Ataxx (also known as
Slime and Frog) is a
board gameA board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board"...
which first appeared in
1990-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*Namco releases Kyuukai Douchuuki, World Stadium '90, Final Lap 2, Pistol Daimyo no Bouken, which is a spin-off from Berabow Man, Souko Ban Deluxe, Dragon...
as an arcade video game by The Leland Corporation. The game was invented by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley in
1988-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:...
and was called
Infection. It was first programmed on
AmigaThe Amiga was a family of personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Development on the Amiga began in 1982 with Jay Miner as the principal hardware designer. Commodore International bought Amiga Corporation and introduced the machine to the market in 1985...
,
Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January, 1982. Volume production started sometime in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595...
and
Atari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s. It was released by Atari Corporation in 1985...
. The game is purportedly in the public domain now.
Although
Ataxx was sold as a video game and never as a physical game set, it can be played with a
ReversiReversi is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each side belonging to one player...
set.
Game play
Ataxx is an abstract strategy board game which involves play by two parties on a seven-by-seven square grid. The object of the game is to make your pieces constitute a majority of the pieces on the board at the end of the game, by converting as many of your opponent's pieces as possible.
Each player begins with two pieces, white and black, for the first player and second player respectively. The game starts with the four pieces on the four corners of the board, with white in the top left and bottom right and black on the other two. White moves first.
During their turn, players move three of their pieces either one or two spaces in any direction.
DiagonalA diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
distances are equivalent to orthogonal distances, i.e. it is legal move to a square whose relative position is two squares away both vertically and horizontally. If the destination is adjacent to the source, a new piece is created on the empty departure square. Otherwise the piece on the source moves to the destination. After the move, all of the opponent player's pieces adjacent to the destination square are converted to the color of the moving player. Players must move unless no legal move is possible, in which case they must pass.
The board configuration may be altered by having certain squares filled (not playable by either player), or using different board sizes.
The game ends when all squares have been filled or one of the players has no remaining pieces. The player with the most pieces wins. A draw may occur when the number of squares are even, either from non playable squares or non standard sizes having an even number of squares. Some versions also implement the
threefold repetitionIn chess and some other abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule states that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move. The repeated positions need not occur in succession...
rule from chess.
Ataxx complexity
Ataxx has between 2
n and 3
n possible end game positions, where
n represents the board area. Attempts to calculate the complexity of games are normally made by raising the branching factor to the power of the number of plies. In
Ataxx, the average number of plies is about 100 and the average branching factor about 60, giving 60
100 games. However, this greatly underestimates the true complexity. In Ataxx, nearly every
combinationIn combinatorial mathematics, a combination is an un-ordered collection of distinct elements, usually of a prescribed size and taken from a given set...
of the 4 original pieces on the board can be obtained. Thus , where
n is the board area,
r is the number of slimes and
C is the number of possible positions. Even this value is much too small, as each combination without repetition having r slimes may have any
permutationIn several fields of mathematics the term permutation is used with different but closely related meanings. They all relate to the notion of mapping the elements of a set to other elements of the same set, i.e., exchanging elements of a set.- Definitions :The general concept of permutation can be...
with repetition of red or blue slimes (with the exception of 0 red or blue). Therefore, approximates the number of possible positions for a given number of slimes. To calculate the state space complexity, i.e. the number of different positions which may arise in a game, one calculates the summation of C for all values of r where n > r ≥ 4. Note that the game is over when n = r, so it would be incorrect to add 2
r - 2 as only one of these possible positions will occur. Thus:
For a 7×7 board, this gives 5.982483 × 10
22
where
r represents to the number of slimes and goes from 4 to n – 1,
n represents the board area and
S is the state space complexity. The formula calculates the
summationSummation is the addition of a set of numbers; the result is their sum or total. An interim or present total of a summation process is termed the running total. The "numbers" to be summed may be natural numbers, complex numbers, matrices, or still more complicated objects. An infinite sum is a...
of the combinations without repetition for r slimes multiplied by the permutations with repetition for
r slimes, or the total number of positions which can be achieved for every number of slimes possible without ending the game. The -2 present in 2
r - 2 is necessary to avoid the two situations where all slimes are either blue or red. In fact, not all permutations with repetition of red or blue slimes may be achieved; for example, if r = 4 and the four slimes are adjacent, then they must necessarily be the same colour. Even so, it is probable that the above formula is fairly accurate, and at least serves as an upper bound.
To calculate the game tree complexity, i.e. the total number of possible games that can be played, the summation must be replaced with a product. This gives the following formula:
For a 7×7 board this gives 1.371545 × 10
896
where
r represents to the number of slimes and goes from 4 to n (not n – 1 as above), n represents the board area, and G is the game tree complexity. The reason multiplication is used rather than addition is that, for each position obtained with r slimes, all possible positions with r + 1 slimes (except the restrictions mentioned above) may be obtained. The -2 again adds some ambiguity; including it implies that a player cannot have zero slimes, excluding it implies that once a player has zero slimes the game may continue (neither of which are true). This answer is probably less accurate than the approximation of the state-space complexity.
Other versions
The arcade version is timed for five minutes, similarly to
blitz chessFast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60–180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...
. Each player's timer counts down while it is their turn to move; they lose if it reaches zero, but may buy more time (100 seconds per quarter) while the game is in progress. After completing a game (whether they won or lost), a player may choose whether or not to play another game with the time remaining.
Ataxx can be found all over the internet in numerous variations including board size. The
GNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment—a graphical user interface which runs on top of a computer operating system —composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop environment for
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
featured an
Ataxx game.
Ataxx can be
played by emailPlay-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. One example, chess, has been played by mail for centuries . Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter written by John Boardman...
, using Richard Rognlie's Play-By-eMail Server.
Hexxagōn is a variant of
Ataxx that is played on a
hexagonalA hex map, hex board or hex grid is a gameboard design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into small regular hexagons of identical size....
board instead of a square one. It was released as a PC game in 1993 by
Software CreationsSoftware Creations can refer to one of two companies:* Software Creations , an Internet development consulting firm specializing in electronic publishing, web-based database and applications development...
.
The rules of the game are the same as in
Ataxx.
Ataxx clones
The most popular of the
Ataxx clones is the Laboratory Puzzle in
The 7th GuestThe 7th Guest, first published in 1992 by Trilobyte and later released by Virgin Games in 1993, is a FMV-based puzzle video game, not unlike The Fool's Errand and predating Myst. It was one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. The 7th Guest is a horror story told from...
, where the player faces off with the AI in the game, in this case the antagonist "Stauf", who is incredibly difficult to beat - all the while laughing and ridiculing the player with phrases like "Ooooooooo Baaaaaaaad Mooooooooove," and "We'll all be dead by the time you solve this!" The pieces were seen through a
microscopeA microscope is an instrument to see objects too tiny for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.-History:An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, The...
on a slide, interpreted as viral infections, two sets blue and two sets green. Passing over this puzzle in the game requires two trips to the library to the hint book. Winning this puzzle causes Stauf to let out a growl, then say "Don't think you'll be so lucky next time!"
Another popular
Ataxx clone was
Boogers, an online 4 player version hosted by the
ImagiNation NetworkThe ImagiNation Network , aka The Sierra Network , was the first online multiplayer gaming system. Developed by Sierra On-Line in 1989, and first available to the public in 1991, the ImagiNation Network was a unique online gaming network that gave subscribers from all over the United States of...
, a pre-internet dial-up game network. Two to four players fought on a large board (9×9). The pieces, called boogers, were colored green, yellow, purple and blue. Blocks were randomly placed on the board to alter game play. Jumping one's booger over an opponent's booger would change the victim's color, resulting in more boogers for the aggressor. Chatting both openly and privately was integrated into the game: this promoted shady non-aggression pacts, ganging up, and stabbing opponents in the back.
Spot for NES, PC, and Game Boy implements the same rules as
Ataxx.
The 11th HourThe 11th Hour is a 1995 puzzle computer game with a horror setting. It is the sequel to the 1993 game The 7th Guest. It was developed by Trilobyte and used a later version of the "Groovie" graphic engine than that used by The 7th Guest...
also features a puzzle similar to
Ataxx, but with a board of
hexagonIn geometry, a hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six vertices. A regular hexagon has Schläfli symbol {6}.- Regular hexagon :The internal angles of a regular hexagon are all 120° and the hexagon has 720 degrees T. It has 6 rotational symmetries and 6 reflection symmetries, making up the...
s.
The
SierraSierra Online is a division of Activision Blizzard focusing on the growing internet gaming industry, particularly the genre of casual gaming.-Games published:*Zombie Wranglers - XBLA *Interpol: The Trail of Dr...
educational title
Mega Math included a clone of Ataxx where the player must answer math questions in order to move.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/mega-math/screenshots
Buzzlabs has a freeware version of Ataxx called Aquataxx for Mac OS X, written in the Java language with Apple's Cocoa Frameworks. It has online chat and network play.
http://buzzlabs.org
Green Thumb is a variant for the iPhone that turns the game into more of a puzzle-style game with over 50 different boards to try to solve.
http://bytemfg.com/greenthumb
Kloon! is a freeware variant that adds several different options to the game, such as obstacles and random "misclones" which don't capture any opponent pieces.
http://www.moor-software.com/0.php?lang=English&page=kloon.php
Trivia
- In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc...
(612- The Starfighters), Crow T. RobotCrow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000...
sets up a PC in an attempt to get on the "Information Super Highway". After numerous setbacks throughout the episode, he finally succeeds, only to find himself invited to play "Four-person Boogers". He accepts the offer.
External links