Computer Versions of Board Games
Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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There are a number of other lists of computer/board games, but in this one I've tried to do two things: be more complete (e.g., not just limit to high-quality games, human v. human games, etc); and give lots of info about each game *and* ratings.
Here's the descriptors I've used for each game:
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GAMEPLAY. Some general facts about the game, including where do you play it (online or downloadable) and who do you play it versus (multiplayer, AI, solitaire).
Requirements. What you need to play the game. Usually a browser requirement (Java, Flash, etc.) or a specific OS (usually Windows). Also includes costs:
$ - Some limited version is available for free, and a full version for money.
$$- Can't play, or can only play for a trial period, without cost.
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ONLINE CONNECTIONS. For games with an online multiplayer component, how do you connect to other players (central site means you connect up to somewhere; hosting means you run an instance of the game; hotseat means you can only play with other people at your own computer).
Critical Mass. How big is the player community for online games:
1- Almost impossible to get a game.
2- Games only possible once in a while.
3- Games sometimes possible.
4- Games possible except in middle of night, etc.
5- Always easy to get a game.
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GAME RATING. How well is the game done (subjectively, 1-5). Includes the following sub categories, though it's also an overall measure of how enjoyable the computer game is to play. My general scale is:
1- Terrible, not worth playing.
2- So-so, occasionally fun.
3- Average, worth playing.
4- Above Average, well-worth playing.
5- As good as computer adaptations get.
Ai. How well does the AI work (if there is one). Note I give this more importance in the overall rating for games where there's no multiplayer option or no critical mass.
1- Plays terribly, making horrid moves.
2- Plays badly, wins once in a while if it gets really lucky.
3- Plays like a bad player, wins once in a while.
4- Plays like an average player, wins sometimes.
5- Plays better than most players, wins frequently.
Interface. How nice does the interface work and how good does it look.
1- Horrid interface.
2- Interface detracts from gameplay.
3- Not that great, but interface doesn't hamper play.
4- Looks & works very good.
5- Look great & having generally improves play of game.
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COMMENTS. General comments on the game.
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I'm very happy to have additions to this list, but please follow the format I've set out and only add an item if you've actually played it, and thus can rate it accurately.
Please also feel free to list alternative game versions in the comments, or give your own ratings, again using my standard format.
BSW is purposefully not included in this list, because that's a whole other ball of wax.
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51.
Board Game: Clans
[Average Rating:6.57 Overall Rank:703]
Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.marquand.net/games/clans
GAMEPLAY: Online, Solitaire
GAME RATING: 3
Interface: 3
Ai: 5
COMMENTS: Interface is a bit awkward. It's "jumpy" sometimes and you have to watch carefully to see what it's doing when villages are created. I've been unable to beat the AI this far.
[originally submitted by matthew.marquand]
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David Reed
United States
College Station
Texas
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http://www.insystem.com/rbp/
GAMEPLAY: Online, Multiplayer, AI
Requirements: Windows (see notes below for Virtual PC info), $
ONLINE CONNECTIONS: ? (have not tried this yet)
Critical Mass: ?
GAME RATING: 4
Ai: 4
Interface: 4
COMMENTS: An excellent implementation of the board game. Additional unofficial maps are available (some for additional charge, many for free) and a map editor is available for creating new maps or tweaking old ones.
I played this a fair amount on my PCs. Since I have started using a Mac laptop, I haven't been able to tweak it to work in Virtual PC (though others have reported success).
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.queens-necklace.com/
http://www.skotos.net/games/wonder/QN/
GAMEPLAY: Online, Multiplayer
Requirements: Java, $
ONLINE CONNECTIONS: Central Site
Critical Mass: 2
GAME RATING: 3
Interface: 3
COMMENTS: The official version by Days of Wonder. The main problem is, inevitably, that you can only play at limited times, often in the morning on weekends.
The interface itself is fine; my average rating is because the interface doesn't keep track of things that it could, like what gems people have taken, etc.
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54.
Board Game: Vulkan!
[Average Rating:6.45 Unranked]
Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.erlkoenig.ws/hrrg/receiver.php?do=SpecifyCodeInpu...
GAMEPLAY: Online, Solitaire
Requirements: HTML
GAME RATING: 3
Interface: 3
COMMENTS: A solitaire only variant of Vulkan that creates an interesting puzzle (though not as good as Feurio's puzzles, IMO). Programmed in simple but good-looking HTML.
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55.
Board Game: Metro
[Average Rating:6.39 Overall Rank:942]
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http://www.bluering.nl/sieuwert/games/metro/
GAMEPLAY: Online, AI
Requirements: Java
GAME RATING: 4
AI: 5
COMMENTS: I've only played this online, so can't compare it to the play of the boardgame. I've spent a lot of time losing to the AI, who I think is pretty tough. You can increase the difficulty of the game by changing the ability of the AI from novice to average to aggressive.
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56.
Board Game: Jotto
[Average Rating:6.36 Overall Rank:4123]
Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://home1.gte.net/res1bup4/#jotto
GAMEPLAY: Downloadable, AI
Requirements: Windows
GAME RATING: 3
Interface: 3
COMMENTS: A very plain interface that still does the job. Most folks won't recognise this game, but it's an amusing word guessing exercise that allows for some analytical thought.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://home1.gte.net/res1bup4/#cave
GAMEPLAY: Downloadable, AI
Requirements: Windows
GAME RATING: 2
Ai: ~
Interface: 2
COMMENTS: Made for old 256-color graphics, so doesn't look very nice anymore, and the interface is likewise clunky. Didn't excite me at all, but if you like the game ...
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.erlkoenig.ws/hrrg/receiver.php?do=StartGameInput&...
GAMEPLAY: Online, Puzzle
Requires: HTML
GAME RATING: 2
Interface: 2
COMMENTS: A not-very-exciting adaptation of the core issue of Techno Witches: laying out a series of curves to get your broomstick to move from one place to another. The HTML interface feels pretty kludgy and these singular puzzles aren't terribly exciting.
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59.
Board Game: Domina 4
[Average Rating:6.25 Unranked]
Néstor Romeral Andrés
Spain
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Computer version available on the files section of the game (PC).
Great job by Greg Schmidt. It uses the AXIOM system. Hard to beat.
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Bryce Nakagawa
United States
California
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www.buttonmen.com
or
www.buttonmen.dhs.org
website based browser game. No download necessary, no ads, no cost.
Multiplayer only. (there used to be an ai player but it was operated by somebody who has been absent)
5- Always easy to get a game.
There are always available games to join and tournaments to play. You can play in dozens or even hundreds of simultaneous games, so even if only a fraction of them have updated since your last login, there's always something to do.
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GAME RATING.
5- As good as computer adaptations get.
The website disallows invalid moves and keeps score for you. This website is even more convenient (except for the delay) than playing live.
No current ai opponent.
Interface.
5- Look great & having generally improves play of game.
As described above, the website makes play even easier than actually rolling dice. There are scans of all buttons, which you can toggle, so the site can look like something that might be work in case you're playing at school or work. There is a chat window where you can trash-talk or chat as you play.
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COMMENTS.
In addition to the basic 1v1 game, there are 4,8,16 and 32 person tournaments, both single and double elimination. There is a vast database of buttons cross indexed by name, frequency of play, win %, win % vs opponent, win % vs opposing button and so on. In addition to playing any of hundreds of existing buttons, you can play some web-only designs as well as randomly generated buttons. There is an arena where you get matched up against a random opponent with random buttons with gg like buttonyen as the prize. Buttonyen can be spent on a variety of cosmetic amusements similar to flags and tags here. There are also polls, forums and player mail.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.english.parisparis.de/
GAMEPLAY: Online, AI
Requirements: HTML
GAME RATING: 3
Ai: 3
Interface: 2
COMMENTS: The interface really seems to obfuscate what's going on, though that may just be due to my unfamiliarity with the game--this online version wasn't a good place to try and figure it out! Likewise, my judgement of the AI could be off.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.dragonstones.com/
GAMEPLAY: Online, Multiplayer
Requirements: Java, $
ONLINE CONNECTIONS: Central Site
Critical Mass: 3
GAME RATING: 3
Interface: 4
COMMENTS: The official Days of Wonder game, entirely crippled by no community to play it.
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64.
Board Game: Tyrus
[Average Rating:6.11 Overall Rank:2865]
Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.nivozero.com/
GAMEPLAY: Downloadable, AI
Requirements: Java
GAME RATING: 3(4)
Ai: 4
Interface: 2(3)
COMMENTS: Parenthetical numbers are for French speakers. The interface is all in French, but it actually comes up pretty rarely (just start game & scores), so it doesn't actually interfere much. Other than that a pretty smooth & quick play.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.kronberger-spiele.de/cronberg/cron.html
http://www.kronberger-spiele.de/bonobo/bonobo.html
GAMEPLAY: Downloadable, Multiplayer, Ai
Requirements: Windows
ONLINE CONNECTIONS: Hosted, Hotseat
GAME RATING: 4
Ai: 3
Interface: 4
COMMENTS: Available in either Cronberg or Bonobo Beach versions. I had some problems with it crashing when I tried it months ago, but this time around it seems stable. Overall, pretty and fairly well executed, though not enough help on what you can do.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Kory/JavaGames/Javaquarius/
GAMEPLAY: Online, AI
Requirements: Java
GAME RATING: 3
Ai: 4
Interface: 2
COMMENT: There's no real happy medium for looking at the game; either the cards are too small (in fact, they never look that crisp) or you can't see the whole board. Still, pretty good quality Java. As for the AI, not necessarily a case of it being good, but rather the game being random thanks to those Goal exchanges.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://doris-frank.de/PlayPico.html
GAMEPLAY: Online, AI
Requirements: Java
GAME RATING: 3
Ai: 3
Interface: 2
COMMENTS: A clean Java interface, except that all reporting is done via the informational bar on your browser, which is pretty awkward.
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Shannon Appelcline
United States
Berkeley
California
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http://home1.gte.net/res1bup4/#animal
GAMEPLAY: Downloadable, AI
Requirements: Windows
GAME RATING: 3
Ai: 4
Interface: 3
COMMENT: A utilitarian, but still somewhat colorful implementation. Biggest flaw is the lack of good in-game help on the couple of special powers.
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Per Trygve Myhrer
Norway
Trondheim
Unspecified
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http://www.kongregate.com/games/gaby/zilch
GAMEPLAY: Online
Requirements: Flash
ONLINE CONNECTIONS: limited to 2 players vs each other on 1 computer or vs AI.
GAME RATING: 5 Great
AI: 5 - 3 different AIs that play the game different, some taking more and some less risk than others. If one wants to be good at it one should try to see what the best AI does.
Interface: 5 Easy and simple interface that all is done in the same stile
COMMENTS: Rules used is not completly the same as the rules in the boardgame. As far as I understand the scoring rules are a bit different..
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70.
Board Game: Qubic
[Average Rating:5.11 Overall Rank:7391]
David Bush
United States
Lexington
Virginia
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I here repeat my entry in the list "computerized sparring opponents" at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
I hope someone tries and enjoys this. I include it here in the interest of completeness, and because I wrote it. Yes, Qubic has been solved, but I have a workaround! See below.
GAMEPLAY: online, human vs. computer, or two humans at the same keyboard, or watch the computer play against itself.
GAME RATING: 3, or maybe 4 if you're into abstracts.
INTERFACE is not that great, maybe a 2 once you start, but 3 once you get used to it. The up/down arrows do different things from the left/right arrows.
AI: depends on which strength you choose, from easy to beat to near perfect play.
http://members.cox.net/javacoco/
This is a Java emulator for the old Tandy Color Computer. I wrote a Qubic program called "Fourcube."
Click the Setup button on the lower left. Click the BIN tab and then select Fourcube. (You won't need to use the scroll bar.) The digits 1 to 6 select how strong the program is. 1 is easy to beat, and 6 is near perfect. The left and right arrow keys will rotate the board. The up and down arrow keys will scan a cursor through all the cells. When you have the cursor in the vacant cell where you want to move, press Enter. To get rid of the cursor, rotate the board.
Qubic is not a fair game. The first player to move has a winning advantage. But I have a workaround. At the start of a new game press F for "Faircube." The computer will make the first move in some cell other than a corner or central cell. Or, make such a first move yourself. The first player still has a winning advantage, but the advantage is lessened, and the computer does not know how to win.
Other bells and whistles are available. You can take back moves, play both sides, and you can press D for "Demo" in the middle of a game. The computer will play both sides, game after game if you let it.
Level 6 is very strong, although not perfect. If you can beat level 6 under the first move restriction of "Faircube," either as the first player or as the 2nd player, you should feel proud of yourself.
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Westerville
Ohio
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
I cover primarily commercially packaged versions (with the exception of Samurai).
Visalia
California
I have to say there is an EXCELLENT site where you can play ASL online "FTF". Do a search for VASL using the Vassal engine. Download lots of map files etc. and you will be up and running virtually FTF games online. Add in Teamspeak/Netmeeting and you will be FTF without the Face.
Absolutely the best ASL online play available.
Using VASSAL has opened up tons of players to the good ol' AH games plus some new ones. Graphics are usually top notch. CHECK IT OUT!!!!
Berkeley
California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware
Besides being illegal, the Abandonware software usually doesn't run well on most modern computers.
Fuquay Varina
North Carolina
I don't know where to get it. You can get a demo from Gamespot. I'd give gameplay a 2 and AI a 5 on it.
Malmesbury
wiltshire
If you look at
www.the-underdogs.info
you can find a downloadable version of history of the world
also, "balance of power" (twilight struggle fans shoudl enjoy that one!)