Section 1: General
What is Bolo?
What is WinBolo?
What is WinBolo.net?
Section 2: WinBolo.net - Signing up and Player Options
How much does it cost?
How do I sign up?
How do I modify my account?
How do I setup my WinBolo to use WinBolo.net?
How do I upload a map?
Help! I've lost my password!
How can I tell who is using their WinBolo.net player names?
What is a WinBolo.net email forward and why would I want one?
When I try to enable my email forward why do I get an error message saying: "Your player name prevents you from having an email forward"?
Section 3: WinBolo.net - Team Options
How do I create a team?
How do I prevent people from joining my team?
How do I manage my team?
Section 4: WinBolo.net - Rankings
How does ranking work?
Why didn't my 1x1 get ranked?
Why didn't my team get ranked?
Why does the number of games played not match the number of wins plus losses?
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What is Bolo?
Bolo was created by Stuart Cheshire of Stanford University. It has evolved from a little-known tank game on the BBC Micro to an explosively successful Macintosh game that is played constantly on the Internet, as well as many smaller networks. The author summarizes his work:
"Bolo is a 16 player graphical networked real-time multi-player tank battle game. It has elements of arcade-style shoot-em-up action, but for the serious players who play 12 hour games with 16 players working in teams in different networked computer clusters around an office or university campus, it becomes more of a strategy game. You have to play it to understand." (from OBHP Intro)
What is WinBolo?
WinBolo is an implementation of Bolo from scratch on the Linux and Windows platforms. Both the Linux and Windows versions are network compatible and their names are used interchangeably within this site. For more information and downloads visit the Official WinBolo site (www.winbolo.com)
What is WinBolo.net?
WinBolo.net is a real time game tracking and player ranking/statistics system for WinBolo players. You can sign up for an account with WinBolo.net and use it when playing online. If the server is participating it will send game data back to WinBolo.net which will allow your ranking to be updated. Also when playing others to find what game you are in and view a real time log of events that happen in the game. You can opt whether you are going to use your WinBolo.net name in each game.
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How much does it cost?
WinBolo.net is completely free. There are no signup fees, no ongoing monthly fees, no per game fees. However, the game WinBolo is not free. It is released as shareware. "The price of WinBolo is $25 in US Dollars. You have the opportunity to actually play the game before you decide whether it is worth the price I ask. WinBolo has no copy protection, no expiry date, no network serial number registration, and no disabled features which you cannot use until you pay. My attitude is that some people are honest, and some people are not. The dishonest ones will never pay anyway, so all the software protection just inconveniences the honest people." For more information please see the WinBolo Shareware Information.
To purchase WinBolo online visit our online ordering center.
How do I sign up?
Signing up is easy. Click the Login/Signup link located in the top right of every page, fill out the few simple questions and click the "Create Account" button. An email confirmation will also be sent to you. After you have created an account you can login from the top right hand corner from anywhere on the site. If you're on a shared computer remember to logout when you're finished to prevent anyone from posting in our forums with your name and from leaving teams that you have joined.
How do I modify my account?
Once you've logged in, click on Modify Account link located in the top right hand corner of the website. From here you can modify any of your player profile settings.
How do I setup my WinBolo to use WinBolo.net?
To setup your WinBolo client to use WinBolo.net, see the Howto page.
How do I upload a map?
Once you have signed up, you can upload a map into your player profile from your modify account page.
Help! I've lost my password
Don't worry, there is a Lost Password retrieval system. This will allocate you a new password.
How can I tell who is using their WinBolo.net player names?
In the game all players who are participating in WinBolo.net will be prefixed by an asterisk (*). WinBolo.net will also show which game they are in from their player profile page and from the Active Games Page.
What is a WinBolo.net email forward and why would I want one?
To enable or disable your email forward as well as set whether it is visible on your player profile visit the Modify Account page.
When I try to enable my email forward why do I get an error message saying: "Your player name prevents you from having an email forward"?
A WinBolo.net email forward is an email forward. When enabled it will forward all emails received from
When you created your WinBolo.net login you specified a name that is not a valid part of an email address. Email addresses can only contain numbers and letters.
How do I create a team?
Once you have signed up, you can Create a team by clicking on the Create Team link in the top right hand corner of this website.
How do I prevent people from joining my team?
When creating a team, the team creator has an option to set a password that is required to be entered before any players can join the team.
How do I manage my team?
On the team's profile page the team creator can enter the team modify password and change the team's details and remove team members.
How does ranking work?
Games are ranked using a modified version of the ELO algorithm. The ELO algorithm is used by Chess players and by the original Internet Bolo League. The algorithm can be summed up by:
- When a player signs up they receive an initial score of 1600
- When a game is played the two scores are fed into the algorithm and the winner's score is increased and the loser's decreased.
- The algorithm takes into account the relative scores of the two players. For instance if a player with a high score (i.e. a good player) beats a player with a low score (a not so good player) the winner will only receive a few points and the loser will only lose a couple of points. However if a low ranked player beats a high ranked player they will gain a lot of points.
Why didn't my 1x1 get ranked?
As WinBolo.net is an automated ranking system and does not rely on any human game reporting, certain conditions must be met for the game to be considered a valid 1x1 game. The criteria for a game to be ranked is:
- One player must have captured and own all bases.
- No non-participants can have captured any bases or pillboxes.
- Only 2 players have played and captured any bases or pillboxes.
- Both players must have captured at least one base or pillbox.
Why didn't my team get ranked?
As WinBolo.net is an automated ranking system and does not rely on any human game reporting, certain conditions must be met for the game to be considered a valid team game. The criteria for a game to be ranked is:
- One team must have captured and own all bases.
- No non-participants can have captured any bases or pillboxes.
- All team members on both sides must be allied at the end of the game.
- At least one base or pillbox must be captured by two members of both teams.
Why does the number of games played not match the number of wins plus losses?
WinBolo.net will update the number of games played for every game you join and leave regardless of whether you do anything in the game at all. WinBolo.net will only update the number of wins/losses if a ranking game is played. So this number will more than likely be smaller than the number of games played. Also WinBolo.net will update the number of bases/pills/tanks for every game you play in.
Your question not answered or you need more help? Try asking in the Forums.