My friend David Klein has the following to say about the flipping game that I mentioned in the Monkey post (my comments in italics):
Assume the game is laid out as follows:
ABC
DEF
GHI
JKL
Each location is either flipped up or down. Each move consists of selecting a location (e.g. B) and flipping both that location as well as all orthogonally adjacent locations (for B, this would mean locations B as well as A, C, and E). Your job is to flip them all up (or down) in the least number of moves.
The game is always solvable. Indeed, working from the bottom row upwards, it is trivial to bring all of them face up, except for the top row, which leaves only 2^3 possible "games". There are 12 "operators" corresponding to selecting one of the 12 positions to flip. It is trivial to see that these operators are commutative and idempotent (i.e. doing an operator twice is the identity and has no effect). Thus any sequence of moves is equivalent to choosing for each of the 12 operators to apply it either zero or one times, i.e. there are 2^12 different move sequences. If none of them repeat, then we can reach all 2^12 different board positions. If one board position repeats, then applying the two sequences one after another gives the identity position. I.e. there is a non-trivial sequence which is the identity. Performing Gaussian elimination on the transformation matrix shows that this can't occur. Indeed, the sequence to flip only A is
ABDFHIL
only B is
ABCGHIK
and only C is
BCDFGHJ
In other words, In any sequence of flips to solve the game, no piece ever has to be chosen twice, because a twice-chosen piece simply undoes what the first flip series did. You will never have ...B....B... to solve this puzzle. That means that any board can be completely solved in 12 moves or less!
To understand why you only need to know how to solve A, B, and C, consider the following:
To solve the bottom three pieces J, K, and L, you only have to flip some from the third row of pieces G, H, and I. To solve the third row, flip the second row. To solve the second row, flip the first row. That means that you will always be left with some combination of A, B, and C to finish up. Add the corresponding sequences to the flips, and you finish the puzzle.
Now, to get the smallest number of steps, add all of these flips together in a row, sort, cancel all even pairs, and the result is your solution.
Let me show you how to solve the case where only L is flipped and I think the rest will be clear:
ABC
DEF
GHI
JKl
On the bottom (4th) row, only L is flipped. Flip I to get it right:
ABC
DEf
Ghi
JKL
On the 3rd row, H&I are flipped. Flip E&F to get them right.
Abc
dEf
GHI
JKL
On the 2nd row D&F are flipped, flip A&C to get them right
abC
DEF
GHI
JKL
The sequence so far is IEFAC
That leaves only A&B flipped. The sequences to fix them were given previously as
ABDFHIL and ABCGHIK
The full sequence is then
IEFACABDFHILABCGHIK
sorting and cancelling even pairs we get
ADEGIKL
I also asked about the solution for an NxM board:
As to an NxM board: The matrix is (NxM) on (NxM) and solving the matrix equation for any right hand side (i.e. original configuration) takes about (NxM)^3/3 operations (This can probably be done much more efficiently as the matrix is sparse). Note: I haven't proved yet that the matrix is non-singular for all N and M. In any case, if it is singular, the Gaussian elimination process will detect it and generate the configuration which is not solvable.
Yehuda
Update: fixed math logic. I originally wrote that you should apply "uniq" after sorting moves, but the correct function is to include a move once if there are an odd number of those moves in the sequence and not include it at all if there are an even number.
Technorati tags: board games, board game, abstract game, abstract games
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Session Report Up
The latest session report from the JSGC is here. Games played: AD&D 2nd ed., Shadows Over Camelot.
Linkety Link
I don't usually mention computer games, but I can't pass up the opportunity to mention Peacemaker:
Peacemaker is a competition entry in a new old concept in computer games called serious games. The competition is the Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds competition. (via CNET).
For another boardgames mixed with tech link, you can play 20 questions with a growing AI machine at 20Q.net. Whenever you beat the machine, it just gets smarter.
I also just came across this episode of Knights of the Dinner Table where they ditch their usual Hackmaster for a go at Formula Dé.
Yehuda
Technorati tags: board games, board game, Peacemaker, games, game
PeaceMaker is a one-player game in which the player can choose to take the role of either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President. The player must react to in-game events, from diplomatic negotiations to military attacks, and interact with eight other political leaders and social groups in order to establish a stable resolution to the conflict before his or her term in office ends.
Peacemaker is a competition entry in a new old concept in computer games called serious games. The competition is the Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds competition. (via CNET).
For another boardgames mixed with tech link, you can play 20 questions with a growing AI machine at 20Q.net. Whenever you beat the machine, it just gets smarter.
I also just came across this episode of Knights of the Dinner Table where they ditch their usual Hackmaster for a go at Formula Dé.
Yehuda
Technorati tags: board games, board game, Peacemaker, games, game
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Metamorphosis
On the way to a bat-mitzvah with Rachel, I found myself suddenly transformed into a monkey.
"There, there, my nice monkey," crooned Rachel. She patted my arm and kissed me on the cheek. "Let's just have a good time, and try to be interested in other people and not only talk about games."
I tried to answer, "Yes! Yes, I will, my darling! I will be both considerate and erudite!" But I found that I could not speak properly, and it all came out sounding like gibberish: "Game! Play! Dice! Blog!" My wife understood what I said, because she was used to this sort of thing.
The bat-mitzvah was in a lovely restaurant, the Taverna in Abu Gosh, Jerusalem. We found our seats at the designated table. I found it hard to sit with my new tail, so I wrapped it around myself, with my feet on the chair, hunched over my plate. There were some people next to me whom I didn't know. I tried to introduce myself, but it came out as more gibberish: "Play! Games! Boards! Blog!" They shook their heads and continued talking around me, while I grumbled to myself, "Games. Dice."
I retreated into my simian self, looking around at the humans with my beady eyes from under my dark bushy eyebrows.
Soon I saw some shiny objects on the table. I looked around, but no one else was looking at me; they were talking about someone's hair, the bat-mitzvah girl's dress, the wine.
Under the flower arrangements on each table were strewn a number of dark blue glass beads, the same type that I bought to use for my game prototypes. I looked around again, and then slowly reached out with my tail and grabbed one. No one seemed to be disturbed, so I grabbed some more until I had twelve in total. Lovely blue beads, they were flat on one side and domed on the other side.
Well, this was something. What can one do with twelve beads?
Someone was speaking I think, but I didn't notice. I had twelve beads. Oh, happy day!
First I lined up the beads in a row. I can count in binary. My age: first bead, third bead, and sixth bead. That was fun. What else?
I arranged a triangle with ten of the beads. I then told the woman across from me, "Look! A triangle! You can turn the triangle upside down by only moving three beads! Watch!" But it came out all garbled: "Game! Play! Puzzle! Beads!". Rachel slapped my hand, and said, "Bad monkey! Don't make noises during the speech!" I yipped and put my hands over my head, pulling my lip.
After the speech ended, I tried again, speaking to the woman across from me. "Look! Here's a game. One person secretly throw the beads onto a table where the others can't see. You pick up the ones that landed flat side up and you put them in your hand, hiding the others. Then you say that you have at least N beads. The other person can accept what you said, or challenge you. If they challenge you, then if you told the truth, you get a point. If you lied, the challenger gets a point. If they accept what you said, you hand them the beads and they have to name a greater number to the next player. And so on until the end of the players. See? Using 12 beads, you can simulate a game called Liar's Dice."
Of course, what she heard was: "Game! Beads! Number! Dice! Play!" and so on. She shook her head and said that she doesn't play games, and offered me a banana. I reached for it, but Rachel took it and said that I could have it at the end of the evening if I was good.
So I sat mumbling to myself some more. "Game. Play. Beads." I took the beads and randomly place them in a 3 by 4 row, up or down as they came out. Then I played the flipping game. You choose a bead and then flip that bead as well as all other orthogonally adjacent beads. The object is to end up with all beads up or down. I'm not sure if it can be proven to always have a solution.
But apparently someone had been speaking again, and Rachel potched me again. I howled and jumped up onto the floor, running around in circles with my hands over my head. Luckily, the father of the bat-mitzvah girl thought that I was starting a dance, so everyone came onto the floor to dance, holding their hands over their head and howling.
I escaped while the dancing was still going on. The woman was still sitting across from me.
I tried again. "Four people can each take 3 beads. They secretly select 1, 2, or 3 beads, and hold them out. Reveal simultaneously. Any duplicate numbers are eliminated, and the highest remaining number wins."
She understood some of that. She said that it sounded like paper-rock-scissors. And anyway, she didn't play games. So she went back to talking to her husband. I muttered to myself, "Games. Play. Beads."
I set up a goal halfway across the table, and played three bead football. You start with three beads in a row. You flick one forwards. Each subsequent flick, you have to pass one of the beads in between the other two, without the beads ever touching. You score by landing a bead into your opponent's goal (say, two fingers). I was using our placement card as the goal. The placement card was a card with our name and table number folded in half, so it stood up like a pup-tent on the table. I managed to hit the goal, but the bead went over it and landed on the other side.
Sayyy...
I set up a water glass on the other side of the placement card, with the placement card set up like a ramp. Then I lined up four beads touching each other and aimed at the placement card. I placed my finger on the first one, and slammed one of my beads into the one I was holding with my finger. The energy passed through to the last bead which shot out, hit the goal, went flying over the placement card and the water glass and landed unnoticed into the woman's cleavage.
Eep! I jumped up and down on my chair and started reaching for the woman, but just then Rachel came back from dancing. She found me casually carving my food with a fork and knife in each hand, a roll held by my right foot, and a glass of wine held with my tail.
"Have you been a good monkey? Yes, you have!" she told me, nuzzling my cheek. Mmmm, I love Rachel. She stroked my tail. I tried to stroke her tail, but I forgot she didn't have one and she batted my hand away.
More speeches. I arranged the beads to form my initials. There were fireworks outside because it was Independence Day, so I arranged the beads to be fireworks. I arranged the beads to look like a computer on top of the placement card, and began to type on the little beads. Rachel rolled her eyes.
I made a coded message using the rules that I had sent in for a game design contest. Then I played the coded message game with the woman across from me. The idea is that you arrange the beads in a particular way, and then ask her to guess what number the arrangement represents. She guesses, and you say (usually) that it is a different number. You then rearrange the beads and do it again. She is supposed to detect the pattern, all the while accusing you of making it all up, because the pattern seems to make no sense.
The trick is that, along with the bead arrangement, you also leave between one to ten fingertips showing on the edge of the table near the bead pattern. These fingertips are in plain view. The number of fingertips in view is actually the correct number. However, most people will take a long time before they notice that it is not the beads that really count. You only told them to "look at this arrangement" and tell you what number it is. It is a fun trick once people realize they have been had.
The woman said that she might try it out on her kids. I was so happy that I danced around on my chair.
It was getting time for desert, when I realized that since I had a set of double sided stones, effectively, that I could play almost any game that had two color pieces, like Checkers or Othello, if only I had enough pieces. I quickly reached for the rest of the pieces under the flowerpot, but to my horror I managed to upset the flowers.
I jumped up to catch them, but in the process knocked over Rachel onto the floor. Stepping over Rachel, I managed to catch the flowers, only to find myself standing in the middle of the floor holding a flowerpot. Luckily for me, the father of the bat-mitzvah girl thought that I was starting another dance, so everyone came onto the floor to dance, holding a flowerpot.
I snuck away from the dancing with my tail between my legs, only to come face to face with a red-faced and livid Rachel. "Banana?" I asked, hopefully.
She smoldered at me, until she finally shouted, "Bad monkey! No banana for you!"
Eep!
Yehuda
This tri-color game uses the merging on primary colors, similarly to a series of games that I invented.
Technorati tags: board game, board games, game humor, metmorphosis
"There, there, my nice monkey," crooned Rachel. She patted my arm and kissed me on the cheek. "Let's just have a good time, and try to be interested in other people and not only talk about games."
I tried to answer, "Yes! Yes, I will, my darling! I will be both considerate and erudite!" But I found that I could not speak properly, and it all came out sounding like gibberish: "Game! Play! Dice! Blog!" My wife understood what I said, because she was used to this sort of thing.
The bat-mitzvah was in a lovely restaurant, the Taverna in Abu Gosh, Jerusalem. We found our seats at the designated table. I found it hard to sit with my new tail, so I wrapped it around myself, with my feet on the chair, hunched over my plate. There were some people next to me whom I didn't know. I tried to introduce myself, but it came out as more gibberish: "Play! Games! Boards! Blog!" They shook their heads and continued talking around me, while I grumbled to myself, "Games. Dice."
I retreated into my simian self, looking around at the humans with my beady eyes from under my dark bushy eyebrows.
Soon I saw some shiny objects on the table. I looked around, but no one else was looking at me; they were talking about someone's hair, the bat-mitzvah girl's dress, the wine.
Under the flower arrangements on each table were strewn a number of dark blue glass beads, the same type that I bought to use for my game prototypes. I looked around again, and then slowly reached out with my tail and grabbed one. No one seemed to be disturbed, so I grabbed some more until I had twelve in total. Lovely blue beads, they were flat on one side and domed on the other side.
Well, this was something. What can one do with twelve beads?
Someone was speaking I think, but I didn't notice. I had twelve beads. Oh, happy day!
First I lined up the beads in a row. I can count in binary. My age: first bead, third bead, and sixth bead. That was fun. What else?
I arranged a triangle with ten of the beads. I then told the woman across from me, "Look! A triangle! You can turn the triangle upside down by only moving three beads! Watch!" But it came out all garbled: "Game! Play! Puzzle! Beads!". Rachel slapped my hand, and said, "Bad monkey! Don't make noises during the speech!" I yipped and put my hands over my head, pulling my lip.
After the speech ended, I tried again, speaking to the woman across from me. "Look! Here's a game. One person secretly throw the beads onto a table where the others can't see. You pick up the ones that landed flat side up and you put them in your hand, hiding the others. Then you say that you have at least N beads. The other person can accept what you said, or challenge you. If they challenge you, then if you told the truth, you get a point. If you lied, the challenger gets a point. If they accept what you said, you hand them the beads and they have to name a greater number to the next player. And so on until the end of the players. See? Using 12 beads, you can simulate a game called Liar's Dice."
Of course, what she heard was: "Game! Beads! Number! Dice! Play!" and so on. She shook her head and said that she doesn't play games, and offered me a banana. I reached for it, but Rachel took it and said that I could have it at the end of the evening if I was good.
So I sat mumbling to myself some more. "Game. Play. Beads." I took the beads and randomly place them in a 3 by 4 row, up or down as they came out. Then I played the flipping game. You choose a bead and then flip that bead as well as all other orthogonally adjacent beads. The object is to end up with all beads up or down. I'm not sure if it can be proven to always have a solution.
But apparently someone had been speaking again, and Rachel potched me again. I howled and jumped up onto the floor, running around in circles with my hands over my head. Luckily, the father of the bat-mitzvah girl thought that I was starting a dance, so everyone came onto the floor to dance, holding their hands over their head and howling.
I escaped while the dancing was still going on. The woman was still sitting across from me.
I tried again. "Four people can each take 3 beads. They secretly select 1, 2, or 3 beads, and hold them out. Reveal simultaneously. Any duplicate numbers are eliminated, and the highest remaining number wins."
She understood some of that. She said that it sounded like paper-rock-scissors. And anyway, she didn't play games. So she went back to talking to her husband. I muttered to myself, "Games. Play. Beads."
I set up a goal halfway across the table, and played three bead football. You start with three beads in a row. You flick one forwards. Each subsequent flick, you have to pass one of the beads in between the other two, without the beads ever touching. You score by landing a bead into your opponent's goal (say, two fingers). I was using our placement card as the goal. The placement card was a card with our name and table number folded in half, so it stood up like a pup-tent on the table. I managed to hit the goal, but the bead went over it and landed on the other side.
Sayyy...
I set up a water glass on the other side of the placement card, with the placement card set up like a ramp. Then I lined up four beads touching each other and aimed at the placement card. I placed my finger on the first one, and slammed one of my beads into the one I was holding with my finger. The energy passed through to the last bead which shot out, hit the goal, went flying over the placement card and the water glass and landed unnoticed into the woman's cleavage.
Eep! I jumped up and down on my chair and started reaching for the woman, but just then Rachel came back from dancing. She found me casually carving my food with a fork and knife in each hand, a roll held by my right foot, and a glass of wine held with my tail.
"Have you been a good monkey? Yes, you have!" she told me, nuzzling my cheek. Mmmm, I love Rachel. She stroked my tail. I tried to stroke her tail, but I forgot she didn't have one and she batted my hand away.
More speeches. I arranged the beads to form my initials. There were fireworks outside because it was Independence Day, so I arranged the beads to be fireworks. I arranged the beads to look like a computer on top of the placement card, and began to type on the little beads. Rachel rolled her eyes.
I made a coded message using the rules that I had sent in for a game design contest. Then I played the coded message game with the woman across from me. The idea is that you arrange the beads in a particular way, and then ask her to guess what number the arrangement represents. She guesses, and you say (usually) that it is a different number. You then rearrange the beads and do it again. She is supposed to detect the pattern, all the while accusing you of making it all up, because the pattern seems to make no sense.
The trick is that, along with the bead arrangement, you also leave between one to ten fingertips showing on the edge of the table near the bead pattern. These fingertips are in plain view. The number of fingertips in view is actually the correct number. However, most people will take a long time before they notice that it is not the beads that really count. You only told them to "look at this arrangement" and tell you what number it is. It is a fun trick once people realize they have been had.
The woman said that she might try it out on her kids. I was so happy that I danced around on my chair.
It was getting time for desert, when I realized that since I had a set of double sided stones, effectively, that I could play almost any game that had two color pieces, like Checkers or Othello, if only I had enough pieces. I quickly reached for the rest of the pieces under the flowerpot, but to my horror I managed to upset the flowers.
I jumped up to catch them, but in the process knocked over Rachel onto the floor. Stepping over Rachel, I managed to catch the flowers, only to find myself standing in the middle of the floor holding a flowerpot. Luckily for me, the father of the bat-mitzvah girl thought that I was starting another dance, so everyone came onto the floor to dance, holding a flowerpot.
I snuck away from the dancing with my tail between my legs, only to come face to face with a red-faced and livid Rachel. "Banana?" I asked, hopefully.
She smoldered at me, until she finally shouted, "Bad monkey! No banana for you!"
Eep!
Yehuda
This tri-color game uses the merging on primary colors, similarly to a series of games that I invented.
Technorati tags: board game, board games, game humor, metmorphosis
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
March and April Gaming at the JSGC
It seems I forgot to sum up March, so here it is combined with April. As usual, this list includes only games played at the club, not those that I played personally. Information about all of these games can be found at BoardGameGeek.
AD&D 2nd edition - By request of my players, I volunteered to be the DM, and then threw them into a harsh bitter world with no resources, and no memory. After getting imprisoned, they lost more than half the party trying in their escape. We shall see what happens next.
Age of Steam - I love this game, although it is longer than we can typically manage in a game night.
Aladdin's Dragons - This was a cute blind bidding game, but a bit over the top as far as fiddly. I'm willing to play again.
Amun Re x 2 - A standby for the group, although not my favorite.
Anagrams - I love this game, but it is not for the group.
Apples 2 Apples - Played just to demonstrate it. It is not for gamers. Seems to amuse only non-gamers and teenagers.
Bridge x 9 - The great card game, most of the players in our group are still at a basic level. We occasionally play this as a filler.
Carcassonne: The Princess and the Dragon - Played by two kids on Games Day, I didn't see anything.
Clans - Another one that I haven't played yet. Seems to be a very quick game.
Cribbage - As a filler, and can even be played with someone who is playing something else at the same time.
Davinci Code - Another one I didn't play.
Dvonn - Not played enough. Not as accessible as Yinsh, but a very nice game once you get past the learning curve.
El Grande - A staple game, a bit on the long side.
Geschenkt x 2 - A staple filler.
Go x 2 - Definitely not played enough. When it is played, it is still played on the 9x9 board, although I'm thinking of moving up to the 11x11 board soon.
Goldland - Another one I didn't play.
Havoc - A staple medium length game. It has the nice ability to be shortened if necessary, and it is easy to teach.
Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation x 8 - A staple short two-player game, it surprises me that this game is still enjoyable.
Louis XIV - A staple game.
Magic: The Gathering x 3 - I love this game, but it has a high learning curve, so I only play it when my friend David makes it to the group.
Maharaja - I think this is a nice game, but it suffers from an appallingly bad end-game due to its all or nothing victory condition. I am thinking about how to fix it.
Maneater x 2 - A very slight game that doesn't really work with more than two players, in my opinion.
Medina - A medium length game, it was ok, but not brilliant.
Menorah Game x 4 - A staple short to medium length 2-4 player filler.
Modern Art x 2 - A staple medium to main length game for 4-5 players. Very psychological. Fun.
Oh Hell - A filler game, probably won't be played much.
Power Grid x 5 - A staple main game, just on this side of being too long.
Primordial Soup - A staple main game, just on the other side of being too long. Also suffers from a runaway leader problem as the gap grows too wide.
Princes of Florence x 2 - A staple game. It still seems strange to me that a game this calm can be so good.
Puerto Rico x 2 - The one and only staple game. Played a little less frequently, only because we play it so much outside the group, too.
Railway Rivals - A short rail connection game.
Saint Petersburg - A deeply flawed game, fun only for one or two playings.
San Juan x 4 - A staple short to medium length game. Not that deep, really.
San Marco - A mid length game. I think its fun, but others think it is average.
Santiago - An excellent mid-length game. I only got to play this once, but I very much want to play again.
Santorini - A very short two player game, flawed with three players. I received a complimentary copy from the designer, and I owe him a full length review.
Set x 3 - A very short interruptible filler game.
Settlers of Catan - A staple game for new players.
Settlers of the Stone Age - Played on Games Day, I have no other information, but it looks to be about as complex as Starfarers.
Ticket to Ride - A slightly dull game for new players, in our group's opinion, but others apparently feel differently.
Tigris and Euphrates x 2 - I love this game, but only a few like it as much as I do in our group, while others think it is too complicated.
Twilight Imperium III - Looked interesting, but way too long for our group.
World of Warcraft - Looked interesting, but way too long for our group.
Yinsh x 3 - A staple two-player filler.
Yehuda
Techorati tags: board game, board games
AD&D 2nd edition - By request of my players, I volunteered to be the DM, and then threw them into a harsh bitter world with no resources, and no memory. After getting imprisoned, they lost more than half the party trying in their escape. We shall see what happens next.
Age of Steam - I love this game, although it is longer than we can typically manage in a game night.
Aladdin's Dragons - This was a cute blind bidding game, but a bit over the top as far as fiddly. I'm willing to play again.
Amun Re x 2 - A standby for the group, although not my favorite.
Anagrams - I love this game, but it is not for the group.
Apples 2 Apples - Played just to demonstrate it. It is not for gamers. Seems to amuse only non-gamers and teenagers.
Bridge x 9 - The great card game, most of the players in our group are still at a basic level. We occasionally play this as a filler.
Carcassonne: The Princess and the Dragon - Played by two kids on Games Day, I didn't see anything.
Clans - Another one that I haven't played yet. Seems to be a very quick game.
Cribbage - As a filler, and can even be played with someone who is playing something else at the same time.
Davinci Code - Another one I didn't play.
Dvonn - Not played enough. Not as accessible as Yinsh, but a very nice game once you get past the learning curve.
El Grande - A staple game, a bit on the long side.
Geschenkt x 2 - A staple filler.
Go x 2 - Definitely not played enough. When it is played, it is still played on the 9x9 board, although I'm thinking of moving up to the 11x11 board soon.
Goldland - Another one I didn't play.
Havoc - A staple medium length game. It has the nice ability to be shortened if necessary, and it is easy to teach.
Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation x 8 - A staple short two-player game, it surprises me that this game is still enjoyable.
Louis XIV - A staple game.
Magic: The Gathering x 3 - I love this game, but it has a high learning curve, so I only play it when my friend David makes it to the group.
Maharaja - I think this is a nice game, but it suffers from an appallingly bad end-game due to its all or nothing victory condition. I am thinking about how to fix it.
Maneater x 2 - A very slight game that doesn't really work with more than two players, in my opinion.
Medina - A medium length game, it was ok, but not brilliant.
Menorah Game x 4 - A staple short to medium length 2-4 player filler.
Modern Art x 2 - A staple medium to main length game for 4-5 players. Very psychological. Fun.
Oh Hell - A filler game, probably won't be played much.
Power Grid x 5 - A staple main game, just on this side of being too long.
Primordial Soup - A staple main game, just on the other side of being too long. Also suffers from a runaway leader problem as the gap grows too wide.
Princes of Florence x 2 - A staple game. It still seems strange to me that a game this calm can be so good.
Puerto Rico x 2 - The one and only staple game. Played a little less frequently, only because we play it so much outside the group, too.
Railway Rivals - A short rail connection game.
Saint Petersburg - A deeply flawed game, fun only for one or two playings.
San Juan x 4 - A staple short to medium length game. Not that deep, really.
San Marco - A mid length game. I think its fun, but others think it is average.
Santiago - An excellent mid-length game. I only got to play this once, but I very much want to play again.
Santorini - A very short two player game, flawed with three players. I received a complimentary copy from the designer, and I owe him a full length review.
Set x 3 - A very short interruptible filler game.
Settlers of Catan - A staple game for new players.
Settlers of the Stone Age - Played on Games Day, I have no other information, but it looks to be about as complex as Starfarers.
Ticket to Ride - A slightly dull game for new players, in our group's opinion, but others apparently feel differently.
Tigris and Euphrates x 2 - I love this game, but only a few like it as much as I do in our group, while others think it is too complicated.
Twilight Imperium III - Looked interesting, but way too long for our group.
World of Warcraft - Looked interesting, but way too long for our group.
Yinsh x 3 - A staple two-player filler.
Yehuda
Techorati tags: board game, board games
Monday, May 01, 2006
I spoke too soon: more on patented board games
What is so egregious about the patent I described in the previous post is that the "new" idea is simply the theme of a board game about pregnancy. This is not only obvious, but has prior art. But in order to make the patent pass, the submitter had to describe the mechanism, since patents apply to mechanisms, not ideas. So the mechanism was a board game with spaces representing stages of pregnancy. Whoop-de-do.
I headed over to the patent site to see what other nonsense is being patented. I thought I was prepared for anything, but I was shocked. Here are the latest patent applications for board and card games:
7029281: A card game where the cards have questions and answers. You pick a card in someone else's hand, and if you guess the right answer to the question, you get the card. If you get a certain number of cards, you win.
7029010: The game of Oh Hell, except scoring is on a pegboard with a picture of donuts and some dice.
7025353: A horse racing trivia game, where you answer a question after rolling the dice and landing on a space.
7025352 : A game that looks like a book when folded, and is a roll and move game based on a book.
7021629: A card game with 28 cards each with a letter of the alphabet and a star. Players form words until one person can't.
7021628: An 18x18 checkerboard.
7021627: A roll and move set collection trading game.
7021626: A roll and move game purporting to teach the spiritual biblical rules to personal financial success.
7032902: A poker variant, where you divide three cards into two piles.
7029011: A poker variant, where a jackpot is awarded to people who folded if remaining players exceed some limit.
7017910: A deck of cards with words like "I need" or "I"m sorry about" that is supposed to be a social ice breaker.
And that is only from April, 2006!
These are non-obvious "mechanisms"? Patents exist so that someone who comes up with a unique and non-obvious new mechanism is encouraged to share it with society. Patenting these is going to encourage creative production in our society?
Yehuda
Techorati tags: patents, patent, IP, intillectual property, board game, board games, card game, card games
I headed over to the patent site to see what other nonsense is being patented. I thought I was prepared for anything, but I was shocked. Here are the latest patent applications for board and card games:
7029281: A card game where the cards have questions and answers. You pick a card in someone else's hand, and if you guess the right answer to the question, you get the card. If you get a certain number of cards, you win.
7029010: The game of Oh Hell, except scoring is on a pegboard with a picture of donuts and some dice.
7025353: A horse racing trivia game, where you answer a question after rolling the dice and landing on a space.
7025352 : A game that looks like a book when folded, and is a roll and move game based on a book.
7021629: A card game with 28 cards each with a letter of the alphabet and a star. Players form words until one person can't.
7021628: An 18x18 checkerboard.
7021627: A roll and move set collection trading game.
7021626: A roll and move game purporting to teach the spiritual biblical rules to personal financial success.
7032902: A poker variant, where you divide three cards into two piles.
7029011: A poker variant, where a jackpot is awarded to people who folded if remaining players exceed some limit.
7017910: A deck of cards with words like "I need" or "I"m sorry about" that is supposed to be a social ice breaker.
And that is only from April, 2006!
These are non-obvious "mechanisms"? Patents exist so that someone who comes up with a unique and non-obvious new mechanism is encouraged to share it with society. Patenting these is going to encourage creative production in our society?
Yehuda
Techorati tags: patents, patent, IP, intillectual property, board game, board games, card game, card games
Stupid patent for a board game
Patents and board games: two of my favorite subjects. If it was an Israeli board game, I would have hit the jackpot.
Via DaddyTypes comes a link to another board game that actually has a patent. The game is "Who's Having this Baby Anyway?" (which, if I recall correctly, I actually added to the BGG database about a year ago), and the patent is for a board game "which educates and entertains expectant parents, family members, friends, health care providers, and players about pregnancy, labor, and childbirth."
The patent claims that there is no prior art for this. Never mind the fact that the patent idea is simply an idea: a board game about pregnancy. Wooo. Big original, non-obvious, complex idea there. The game itself is a simple roll, move, draw a card game.
In other news, there is a national competition for toy and game designing, including board games, called Toy Challenge. It is in two parts, one of which just finished in San Diego, and the other of which is on May 6 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. It is for 5th - 8th graders.
And Endless Games introduces Your Best Life Now, the evangelical Christian boardgame. Thanks for being better than this, Tom. (via Thinklings)
Yehuda
Techorati tags: patents, patent, IP, intillectual property, board game, board games
Via DaddyTypes comes a link to another board game that actually has a patent. The game is "Who's Having this Baby Anyway?" (which, if I recall correctly, I actually added to the BGG database about a year ago), and the patent is for a board game "which educates and entertains expectant parents, family members, friends, health care providers, and players about pregnancy, labor, and childbirth."
The patent claims that there is no prior art for this. Never mind the fact that the patent idea is simply an idea: a board game about pregnancy. Wooo. Big original, non-obvious, complex idea there. The game itself is a simple roll, move, draw a card game.
In other news, there is a national competition for toy and game designing, including board games, called Toy Challenge. It is in two parts, one of which just finished in San Diego, and the other of which is on May 6 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. It is for 5th - 8th graders.
And Endless Games introduces Your Best Life Now, the evangelical Christian boardgame. Thanks for being better than this, Tom. (via Thinklings)
Yehuda
Techorati tags: patents, patent, IP, intillectual property, board game, board games
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