Check out Smess, our featured variant for February, 2025.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
gnohmon wrote on Sun, Apr 14, 2002 04:26 AM UTC:
'Why is it that when I encounter an Ultima variant, it inevitably seems
more complex than Ultima, not less?'

What defines an Ultima variant? Is it possible that no game simpler than
Ultima fits your definition of 'an Ultima variant'?

At some unspecified time (1970s most likely) I collaborated with John
Ishkanian on an Ultima variant named 'Ultimate Ultima'; I still have a copy
and have seen it within the last few weeks but it would take me years to
find it again (Phil Cohen probably still has a copy and can find it
quickly). The premise was based on my idea that the duration of a game
depends on the ratio of power to space; and we tried to create a playable
game with so much power to space that games would rarely last longer than 4
moves -- this would be a great game for playing at lightspeed radio against
an opponent in another star system!

Four pages of dense and terse single-spaced typewriter text with characters
out to the narrowest margins. Rules not all that complex, but interactions
beyond belief. The Carrier (is this the right name?) could move like Q, but
at each single step could pick up or drop pieces; and if you drop a Mixer
it can rearrange all adjacent pieces (all of this happening within the
context of the single=move multi-square move of the Carrier) and by
rearranging a Transporter it could cause pieces to teleport to other
squares, and if you teleported a Converter it could make enemy pieces yours
and so on.)

We spent probably 3 months hashing out the rules and then played 2 games,
which lasted maybe 5 plies between them (I won both).

That's my idea of complex.

Compared to that, the Game of Nemoroth is so simple!

Edit Form

Comment on the page Revisiting the Crooked Bishop

Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Avoid Inflammatory Comments
If you are feeling anger, keep it to yourself until you calm down. Avoid insulting, blaming, or attacking someone you are angry with. Focus criticisms on ideas rather than people, and understand that criticisms of your ideas are not personal attacks and do not justify an inflammatory response.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.