Subject: acka-games-digest V3 #219
From: [email-masked] (acka-games-digest)
To: [email-masked]

acka-games-digest     Thursday, September 17 1998     Volume 03 : Number 219

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 04:50:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: Re: acka: triple doubel crash salvo 5

>Well, what I see as the problem is the fact that, under the rules for
>regular Double Crash, any player who makes an error in reporting crashes
>will lose the game.  So if errors are very commonplace, the nature of the
>game would change dramatically.

Fair point, and I agree with Alfvaen that a referee is probably the best way to
go. Mind you, the final error count was two by me, and one insignificant typo
by Alfvaen, which, I think, means I deserve to lose the game.

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 05:15:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

>Salvo 4:
>eatage 3
>extine 6
>babies 1

I doubt if any of these are correct (or even real words) but what the hell:

oddity
finito
libita

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 09:29:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Acka: Triple Double Crash

Typos aside, I did find Triple Double Crash to be a lot more fun than
mere Double Crash.  With Double Crash, I could just blindly plug the
salvo results into my program and it was really pretty easy to shorten
my list that way.  (And I _have_ also done it by hand...)  But with
TDC, especially with the sorted results, there was the added difficulty
of figuring out which crashes went with which word, and it really
started to consume my brain after a while.  :-)

And I would also like to point out to Vynd that Double Crash is not
the only reason for an enumerable dictionary.  The "hydriae" thing is
another, and in general I think that if it is possible to have such a
dictionary and still have an online word-checker, then it would be a
Good Thing.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.connect.ab.ca/~alfvaen/ )
Song In My Head--Leon Redbone:So Relax
Current Book--Pamela Dean:Juniper, Gentian & Rosemary
I swear by the shelters of the stars(a mighty oath, if you but knew it)...

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 09:33:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Matt Miller <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Triple Double Crash

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, Aaron V. Humphrey wrote:

> And I would also like to point out to Vynd that Double Crash is not
> the only reason for an enumerable dictionary.  The "hydriae" thing is
> another, and in general I think that if it is possible to have such a
> dictionary and still have an online word-checker, then it would be a
> Good Thing.
> 

What needs to be done for this?

IB

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 09:54:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Triple Double Crash

> > And I would also like to point out to Vynd that Double Crash is not
> > the only reason for an enumerable dictionary.  The "hydriae" thing is
> > another, and in general I think that if it is possible to have such a
> > dictionary and still have an online word-checker, then it would be a
> > Good Thing.

> What needs to be done for this?

I don't know.  I haven't looked at breadbox's dictionary page, so I don't
know if it does that or not...if it does, then nothing.  If not, then
I would imagine some program that would accept a word and check to see if
it was in the dictionary would be all that was needed.  I could write one
in my sleep(probably not an efficient one, though), and so could several
others, I'm sure.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.connect.ab.ca/~alfvaen/ )
Song In My Head--Genesis:Invisible Touch
Current Book--Pamela Dean:Juniper, Gentian & Rosemary
We bought a mobile home.  We hang it from the ceiling of our daughter's room.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:07:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>>Salvo 4:
>>eatage 3
>>extine 6
>>babies 1
>
>I doubt if any of these are correct (or even real words) but what the hell:

Nope, and they are your fifth salvo as well.

I will note that my word was zizith and that if extine is your word
then rasant which you reported as crashing 0 times should in fact have
crashed once.

This last round by me was in fact program done instead of hand done and
I used a program that assumed all the crashes of 1+ were correct but that
you'd misclaimed one of the zeros.

Given that I also missed one letter crashing the 't' in both joists and
nicety, I'd say that this version is probably a bit error prone as well.

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:15:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Viruses Duel (/dev/joe and Niccolo Flychuck)

Turn 6:
  Niccolo:   P 15, 48
  /dev/joe:  P 10, 45

    0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 
    7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 

 52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52
 51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51
 50 . . . . . D D . D D . . . . .  50
 49 . . . . D . . . . . D . . . .  49
 48 . . . . D . . . . . . . . . .  48
 47 . . . . D . . . . . . . . . .  47
 46 . . . . . . @ @ . . . . . . .  46
 45 . . @ D @ . N . . . N . . . .  45
 44 . . @ N @ . . N @ . . . . . .  44
 43 . . @ . @ . . . . . . . . . .  43
 42 . . . D . . . N N . . . . . .  42
 41 . . . D . . . . . . D D D . .  41
 40 . . . . . . . . . . @ . . . .  40
 39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38

    0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 
    7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 

/dev/joe gains a virus point this round.

D:  /dev/joe         : 14 viruses:  6 gamepoints
N:  Niccolo Flychuck :  6 viruses:  0 gamepoints

Both players have 3 days to send in their next move.

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:23:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

>I will note that my word was zizith

Ah, yes, the tassels of thread attached to the four corners of the tallith.

> and that if extine is your word
>then rasant which you reported as crashing 0 times should in fact have
>crashed once.

God, I'm hopeless. I think you can't really hold the game at fault, just my
incompetence. Well, I guess I lose then. Ho hum.

Like Alfvaen, I think that Triple Double Crash is both more difficult and more
fun than normal Double Crash, but I think the 6-letter version is merely more
difficult. And I'm not very good at either. I'll propose to add them to the G&C
rule suite some time soon.

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:27:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, JT wrote:
>On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>>>Salvo 4:
>>>eatage 3
>>>extine 6
>>>babies 1
>>
>>I doubt if any of these are correct (or even real words) but what the hell:
>
>Nope, and they are your fifth salvo as well.
>
>I will note that my word was zizith and that if extine is your word
>then rasant which you reported as crashing 0 times should in fact have
>crashed once.
>
>This last round by me was in fact program done instead of hand done and
>I used a program that assumed all the crashes of 1+ were correct but that
>you'd misclaimed one of the zeros.
>
>Given that I also missed one letter crashing the 't' in both joists and
>nicety, I'd say that this version is probably a bit error prone as well.

I just realized this came out more acrimonious than I'd intended it to
sound.   I did enjoy the game, but was perturbed by the fact that it was
prone to error whereas the 5 letter version seemed less so.   I'd rather
not make the game referred either (just as a matter of 'yet another thing
to do as herald :)')

On a small side note, I will run up some statistics on both Vynd's 5
letter Double Crash duel with me and on this 6 letter double crash duel
(with the correct crash totals :) giving an idea of how many possible
words from the ENABLE+Unabridged Dictionary there were to start with, and
how many were left after each round of crashes.   I will do this a bit
later today.  My suspicion is that between 6 and 5 letter double crash
there will not be a lot of difference.

The 3 word double crash seemed signifigantly harder, but I didn't pay a
lot of attention to it as it was played.   Figuring out which crashes
went with which words would add a layer of complexity to the game I
think.

Anyway, enough rambling.

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:36:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked] (I am the Water Boatman)
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

>I just realized this came out more acrimonious than I'd intended it to
>sound.

's okay, I didn't read any acrimony into it.

>I did enjoy the game, but was perturbed by the fact that it was
>prone to error

I think it's me that's prone to error rather than the game -- this probably
shows in my general contributions to Ackanomic.

>I'd rather
>not make the game referred either (just as a matter of 'yet another thing
>to do as herald :)')

fair enough

>My suspicion is that between 6 and 5 letter double crash
>there will not be a lot of difference.

I think you may be right -- my guess is that it is likely to be a small but
significant difference.

>The 3 word double crash seemed signifigantly harder, but I didn't pay a
>lot of attention to it as it was played.

I think the three-word version is a definite success, but any more than three
words might be just that little bit too difficult.

Ethelred

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 13:07:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: 6 letter double crash

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, I am the Water Boatman wrote:
>>I did enjoy the game, but was perturbed by the fact that it was
>>prone to error
>
>I think it's me that's prone to error rather than the game -- this probably
>shows in my general contributions to Ackanomic.

Actually, I also made an error (missing a 't' crash in two words during
one salvo, so it's not any particular person who made an error.  In both
games, all the participants made (I believe) at least one error.  That
is why I said it was the game that was error prone and not the players.

>>My suspicion is that between 6 and 5 letter double crash
>>there will not be a lot of difference.
>
>I think you may be right -- my guess is that it is likely to be a small but
>significant difference.

Well, I'll post the numbers later today or early tomorrow (when I have the
time to grab the logs of vynd and my duel from the archive)

>I think the three-word version is a definite success, but any more than three
>words might be just that little bit too difficult.

I definately think the 3 word variant to be the more interesting of the
two, but probably the one most in need of a referee as well.

- --JT

[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 15:04:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Triple Double Crash

> I don't know.  I haven't looked at breadbox's dictionary page, so I
> don't know if it does that or not...if it does, then nothing.

My dictionary page does general look-ups across all the components of
the Ackanomic dictionary. It also does regex searches, but not with
MarlDOoM.

> I could write one in my sleep(probably not an efficient one,
> though), and so could several others, I'm sure.

The dictionary page isn't particularly efficient, either, but I think
it's good enough. I do have code (C & Perl) that compiles wordlists
into a finite state machine, which makes for extremely fast lookups,
but I don't see a real need for such.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 22:05:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: YORL play

> The four of them walked cautiously into the tunnel, Elwes leading the
> way holding the lantern of truth. Before long they stumbled into a large
> cave which was filled with a veritable cornucopia of treasures. There
> were sceptres, necklaces, jewels and other vast riches. By far the
> greatest of all the treasures though was a fabulous elegant crown.
 ...
> With that the triumphant party walked back outside. To their surprise
> what had been wasteland when they had gone in just minutes earlier was
> now a fertile meadow.
> 
> Mr. Tambourine Man plays: cornucopia.

This play is accepted and burned.
The loose end lantern is burned, and Mr Tambourine Man receives one ale.
It remains Mr. Tambourine Man's turn.  He has one card remaining.

Loose Ends: 1 - Elvis
Cards Burned: 61
Cards in Deck: 6
Total in pot: A$280.

Play Order:
Mr Tambourine Man  [1 card] [3 Ale]
Ethelred           [7 cards]
Slakko             [3 cards] [1 Ale]
JT                 [7 cards]
saaremaa           [7 cards]
Robin Hood         [7 cards]
Alfvaen            [2 cards] [6 Ale]
two-star           [9 cards]

/dev/joe
Barkeep

------------------------------

End of acka-games-digest V3 #219
********************************