Four in a Row

How to play Four in a Row

1. Tap a column to drop your disc — it clacks down to the lowest empty slot. Red always goes first, and who plays red swaps every round.
2. Line up four of your discs in any direction — across, down, or diagonally — before your opponent does.
3. Watch the columns, not just the rows: the sneakiest wins are diagonal, and the deadliest trick is a double threat your opponent can't block twice.
4. Own the center column. Almost every winning line passes through it — the computer on Hard certainly knows that.
5. Fill all 42 slots with no line of four and the round is a draw. Rounds run forever; the score tallies until you leave.

A little background

Vertical four-in-a-row is older than the plastic version — sailors' lore has a wooden set called the Captain's Mistress aboard Cook's voyages — but it conquered living rooms in 1974, when the blue frame with the clacking discs arrived under the name most people know it by. The genius is the gravity: you can't place a disc, only drop one, so every plan has to be built from the floor up. (This is an independent version under the traditional name, not affiliated with Hasbro.)

Play it the dinner-table way — pass one phone and argue — or take on the computer: Easy plays like a distracted little sibling, Medium blocks what it can see, and Hard reads seven moves ahead. And when someone claims they'd win from the next room, start a duel: two devices, one live frame, every clack on both screens. Free, no ads, no account — everything but the duel works offline.