (8 columns, 4 rows) board with coordinates as follows:
| . | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||
| 4 |
A location is referred to by its letter/number coordinates, for example, A1 or F3.
A ply consists of a piece identifier, a location, an action (moves '>', or becomes '=') followed by a piece identifier, and a location. If a piece was killed in this ply, there is then an 'x' followed by the piece identifier and location of the killed piece.
For example, if a black guard at C2 killed a red pawn at D2, the ply notation would be:
GC2>GD2xpD2
If a player turned up a red cannon at B4, the notation would be:
?B4=qB4
In theory, in some game variants a ply could involve more than one piece (on either side) or multiple moves (as in double-move Banqi.) In this case, multiple pieces (and their locations) are separated by commas (,) and multiple moves are separated by semicolons (;).