Game: Crowded Checkers Crowded Checkers.zrf © 1999 by Bill Bahrenfuss The only difference between this variation and standard American checkers is in the opening position. Everything else remains the same. This is NOT International Checkers, which is also played on a 10x10 board. This variation is simply standard American checkers played on a bigger board. Because the board is bigger, you will have to plan further in advance. As in regular checkers, attack the opponent's weak squares in the upper left corner. Maintain control of the center. Because of the large board, a flanking maneuver along the sides may be more viable than on a standard 8 x 8 board. Checkers or "Draughts" has been played since medieval times, but was derived from a much older Arab game, "Alquerque". You should extract from the downloaded zip file preserving path names. Download Crowded Checkers Now!
Game: Crusade Game design and implementation by Keith Carter, May 2002. Hurrah and Loss sound files by W. D. Troyka and used with permission. The object of Crusade is to have the most pieces remaining when no more moves are possible. Click anywhere on the board to fill the board randomly with pieces for both players. Select a piece and drop it on any adjacent neighboring enemy piece. That enemy piece will be captured and all neighboring enemy pieces will be converted to friendly pieces. Please send comments and feedback to keith@tsongas.com. Download Crusade Now!
Game: Cube & AntiCube Invented and implemented by L. Lynn Smith, July 2001. These are simple placement puzzles played upon a 4x4x4 field. Cube: The object is to form a cube. That means that by placing any sphere, it forms a cube pattern with seven others. These cubes can be 2x2x2, 3x3x3 and even the one 4x4x4 pattern. Or form an orthogonal line of four spheres. AntiCube: The object is NOT to form a cube. That means that by placing any sphere, it does not form a cube pattern with seven others. These cubes can be 2x2x2, 3x3x3 and even the one 4x4x4 pattern. Also, do NOT form an orthogonal line of four spheres. So, be very very careful. Those lines and cubes can blindside you Download Cube & AntiCube Now!
Game: Damate Invented by V.R. Parton, 1961, Implemented by Peter Aronson, May 2001. Damate is a version of Checkers (Draughts) played with Chess pieces on a 10 x 10 board. The goal is to capture all of your opponent's pieces or to leave your opponent with no legal moves. Each Chess piece (except Knights, which are not used) has the similar noncapturing move as it does in Chess, but captures are either by short or long jump, and are required. A piece may make multiple captures in a turn, as in Checkers. Damate is a violent game, usually decided by a single massive capture series by a Major-Damate (Queen). Game of V.R. Parton (1961), taken from description in D.B. Pritchard's "Encyclopedia of Chess Variants". Note: Pritchard's description made no mention of promotion for the Pawn equivalents (Advancing-Damates). However, it seems unlikely that a game that contains elements of both Chess and Checkers would lack promotion. Accordingly, there are variants with and without promotion, with promotion being the default. Also, Pritchard says nothing about any requirement for a capturing sequence to capture the maximum number of pieces. Variants with and without are also supplied, but the default game is without since there seems to be no reason to assume that there was such a rule. Updated 12/29/01 corrected promotion rules; added setups. Download Damate Now!
Game: Dameo Dameo game & artwork © 2000-2001, by Christian Freeling, Croda © 1995, by Ljuban Dedic, implemented by Ed van Zon, February 2002 Dameo The object is to leave your opponent without a valid move, either by capturing all his pieces, or by blocking them completely. Draws may occur by mutual impotence or three-fold repetition of moves. A "line of men" means a straight unbroken orthogonal or diagonal line of men of the same color. A man or a line of men moves one square forward, either orthogonally or diagonally. A man ending its move on the opponent's back rank promotes to king. Kings move like Chess queens, any number of unobstructed squares orthogonally or diagonally. Although pieces may move diagonally, all captures follow horizontal and vertical (i.e. orthogonal) lines only. Men may capture forwards, backwards and sideways by the short leap. Kings may move queenwise, but they capture only rookwise, by the long leap. Capturing, whether by men or kings, is compulsory. Multiple captures may be made in the same turn. The captured pieces are only removed at the end of the turn, and it is not allowed to jump over the same piece twice in that turn, although vacant squares may be passed over more than once. Majority capture takes precedence: if a player has a choice of capturing options, he must choose the option that results in the largest number of pieces being captured (kings and men counting equally). Croda Included as a variant, even though the game precedes Dameo, is Croda, a draughts game invented in 1995 by Ljuban Dedic of Croatia, 1989 Checkers champion of former Yugoslavia. Croda actually was the inspiration to invent Dameo. Many things are equal between the two - apart from an other initial position, there are only some differences in movement. In Croda, there's no linear movement - a man only moves on his own. And a king moves as a rook in chess: any number of unobstructed squares orthogonally. All the other rules of Dameo equally apply to Croda. Download Dameo Now!
Game: Dao Designed by Jeff Pickering and Ben van Buskirk, © copyright 2001 PlayDAO.com Implemented by L. Lynn Smith, July 2001. A seemingly simple alignment game designed by Jeff Pickering and Ben van Buskirk. Two players begin with their pieces arranged in two seperate diagonals upon a 4x4 field. The object of the game is to move your pieces into a orthogonal alignment or to occupy the four corners or into a 2x2 square. Cornering an opponent's piece, blocking it in one of the four corners with three of your pieces, will lose you the game. The pieces move by sliding, diagonal or orthogonal, until they either reach the edge of the board or another piece blocks their travel. They cannot jump. They cannot capture. They only slide. Sound easy? Go ahead and give this game a go. Dao is the Way. Download Dao Now!
Game: Dara Nigerian game of the 19th century. Implemented by L. Lynn Smith, December 2001. Dara is played on a 5x6 board with two players. Beginning with Black, each players drops 12 Stones, one per turn, upon empty points of the playing field. After all Stones have been dropped onto the playing field, each player then moves a Stone one point in any orthogonal direction. If a player is able to form an orthogonal line of exactly three Stones, an enemy Stone is removed from the board. The game is won when the opponent no longer has the ability to form a line of three Stones. Dara is a 19th century game played by the Dakarkari people of Nigeria. Download Dara Now!
Game: Defense in Depth Implemented by Roger Cooper, May 2002 The object for the runner is to reach the bottom of the board. The object of the tackles is to block the runner. The Runners moves to any empty square to its southwest, south or southeast. The Runner makes 2 moves in a row. The Tackles move like a chess King. Blue makes 3 moves with the tackles. This game is described by Dennis E. Shasha in the May 2002 Scientific American. In the original game each Blue piece moves once per turn, but I not implement that rule. Updated 05/18/02 image load bug fixed Download Defense in Depth Now!
Game: Deflector Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, July 2001 Object: Move all your pieces to your opponent's starting positions. (3 variants) Deflector Moves: If the piece is adjacent to a piece directly ahead, then the piece may one step forward (North) and then sideways an arbitrary number of empty squares. Similarly, if the piece is has a piece to the left or right of it, then it may also move to this enemy piece and then North an arbitrary number of empty squares. You may execute several Deflector Moves in a row, using the same piece. In the default variant, you cannot pass such a partial move. Deflector moves have priorities over any other moves. Sliding Moves: A Token moves one or two steps forward or sidewards to an empty square. Jumps: Forward, diagonally forward and sideways jumps are allowed over enemy pieces, but only if the move starts on one of the first two ranks. There are no captures in this game. Variant 2: You may pass a partial move. Variant 3: Like variant 1, but backward Deflector moves are allowed. You may pass a partial move. The game Deflector introduces a new type of moves, the 'Deflector Moves', into the area of classic Checkers-type board games. More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Updated 05/04/02 corrected text Download Deflector Now!
Game: Deflector II Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, August 2001 Object: Move all your pieces to the last two ranks of the board. (2 variants) All pieces move the same way. Various Chess pieces are used for the sole purpose to indicate where the pieces have to end up. E.g. the white King on e1 has to end up on e8. (Please note that the following rules differ slightly from the rules of the original Deflector game). Deflecting Moves: If the piece is adjacent to a piece directly ahead, then the piece may one step forward (North) and then sideways one or two empty squares. Similarly, if the piece has a piece to the left or right of it, then it may also move to this enemy piece and then North one or two empty squares. You can execute several deflecting moves in a row, using the same piece. You may pass a partial move. Sliding Moves: A Token slides one or two empty squares into any direction. At the start of the game, only forward slides are allowed. However, once all your pieces have left the first two ranks, you can also slide sideways or backwards. Jumps: If your piece is on rank 1 or 2, it may jump (straight or diagonally) forward over an enemy piece. There are no captures in this game. Variant 2: You cannot execute more than one deflecting move in a row Here is a little challenge for puzzlists: What is the minimum number of moves necessary to swap White's and Black's pieces? The same problem can be posed for the orginal Deflector game, and also for similar games like Evasion, Evasion II, Push etc. (Note that in Chess this problem has no solution). More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Updated 05/04/02 corrected text Download Deflector II Now!
Game: Desdemona Invented and implemented by Joao Pedro Neto, November 2000. Desdemona is an Othello variant. Othello rules: Black and White alternate putting disks on vacant squares from an initial opening position. Each disk must be placed so that it sandwiches one or more enemy disks between itself and another friendly disk, with no empty squares intervening. The sandwiched enemy disks are flipped, changing color. If one player can't move, he must pass his turn. The game ends when neither side can move, usually when the whole board is filled. The winner is the player with the most pieces of his color. Desdemona Rules: There is an extra stone, the grey one. When a player flips an enemy stone, it becomes grey. If a player flips a grey stone, it becomes one of his own stones. Download Desdemona Now!
Game: Desert Chess Invented and implemented by Uwe Wiedemann, January 2002 The game of desert chess is played similar to normal chess. But after each turn all enemy pieces neighbored to the aim square of the moving piece desert, i. e., they get the color of the moving piece. There is no check, no checkmate, no castling and no en passant. You win if there are no enemy stones on the board or if the other player has no legal move. Download Desert Chess Now!
Game: Dipole Invented and implemented by Ingo Althofer, May 2003 Two players, "Dip" and "Ole", alternate in putting dipoles on a rectangular board. A DIPOLE is a piece of size 2x1 or 1x2, where one pole is red and the other pole is blue. Dip places vertical dipoles only, and Ole horizontal ones. The player with the last move wins the game. Poles of the same color repel each other. So they are not allowed to lie side to side. Furthermore, the board has an underlying "outer field", indicated by lightly red and lightly blue squares. Red poles may only be dropped on lightly red squares, and blue poles only on lightly blue squares. In the beginning of a game the outer field is generated randomly by pressing the start button or clicking any square. Dip drops a vertical dipole by clicking the lower part of the destination. Ole drops a horizontal dipole by clicking the left part of the destination. For human players it helps a lot to activate the feature that shows all legal moves, especially in play against Zillions. Dipole contains some elements of the more traditional games CrossCram (=Domineering) and British Square. In Zillions, Dipole comes in three variants for board sizes 8x8, 10x10, and 13x13. Like in most games of "drop-and-stalemate" style Zillions-2 is much stronger than Zillions-1. In the author's sparring games with Zillions-2 it turned out that board size 10x10 gave him the best winning chances against the machine. On 8x8 board player Dip, who moves first, seems to have a slight advantage, averaged over many test positions. Three more variants are included. In them instead of the "stalemate-loss" condition the number of dipoles for each player is counted. At the end of a game the side with more pieces on the board is winner. Draws are possible and happen quite often. When you play long sequences of "counting games" feel free also to record the margins of wins and losses. Just for fun, in the 8x8 counting-version the outer field is almost regular. The screenshot is from the 10x10 variant with counting. It is Dip's turn to drop a vertical dipole, and the lower halfs of all admissible moves are highlighted. Download Dipole Now!
Game: DNA Breakthrough Invented and implemented by Ingo Althofer and Thomas Marienfeldt, August 2003. This is a variation of D. W. Troyka's nice game "Breakthrough". Win by moving any of your acids to the opponent's bank rank. Single pieces move in single steps: either forward or diagonally forward. They also capture diagonally forward. The game is started by a neutral mixer who sets up the position at random. It is allowed to build friendly Adenin-Thymin pairs as well as Cytosin-Guanin pairs. Coupled pairs are invulnerable and can not be beaten. A pair can not move jointly, but only decouple again by moving one of its acids in the normal way. It is possible that for instance a "T" from an AT-pair movess forward to another single "A" to form a new AT-pair. Thanks to D. W. Troyka for his nice game "Breakthrough"! It inspired us to design "DNA Breakthrough". The game is also somewhat related to the "RNA Puzzle" by Ingo Althofer. In the sample position on the Zillions website Black is to move (from bottom to top). He has only a single move to avoid a loss in 2. Download DNA Breakthrough Now!
Game: Documenta Invented and implemented by Ingo Althofer, June 2002 The game itself is a variant of 'Domineering'. Two painters, Warhol and Belinsky, act in turn. Player Warhol puts red bars of length 3 on the board. Player Belinsky puts black posts of length 3 on the board. The last player to move wins. Zillions is not very strong in this game, especially not on the 10x10 board. So, besides winning against your computer try simultaneously to create a good modern picture. One strange observation: Zillions (on strongest level) with variability on high wins almost always against Zillions with variability on low! Cultural background of the game: Kassel is a nice German city, hosting a famous exhibition for modern arts every few years, the Documenta. In summer 2002 Documenta_11 takes place. See the webpage www.documenta.de for the program. On my weekly train rides between Jena and Lage I come through Kassel. Yesterday a stop motivated me to design this little game. More information on Warhol and Belinsky on request from althofer@t-online.de Download Documenta Now!
Game: Dodge This! Invented and implemented by Robert Gauss, February 2002 The objective is to be the first to move all of your pieces to the opponent's starting positions on the board. If you can't make a move, you lose. Pieces move as far as they can in the direction of one of their arrows. Summer can move South and East. Winter can move North and West. Often, the best strategy is to block your opponent from moving. It is very easy to place your pieces in such a way that they can't be arranged on the opponent's starting squares, especially on the bigger boards. Be careful. Click on pieces to move. There are nine variants total. The first lets you get used to play. The second variant plays the same as the front-cover game "Change!" on the March 2002 GAMES magazine. The very last is a 10-piece swap that is very difficult. The play is similar to Dodge 'Em, Breakthrough, Ugly Duck, and Sidewinder, but there is no capturing. Download Dodge This! Now!
Game: Domina Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, September 2001 Object: Reach the opposite border before your opponent does. (3 variants) Click a Domino to rotate it ninety degrees clockwise. If this is not possible because the target square is not empty, then the Domino will rotate 180 degrees. If this is not possible because the target square is not empty, then the Domino will rotate 270 degrees. There is one exception (forward-rule) : If a Domino would return to a lower rank after a rotation, then the Domino cannot be moved at all. Note that these rules do not give you a choice how much the Domino will be rotated. There is no capturing in this game. You win if you reach the opposite border with one of your Dominoes or if you stalemate your opponent. The other variants have different board setups. The game Domina looks deceptively simple and drawish. It reveals its beauty only after playing a few games. And a draw in fact seems to be close to impossible... More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Domina Now!
Game: Doors for Two Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, October 2001 You are Jan playing against Pat. (8 variants, two of them randomized) The board contains many circular pivotal centers of revolving doors which have up to four doors attached to each of them. First each player clicks the board to drop a Man. He slides to the North, South, East of West as far as empty spaces are available, and always has to go the whole way until he faces a door or the border. You move your Man by clicking the target position. (The arrows at the border are only decoration in this game). If a Man bumps into a door, all doors attached to the pivot will rotate by 90 degrees, either clockwise or anticlockwise, depending how it is pushed. Thereby the board setup is continually redesigned with each move. The door which the Man bumped into, however, disappears. Therefore your Man will end up at the border eventually if it's not caught beforehand. You win if you have captured your opponent's Man. You loose if you are stalemated and after 3-fold repetition. Variant 4: Click the board to create a randomized setup of doors. Variants 5 to 8 : like variants 1 to 4, but the doors do not revolve. More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Doors for Two Now!
Game: Double Alquerque Implemented by Brandon Burkholder, November 2002. Pieces move along lines on the board. They may move a single step, or they may leap over a single piece to capture it. A piece that just captured may make another capturing move. Captures are compulsory. The object is to capture all of the opponent's men. Alquerque, an Arab game, was the forerunner of checkers. It dates back at least to the 10th century, though a board showing this pattern was found in an Egyptian temple dated before 1300 B.C. The game spread to Spain, where it appeared in the 13th Century "Book of Games" compiled under the direction of King Alfonso X of Castile.This variation is simply standard Alquerque using a double board like the one used for Fanorona. Download Double Alquerque Now!
Game: Double Take Double Take © 1999 Andrew B. Perkis Rules file and graphics by W. D. Troyka, March 2003. PLAYING EQUIPMENT -- The board pattern is composed ot two separate but superimposed networks, one red and the other green. Likewise, there are two sets of twelve pieces -- one of each colour. SETTING UP -- Choose any random method to decide who plays which colour. Players then face each other with the board placed lengthways between them and so oriented that they each have the broad border line of their own colour at their near end. At start of play, both players arrange their pieces on their three near rows, using the playing points that match the colour they are playing. Throughout the game, pieces stay on their own colour and always move by following lines of that colour. THE OBJECT OF THE GAME for each player is to be the first to have four pieces planted on the opposing player's first row (in other words, their own far row). This wins even if the other player could match it or take one of the pieces on their next move. MOVES -- The player with red starts and thereafter each player in turn moves a piece along a line of their own colour to the nearest playing point of that colour. On your turn of play you may only move one piece and only one piece may occupy a playing point at any moment. As long as a player is able to move, he or she must do so. Except when making a capture (see next section), pieces can only move forwards: either directly or diagonally. Note that any orthogonal move (i.e., not a diagonal one) bypasses an enemy playing point. Such a move can only be made if the intervening point is unoccupied. This rule applies to capturing moves also. CAPTURES are by custodianship, or "sandwiching." When a move is made which results in an enemy piece being sandwiched -- either vertically or horizontally -- then the sandwiched piece is removed from the board. Often two (and sometimes three) pieces can be captured in one go. Four is possible but unlikely. Capturing is optional rather than compulsory. Unlike other moves, capturing moves can be made in any direction. A piece can be moved to a point between two enemy pieces (i.e., into a sandwich) without being captured. A piece that does so, however, can often be taken immediately afterwards by a move which completes an alternatively oriented sandwich on it. When a piece moves into a sandwich, it can still effect a capture in the normal way. RULES CONCERNING PIECES ON THE FAR ROW -- When a piece has reached the far row it may not be moved again except to capture. If it moves sideways to do so, it stays at the point moved to -- unless it makes another capturing move later. However, if a piece moves back off the far row in order to capture, then the restriction against non-capturing moves ceases. Pieces on the far row have no protection against being taken although it is worth noting that it is not possible to capture a piece on a corner point. Of course, once a winning occupation of the far row has been completed, no piece can be taken and the game ends. FURTHER POINTS ABOUT HOW THE GAME MAY END -- A player would normally give up when he or she is reduced to three pieces, cannot move, or has pieces so badly placed that a winning occupation of the far row cannot be achieved. In all such cases, however, the game can also be played out to the finish if the defending player wishes. Whenever one player is unable to move, the other simply continues with successive moves, which may continue until the game is concluded. In the rare event of neither player being able to get four pieces to their far row, the result is a draw. Please send any comments or bug reports to dtroyka@justice.com. Download Double Take Now!