Friday, February 10, 2012

[axdooajf] Go on a cube

Play the game of Go 囲碁 on the surface of a cube.

Should an edge be a playable line or the space between lines?  I advocate the latter, yielding no corner points with only three neighbors.

The only way you can see all sides of a cube at once is from an internal vantage point, which suggests a life sized "playing room" interface.  Perhaps velcro stickers as pieces, or magnets.

What if players are different heights?  How do you reach the ceiling? How do you avoid displacing played stones when walking across the floor?  Won't your neck hurt craning to ponder the ceiling?  (Any furniture obstructs the view of the floor.)  If both players are in the same room, you can't see through the other.

Zero gravity obviates many problems but cannot realistically be implemented any time soon.  Maybe a show.

Also consider playing only 5 sides of a cube except the floor, eliminating some of the problems.  This preserves edge play.  Or the inside of a cubical "bucket" with a hole at the top.

Create a seamless handheld cube electronic display, giving up being able to see all sides.  Or sphere.

For all 6 sides, a 7x7x7 cube is the largest before exceeding 19x19=361 points of regular Go.  For 5 sides, 8x8x8, which is coincidentally the same size as a chess board.

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