Richard's Play-By-eMail (PBeM) Server Monthly Posting

From: rognlie@lute.gcr.com (Richard W. Rognlie)

Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000

A generic Play-By-eMail Server has been set up at pbmserv@vtsu.prc.com.  It
currently supports a variety of games.  New games for this month are:
Neutron, StdTrax, Othello and Ataxx.

To get more information send mail to pbmserv@vtsu.prc.com with 'help' as the
subject line.

Games Currently Supported

Abalone

On a hexagonal board (radius 5) two to six players have armies of
    marbles.  Players take turns "pushing" 1, 2 or 3 linearly connected
    marbles, attempting to push their opponents' marbles off the board.

Ataxx

On a 7x7 board, the two players of ataxx fight to controll a majority
    of the board via growth and jumps that flip opponents pieces to their
    color.

Hex

On a 11x11 diamond board, players take turns placing stones of
    their color on the board. The object is to connect your sides of
    the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same.

On a 5x5 board, the two players of neutron fight to either move the
    neutron to their back row or trap it so the opponent cannot move it.

The winner is the player who is able to trap the neutron or gets the
    neutron to his or her own back row. It does not matter if it is your
    opponent who moves the neutron to your back row -- you still win.

On a 8x8 board, the two players of othello fight to control the majority
    of the board by outflanking and flipping their opponents pieces.

Played on a Go board, Tanbo crudely models a system of plant roots.  Roots
    which are growing, competing for space, and dying.  In beginner play, the
    roots grow much as the roots in a garden. Over time, the roots become
    shrewd and calculating.

To win, a player must eliminate all eight of his opponent's roots.  One
    player will always win.  It's impossible to repeat a board configuration
    in Tanbo.  Therefore a game cannot result in a draw.

Tanbo3d extends the game of Tanbo into three dimensions.

Terrace is played on an 8x8 board consisting of 16 'L' shaped terraces.
    Two corners of the board are "High" and the other corners are "Low".
    Each player has pieces of 4 sizes ('A', 'B', 'C' and 'D'). 'A' pieces are
    the smallest, 'D' pieces are the largest. 'T' pieces are the same size as
    'A' pieces and are each player's "key" piece.

The object of the game is to capture your opponent's "T" or move your "T"
    to the lowest square on your opponent's side of the board.

Trax is a game played with square tiles.  Each tile is identical
    to all other tiles, one side has a white line connecting opposite
    edges and a black line connecting the other edges, and the other
    side has a white line connecting 2 adjacent edges and a black line
    connecting the other edges.

The object of the game is to create a loop of your color while
    preventing your opponent from doing the same.  An alternate winning
    condition is to create a line extending from one edge of the board
    to the opposite edge of the board when the board is at least 8
    tiles wide (or tall).

StdTrax limits the board to an 8x8 area.  Normal Trax allows to board
    to grow to whatever size is necessary.  Normal Trax is also known as
    SuperTrax.

TwixT (Copyright (c) Avalon Hill)

On a 24x24 board, players take turns placing pegs of their color
    on the board.  Any time a peg is placed a "knight's move" from
    another peg of the same color, a strut is placed, connecting them.
    A strut can not cross over (through) another strut.  The object is
    to connect your sides of the board while preventing your opponent
    from doing the same.

An ongoing "King of the Hill" (KotH) tournament in which players
    use the C++ language to create a control program for a robot.  Your
    robot then fights each of the other robots "on the hill".  If you
    do well enough, your robot will "make the hill", bumping the lowest
    robot from the hill.

Robots have the ability to scan for opponents, fire a cannon, move,
    and determine current position and status.

Conceptually based on C-Robots written for the IBM PC by Tom Pointdexter.

--
  /\/\/\  | Richard Rognlie / Sr. Computer Analyst / PRC Inc. / McLean, VA
 /  \ \ \ | E-Mail: rognlie@gcr.com         rrognlie@vtsu.prc.com
 \  / / / | Phone:  (Home) (703) 361-4764   (Office) (703) 556-2458
  \/\/\/  |                                 (Fax)    (703) 556-1174