HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cam@ritcsh.csh.rit.edu (Christopher A. Meaker)
Subject: Terrace
Originator: cam@nick.csh.rit.edu
Organization: Computer Science House @ RIT
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 01:12:10 GMT

01234567
11234566
22234555
33334444
44443333
55543222
66543211
76543210

Now place semisphere pieces along opposite sides.  The pieces being in four
different sizes and four different colors, four players can play at once! 
The set up of the pieces vaires for two or four player versions but then each
player has one of the smallest pieces with a 'T' in it and is trying to get
their 'T' to the low point opposite them, or capture the other persons 'T'.
Capturing can only be done by moving diagonaly down on a piece of the same or
smaller size.  You can move to any open postion on the same terrace that does
not require jumping over an oponents piece.  You can move up on space diagonally
or straight.  You can move down one level straight only.
That's it.  What do you think wanna play an e-mail game?

 



Chris Meaker                                   Virtual Reality
cam@nick.csh.rit.edu
VR LSD group                               The Future Is Aout A Month Away!
Computer Sience House
Rocheseter Instittute of Technology                 :D

Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: urban@sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov (Michael Urban)
Subject: Re: TWIXT: rules
Reply-To: urban@sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov (Michael Urban)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 23:07:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.185532.17147@pellns.alleg.edu> neilb@scs.leeds.ac.uk (Neil Bowers) writes:
>
>Twixt is a game that was released as a board game by Avalon Hill in the 60s.

Not quite true.  Twixt was released (in the late 1960s) as one of a
series of about a half dozen `bookshelf' games by -- of all people --
3M.  That's the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, the people
who give you PostIt(tm) notes and Scotch Tape.  Their line of games
was quite good, and included Ploy (a chesslike thing), Oh-Wah-Ree (one
flavor of Mancala), Acquire (hotel chains) and Feudal (another
chesslike thing).  They also had a line of smaller games including Sid
Sackson's excellent `Sleuth', and some sports-themed games including
(the only one I own) `Win, Place, and Show'.  This was not a terribly
successful enterprise -- 3M was not really in a position to market
boardgames -- and eventually Avalon Hill bought them out.  AH still
markets some of these, but the physical quality is not nearly as nice
as the old 3M editions.


	Mike Urban

	urban@cobra.jpl.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Q: group focus
From: tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn)
Date: 10 Nov 1992 17:06:47 GMT
Organization: California State University, Chico
NNTP-Posting-Host: hairball.ecst.csuchico.edu

Anthony Howe writes:
>could the discussion of game components and design such as game themes, 
>scenarios, algorithms, and heuristics also be covered?

There currently exists a game design board, rec.games.design, where I
believe these matters should go.  The algorithms and heuristics of
existing games, provided they qualify as abstract (no hidden knowledge,
no chance or luck involved) may go here, it is depended on the response
generated.

Evidently tic-tac-toe is generating a goodly response.  I always thought
4x4x4 was a 'fair' game...

-- 
You can't carve your way to success without cutting remarks.
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: positron@engin.umich.edu (Jonathan Scott Haas)
Subject: Re: What???
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 03:31:29 EST
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <tgee.721365643@cunews> tgee@alfred.carleton.ca (Travis Gee) writes:
>
>4-D tic-tac-toe has been invented, but
>never played. It is a *truly* abstract game (-:

Ahem... I beg to differ. I've printed up some sheets of paper with a
4x4x4x4 grid on them and played some quite enjoyable games of 4-D tic-tac-toe.
(As someone has already pointed out, 3x3x3 and 3x3x3x3 tic-tac-toe are
sure wins for the first player... 4x4x4 and 4x4x4x4 are not, though)
(Actually, there's a simple proof that *any* variation of tic-tac-toe is
either a sure draw or a sure win for the first player)

-- 
__/\__  Jonathan S. Haas         | Jake liked his women the way he liked
\    /  University of Michigan   | his kiwi fruit: sweet yet tart, firm-
/_  _\  positron@engin.umich.edu | fleshed yet yielding to the touch, and
  \/                             | covered with short brown fuzzy hair.
From: lapj_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Jason LaPierre)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Kalah - Complete Rules
Date: 13 Nov 92 18:25:22 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

In <92316.114404JAR129@psuvm.psu.edu> JAR129@psuvm.psu.edu (Jeff Raven) writes:

>Kalah is played on a board made of fourteen pits, arranged like this :


>                            Player Two
>       Two's             X  X  X  X  X  X         One's
>     scoring pit ->   X                    X <- scoring pit
>                         X  X  X  X  X  X
>                            Player One


>After you have finished your move, your opponent moves, with play
>alternating betwteen the players. Play continues until there are no
>stones on one side of the board. 

It is my understandind that play ends if a player has no stones and it is
his/her turn. If on my last move my last stone does not land in my scoring
pit or kalah (I believe this is called a "halak"), leaving me with no
stones, the game is not over. If the other player does not transfer any
stones to my side however, I can no longer make a move, THEN play ends.

Another way I was told that the game could end, though this could be wrong,
is if one player gets more than half the stones in his scoring pit. At this
point the winner is already known, but maybe play continues in order to see
how close a score can be achieved. Please correct me if this is incorrect.

>At this point, the player with stones
>remaining takes all of the stones from his pits and places them in his
>scoring pit. The winner is the player with the most stones in his score
>pit.

>As someone noted earlier, there is a computer program available for IBM
>PCs, KALAKH.ZIP, which is available at most IBM game archives. (Last
>place I saw it was in the games directory of wuarchive's umich mirror.)

>If anything's not clear about the rules, feel free to ask.

I do have one other rule question. If the last stone I place lands in an
empty pit on my side (a capture normally) and there are no stones in the
opposite pit, does my stone go into my scoring pit?


Just my $0.02.

------------------------------------------------
Jason LaPierre  lapj_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: pra@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pedl Rau)
Subject: Re: MAO (was Re: Nomic (was Game))
Organization: AIFB, University of Karlsruhe (Germany)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 09:42:45 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.064815.23373@dsd.es.com>, rjones@itchy.dsd.es.com
(Ray Jones - Perp) writes:
> The game is called MAO.  It was invented the summer of 1988 (I think)
> at Harvard during a convention of the Mu Alpha Theta (Math, or MAO if
> you drop the bar on the Theta) group.  

The game you call 'Mao' is known in Europe for many years. In Germany it's
called 'Mau-Mau' - you have to say 'Mau' when playing your last but one card,
and 'Mau-Mau' when you play the last one.
I remember having played this some 20 years ago when I was a kid
(some say I still am ...).
But I don't think this is an abstract game!?

 Pedl
From: jerry@uni-paderborn.de (Gerald Siek)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Twixt rules
Date: 13 Nov 1992 11:26:26 GMT
Organization: University of Paderborn, Germany
Reply-To: jerry@uni-paderborn.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: planck-bb.uni-paderborn.de
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

G.J. McCaughan (gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote:
: 
: OK. You haven't stated the rules of Twixt, so I'm going to have to
: guess. 

Rules of Twixt:

The board looks like this:

	      BLACK
	  . . . . . . . .
	 +---------------+
	.|. . . . . . . .|.			.    = holes
	.|. . . . . . . .|.			- |  = borderlines
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
 RED    .|. . . . . . . .|.   RED
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
	.|. . . . . . . .|.
	 +---------------+
	  . . . . . . . .    <==== note that there are NO holes in the corners
	      BLACK

(The board is actually larger - 19x19 if I remember correctly)

Each player has an arbitrary number of towers (which fit into the holes)
and bridges which can connect two towers each.   All bridges have the same
size.

Red starts , players take their turns alternately.  When it's his move,
a player MUST place one tower into one hole.  Red may NOT use the holes
behind black's borderlines and vice versa.   After placing a tower, a
player may connect ANY number of towers as long as possible.  Towers may
be connected, if they are a knight's move apart (oh boy - excuse my English)
i.e.:

	. o . o .		The center tower (x) may be connected to
	o . . . o		any of the towers marked '*'
	. . X . . 
	o . . . o 
	. o . o . 

Two bridges may NOT cross each other regardless to which player they belong.
Bridges may NOT be removed once they have been placed.

The first player who connect two holes behind his left & right (upper & lower)
borderlines by bridge wins the game.

Anyone interested in a game of Twixt per e-mail?

Regards,
	Jerry
--
  Gerald Siek  -  jerry@uni-paderborn.de  -  University of Paderborn, Germany
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: boutell@isis.cshl.org (Tom Boutell)
Subject: New Game: Astoria
Organization: Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 02:48:06 GMT

The following is a new abstract board game, which I'm naming Astoria,
which I can do, because I came up with it and because my girlfriend
lives there, not that I need an excuse:

For any natural number n, Astoria is played on a 2nx2n grid of
rectangular spaces. Each of the 2 players has ((2n)^2)/2 pieces
(half as many as are needed to cover the board), of which half
are triangular, and half are circular.

Players alternate turns. On a turn, each player places one piece
on the board; if it is a triangle, he/she orients it toward one of the
four board sides (north, south, east, west). After placing a piece,
the player is required to "push."

The rules of pushing are as follows: the player selects a direction
to push, either north, south, east or west. For north and south
pushes, for all columns in which the player has the highest score,
all pieces are moved north (or south) one space; if a piece is
at the northernmost (southernmost) point, it is pushed off the
board and discarded. For east and west pushes, the analogous
rule is applied to rows. A player's score in a row (or column)
is the total number of circles that player has in that row (column)
plus 3 x the number of triangles that player has in that row
or column, *oriented in the direction of the push.* Triangles
not oriented in the direction of the push score no points.

A player must push, but may elect a direction in which he/she
does not have the greatest score in any row (or column,
as applicable), in which case no push takes place. 

Play alternates until all pieces have been placed on the board.
At the end of the game, the player with the most total pieces
remaining on the board (triangles and circles counting equally)
is the winner.

Typical n is 4, resulting in an 8x8 board. This is the size I've
experimented with.

... OK, guys 'n' gals, eat me alive. How trivially solvable
is this game?

Proving my own absurdity, I have already implemented a graphics-
based MSDOS version of it. Cutting out pieces never really
occurred to me. (:

-T
-- 
Tom Boutell, boutell@cshl.org

Clausthaler is the best non - alcoholic beer in the known universe.
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: allis@cs.rulimburg.nl (Victor Allis)
Subject: Re: Tic-Tac-Toe
Organization: University of Limburg, Maastricht
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 13:23:16 GMT

mjd@saul.cis.upenn.edu ("[*] The One True Cross") writes:

>In article <1992Nov10.162826.17312@husc15.harvard.edu> blom@husc15.harvard.edu writes:
>>   [2,2,infinity,5+] is a first-player win.

>Wrong.  n-in-a-row with two players on an infinite two-dimesional board
>is a draw for n>6.  I think that for n=6 the answer is not known.

In Winning Ways it is only proven that 9 or more in a row is a draw.
Actually, it is quite easy to prove that the pairing strategy cannot prove
that 6 to 8 in a row is a draw. You need more complicated patterns to
prove anything for 6 to 8 in a row.
Since Go-Moku (five-in-a-row) has recently been proven by my
computer program Victoria to be a first-player win,
6 to 8 are the only three cases still to be proven.

Personally, I am convinced that each of these are a draw.

Victor Allis.
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: blum@medici.ils.nwu.edu (Dan Blum)
Subject: Re: Game
Reply-To: blum@ils.nwu.edu
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:55:29 GMT

Hofstadter didn't invent it, he just described it in one of his
"Metamagical Themas" columns.  Does anyone know if the guy who DID
invent it ever published the book about it that he was supposed to be
working on?

--
_____________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum           Institute for the Learning Sciences   Room 327
blum@ils.nwu.edu   1890 Maple Ave., Evanston, IL 60201   708-467-2306

"Consider a spherical cow of uniform density..."
____________________________________________________________________
From: tuc@calico.cs.wisc.edu (Brian A. Cole)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Chess in non-euclidian space
Date: 11 Nov 92 19:23:42 GMT
Organization: U of Wisconsin Madison - Computer Sciences

royd@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Roy Daniel) writes:
] Take, for example, a game of chess where the right and left sides, and the up
]  and sides touch each other. It would be like playing chess on a sphere.

nope.  That would be like playing chess on a torus (a doughnut if you're
not up on your topology).  Same thing with screen-wrapping video games
such as Asteroids.

If you really want to play on a sphere, you could use a board like this: 

        a d c b b c d a
        g . . . . . . j
        f . . . . . . i
        e . . . . . . h
        e . . . . . . h
        f . . . . . . i
        g . . . . . . j
        a m l k k l m a

Where squares with the same letter touch (think of folding the corners up
so that they meet at the center).  This is actually much better than your
torus as far a chess is concerned, as the opposing kings don't start out
adjacent to each other, but the opening rook game is still a bit strange.

brian
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     _______    _____     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian A. Cole                 |_   _  |  |  ___|    Most people think disc golf
  tuc@cs.wisc.edu               | | | |__| |___     is a joke.    It is not.
  ...!uwvax!cs.wisc.edu!tuc     |_| |__________|    That gives us the element
                                                    of surprise.
From: jwp@chem.ucsd.edu (John Pierce)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: A proposed Usenet version of Nomic
Date: 12 Nov 92 00:36:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: network.1ds8tnINN6il
Organization: Chemistry Dept, UC San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: chedccf0.ucsd.edu

In article <BxKF1x.9qH@knot.ccs.queensu.ca> colley@qucis.queensu.ca (Paul Colley) writes:
 > 
 > Thus, I propose that the entire state of the game be kept in a single
 > posting.  When two people follow-up ....

Do I correctly presume that this is a joke?

-- John W Pierce, Chemistry, UC San Diego
   jpierce@ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: gordon@meiko.com (Gordon Henderson)
Subject: Re: Game
Organization: Meiko Scientific Corp.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:09:00 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.051709.14175@news.acns.nwu.edu> jcc@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jeremy Caplan) writes:
>There is a totally awesome game invented by Douglass Hofstadter called
>NOMIC where the game consists of making the rules for the game itself..
>
>Can be VERY amusing...
>
>or VERY syupid, depending on who plays and what kind of mood you're in.

Anyone remember Nightmare #6 for the Apple ][ ???

  The object of the game is to figure out the object of the game.
  You have 1000 points, your move:

I always wondered if there were (at least) 5 more of these out there,
as this was No. 6!

Gordon Henderson

Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: nicholso@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Melvin H. Nicholson YBH)
Subject: Re: E-mail Hnefatafl
Organization: NASA Ames Res. Ctr. Mtn Vw CA 94035
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 01:37:13 GMT


Yup.  Rules description is tough.  Here is a case you leave out...



Are these captures or not?


....X  ..X..
..OX.  ..OX.
.....  .....

-------------
....X  ..X..
..O..  ..O..
..X..  ..X..
-------------
....O  ..O..
..OKT  ..OKT
...O.  ...O.

Mel

.
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: s9874203@titan.ucc.umass.edu (s9874203)
Subject: Re: New Topic
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 15:14:11 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.051058.15154@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> npalmer@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Nicholas P Palmer) writes:
>
>New Topic New Topic
>

Here is what I want to know: suppose you play Chinese Checker, what do
think is a good strategy? How about (Western) Checker? I remember the
checker board is like chessboard and the piseces are placed diagonally,
right? Please post it. Thanks.

H. Yang
From: gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk (G.J. McCaughan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Let's start off with TWIXT (was Re: What???)
Date: 10 Nov 92 17:05:26 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

In article <8ezrLse00VpJEoqxgN@andrew.cmu.edu> "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>Anyway, to begin, has anybody started working towards a theory for the
>old AH game TWIXT?  I haven't been able to work on it because I suck at
>playing against myself with any kind of honesty, and I seem to be able
>to crush anybody else I play against by just starting off with this
>simple strategy and then playing reasonably until I win:
>
> [vague description of strategy]
>
>So, does anybody already know if this is a first- or second-player win?
>If not, how about some more data on how the game progresses during an
>even match?
>
>Also, I'm not going to attempt to describe this game called HexMeister,
>but I would like to hear from anyone who has heard of it and played it
>and found a way for the second player to be in any position other than
>totally hosed from the beginning of the game.  Thanks.

OK. You haven't stated the rules of Twixt, so I'm going to have to
guess. Play alternates, and a turn consists of placing one of your
pieces on an empty square. You win if you get a chain of your pieces
between the opposite sides of the square board that have been designated
as yours. Pieces that are diagonally adjacent are considered to be next
to each other when we define "chain". Is that right?

In that case, the game cannot end in a draw because if one player never 
gets a chain between his sides of the board then the other player must 
have a chain between his.

It now follows that the game is a first-player win, because one or other
player must have a winning strategy, and if it were the second player the
first player could play his first move at random and then play the second
player's winning strategy with an extra piece.

If I was wrong about the connectivity (if diagonals don't count, say) then
it might be possible to get a draw (say, if the players place pieecs in a
checkerboard pattern).

If HexMeister is a game like the above but played on a board of hexagons,
then again the game cannot end in a draw, and again it is therefore a win
for the first player.

None of this gives much help in finding a winning strategy, unfortunately.

-- 
Gareth McCaughan     Dept. of Pure Mathematics & Mathematical Statistics,
gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk  Cambridge University, England.    [Research student]
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: boutell@isis.cshl.org (Tom Boutell)
Subject: Re: Move
Organization: Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 15:56:03 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.134933.9137@genie.slhs.udel.edu> nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Nancy Lebovitz) writes:
>In article <DBH.92Nov12094822@wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk> dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Denis Howe) writes:
>>boutell@isis.cshl.org (Tom Boutell) wrote:
>>>King's pawn to queen's duck thirteen. Soprano.
>>
>>neilb@scs.leeds.ac.uk (Neil Bowers) wrote:
>>>Zebedee takes the staff car, with the candlestick!  Do not collect $200.
>>
>>In article <1dscpqINNd30@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> nate@cats.ucsc.edu
>>(Nathaniel Douglas Renwick) wrote:
>>>Ahh... but having forfeited your right to pluck the chicken, I have
>>>put sleeves on my vest.  Wrong number.
>>
>>Troglodyte (+2,-3,0) and double.
>Aleph null squared plus seventeen. You have control of the national debt.
I castle through Robert Abrams' corpse, yielding a surplus. 
Please remove your flatiron from Marvin Gardens.

-- 
Tom Boutell, boutell@cshl.org

Clausthaler is the best non - alcoholic beer in the known universe.
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: boutell@isis.cshl.org (Tom Boutell)
Subject: Nomic Game will Start Monday...
Organization: Cold Spring Harbor Labs
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:18:44 GMT

My email Nomic game, which is full, will begin on Monday. I have a busy
weekend ahead of me so that's best from my standpoint.

-T

-- 
Tom Boutell, boutell@cshl.org

Clausthaler is the best non - alcoholic beer in the known universe.
From: kmiyake@village.rutgers.edu (Keith Miyake)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Othello
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:24:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: village.Nov.12.13.24.21.1992.24960
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

brock@cs.UAlberta.CA (Mark Brockington) writes:
>cmspring@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Colin Springer) writes:

>>==========================
>>  Othello Puzzle #1:
>>   . o o o . x . .
>>   . . o x o x . .
>>   . x x o x o x .
>>   x x x x x x x .
>>   x x x x o x o o
>>   x x o o x o o .
>>   x . x o o x . .
>>   . x x x x x x . 
>>White (o) to play and win decisively ...

>>Where would YOU go?

>My program (and I) would probably play B2 in this situation

I was wondering how does play progress after a move to a3?

After this, a2 seems to be the followup move (to protect the corner),
which then lets white move to h4.

leaving:
 . o o o . x . .
 x . o x o x . .
 x x o o x o x .
 x o o o o o o o
 x x o x o x o o
 x x o o x o o .
 x . x o o x . .
 . x x x x x x . 


From this position, it looks like white will get all four corners.



Keith
-- 
kmiyake@cs.rutgers.edu
From: jplee@zeus.calpoly.edu (Jason Lee)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Abalone.
Keywords: abalone new game
Date: 13 Nov 92 00:33:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: zeus.1992Nov13.003340.154616
Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

In article <1992Nov11.165625.3218@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> ry32@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Vieser Christian (Gernert)) writes:
>In article <1992Nov11.103847.2400@panix.com>, rpowers@panix.com (Richard Powers) writes:
>|> Anyone here ever played Abalone? 
>|> 
>...
>...
>|> Abalone does exist as a marketed product, and can be bought for about $30
>|> (last time I looked).
>|> 
>
>Think, I've seen an shareware-Abalone for MS-Windows on some 
>(german??) ftp-site. It's for one or two players and the computer oppenent
>has several levels to play against.

If you know the site, could you post it?  Thx.
-- 
Jason Lee
email:  jplee@poseidon.calpoly.edu
GO ROCKIES 1993
Don Baylor for President!!!