Is Chinese Checkers possible on Intv?

[+fdr4prez]

Is it possible to get a decent rendition of Chinese Checkers on the Intellivision, or is the resolution not good enough to get a properly sized and good looking game board?

 

And an ECS option for 4 players would be sweet.

[+Lathe26]

I'm not sure. At first glance it seems difficult.

 

One challenge is that the typical 73-position board that looks like a 6-pointed star has 13 rows of positions in a hexagonal grid. The Intellivision has 12 rows of tiles so more than 1 row would likely need to appear in a single tile. Another challenge is that the Intellivision is good at showing 2 colors per tile but has limitations beyond that (ex: colored squares mode can handle more colors but only in 2x2 square grid, not a hexagonal grid).

 

Perhaps someone can come up with a clever solution.

[carlsson]

I saw there are variations with 6 instead of 10 or 15 pegs per player, as well as 4 instead of 6 players. What those changes do to the gameplay is unknown to me, but it would reduce the playfield a bit.

 

I'm not entirely sure, but it doesn't seem to exist a game of Chinese Checkers among the 25000+ entries in Gamebase64. The earliest finds on Moby Games are a DOS game from 1991 and a game for the Watara Supervision in 1992. Possibly that is a kind of board game that is difficult to translate to video games, or perhaps there are no obvious AI algorithms in existance. If you only play against other humans, you might as well turn off the video game and play on a real board. There are some smartphone apps, perhaps those support net play though.

[mr_me]

I'm not sure. At first glance it seems difficult.

 

One challenge is that the typical 73-position board that looks like a 6-pointed star has 13 rows of positions in a hexagonal grid. The Intellivision has 12 rows of tiles so more than 1 row would likely need to appear in a single tile. Another challenge is that the Intellivision is good at showing 2 colors per tile but has limitations beyond that (ex: colored squares mode can handle more colors but only in 2x2 square grid, not a hexagonal grid).

 

Perhaps someone can come up with a clever solution.

I'm no expert but I think coloured squares mode can do it. It would give you a grid of 40x24, half of which can be game positions. So the game board would be 25x17 alternating positions and spaces. It won't look nice but I think it fits in one screen.

 

Edit: I have no idea how complicated or simple the AI might be. It might need cartridge or ECS ram.

Edited February 6, 2017 by mr_me

[+Tarzilla]

You all forget that the Intellivision has hardware scrolling...does the board HAVE to fit on the screen all at once?

[+fdr4prez]

I saw there are variations with 6 instead of 10 or 15 pegs per player, as well as 4 instead of 6 players. What those changes do to the gameplay is unknown to me, but it would reduce the playfield a bit.

I'd be ok with a smaller variant of the game. That "6 instead of 10 or 15" is really 7 marbles/pegs - there is that little pattern in the middle of the board, too.

 

Even the 4 player version looks pretty neat.

 

And I was even thinking that a single controller would be OK for all 6 players as you can just pass the controller around, but I like the ideal of having everyone use their own controller with a couple AI players

 

I play Hoyle Puzzle and Board Games quite a bit and like to play its version of Chinese Checkers.

 

You all forget that the Intellivision has hardware scrolling...does the board HAVE to fit on the screen all at once?

I'd like to see the entire board at the same time... It helps with strategy, that's why I am OK with using a smaller variant.

 

My fear is that it would end up with a lot of flicker, like from Deep Pockets:

https://youtu.be/pQkchRPDoFE

https://youtu.be/pQkchRPDoFE

[mr_me]

Yes, with turn based games you can have any number of players share one controller eg. Skiing, PGA Golf, Horse Racing, [PBA Bowling,] and most arcade games.

 

Definitely no flicker required.

 

Edit: actually in Horse Racing it would be nice if two or more people could place a bet at the same time.

Edited February 6, 2017 by mr_me

[carlsson]

I realized that the original game was Halma (1883) from which Stern-Halma (1892) was derived. The latter game got renamed as Chinese Checkers to make it more exotic, although it has nothing to do with China and it is not strictly a game of checkers.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halma

 

Halma is normally played on a board of 16x16 but can also be played on 10x10 or 8x8 (like that toy/travelling game I linked to). With the square properties of Halma, perhaps it would be visually easier to implement that game in the 10x10 variation on the Intellivision.