Educational Games run with Zillions

Game: Ducado

Invented (in 1985) and implemented by Karl Scherer, December 2000.


The objective is to win more money than your opponent. (4 variants)

Click on the board to start. This will cause 16 coins to drop, face down. These coins carry values of $1, $2, $3, or $4.
Each player has two moves.

First you drop a token on one of the yellow petals. Tokens have to be placed next to a golden coin.
After a token drop, click any coin to flip it and look at its value. You win the coin if the number of tokens adjacent to it equals its value. Coins you have won will turn into your colour. If you do not win the coin, it will be flipped over again. Coins whose value is less than the number of adjacent tokens will disappear.
The player with the most money wins.

The little indicator at the left border indicates how much player Blue is ahead of player Green. If at the end the indicator is above mid height (and hence blue in color), then player Blue wins. If it is lower, Green wins.

Variants 3 and 4 are 'Open Ducado' games, played with all coins facing up.

In my original Ducado game a player had a free turn (comprising a drop and a flip) if he had won a coin. I could not find a way to implement this in Zillions.


For more freeware as well as real puzzles and games see my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.
Updated 08/10/02
simplified code, added variants.

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Game: Duck Pond

Created by W. D. Troyka, December 2000.


Object: Get all your ducks in a row. Ducks move one or two spaces in any direction and can fly over an intervening duck.

Game play is characterized by multiple threats. The most useful multiple threat consists of three ducks in an orthogonal row, with an empty space on either side, and the fourth duck two spaces removed from the center duck (e.g., ducks on b4, c4, d4, and c2). The fourth duck can move to either end of the row to win the game. Even when the opponent successfully defends against a "T" formation by placing pieces on both ends of the 3-row, the formation is adaptable to a number of successive threats.

Multiple threats give the game its depth. While it may be easy to guard against a specific T-formation (or other initial threat), pieces are forced into defensive positions that may make the player vulnerable to successor threats. A more detailed treatment of game strategy can be found in the "strategy" section that comes with the game.

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Game: Edges

Designed and implemented by Peter Aronson, March 2002.


Edges is an abstract stategy game for two, played on the 31 edges (not squares or points) of a three by four rectangular grid representing a canal network. The goal of Edges is to surround squares with more points worth pieces than your opponent. Large pieces are worth three strength points, medium pieces are worth two strength points, and small pieces are worth one strength point.

Play consists of players alternately placing pieces on the edges on the board. On their first turn only, the second player (Red) may replace the piece Blue played on the first turn, returning it to Blue's hand. In order to make play easier for Zillions, only one piece of a type is playable at any time. Once all fifteen pieces per player have been placed on the board, you score one point per square where you have more strength points worth of pieces surrounding it than your opponent, and two points if you have the only pieces surrounding it. Squares surrounded by equal strengths of pieces are worth no points to either player.

The idea of playing on the lines of the grid from Jared B. McComb's game of Danadazo (see http://www.chessvariants.com). Edges was originally designed to be played with Icehouse pyramids (see http://www.wunderland.com/icehouse.html for more details) on the author's coffee table.

More information about this game can be found at: http://home.att.net/~pbaronson/edges.html.

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Game: Elephant Checkers

Designed and Implemented by Peter Aronson, September 2002


Many games other than Chess are played on chess boards. On the Western chessboard you will find Checkers/Draughts and versions of Fox and Geese played. On the Shogi board you will find Hasami Shogi and Tobi Shogi played. On the Xiangqi board, you will find Moon Chess and various forms of blind Xiangqi played. However, while there are jump/overtaking capture games for the Western Chess and Shogi boards (Checkers and Tori Shogi), I was unaware of one for the Xiangqi board, so I invented this game.

Elephant Checkers is basically Turkish Checkers played on an Xiangqi Board with a few extra rules and more pieces.

Each player starts with 24 Soldiers. The goal of the game is to leave your opponent with no moves (capturing all of their pieces does this nicely), or to promote an Elephant (a promoted Soldier) to King on the point in the center of your opponent's fortress. Black goes first.

Captures are obligatory, and you must choose the path with the most possible captures. Pieces are removed immediately upon being jumped, allowing for lots and lots of captures. You may not make an 180 degree turn during a capturing sequence.

Soldiers move one square forward or horizontally to empty squares. They may also capture an enemy piece (or a series of them) by jumping over it to a vacant square beyond. A Soldier reaching the far side promotes to a Elephant. Once across the river a Soldier may move two squares or capture pieces two squares ahead or to the side, or capture a piece an adjacent piece and land two squares past it.

Elephants may move to any vacant square vertically or horizontally. They capture by jumping over an enemy piece, and can continue to any empty square beyond the capture. They may promote to King and win the game if on the Throne point in the center of the opposing fortress, but that move counts as a non-capturing move, and can not be made when there is a capture available.

Requires version 1.2 of Zillions of Games or higher.

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Game: Ellen's Checkers

Created by Roger Cooper, March 2003.


Object: Capture all your opponent's pieces ("Checkers" or "Kings") by jumping over them, or stalemate the opponent so he has no moves.

Checkers can only move diagonally forward, either by sliding to an adjacent empty square or by jumping over an enemy piece to a vacant square on the other side. Jumping over a piece captures it. Capturing is mandatory, and you must keep jumping and capturing as long as it is possible.

When your Checker reaches the other end of the board, it becomes a King and can then also move diagonally backwards.

This version of checkers contains 12 variants, each with 1 more checker, to be played progressively.
I created this version for my daughter Ellen, to help her learn to play Checkers.

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Game: Emergo

Invented by Christian Freeling and Ed van Zon, 1985
implemented by Ed van Zon, February 2003


Emergo is a column checkers game. For a hexagonal variant see HexEmergo.
Emergo has a better balance between strategic and tactical aspects than HexEmergo, hence Zillions is weaker at it.

Like checkers type games and Bushka, column checkers is about a simple two-men-three-squares scenario: put a black and a white man on adjacent squares. Now the white man can jump the black man, landing on the third (vacant) square and removing the jumped man from play. That's checkers type capture. Alternatively, the white man can jump the black man and taking it along underneath as a prisoner, landing on the third square. That's column checkers capture.

Now with a little imagination, one can see a man capturing several men as prisoners in a multiple capture. Next imagine this piece itself is jumped by the opponent: the guard is captured and the prisoners are now released! This released column can now in turn start to make prisoners and these will buried under several guards - to release them, the piece must be jumped a corresponding number of times!
That's the general idea, and the most significant difference with checkers type capture is that no pieces ever leave the board! Obviously a win is achieved by capturing all the opponent's men.

A complete and illustrated explanation of the rules is included in the download.


Emergo derives from the Latin 'Luctor et Emergo', the motto of the Dutch province of Zeeland, and meaning 'I wrestle and emerge'. You'll find this name to be very appropriate.
Emergo originates in the game Lasca, invented by the legendary world champion Chess Emanuel Lasker.

Emergo is just one of the games invented by Christian Freeling; they can all be seen, and some of them played, on the internet in the MindSports ArenA.

(Hexagonal) Emergo is featured in R. Wayne Schmittberger's "New Rules for Classic Games" (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York - ISBN 0-471-53621-0) and in Games Magazine (February 1986).

Please note: Emergo requires Zillions of Games version 2.0 (or higher)!

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Game: Endodoi

Created by W. D. Troyka, July 2001.


Endodoi is a well-known multi-lap Mancala game played in Kenya and Tanzania. Multi-lap games are distinguished by the rule that when a sowing ends in an occupied hole on either side of the board, the beans in that hole are picked up and a new sowing begins as part of the same turn. This process continues until the sowing ends in an empty hole. You can make up to twenty moves in a turn this way in this implementation.

Capturing in Endodoi is the same as in Kalah. When the sowing ends in an empty hole on the player's side of the board, any enemy beans in the hole directly opposite are captured and placed in the store. Sowing in Endodoi is counterclockwise. Beans are sowed into the lift hole on subsequent laps. Beans are not sowed into the store.

The complete rules of Endodoi can be found in the "Game Description" section that comes with the game.

In the variants, the players start with three, four, five, or six beans in each hole. A player wins by capturing more than half of all available beans.

Please send any comments or bug reports to dtroyka@justice.com.

For more Mancala games available on Zillions, check out the Mancala game page.

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Game: Entrapment

Invented by Rich Gowell
Implemented by Jens Markmann, June 2000

Welcome to Entrapment, the first classic strategy game of the twenty-first century. The object of Entrapment is to eliminate your opponent's roamers (round pieces) by surrounding them with your own barriers and roamers, and rendering them incapable of movement. A roamer that cannot move is considered dead, and when all three of a players roamers are dead, the game is over.

Read the full rules at www.GowellGames.com.

Please note: Entrapment requires Zillions of Games version 1.1.1 (or higher)!

You should extract the downloaded zip file preserving path names.

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Game: Epaminondas

Epaminondas © 1975 Robert Abbott
Crossings © 1969 Robert Abbott
Rules file and graphics by W. D. Troyka, February 2002.


Epaminondas, invented by Robert Abbott, is often described as a modern classic. The game is named after a Theban general credited with innovations to the phalanx which led to the Theban victory over Sparta in 371 B.C. Epaminondas was originally published in 1969 under the name Crossings in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games. In 1975 Abbott released a revised version of the game, now called Epaminondas, played on a larger board and with a modified capturing rule. The original Crossings is included as a variant in this package. Both Epaminondas and Crossings are described in Wayne Schmittberger's New Rules for Classic Games (1992). Epaminondas was featured in the third issue of Abstract Games Magazine (Autumn 2000) and favorably reviewed in David Parlett's Oxford History of Boardgames (1999). The game is profiled at Joao Pedro Neto's World of Abstract Games website at www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv and is available for play at Richard's play-by-email server at www.gamerz.net/pbmserv. To learn more about the game, and to check out Robert Abbott's collection of mazes, puzzles, and games, visit his website at www.logicmazes.com.

Epaminondas is played on a 14x12 board. Each player begins with 28 pieces occupying two rows on opposite sides of the board. Motion in the game is performed by phalanx. A phalanx in the game consists of a line of adjacent pieces (diagonal or orthogonal). A single piece can be considered a phalanx of one. A phalanx moves along the line on which it is situated, forward or backward, any number of spaces up unto the number of pieces contained in the phalanx. For example, four adjacent friendly pieces on a common diagonal can move from one to four spaces, as a group, along the diagonal in either direction. Spaces moved through must be empty and the lead piece in the phalanx must come to rest on an empty space or a space occupied by an enemy. In the latter case, the enemy piece and all enemy pieces forming a phalanx behind it in the direction of motion will be captured, but only if the moving phalanx is longer than the attacked phalanx. If the moving phalanx is shorter than or equal in length to the attacked phalanx, the move cannot be made.

A part of a phalanx can be moved provided the part is itself a phalanx. For example, if there are five adjacent friendly pieces in a row, two pieces at one end can move forward one or two spaces as a phalanx of two, or three pieces can move forward up to three spaces, and so on. Pieces can be part of multiple phalanxes. A single piece moves like a King in chess, one step to any adjacent empty square, but it can never capture.

The object of the game is to move a piece onto the far row (row 12 for White, row 1 for Black). When a player moves a piece onto the far row, the opponent is given a grace move to equalize the situation by capturing the piece just moved or by moving a piece itself onto its far row. A win is declared when a player has a piece on the far row (or one more piece than the opponent has on its far row) and the opponent has completed the grace move without equalizing the situation. Repetition is a loss.

The Epaminondas 8x8 variant is, naturally, played on an 8x8 board. The game Crossings follows the original 1969 rules contained in A Gamut of Games. These rules are the same as for Epaminondas except that the board is 8x8, a moving phalanx captures only the first enemy piece in the attacked phalanx, and a piece that reaches the far row is frozen and can neither move nor be captured.


Please send any comments or bug reports to dtroyka@justice.com.

Updated 02/02/03
Changed board graphics

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Game: Escapade

Invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger (and appearing in the December 1999 issue of "Games" magazine),
Implemented for Zillions by J.P. Sharp, August 2000.

Each player starts with a General surrounded by six Guards, and six reserve Guards off the board. The nine spaces at the edge of the board farthest from where a player's pieces begin is that player's goal area.

Object:
There are three ways to win:

Be the first player to move your General into the goal area.
Capture the opposing General.
Have all nine spaces of the goal area (toward which you are heading) occupied at the end of your turn -- regardless of whose pieces are on the goal spaces.
Movement:
On each turn, the player may either move a piece or bring a Reserve onto the board.
All pieces move the same way: in a straight line, in any of the six directions, to any unoccupied space. A piece may not jump over other pieces. A Reserve may be placed on any unoccupied space on the board.

Captures:
Guards are captured by becoming "sandwiched" between two enemy pieces on opposite sides.
A Guard may safely move between two opposing pieces without being captured. For a capture to occur, the capturing player must be the one who makes the move. A Reserve does not make a capture on the turn it is brought onto the board, even if it causes an opposing Guard to be sandwiched.
A General can only be captured if it is surrounded by enemy pieces on all available sides (i.e. six sides if the General is somewhere in the middle of the board, four sides if it's on an edge, or three if it's in a corner).

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Game: Euclid

Invented and implemented by Chris Huntoon, February 2003.

Object: reduce your opponent to two or less pieces. Euclid uses the coordination method of capture from Ultima.

A King moves like a Chess Queen, sliding any number of squares in any direction. A King can not make any captures when it moves nor can a King be captured.

A Man moves like a Rook, sliding any number of squares in any orthogonal direction. When it finishes a move, it captures any enemy Man on an intersection of the orthogonal lines that pass through the Man and through the friendly King. Imagine the rectangle formed on the board by the Man and the King of the same side; the captured pieces are on the rectangle's other two corners. It can therefore capture two at once.

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Game: Evasion

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, July 2001


Object: Move all your pieces to the last two ranks of the board. (4 variants)

Sliding Moves:
A Token moves one or two steps forward or sidewards to an empty square. Sideways moves are only allowed when there are no forward moves.

Evasive Moves:
If the piece faces a piece directly ahead (to the North), then it may also move diagonally forward any number of empty squares. You may execute several such 'evasive moves' in a row, using the same piece. At the end of such a series of evasive moves you have an additional sliding move available.
In the variants 1 and 3 you may not pass a partial move.

There are no captures in this game.

Variant 2: You may pass a partial move.
Variant 3: Forward, diagonally forward and sideways jumps are allowed over enemy pieces, but only if the move starts on one of the first two ranks.
Variant 4: Like variant 3, but you may pass a partial move.

The game Evasion introduces a new type of moves, the Evasive Moves, to 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.

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Game: Evasion 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.

Sliding Moves:
(Note that these are different from the original Evasion game.)
A Token slides one or two empty squares into any direction. Sideways or backward slides are only allowed when there are no forward moves.
There is one exception: Once you have cleared the first two ranks, you can slide sideways and backwards if your move starts on rank 7 or 8. (for Black on rank 1 or 2).

Evasive Moves:
If the piece faces a piece directly ahead (to the North), then it may also move diagonally forward any number of empty squares.
You may execute several such 'evasive moves' in a row, using the same piece. At the end of such a series of evasive moves you have an additional sliding move available.
You may pass a partial move.

There are no captures in this game.

Variant 2: Forward, diagonally forward and sideways jumps are allowed over enemy pieces, but only if the move starts on one of the first two ranks.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

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Game: Extreme Checkers

Invented and implemented by Peter Aronson, April 2000.


Extreme Checkers is like playing two games of Anglo-American Checkers (Draughts) at the same time, with War Variant Hasami Shogi-style custodian capture in addition capture by jump.

Object: Capture all your opponent's men ("Checkers") on either the black or the red squares by jumping over them or sandwiching them, or stalemate the opponent so they has no moves.

Checkers can only move diagonally forward, either by sliding to an adjacent empty square or by jumping over an enemy piece to a vacant square on the other side. Jumping over a piece captures it. Capturing by jump is mandatory, and you must keep jumping and capturing as long as it is possible. Capture by sandwiching is automatic, but you are not required to move so as to capture this way. Men are captured by sandwiching when an opposing piece moves to one end of a column or row of opposing men, and a friendly piece is at the other end. Sandwich captures at the edge of the board may wrap around corners.

When your Checker reaches the other end of the board, it becomes a King and can then also move and capture diagonally backwards.

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color=blue]Game: Fairy Tale Draughts[/color]

Created by Chris Huntoon.

Each side has three kinds of pieces: Damsels, Dragons, and Knights. Dragons abduct Damsels, Knights subdue Dragons, and Damsels beguile Knights. This Rock, Paper, Scissors type of relationship means that any given piece can be strong, weak, or neutral depending on the opponent's piece it is matched against.


Pieces move one space forward or sideways. Captures are made by jumping over pieces as in regular Checkers. Multiple captures are permitted. A player must make a capture whenever possible. Given a choice of initial captures, a player must take that which will capture the greatest number of pieces in the same turn.

When a piece reaches the farthest row it is enchanted and becomes Winged. Winged pieces can move any number of spaces, forward, backward or sideways, as long as there are no intervening pieces. When jumping, it need not end in the square immediately behind the taken piece, but may continue any unobstructed distance along the same path.


Objective is to reduce your opponent to only one kind of piece, either all Damsels, or all Dragons, or all Knights.


Please note: Fairy Tale Draughts now requires Zillions of Games version 1.2 (or higher)!

Updated 01/20/01
Added maximal captures rule.

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Game: Fandango

Created by Chris Huntoon, January 2003.


Fandango is a combination of Fanorona and Gothic Checkers.

Object: Capture all your opponent's pieces ("Checkers" or "Kings") or stalemate the opponent so he has no moves.

The game uses the complementary methods of capture known as approach and withdrawal. A piece may capture by approach: after it moves, an enemy piece (or an unbroken string of enemy pieces) adjacent to it along its line of movement are taken. It may instead capture by withdrawal: if it begins its move adjacent to an enemy piece (or unbroken string) and moves directly away, the enemy piece(s) are taken.

A piece that just captured may make another capturing move, though it must change directions with every capture and it may not immediately return to the point it just occupied. Capturing is mandatory, and you must keep moving and capturing as long as it is possible. If a given move offers both types of capture simultaneoulsy, only one of them may be taken.

Checkers can move diagonally forward to an adjacent empty square. They may also capture an enemy piece (or a line of them) by approach or withdrawal in any of the five non-retreating directions (vertically, diagonally forward, or sideways.) When your Checker stops on the other end of the board, it becomes a King and can then also move backwards. Kings move one square diagonally in any direction, but may capture along any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line (eight possible directions.) Kings may not move or capture at a distance, however; they may only attack adjacent pieces.

Please note: Fandango requires Zillions of Games version 2.0 (or higher)!

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Game: Faustus

Created by Chris Huntoon, February 2001.

A game for three players.

Each player represents either Wizards, Devils, or Angels. The Wizards seek to enslave the Devils, the Devils to overthrow the Angels, and the Angels to convert the Wizards. A piece can only capture its designated adversary. Therefore a player has absolute power over one opponent, but is completely defenceless against the other.

Object: Be the first player to eliminate your designated adversary by jumping over them. A player also loses by being stalemated so he has no moves.

A piece can only move outward towards the opposite side (in 3 directions), by sliding to an adjacent empty square, or they can jump over an enemy piece in any direction to a vacant square on the other side. Jumping over a piece captures it. Capturing is mandatory, and you must keep jumping and capturing as long as it is possible. You must even choose beforehand the series of jumps that captures the most pieces.

When your piece reach the opposite edge of the board, it promotes to an Archangel, Archdevil, or ArchWizard respectively. These pieces are much more powerful and can move and capture in any direction and for any distance. It also jumps to capture, but only one piece at a time. These pieces must also choose the move that captures the most.

It is is often necessary to 'make a deal with the devil', that is to cooperate with one opponent against the other. Since captures are compulsory, pieces must be sacrificed in order to lay traps. Thus, for example, a Devil may not be a direct threat to a Wizard, but it still can lead him into danger.

It is also sometimes necessary to act as a 'guardian angel' for one opponent, to protect his forces from being decimated too quickly.

Download Faustus now!/url]

 

Game: Fields Of Action

Fields of Action invented by Sid Sackson
Implemented for Zillions by Peter Stobbe, 1999.

'Fields of Action' was invented by the great Sid Sackson, who was inspired by Claude Souci's 'Lines Of Action'.
The rules used here are taken from R. Wayne Schmittberger's 'New Rules For Classic Games'.

Pieces move, in any direction, a number of spaces equal to the number of adjacent pieces. They may pass over pieces belonging to either player, but can land only land on an enemy piece, which is captured. An isolated piece may move any number of squares in any direction, provided that it does not make a capture and that it ends its move adjacent to at least two pieces.

A player wins in one of two ways:

By capturing five pieces that form a numerical sequence, such as 4-5-6-7-8 (the order in which the pieces were captured does not matter).
By making a move that leaves the opponent with no legal move to play (ie. stalemating the opponent).
Moving a piece changes the available moves for itself, all the pieces adjacent before it moved, and all the pieces adjacent after it moved. This seems to make long-term positional strategy almost impossible.

You should extract from the downloaded zip file preserving path names.

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Game: Fission

Invented and implemented by Robert A. Kraus, January 2003.

The White and Black players each start with 14 Atoms of their color.
Click the green 'start thinking' circle to automatically randomize the starting position of atoms. (In the Fixed-Start variants there is no randomizing.)

The object of the game is to get rid of your opponent's atoms. (In the Losing variants the object is to get rid of your own atoms.)

Each player can move an atom of his color in any direction, but it must keep moving through all empty squares until it hits another atom or comes to rest against a wall.
If it hits another atom (of either color) it explodes and destroys all atoms of both players which are adjacent to it as well as itself. If it hits a wall it does not explode.
If a move by either player leaves atoms belonging to only one player, that player wins.. (In the Losing variants that player loses.)
If the last move leaves an empty board it is a draw.
If each player has only one atom left it is a draw.
If a player has atoms left but has no legal moves he is stalemated and it counts as a draw.

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Game: Five-Dice

Implemented by Karl Scherer, February 2001.


Object: Get the highest total of points. (6 variants)

You start as Blue. Click the shaker to throw the dice. Five dice will appear. You now have two rounds where you can throw several dice back into the shaker (just click them) and throw them again. If you want to throw all five dice again, simply click the shaker. If you select less than five dice, click the shaker at the end to show that you are finished with your selection. You can pass the re-throwing round(s) altogether by hitting the PASS-button.
Then click an option on your score card to enter your points.

Scores:
5 of a kind : 50 points.
Big Straight : 40 points.
Small Straight : 30 points.
Fullhouse : 25 points.
Choice : Sum of all dice points.
Fours (etc) : Sum of all Fours.

The game ends when the score card is full. The winner is the player with the most points. (Please ignore the 'DRAW' message at the end).

Variant 2, 4 and 6 gives you an additional bonus of 35 points if you gathered at least three of each kind in the lower six entries.
Variants 3 and 4 are solitaire versions of variants 1 and 2.
Variants 5 and 6: Instead of re-throwing up to five dice twice, you can select five times a single cube for re-throwing. In the rounds you do not select a cube you have to hit the PASS button.

Five-Dice is a traditional dice game, played in many variations around the world and known by many names. Variants 5 and 6 are my own inventions.

Background design: Fractal Z010107j by Karl Scherer.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Updated 12/16/01
more user friendly when passing.

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