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Comments by grenouille

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ZigZag Madness. Featuring the crooked dual path sliders: the ZigZag Bishop and the ZigZag Rook. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Tue, Jul 7, 2009 10:07 PM UTC:
Jeremy, you are entirely correct. I have regretted this comment for some time now. Clearly, the one filled with 'vitriol' was me. I have tried to delete the sucker, but to no avail. For some reason, comments left beneath a game preset are immune to my attempts to get rid of them. Please accept my apologies, Mr. Duke, if you are reading this... Another issue: my, now, self-deleted preset for Renn II IS the work of Eric Greenwood. It is not an 'homage.' He sent me the rules, it's set-up, and it's new piece- the 'Courier,' during a game of Rennchess between Eric and myself some 1 1/2 to 2 years ago. I was FAR too ambitious in agreeing to create a preset for the game, as I had only just discovered, in '07, the Game Courier and the CVP's. I did manage to cocncoct a set of, in my opinion, pretty good-looking icons for the game. Perhaps you might feel inclined to combine the icons and the preset I did manage to generate into a 'total package...?' Renn II DEFINITELY deserves a place on this site! Here is a link to the preset I made.

Wreckage!. A highly tactical game featuring the Dragon that captures by approach or retreat, the Detonator and the Flying Guillotine. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 02:09 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Great game, Charles!

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Matthew La Vallee wrote on Fri, Oct 17, 2008 12:11 AM UTC:
Here is a bit of serendipity: a coder friend of mine and myself were
having exactly the same discussion about the possibility of including Java
aplets on this site for a few (or, perhaps, many) of the CVs. He seemed to
think that it would not be difficult at all to create them, and, even
claimed he would personally write the requisite code. He was just
uncertain if adding them would interest anyone. Any thoughts?

Asylum Redux. Featuring dual path Zebra / Camel crooked sliders compounded with Bishop / Rook.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Thu, Oct 16, 2008 11:59 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I guess you really do like Rennchess after all! It's great that you've put a Rennchess Cavalier and a Duke into one of your games. They are challenging, yet very interesting pieces.

 As I recall, you were a little skeptical about Rennchess initially, much as you were, earlier, about Cazaux's Tolousian chess.. Now, some of the pieces and a few of the ideas from those games are in several of your new games, with the the gryphon and the aanca permutations, and the increase in pawns being the most salient. Hopefully, when I can finally get off my duff, I'll finish the presets for both Eric Greenwood's new Rennchess II, plus a game of my design, tentatively called The Watchers. Hopefully, you'll try those as well. I think you would really like Rennchess II.

By the way, do you happen to know what became of Eric? He has been AWOL from this site for some tome now.
 Regards, Matthew La Vallee

Alfaerie Expansion Set 6. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Matthew La Vallee wrote on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 09:48 AM UTC:
Thank you very much, Antoine, for adding these, and the other icons I've sent you to the Alfaerie: Many list.

Herculean Chess. 12 x 12 version of chess featuring 4 Rooks, 4 Bishops, 4 Leapers and 22 pawns. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Sun, Sep 7, 2008 12:45 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Say, I'd be pleased if you would use my 'Dire Knight' icon as one of the knight, or zebra/-other- compounds... It's in the Alfaerie expansion pack #6. Here it is, Matt

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Matthew La Vallee wrote on Tue, Apr 22, 2008 09:54 PM UTC:
I've come up with a series of simple formulas with which one can, in my
opinion, more easily determine whether or not ones Rose may take other
pieces, or, obviously, if an opposing Rose threatens ones own pieces. I
find that these formulas help prevent me from having to repeatedly trace
a
Roses path with the mouse cursor around the board, since the Rose is, at
least for me, such a difficult piece to visualize without resorting to
tracing, tracing, and tracing, ad nauseum. Knowing these numbers makes
the
job of finding 'quarry' for a Rose a simple matter of counting
squares. I do realize that it is likely that many of the players on this
site are already intuitively aware of these relationships, and, for them,
these numbers are redundant. But, for a player like me, and possibly
others...

 A Rose may capture a piece, provided that it's not blocked at any
landing
point, if it is in the following relationship, square-wise, with a
hostile
piece:
 -- 1 Knight's move away (Duh!).
 --3 or 4 squares away, diagonally. 
 --5+2 squares away, (or, put another way, at the opposite corner of a  
   3 x 6 rectangle).
 --4 or 6 squares away. orthogonally.

  Hopefully, I am not just repeating information someone else has already
contributed!  I did a search for this topic, and found nothing, though,
please let me know if I am mistaken.

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Matthew La Vallee wrote on Tue, Apr 22, 2008 07:53 PM UTC:
Ignore this one! I posted the same thing twice. Look under the subject heading 'Rose Formulas.'

Raumschach. The classical variant of three-dimensional chess: 5 by 5 by 5. (5x(5x5), Cells: 125) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Mon, Apr 14, 2008 05:39 AM UTC:
What do you think: better colors? in this one Clearly, this is not an important issue.

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Matthew La Vallee wrote on Fri, Apr 11, 2008 03:25 PM UTC:
Jianying Ji, your last message seemed to be regarding the purchasing of
fairy chess pieces. If you'd like, I could point you to some resources on
this site concerning various ways of making your own pieces quite
inexpensively, in both 2D and 3D. Additionally, I carve my own pieces out
of oak with files, chisels, and a Dremel tool, and have sold sets to a few
people, and I have also made a variety if fairy pieces for my own use.
Since I do not have a lathe, but should in a month or two, making custom
pieces should take much less time, and they would then be close to the
price range you mentioned. Just some thoughts... ***Hopefully what I've
just written is not ethically contrary to the policies of this site. If
this is the case, I'll delete it immediately, or, the editors simply
could. I do not own a business. Really it's more of a hobby, but a few
people offered to pay for some of the sets I've made.

Raumschach. The classical variant of three-dimensional chess: 5 by 5 by 5. (5x(5x5), Cells: 125) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew La Vallee wrote on Fri, Apr 11, 2008 03:03 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
David, Thank you very much for fixing what I could not in the preset for Raumschach. I looks terrific! It is now exactly as it should be. Say, how did you alternate the colors on the boards? Can we replace the original preset with your revised version? Again, Kudos!

Matthew La Vallee wrote on Thu, Apr 10, 2008 09:33 AM UTC:Poor ★
Yes, poor, but not Raumschach, itself. It is the game's preset which is 'poor.'.'*** The preset given on this site for Raumschach is improperly set-up in several ways. ( Here is a link to my only partially fixed version. Still, several of it's major problems are fixed.).*** First of all, the boards themselves are aligned incorrectly. The preset on this site depicts them in an identical array, side-by-side. Really, the squares on the second and fourth boards should be mirror images of the boards above and below them. Thus, the squares Aa1, Ba1, Ca1, Da1, and Ea1 should alternate in color, as should, obviously, every other square on the board with regard to its vertical file, and should be the same color along 3D diagonals. One needs only to look in the rules section for Raumschach to note the discrepancy between the example board given there, and the boards present in the preset.*** The incorrect positions of the second and fourth boards (or, if you want, the first, third, and fifth boards- it makes no difference) have many potentially confusing consequences with regard to all of the 3D movement of the pieces. The Bishops, and the Queens, when executing 3D, board-to-board, diagonal movements, are NOT color bound. They are so when moving on a single board, but, should either move one board above, or below, diagonally, they swap colors, and continue to do so top to bottom. Conversely, when a Rook moves along a 3D file it IS a color bound piece, and the Unicorn, which may never move on one board, 2D, is ALWAYS color bound, though in the original game, it is not. Even a Knight, when moving two squares, say, up, then over one square, must first pass through two squares of the same color.***The CVP Game Courier's Raumschach preset has another problem; the placement of the Unicorns and the Bishops are, here, the opposite of the games original starting set-up, and is, again, demonstrated in the rules page. The white Bishop on the square which, in this preset, is named Db1 (yet another problem!) should really be positioned at Da1, and the Unicorn should be at Db1. All of the other Bishops and unicorns should similarly 'swap' positions, as well. I'm not certain if this inconsistency should have a substantial impact on the game's play. Still, unless one is attempting a variant, it would probably be best to depict the game as it was originally conceived. *** Alas, we come to yet another problem. All of the pieces are placed exactly opposite of how they should be arranged. Here, the white pieces start on the E ranks, and the dark pieces are placed on the A ranks. Though one might consider this a technicality, if one were to, say, want to transcribe a game of Raumschach played on this site, it would make no sense to someone accustomed to the game's proper configuration.*** I am well aware of the difficulty involved in creating these presets. I have just completed one myself- Rennchess II, Eric Greenwood's new sequel to his awe-inspiring game Rennchess I. I need only finish its rules, and y'all can try it. I am also struggling with another preset of my own design at the moment, as well. I even tried to edit the preset for Raumschach, but was only partially successful. There were certain changes which were beyond my current capacities. I'm new at this. Yet, I do think we owe it to the inventor of Raumschach, Herr Doktor Ferdinand Maack (yes, apparently, that was really his name!), to portray his game as he intended. This game was invented in 1907! Few other chess variants can claim such seniority, despite Raumshach's often discussed flaws. It's a pretty darn fun, very challenging game- flaws and all!*** Finally, I wanted to make it clear that I mean no disrespect towards the creator of this preset, and, if I come across as snide in any way, it was entirely unintended. I respect that the creator of this Raumschach preset took the time to make a preset (and a difficult one, at that!) for a chess variant which has been, for many, a source of contention for some time.*** Would anyone 'in the know' care to fix the remaining problems which I could not? The other changes it needs are as follows: the second and fourth boards need to be mirror images of the others; the light pieces need to be moved to the bottom of the first and second boards; the dark pieces need to go to the top of the fourth and fifth; I changed the labels, but they ought to be put back such that they are read from left to right, once each side's pieces are moved appropriately; and, I need to be told not to write such long comments! Say, is it even possible to alternate the square colors of these side-by-side boards? Me, I dunno!

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