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Topic: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas (Read 5247 times) |
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« on: Jul 17th, 2009, 9:37am » |
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I am solidifying plans to give a demonstration of Arimaa on October 3 on the campus of Bethel College in my home town of Newton Kansas. Both of my parents were professors at Bethel, I grew up just across the street, and I even took a few classes at Bethel College, so it will be a homecoming for me. That weekend at Bethel will be an annual campus-wide open-air party that they call Fall Festival.
I will play against all comers simultaneously, on Z-Man's shiny new sets. I'm not sure how many people will sit down to play against me, though, so I am hoping to guarantee a special opponent over the Internet.
JDB, would you be willing to adapt clueless with a special time control and put it on-line for me to play during this event? It would be great PR for Arimaa if one of the simultaneous games I was playing was against the reigning Arimaa Computer Champion. The technical difficulty is that the game would have to be untimed to accommodate a simul of unknown size. But if the time control is 0/0/0/0/0, could clueless be made to move at regular intervals anyway?
If this is too much hassle, JDB, or if you wouldn't have a computer/connection available at time, etc., then I can always fall back on running my home copy of Bomb on a local laptop. If it can work out, though, there would be a great cachet in playing the 2009 Computer Champion rather than the 2008 Computer Champion.
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jdb
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #1 on: Jul 17th, 2009, 4:30pm » |
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I can set clueless up to move at x seconds per move, ignoring the time control.
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Manuel
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #2 on: Jul 17th, 2009, 11:38pm » |
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Wouldn't it be more in the spirit of simultaneous play if clueless would be allowed to think all the time that fritzlein is away to play the other players, and then when he returns, clueless has to move quickly?
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| « Last Edit: Jul 17th, 2009, 11:38pm by Manuel » |
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #3 on: Jul 18th, 2009, 5:06am » |
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Awesome, JDB. Thanks!
Manuel, your suggestion would fit exactly with the tradition of simultaneous chess, but I'm not sure how it would be implemented.
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rajmahendra
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #4 on: Jul 18th, 2009, 8:23pm » |
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Hi,
don't forget to take pics.... i cant come there 
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myopicblur
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #5 on: Jul 19th, 2009, 8:18am » |
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yeah, waiting for their photos on flickr.
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #6 on: Jul 19th, 2009, 12:26pm » |
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We will certainly take pictures, but that reminds me to pack my video camera too. Of course no one would want to view a couple of hours of me walking from board to board, but sometimes a minute of video can give a better sense of an event than dozens of photos.
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omar
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #7 on: Jul 20th, 2009, 10:10am » |
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Wow, sounds fun Karl. Looking forward to seeing the pics and video.
Maybe you might get more and better prepared players for the simul if a flyer is posted on campus about it.
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #8 on: Jul 20th, 2009, 10:50am » |
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on Jul 20th, 2009, 10:10am, omar wrote:| Maybe you might get more and better prepared players for the simul if a flyer is posted on campus about it. |
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What, do you want me to lose? Just kidding.  Actually the computer science professor is recruiting some players now, so they will have a chance to practice up if they want to.
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The_Jeh
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #9 on: Jul 23rd, 2009, 2:09pm » |
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Fritz, I am hindered by a 4.75 hour drive, but I will at least consider attending. Perhaps I could get that elusive win from you if you are distracted by a bunch of computer science majors.
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| « Last Edit: Jul 23rd, 2009, 2:09pm by The_Jeh » |
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #10 on: Jul 23rd, 2009, 5:17pm » |
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Your odds of beating me in the simul are quite good. Even if the CS majors are all noobs, I will at least have clueless to contend with, not to mention trying to promote Arimaa on the side. Furthermore, I have promised to give a free Arimaa set to the first person that beats me. The question, then, is whether you will drive that far just to win a free Arimaa set!
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The_Jeh
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #11 on: Oct 3rd, 2009, 7:48pm » |
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How did it go, sir?
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Fritzlein
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #12 on: Oct 4th, 2009, 3:17pm » |
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My Arimaa demonstration at Bethel yesterday went far better than I had expected. In the morning I gave a computer science lecture. I expected to have only a tiny audience, but the classroom filled to overflowing, with at least forty people in attendance. The audience seemed quite engaged, with many questions about Arimaa and artificial intelligence.
After lunch I gave a simul on the green. I had expected only a few people to be willing to play an unfamiliar game, so I had planned to have a game against Clueless be the fallback conversation point. Unfortunately, our booth had no power, and my laptop battery ran out after only twelve moves. I apologize to JDB to have troubled him for naught, and to the on-line community that I couldn't provide this point of participation.
On the bright side, though, there was enthusiastic crowd participation, mostly from walk-on players who hadn't been at the lecture. At one point I was playing nine humans at once (plus Clueless before my battery died), and there were several humans waiting for a seat! All but two or three learned the rules on the spot, mostly from my wife Katie's tireless assistance.
In the first round I played Silver in all games, but later in the afternoon some players turned the board around and demanded that I play Gold! Several people stayed for a second game, and several also made the trek to the college bookstore to buy the set and/or my book.
I promised to give a prize of an Arimaa set to the first person to beat me, and I felt very secure for most of the exhibition, but towards the end I got sloppy and prematurely tried to force a rabbit to goal in a way that cost me both the advanced rabbit and my camel. I was left without MHHDR, having captured MHDRR, i.e. down a horse for a rabbit with the camels off. Fortunately, other boards were starting to finish, so I was able to focus more on the game where I was in trouble, and managed to come back for the win. It turned out that Jon Jantz, the the fellow who almost beat me, was playing his first game ever! If he should decide to take up Arimaa seriously, we may have a new rising star on our hands.
Katie took some pictures, which I have posted here, on the Arimaa Wiki. In the first picture, the onlooker in the leather jacket is Arlyn, who I see has joined the gameroom and started working up the ladder.
Overall, the lecture and the exhibition made for the most fun I have had in ages. Furthermore, the way newcomers jumped into Arimaa with both feet has renewed my hope that Arimaa could see widespread uptake, not just in the long run, but in the near future. Hurray for Arimaa!
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| « Last Edit: Oct 4th, 2009, 3:20pm by Fritzlein » |
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omar
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #13 on: Oct 5th, 2009, 11:56am » |
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Wow, glad to hear you had a great turn out and thanks for sharing the pics with us. Looks like a lot of fun.
Darn, I missed my best chance to win against you Karl 
One time Karl and I were playing at a gaming group and while he was explaining the rules to someone as he played, I was giving it my best and managed to get a slight advantage. Then he realized what was going on and trounced me
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Janzert
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Re: Arimaa Demo at Bethel College, Kansas
« Reply #14 on: Oct 5th, 2009, 7:13pm » |
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Wow, sounds like it went great. Any material (slides, video, ...) available from the lecture?
Janzert
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