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Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games 1.3 (Mac OS X)

Copyright © 2002 Dr. Herwig Henseler

FREEWARE

Overview

This is a collection of games you won't find elsewhere. All are two-person games played on a chessboard. You can play against your Macintosh or against other human players, even over net!

Features

• Eight games: Suicide Chess (two variants), Alapo, Twelve Pawns, Knight Trail and Los Alamos Chess, Dunsany's Chess, Grab The Corner.
• Play against other people locally.
• Play over net, chat with your opponent. Rendezvous supported.
• Play against the Macintosh in different strengths.
• Optional highlighting of legal moves.
• Unlimited undo/redo.
• Different graphics for board and pieces to choose from.
• Digitized real boards.
• Games feature random setup for increased variety.
• Save and reopen games.
• Native MacOS X using typical elements like drawer, toolbar and sheets.
• Localized for english and german.
• ... and many more.

Games

These games are currently implemented. More detailed rules are included in the game.

• Suicide Chess (small and normal board):
  Lose all your pieces to win. You must take if you can.
• Alapo:
  Reach the opposite side without being taken in the following turn. Played with unique pieces.
• Twelve Pawns:
  Be the first one to reach the opposite side. Played with chess pawns only.
• Knight Trail:
  Leave your opponent with no move left. Played with knights only.
• Los Alamos Chess:
  Miniature Chess with simpler rules. Was used as the first attempt to play against a computer in 1956.
• Dunsany's Chess:
  White has only pawns but lots of them.
• Grab The Corner:
  Reach the corner of your opponent.

This collection will grow with future versions.

Screenshots

Download

1.7 MByte, bousg.dmg.zip, Version 1.3, Mac OS X, English & German

Version History

License

This code will register the program:
Name: registered
Code: b5ft-g4ab-u4c3

Feedback

I turned off the email address because of too much spam.

Languages

Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games is localized for english and german.

Requirements

Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games runs on Mac OS X 10.1 or newer, including 10.2.
Mac OS X 10.0 had a lot of bugs and unfinished code from Apple, so it is not recommended to run this program on 10.0. This program does not run with Mac OS 9 or earlier ("Classic").

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Your english is bad!!

Well, yes. It is not my mother language, I learnt it at school and I'm more of a tech guy than a language guy. How many foreign languages are you very good at? Forgive me and correct me whereever I selected the wrong words or phrases. Thanks in advance.

I start the game an nothing happens!

You probably compressed and/or uncompressed the application with Stuffit. This shows again that the people at Aladdin Systems live in the past. They can't handle filenames longer than 31 characters and destroy them instead. Since "Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games" is quite a long name, the program is corrupted afterwards. Please download a fresh copy from the authors homepage, you will get a disk image which works properly.

Why don't you support GameRanger?

I'm in contact with the maintainer of GameRanger. It is very possible that one of the next updates will support network play via GameRanger.

How do I find opponents?

Until GameRanger support is included, meet on some kind of chat system or play in your LAN.

I can't connect to a server. Is it because I'm behind a router?

Yes, the opponent hosting the game has to have a static address and must not be hidden behind a firewall or router.

Are more games planned?

Yes! I have ideas for several more unusual games. Stay tuned.

Will you charge me again for future versions?

No! I'm a big fan of GraphicConverter. Thorsten never charges anyone for new versions. And so I will give you all future versions of Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games without additional charge. Your code will work forever. Promised.

Will my serial number be checked via net?

No. The application will never check any host on the net for the validity of your number. You can play against people which haven't yet registered and you can play against people using the same serial number. I trust you.

Strength

Since I didn't want to frustrate you, the computer opponent is indeed beatable. But it's not that easy. Especially in Suicide Chess I find myself constantly losing even on medium difficulty but that may have to do with my own playing abilities. The algorithms for Alapo and Twelve Pawns leave room for improvement, I will finetune them if there is demand.

What People are Saying ...

• Excellent presentation and feature set. Unfortunately, the computer player is a bit too good. ;-) - Versiontracker
• Very good design and the game play is easy, yet challenging. - Versiontracker
• Versiontracker rating: 5/5 Stars

• The fast and the furious. This series of games may feature a chessboard and a familiar set of gamepieces/rules but make no mistake, this is Chess as it was never intended to be played. Designed to play quickly while retaining the strategic gameplay of standard chess. It's fast and furious fun for the geek set! 4/5 Stars - ChezMark

Technology

Bag Of Unusual Strategy Games is written in Java and uses the Cocoa framework. You didn't know that Java programs can be so fast, do you?

Known Bugs

There are two known bugs which I contribute solely to Apple.

Don't put the application inside a folder with special characters (like e.g. german umlauts: ä, Ö, ...). This is a bug in Apple's Cocoa Java framework and I can't get around it. The application will come up with empty and nonfunctional dialog boxes. (Apple fixed this in 10.2)

The move history isn't updated correctly sometimes (especially when undoing a move). Clicking on the wrong item shows that the data is indeed correct.

And don't use Stuffit to compress the application. It will not work afterwards.

Thanks

Thanks go to all registered users, Apple for making their development apps free, and Pink Floyd for making incredibly wonderful music.

Used Tools

Apart from Apples Developer Tools, I used the following (registered) shareware to create this application:

• GraficConverter by Thorsten Lemke
• Can Combine Icons

Additionally, I used the free chess fonts from http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Maze/6755/page5.html

Disclaimer

The Software and its related documentation are provided "AS IS" and without warranty of any kind and Herwig Henseler expressly disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Under no circumstances shall Herwig Henseler be liable for any incidental, special, or consequential damages that result from the use or inablility to use the Software or related documentation, even if Herwig Henseler has been advised of the possibility of such damages.