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4Four-ball

The carom game of Korean billiard halls, also called sagu: two cue balls and two reds. You score by sending your cue ball on to both reds, and you leave the other cue ball alone.

The table as a game of Four-ball starts, with the scoreboardAs the game starts A game of Four-ball in first person, over the cueOver the cue, in first person

At a glance

The game of Korea's billiard halls: two reds to hit, and your opponent's cue ball to keep clear of.

Family
Carom
Tutorial
2 spoken, subtitled tasks.
In the career
No.
Match length
First to 5, 10, 15 or 20.
Played against
The computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, a friend at the same PC, in tournaments, or online.

The tutorial

The commentator talks you through each task, with subtitles. You play every one yourself, and play it again if you miss.

  1. Both redsSend your cue ball on to both reds
  2. Not the yellowScore off the two reds without touching the yellow

The rules

As the game plays them, word for word from the rule book that is a click away in the game's menu and in the middle of any match.

The table and the balls

  • A carom table with no pockets, a size smaller than the one for the other carom games, and four balls a little larger than theirs: a white, a yellow and two reds.
  • Each player has a cue ball of their own for the whole game: white for the player who starts, yellow for the other. The two reds belong to nobody.

The opening shot

  • A red is on each of the two spots. The two cue balls are on the head string, one on each side of the near red.
  • The opening shot has to hit the far red first.

Scoring

  • A point is scored when your cue ball hits both reds in the same shot, in either order, with or without cushions.
  • Score, and you play again from where the balls have come to rest. Miss, and your opponent plays, with their own cue ball, from where everything lies.
  • The first player to 10 points wins. Another target can be chosen under Settings, Game.

Fouls

  • Your opponent's cue ball is not to be touched. If your cue ball hits it at any time in the shot, the shot does not score, you lose a point and the turn passes.
  • Hitting no ball at all is a foul in the same way. Hitting one red and nothing else is only a miss.
  • Sending any ball off the table is a foul too, and the ball goes back on a spot.
  • A score never goes below nothing. If the shot clock runs out the turn passes and the balls stay where they are.

How it is played here

  • Halls differ in how a game of four-ball has to be finished: many ask for the last point to be made off three cushions. Here every point is scored the same way.
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Try it, free

The demo is 8-ball in the Classic Room, with its whole spoken tutorial, a practice table and a computer player, for Windows, Linux and macOS. The full game will be sold only on Steam, at $12.99.

Get the free demoScreenshots