Logaterix - board game of the ancient Slavs

[zxretrosoft]

Hello Atari friends,

 

I discovered an ancient board game of the old Slavs called "Posunčík". I gave it a new name, Logaterix.

 

The game is said to be several hundred years old and was played on the ground or on a wooden board, using simply stones of two shades.

 

I programmed the game for PC/online so you can play it yourself, either against the AI or another human opponent.

 

I believe you will enjoy it too! I will be glad for feedback as well! Thank you in advance! 😊

 

Enjoy!

 

Browser online:

https://zxretrosoft.cz/

 

PC version (direct link, ZIP format):

https://www.instaluj.cz/logaterix/download

 

Screenshot:

Edited September 22, 2022 by zxretrosoft

[Mikebloke]

I love classic board games like this and have done some research into the history of board games by different cultures. This feels very similar to the so called "viking game" (Hnefatafl) which is a type of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafl_games but with equal initial placement similar to modern chess.

 

I gave the easy AI a go and was shocked that I actually managed to win haha!

I did manage to mistakenly click the edge with one of my pieces and it slid off XD this might not have been intentionally coded in but it did give me some amusement that I did it accidently! Good for being able to give handicaps too.

 

Thanks for sharing, is there any other slavic games that are little known? I tried to look a bit more into this one, but it seems like its all pointing to your efforts making this adaptation! 

 

I didn't see any bugs, but I had to test out the L move manoeuvre as it wasn't 100% clear at first how that worked, have I got this right that it can only be done with a single piece and not as a pushing move - I'm assuming this is designed to trap and reinforce weaker areas of the board where there isn't obvious places to go, and to prevent issues where there might not be any legal moves otherwise.

 

Good work, very enjoyable, and easy to replicate on a regular chess board with draught pieces - thank you in preserving this game!

[zxretrosoft]

Thank you so much for the feedback!

 

Yes, it does seem similar to Tafl (I wasn't familiar with it, but I'd love to take a closer look).

 

I came across the game "Pusunčík" (hard to say how to translate it, it's something like 'Pusher' but in old English ), or more recently called Logaterix, by accident. It seemed to me to be very simple and yet terribly difficult 😊

You got the L stroke absolutely right! 

 

I don't know any other Slavic game, unfortunately. But I did come across (again by accident) the Indian game Pikaria - I may try to make it too, as I haven't seen it exist on PC...

http://www.deskovehry.info/pravidla/pikaria.htm

 

As far as intelligence goes, it's definitely better to try the PC version. The online version goes through about 10x less combinations due to server speed.

 

Thanks again! ☺️

[Mikebloke]

Thanks for the additional information!

 

One thing that does make Tafl different is that capture is based upon blocking, where this is pushing - I tried to look up any other historical uses of push captures, but there is not a lot of stuff about it prior to the last 30 years.

 

I don't know if the main issue is that pushing rather than taking pieces is a physical issue (if the counters are too large, then pushing counters moves all the surrounding pieces too), do you know if traditionally pieces are pushed or if they are "hopped" over (moving the back piece to the front) its got me really thinking about it now!

[zxretrosoft]

Several games based on this principle exist.

 

I know a Czechoslovak game from the 80's - Overboard. It was inspired by Alex Randolph's original game, but it plays differently and has its own specifics. I have all those games at home ☺️

 

Unfortunately, even so, it's controversial from a copyright point of view, and since it's not an ancient game ("hundreds of years old"), it's difficult to reasonably agree on any compromise about distribution of the game, remaking, etc. What a shame! 😑