logic/math based games?

[pier4r]

Update Mar2018

I searched with google about site:hpmuseum.org game math and I got mostly results about games done for calculators. What a surprise. Therefore I decided to recycle this topic.

What are video games (or board games) that you liked that are heavily based on logic or math, not necessarily advanced, and are fun to play?

My suggestions so far:

* Spacechem (visual programming against fixed challenges)
* Manufactoria (finite state machines)
* Gladiabots (visual programming against dynamic challenges, see below)
* Euclidea (some not so that straightforward fun with visual compass and ruler)
* Calculator: the game (really trivial math, but the problem is the order of operations)


--

Original post sept2017
While I am busy in recovering the months of missed Hp forum (n1), I think that the audience in this forum may be interested in logic based competitive games. Sure, those games are not like programming challenges for calculators, but they should be still somewhat interesting.

So one that I discovered recently and I consider very interesting, since through it one can also experience a lot of common problems of programmers or non-trivial projects (accepting failure, versioning, patterns, reusable code, refactoring, etc), is Gladiabots.

Short description: define decision trees that model a tactic, see if the tactic succeed against the enemy tactic without modification during the battle.

I'm also fairly interested how people that likes calculators and RPN would fare in the competition of the game.

n1: since my activity with the calculators and around the calculators decreased since 2013 (one can see this on the wiki4hp.com website) and will not be higher in the near future. (update Mar 2018: a lot of spam happened)

[pier4r]

Updated the first post after playing "calculator:the game" (on android at least).

The game doesn't use difficult math, but the problem is to find the order of operations that hit the result.

I find it interesting at least for two reasons:
- (harder) one could replicate it on a calculator (and possibly extend it). At least on those calculators that allow some text on the screen. Those that don't will require additional documentation like all the other games that were written for them.
- one could solve it automating the search on a calculator, thing that I will try to do when my search intuition doesn't go further.

And maybe there are a couple more ideas that one can see. Surely some games on android are pretty creative and interesting to replicate. 2048 or 2248 for example (extending the sliding block puzzle game idea)

[Paul Dale]

Off the top of my head:

• Roborally: program your robot using cards to reach your destination. Robots shoot each other automatically (reducing program slots), the arena has fatal drops, moving terrain, stuff to spin robots around. There are plenty of games with a similar mechanic.
• Ricochet Robots: finding the shortest sequence of moves to get a robot to its goal. Simultaneous play with a time limit.
• Fifth Frontier War: strategic wargame where the different admirals have different planning horizons. Each fleet has to plan ahead but the number of turns is variable.
• Khet: moving pieces around a board trying to get a laser to hit the opponent's pieces. Chess with a extra dimension.
• Twixt: build a path from one side of the board to the other while blocking your opponent from doing the same. Pipeline is similar but in three dimensions and a random twist.
  

No doubt I've missed heaps.

I didn't include:

• Deduction games like Cludo or Mastermind.
• Solo puzzles like Sudoku.
• Ones we should know backwards like Nim.
• Non-games like Sprouts or Snakes & Ladders because they offer no decisions.
  

Pauli

[pier4r]

Thanks for sharing! About "visual programming" of sort I know this wiki although incomplete has a lot of pointers (and can get more, since it is pretty open) .

Roborally seems pretty cool and I already read it here somewhere. Wait a minute.... No I did not find it. I swear I read it somewhere in this forum.

[Paul Dale]

Roborally is a lot of fun, programmer types tend to be rather good at.

Pauli

[Dave Britten]

Spacechem is great. You constantly alternate between feeling like a gibbering moron and a complete genius while playing it.

Zachtronics also has a sort-of-sequel called Opus Magnum, which is played on a hex grid:

http://www.zachtronics.com/

And there's an iPhone game called The Sequence that reminds me a bit of Spacechem in that it has spatial/kinetic puzzles, though they're substantially less brain-breaking. Perfect Paths is another one, that lies somewhere between Spacechem and The Sequence as far as complexity.

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

On my tablet I have played one call "Circuit Scramble" which has you connect logic gates to solve combinational logic, but having a fair bit of experience with digital logic I did find it a little on the trivial side.

Paul.

[pier4r]

(03-08-2018 03:24 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  And there's an iPhone game called The Sequence that reminds me a bit of Spacechem in that it has spatial/kinetic puzzles, though they're substantially less brain-breaking. Perfect Paths is another one, that lies somewhere between Spacechem and The Sequence as far as complexity.

Yes the sequence is another one. I wonder how many I forget. Zachtronics has also plenty of nice games (but I don't have much time. I need to multiply myself).

Although in terms of "fun and hard" the list (for my little experience) would be:

The_sequence (challenging, but not that fun) < Manufactoria (challenging and fun) < Spacechem (more fun) <<<<< Gladiabots (hard, really hard (online), and fun)

[toml_12953]

(03-08-2017 11:04 PM)pier4r Wrote:  Update Mar2018

What are video games (or board games) that you liked that are heavily based on logic or math, not necessarily advanced, and are fun to play?

I liked Dr. Nim and Think-A-Dot from ESR (Education, Science, Research Corp). Dr. Nim showed how logic gates work with a game of Nim using marbles that rolled down through plastic flip-flops. It played a mean game of Nim! Think-A-Dot used marbles dropped into a plastic frame with one state of each of eight flip-flops displayed in small windows. You dropped marbles in one of three holes on top and saw how the flip-flops changed. Quite a few games were possible. One game was to change all the flip-flops to the same color (one state showed blue in the window, one showed yellow IIRC) another was to set up an octal counter.

[Dave Britten]

I just noticed that several Zachtronics games are on sale on GOG right now:

https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=zachtro...ity&page=1

SpaceChem for $2.49 is a no-brainer (which is good, because you're going to need to preserve as much brain as possible for actually playing the game).