Tracross:

A game designed (possibly) by Merle D. Zimmermann.

• The Story.
• Requirements.
• The Pieces.
• Two Player Game, The Object.
• Two Player Game, The Rules.
• Two Player Game, Variations/Q&A.
• Solitare Version * (Good) *
• Solitare version rules.

The Story:

When I designed this game in 1993, I had a subscription to Games magazine. During this time period, there was another game (which I have since forgotten the name of), which had many really annoying advertisments next to the magazine's Table of Contents. For several months I was forced to stare at them, and the result was me designing the following series of games. If I actually have stumbled upon the rules for the advertised game, you can send me a message and I will take whatever offends you down. Thanks.

Required:

• One Die: six sided.
• Optional: Another Die, also six sided, of a different colour.
• Graph paper
• Pen or Pencil (two different colours)

The Pieces:

Piece 1 and 4.

Piece 2 and 5.

Piece 3 and 6.

The Object:

To connect your two sides of the square board using the pieces just depicted.

The Rules:

1. Each player selects a pair of opposing sides to use in this game.
2. Each player rolls a die to select the first piece to be placed by each.
1. (take : pcev ( dieroll -- piece number) 3 MOD 1 + ; ) to find proper piece number.
3. Current Player places the designated piece onto the board.
4. Current Player adds 1 mod 3 (+ 1) to find next piece number that they will get to use.
5. Next Player becomes current player.
6. If there is a track connecting two opposite sides of the board, the player who picked those two sides wins.
7. Otherwise, go to step 3, with the new current player.

Variations, Q&A, Rule Clarifications:

• Try the game where you roll the die each turn to find out which piece you use.
• We like playing on a six by six board, but the game might be fun with other sizes.
• The connectivity of the pieces is such that
• piece one connects the bottom side with the right side,
• piece two connects the bottom side with the left side, and
• piece three connects the top side with the bottom side.
• All of the connections specified above leave two unspecified sides; these sides are connected also.
• Note that piece three does not connect the top or bottom sides with the left or right sides; if the pieces represented a road network or train set, you may not turn at corners (if you pretended that the objective is to drive your car from your side to the other, opposing side).
• Please, email any questions, and I will try to answer them as best I can.

Solitare Version:

Required:

• 6-sided die,
• graph paper,
• pen or pencil (with eraser recommended)

The Pieces:

1,2

3,4

5,6

Rules:

1. Roll die to determine size of board (roll + 1 equals side length).
2. Mark out board on graph paper. (leave at least one square around the edges for labels)
3. Roll die to select first piece to be placed in board.
4. Put piece in first empty square.
5. Repeat 4-5 until board has no empty squares left.
6. Write a label on an unlabeled edge unit.
7. Trace the line that starts on the edge that your label was on until you leave the board.
8. Write the same label at the edge unit that you left the board.
9. Repeat 6-8 until all edge units are labeled.
10. Copy all labels to a new, blank board.
11. Fill the new board with pieces of your choice, until the board is full, and there are no empty squares.
12. You have won if the pattern created is substantially different from the original, and all of the edge segments are properly labeled. (matching labels lead to their twins).

Examples:

The order to write labels. How to write labels. Numbers present show the time unit when the label was written (1 = first to be written, 10 = tenth to be written).

	A2	E10	F12
A1				F11
B3				E9
C5				B4
	C6	D7	D8

One way to solve this puzzle.

	A	E	F
A				F
B				E
C				B
	C	D	D

Have fun with Tracross !

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