The words, strung together in that order and with nothing in between, are pure anachronism … “Connect Four Online.”
I mean, it’s like saying “Charles Dickens Kindle Author Page.”
Or “Eminem Cassette Tape.”
Or “Abe Lincoln Tweets.”
The concepts just don’t fit together, not in our old, addled brains.
Any kid of the 70s or 80s worth his salt knows that Connect Four belongs in the 70s or 80s, and it belongs right there on your kitchen table where it can torment you.
Or where you can torment your sister or your dad or your mom with it. You know, depending on skill levels.
See, this right here is what Connect Four is supposed to look like …
It’s a classic example of …
You teach you sister how to do something you love …
You beat her and feel smug but still protective — she’ll learn you think, maybe say out loud …
She learns quickly, and beats you in the second game …
She beats you in the third … and the fourth … and the fifth … and the …
Well, let’s just say you give up the game. At least at home.
And that’s just how it goes, because girls are smart like that and we dudes are sorta dopey, or at least have gnat attention spans.
It’s all OK, though, because it’s part of the circle of life, and you move on to the next board game or table top game or video game, which, for some reason, your sis seems to have little interest in.
Finally a refuge!
Connect Four … Online?
But now, 30 or 40 or 50 years later, you come across this post and see some guy (me) making claims that you can play Connect Four online?
Those two concept just don’t fit together. Surely I mean setting up the little plastic frame on top of your closed laptop or your router and then playing, right?
You could do that, fir sure.
But there are actual places that have replicated the original Connect Four electronically quite well, thank you.
How to Play Connect Four
Before we look at some of them, let me remind you how the thing went down, in case it wasn’t clear from the commercial above:
- You set up this yellow circle-grid thing on a couple of blue plastic stands. The apparatus was seven slots wide by six slots tall.
- You divided some checkers into red and black … you got one color, your opponent got the other.
- You took turns plopping your checkers, one at a time, into the top of the grid. Dropping your checker on top of one already there, edgewise, would leave yours in the same column, but up one row.
- First player to get four checkers in a row — across, down, horizontally either direction — won.
- When you had a winner or a stalemate (all your checkers were gone), you pulled a little lever at the bottom of the grid, and all the checkers spattered all over the table like that time you “accidentally” opened a box of Apple Jacks upside down.
And that was it.
I should mention, though, that the “checkers” had to be the ones that came with the game. They were thin and light, and trying to jam real checkers into the thing sent more than one copy of Connect Four to the garage sale trash heap.
Today, though, like I said … you can get around all that by just playing Connect Four online.
It may not be exactly the same — it’s tough to “accidentally” knock the electronic version off a table when you’re losing — but they’re close enoug to eat up a few hours.
To get you started, here are just a few of the best versions of Connect Four online today …
4 In A Line
This one is run by the folks at Math Is Fun and lets you pick among a handful of difficulty levels. You can also take on the computer or another human, depending on your mood and isolation status.
Connect 4 at Poki.com
This one is a bit slow-loading, but it’s colorful and surrounded by all sorts of other games you can click on to waste invest days at a time.
You’ve been warned.
ConnectFour.org
ConnectFour.org gives you a few different versions of the classic game, and it gives you a retro feel … so retro that you have to have Flash installed. Up to you whether you want to take on that hassle/risk.
c4arena
At c4arena, you can play against the computer, with a human (or humans) near you, or against an online component.
Otherwise … yeah, it’s your basic Connect Four online, with a choice of difficulty levels.
Connect 4 at HelpfulGames
HelpfulGames apparently wants to provide games that are helpful. See how that works.
They lump their Connect 4 game under “Brain Training” and back it up with ten levels of “hardness.”
Connect 4 at SilverGames
Another browser-embedded game, another few hours shot. Happy playing!
Connect 4 Solver
The Connect 4 Solver gives you hints about how many moves it will take you to win — if it’s still possible for you to win — after each move.
An interesting math take on the old classic.
Connect 4 at HoodaMath
These math sites really like their Connect 4, huh? Well, that’s bully for us, and HoodaMath gives us a colorful entry …
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