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3D_TIC

                                             February 18, 2010

                                              There was "Qubit": a 3-D
                                              Tic-Tac-Toe, which used four
                              There were      4-by-4 plastic boards.  I
I wouldn't say I invented     3-D games       remember very little about
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe, but when     of various      it except that it was too
I was a teenager, I did       types           fragile to hold together
work out a simple             around          long enough to play the game.
variation of it that          then...
works very well.
                                    We had a nifty
   I had a few insights:            looking 3-D chess     The Star Trek
                                    set: 8 plastic        version
   (1) you could do                 boards, supported     looked even
   this on paper,                   in a wooden rack.     niftier,
   without any                                            though I
   elaborate plastic                You couldn't move     suspect it
   widgets.                         a piece without       was even more
                                    knocking six          unplayable.
   (2) if you tried to              over, and if you
   play a 3-D game                  summoned the
   exactly like a 2-D               patience to deal
   game you would get               with that, the
   very brief, dull                 game still wasn't
   games, but you could             worth playing.
   fix this by changing
   the goal of the game.               The rules suggested
                                       variants using only 3
      By my rules, play                boards, and a modified
      doesn't stop on the              goal of two consecutive
      first tic-tac-toe.               checks: inelegant, to
      You play until every             say the least.
      space is filled, and
      each tic-tac-toe is              I had a theory that to play
      counted as a point.              chess on a cube you'd need 8
                                       sets of pieces, with 7 faux
      To play the game,                kings.  Never got to try
      you just draw                    that out.
      three tic-tac-toe
      boards, and                                     (3dc, aka 3dchess under
      envision them                                   Debian, works like
      stacked up on top                               that: 3 boards, 3
      of each other to                                sets of pieces.)
      form a cube:

      |   |           |   |           |   | o
   ---+---+---     ---+---+---     ---+---+---
      |   |           |   |           |   | o       Here "o" has scored once:
   ---+---+---     ---+---+---     ---+---+---      anything that looks like
    x |   |         x |   |         x |   | o       a 2D tic-tac-toe still
                                                    counts in 3D.
       Here, "x" has also scored once:
       when you've seized the same positions
       in all three boards, that's a vertical
       rod through the cube.



      |   | o         |   |           |   | x
   ---+---+---     ---+---+---     ---+---+---
      |   |           | x | o         |   |        Diagonals through space
   ---+---+---     ---+---+---     ---+---+---     are only a little harder
    x |   |           |   |           |   | o      to see: In this layout,
                                                   "x" and "o" have each
                                                   scored one tic-tac-toe.


    An interesting wrinkle: it's
    possible to score more than
    one point with a single move.

    And while the center square of the cube
    is obviously valuble, it doesn't quite
    determine the results of the game as
    rigidly as with standard tic-tac-toe.


          Probably: you should
          play two rounds, where
          you take turns moving
          first then add the                  For a point to count
          scores to determine                 you must call it when
          the over-all winner.                it is scored.  No
                                              retroactive re-figuring.

                                              Trust me: that rule
                                              will help keep you
                                              out of trouble...


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