Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 16:54:02 GMT
Subject: Re: Sid Sackson paper-and-pencil(s) games

I found Sid Sackson's book _A_Gamut_of_Games_ in a used book store
last month, and I've been meaning to mention it to this group.
Unfortunately, I don't have it with me at the moment, but I'll tell
what I can from memory.

It has a lot of games, mostly by Sackson but also by other authors.
Most are many-player games (which I tend to avoid because of the
coalition dilemmata) or word games (generally either non-abstract or
intrinsically having a huge ``supplementary rule book'') but there are
a few classic two-player games.  Also the book has a review section
describing about a hundred games.  Lots of Avalon Hills, a review of
the game of Life (No, not the Conway cellular automaton, the
commercial N-player chase game), two versions of Par*ch[ei]*si,
three versions of Qubic, and several of the Wff'N'Proof series.

It mentions that Sackson headed the New York Games Federation (or some
approximation of that name).  I wonder if that organization (or any
similar ones) still exist?

One game I remember (but not its name) because it is a classic
unimpartial game and might yield to some study.  The board is a
rectangular array of points.  Players take turns drawing a straight
line from one point to another, possibly going through other points.
No line may intersect a previous line, even at an endpoint.  It is
explicitly mentioned that oblique lines are allowed, but it is _not_
made clear whether oblique lines are restricted to forty-five degree
angles.  I prefer to extend this to three versions of the game:
n.o.l., r.o.l., and u.o.l., in which oblique lines are respectively
not allowed, restricted, and unrestricted.

In normal play (last player to move wins), an obvious first-player win
exists in the r.o.l. and u.o.l. versions, and in the n.o.l. version
on all boards with an odd side.  The second player wins normal play
n.o.l. on 2Nx2M boards.  (If the reader cannot do these exercises, I
suggest he request the solution by email; I discourage posted spoilers
to this trivial problem (of which I may revise my opinion if I get a
lot of email requests.))

Does anyone care to analyze the misere version?

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil