The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Hive, Lo Ra, Shadows Over Camelot, Citadels, The Game of Life.
The Game of Life. Really.
Thứ Tư, 31 tháng 8, 2011
Thứ Hai, 29 tháng 8, 2011
Planets are a nice thing...
...but make us FreeGamer blog-authors lazy, as all the news are already in our awesome game and development planets :p
New to the feeds is our revision control planet, for those news-freaks that want to keep up to date even if it is just a change in punctuation of the readme file :p
It is btw interesting to see on this planet how much changes happen in the Xonotic SVN, while to the outward observer the project seems to be moving only slowly forward.
However, recently they released an auto-builds update script, which makes it much easier to keep up with their development builds (which seems to be the preferred version for them now in general, but things can break from time to time). Oh and for the lulz: a "my little pony" mod recently surfaced for Xonotic also :p
Next on the list? Ahh yes, Stunt Rally version 1.2 got released:
Changes include (amongst other stuff) a new split-screen and a ghost car rally mode.
Other things to mention? Mage is a open-source MTG client, but not as nice looking as Wagic. But it might convince you with other features (of which Mage has a lot ;) ).
Unknown Horizons has a nice news update with all the improvements Google's Summer of Code gave them and the Zod engine is set out to improve the multiplayer part of the (back then really nice) game Z (using the unfree media from the original it seems).
New to the feeds is our revision control planet, for those news-freaks that want to keep up to date even if it is just a change in punctuation of the readme file :p
It is btw interesting to see on this planet how much changes happen in the Xonotic SVN, while to the outward observer the project seems to be moving only slowly forward.
However, recently they released an auto-builds update script, which makes it much easier to keep up with their development builds (which seems to be the preferred version for them now in general, but things can break from time to time). Oh and for the lulz: a "my little pony" mod recently surfaced for Xonotic also :p
Next on the list? Ahh yes, Stunt Rally version 1.2 got released:
Changes include (amongst other stuff) a new split-screen and a ghost car rally mode.
Other things to mention? Mage is a open-source MTG client, but not as nice looking as Wagic. But it might convince you with other features (of which Mage has a lot ;) ).
Unknown Horizons has a nice news update with all the improvements Google's Summer of Code gave them and the Zod engine is set out to improve the multiplayer part of the (back then really nice) game Z (using the unfree media from the original it seems).
Thứ Năm, 25 tháng 8, 2011
PyWeek 13 (And PyWeek 12 Winners)
It's time PyWeek #13 soon!
The dates of this challenge are are 00:00 UTC 2011-09-11 to 00:00 UTC 2011-09-18.
| Timetable | |
|---|---|
| Friday 2011/08/12 | Registration underway |
| Sunday 2011/09/04 | Theme voting commences |
| Sunday 2011/09/11 | Challenge start |
| Sunday 2011/09/18 | Challenge end, judging begins |
| Sunday 2011/10/02 | Judging closes, winners announced |
Check out PyWeek 12's winners by the way:
Loopback: Asteroids + Tower defense. Retro Look. Permissive code license.
The PyWeek guys seem to have figured out the license part of game prototyping well: Lemming for example contains a list of all used art pieces' urls and licenses. Neat!
PS: Ludum Dare got 600-1 entries last weekend.
Thứ Tư, 24 tháng 8, 2011
BZFlag Tournament hosted by Ohava Open Computers
BZFlag
There will be a tournament of the CTF game BZFlag.
When: September 30th, at 5pm EST
Where: Online(?)
How: Visit ohava.com/gametourney for sign-up.
Prize: An Ohava OpenBook BE awarded to the MVP of the winning team. More prizes will be given to all of the winning team's members.
JSGC Session Report, in which Nadine begins her reign as queen of the games
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Set, A Touch of Evil, Lo Ra.
Nadine hosts game night, writes the session report, explains the games, and wins every one. Lo Ra is Nadine's own biblical-themed version of Ra.
I would like to add here that I played a game of Oh Hell with Tal earlier in the week which I narrowly won.
Nadine hosts game night, writes the session report, explains the games, and wins every one. Lo Ra is Nadine's own biblical-themed version of Ra.
I would like to add here that I played a game of Oh Hell with Tal earlier in the week which I narrowly won.
Thứ Hai, 22 tháng 8, 2011
News Shorts
OpenPatrician is a not-yet-playable free implementation in Java of Ascaron's classic The Patrician and The Patrician 2. There are some assets but unfortunately the project's default license is a noncommercial one.
OpenMW is moving forward: new blog look, renderer is being refractored, inventory being implemented, record saving too.
Alex the Allegator was part-ported to HTML5 using the melonJS library. I'm #9 on the high score at time of post! :D
DusteD, maker of Wizznic! is not dead.
Blendswap now has a slim set of rules for contributors and texture licenses are annoying.
Bandit Racer is a car racing and combat game in HTML5, built with GameJS. Comes with track editor and pretty UI. An earlier version
multiplayer mode, which will probably come back sooner or later
OpenMW is moving forward: new blog look, renderer is being refractored, inventory being implemented, record saving too.
Alex the Allegator was part-ported to HTML5 using the melonJS library. I'm #9 on the high score at time of post! :D
DusteD, maker of Wizznic! is not dead.
Blendswap now has a slim set of rules for contributors and texture licenses are annoying.
Bandit Racer is a car racing and combat game in HTML5, built with GameJS. Comes with track editor and pretty UI. An earlier version
multiplayer mode, which will probably come back sooner or laterThứ Tư, 17 tháng 8, 2011
Raanana Session Report in which we play Container and I win somehow
For the moment, Raanana Game Group session reports will go here, until Ellis tells me what to do with them.
Games played: The Kingdoms of Crusaders, Container, The Enigma of Leonardo
Participants: Abraham, Jon, Ellis, Peleg
We played at Abraham's house. Ellis is the usual host, but he is in the process of moving.
The Kingdom of Crusaders (and The Enigma of Leonardo) are two of the four games that I was sent to review from RightGames - Russian Board Games. All four games come in boxes whose size is comparable to boxes containing software CDs with manuals. The inserts are white foam. The pieces contain lovely art, but the quality of the components is rather flimsy. In some cases, it's hard to separate the pieces without ripping them.
TKoC is the only 2-player only game in the lot; however, it plays for 3-4 players if you buy two copies of the game. The rules are, in fact, written for 3-4 players and not really for 2. Speaking of the rules, the English is obviously by a non-native, but the rules are short - generally two sided of a single page with graphics - and written well enough so that the game play is readily understandable.
TKoC is a stripped down card-driven area-control game akin to Battle Line. The theme has something to do with the Crusades - a celebration thereof, actually, which I find distasteful; luckily the theme is entirely non-existent in the play. Cards have between 1 to 5 symbols in the 5 colors of the game. Each player has a hand of 5 cards.
On your turn, draw a card and play a card into one of the five areas. You will play exactly 4 cards into each area, for a total of exactly 20 cards. The game is over after each player has played their 20 cards.
You win the area if you have the most complete sets: a complete set is when all four of the cards you played in the area match in a symbol. You can achieve more than one complete set in an area if all the cards match in multiple symbols. If there is a tie for most complete sets, the symbols are ranked (like artists in Modern Art) to break the tie. If there is still a tie, compare incomplete sets with only 3 symbols (one of the cards didn't match). Etc.
The player who wins the majority of the 5 areas wins the game. In the case of multiple players, you get 3 points for first place, 2 points for second, 1 point for third. Highest score wins.
The game is pretty straightforward, as are the strategies: hold your best cards for when you need them, know when to give up a fight and use that space to dump weak cards, try to not be first to show strength in an area, etc. Naturally, you're at the mercy of the cards you pick. One game proved sufficient for an experienced adult. For kids or people a little slower on the uptake, the game might be enjoyed a few times. As it is, you wouldn't buy it in favor of other, better games such as Battle Line or Lost Cities. However, there is an expansion available that adds some special abilities and may spruce up the game,
In our game, I had two areas under control and thought I had a third as well, but I forgot about symbol ranking. Abraham kept dumping cards into areas he had already lost until he found what he needed to win this area. Abraham didn't enjoy the game.
Since "Play-Draw" is a better mechanic than "Draw-Play", we played with 6 cards in hand, drawing at the end of the turn, instead of 5 cards drawing at the beginning of the turn. This presents no change to the mechanics other than when you draw your card.
First play for everyone except Abraham. I had played about two rounds of the game previously. My memory of the previous game didn't match up with this game. In my previous game, I felt a complete loss as to what to do and how things worked. In this game, I understood the economics completely, and all that remained was to calculate the benefits of expenses versus income and convince other players to buy from me at a high price and sell to me at a low price.
You pay 1 to produce goods, a small amount to buy good into your warehouse, a larger amount to buy them from a warehouse, and a similar amount to buy them onto your island. You make the most money selling them to someone who wants them on the island (earning double, because you also get from the bank) and acquiring goods on the island, but only in a certain way.
It's the latter mechanic, acquiring good on the island, that caused me the most grief. Island acquisitions always seem to not be worth it; however, the sum total of many acquisitions is worth it. You have to look at the first purchases as a foundation for future purchases. Only in the last few rounds of the game should you be particularly concerned about what you do, or don't, acquire. I didn't grasp this until mid-game, when I was well behind the other players. Finally I acquired some items, keeping them low, even, and accurate. I earned less than the other players on the island, but I made up for it by selling far more goods to them, which gave me by far the most cash in hand by the end.
It's certainly a tough, but interesting game. However, I am bothered by the gaping flaw it has - not dissimilar to other games - that a single bad play by one person can completely hand the game to some other person, thus making the rest of the play irrelevant. In Puerto Rico, it's usually a series of bad plays that can do this; here it can happen in a single auction. Ellis netted $30 from a single auction in which Peleg payed him $15. Luckily, Ellis was far behind.
Furthermore, your production and warehouses won't empty until other players decide to empty them; you can offer your goods at attractive prices for this to happen, but there's no guarantee that it will; and until it does, you're kind of stuck. That keeps me from liking the game unreservedly. Too much depends on other players regardless of what you do.
The second game from RightGames, this is a card driven pattern forming game. Each card has 2 symbols on it, out of a total of 12 symbols altogether. Some of the cards are duplicates (have both the same two symbols), while most cards either match or don't in one of the two symbols. The card quality is poor.
The game also has a number of small tiles with one symbol each. You collect these during the game, trying to get 7. You can't have more than one of the same type. Oddly, each tile has one symbol on one side and a different one on the back. In order to find the symbol you need when you have earned one, you have to flip the symbols over and around, and you must hope that they are not already on the backs of symbols you or another player already collected. This was a bizarre, highly annoying production choice. We managed to always (eventually) find what we needed, but I haven't checked to see if this is always possible.
Each player has a "cross" of five cards in front of him. On your turn, play a card into your cross, take the card you replaced and replace the card in the same location of the cross on the player on your left, and then discard the card you replaced from that player. When you form a line down or across on your own cross with one of the symbols matching on all three cards, you take the matching symbol tile. You can't take the same symbols twice. However, should you ever have all five cards with a matching symbol, you can take one symbol of your choice; but you can only do this once per game.
At first it was hard to notice or care about other players' crosses, and fairly simple to gain symbols every turn or two. As the game went on, we began to a) mess with the player on our left, and b) anticipate what we would get from the player on our right. Eventually I was looking across the table to see what he would give to the player on my right and whether that same card would then end up in my cross.
So there is some interaction, and a little planning and hoping. But it seems to be a crap-shoot as to what cards you pick and whether they will help you. I would like to be able to skip my turn in order to toss out all my cards and pick five more. But with four players holding 10 cards each (5 in hand and 5 in their crosses), the deck contains only a few more cards, so we had to mix half a dozen times, which is too many. A larger deck would have been nice. Apparently an expansion to the game is available.
Abraham liked it more than the previous game. I thought it was OK. Ellis and Peleg weren't impressed. Again, the game would be more appropriate for a younger audience, and not for experienced gamers.
Games played: The Kingdoms of Crusaders, Container, The Enigma of Leonardo
Participants: Abraham, Jon, Ellis, Peleg
We played at Abraham's house. Ellis is the usual host, but he is in the process of moving.
The Kingdoms of Crusaders
Abraham 3, Jon 2The Kingdom of Crusaders (and The Enigma of Leonardo) are two of the four games that I was sent to review from RightGames - Russian Board Games. All four games come in boxes whose size is comparable to boxes containing software CDs with manuals. The inserts are white foam. The pieces contain lovely art, but the quality of the components is rather flimsy. In some cases, it's hard to separate the pieces without ripping them.
TKoC is the only 2-player only game in the lot; however, it plays for 3-4 players if you buy two copies of the game. The rules are, in fact, written for 3-4 players and not really for 2. Speaking of the rules, the English is obviously by a non-native, but the rules are short - generally two sided of a single page with graphics - and written well enough so that the game play is readily understandable.
TKoC is a stripped down card-driven area-control game akin to Battle Line. The theme has something to do with the Crusades - a celebration thereof, actually, which I find distasteful; luckily the theme is entirely non-existent in the play. Cards have between 1 to 5 symbols in the 5 colors of the game. Each player has a hand of 5 cards.
On your turn, draw a card and play a card into one of the five areas. You will play exactly 4 cards into each area, for a total of exactly 20 cards. The game is over after each player has played their 20 cards.
You win the area if you have the most complete sets: a complete set is when all four of the cards you played in the area match in a symbol. You can achieve more than one complete set in an area if all the cards match in multiple symbols. If there is a tie for most complete sets, the symbols are ranked (like artists in Modern Art) to break the tie. If there is still a tie, compare incomplete sets with only 3 symbols (one of the cards didn't match). Etc.
The player who wins the majority of the 5 areas wins the game. In the case of multiple players, you get 3 points for first place, 2 points for second, 1 point for third. Highest score wins.
The game is pretty straightforward, as are the strategies: hold your best cards for when you need them, know when to give up a fight and use that space to dump weak cards, try to not be first to show strength in an area, etc. Naturally, you're at the mercy of the cards you pick. One game proved sufficient for an experienced adult. For kids or people a little slower on the uptake, the game might be enjoyed a few times. As it is, you wouldn't buy it in favor of other, better games such as Battle Line or Lost Cities. However, there is an expansion available that adds some special abilities and may spruce up the game,
In our game, I had two areas under control and thought I had a third as well, but I forgot about symbol ranking. Abraham kept dumping cards into areas he had already lost until he found what he needed to win this area. Abraham didn't enjoy the game.
Since "Play-Draw" is a better mechanic than "Draw-Play", we played with 6 cards in hand, drawing at the end of the turn, instead of 5 cards drawing at the beginning of the turn. This presents no change to the mechanics other than when you draw your card.
Container
Jon 99, Peleg 93, Abraham 79, Ellis 70First play for everyone except Abraham. I had played about two rounds of the game previously. My memory of the previous game didn't match up with this game. In my previous game, I felt a complete loss as to what to do and how things worked. In this game, I understood the economics completely, and all that remained was to calculate the benefits of expenses versus income and convince other players to buy from me at a high price and sell to me at a low price.
You pay 1 to produce goods, a small amount to buy good into your warehouse, a larger amount to buy them from a warehouse, and a similar amount to buy them onto your island. You make the most money selling them to someone who wants them on the island (earning double, because you also get from the bank) and acquiring goods on the island, but only in a certain way.
It's the latter mechanic, acquiring good on the island, that caused me the most grief. Island acquisitions always seem to not be worth it; however, the sum total of many acquisitions is worth it. You have to look at the first purchases as a foundation for future purchases. Only in the last few rounds of the game should you be particularly concerned about what you do, or don't, acquire. I didn't grasp this until mid-game, when I was well behind the other players. Finally I acquired some items, keeping them low, even, and accurate. I earned less than the other players on the island, but I made up for it by selling far more goods to them, which gave me by far the most cash in hand by the end.
It's certainly a tough, but interesting game. However, I am bothered by the gaping flaw it has - not dissimilar to other games - that a single bad play by one person can completely hand the game to some other person, thus making the rest of the play irrelevant. In Puerto Rico, it's usually a series of bad plays that can do this; here it can happen in a single auction. Ellis netted $30 from a single auction in which Peleg payed him $15. Luckily, Ellis was far behind.
Furthermore, your production and warehouses won't empty until other players decide to empty them; you can offer your goods at attractive prices for this to happen, but there's no guarantee that it will; and until it does, you're kind of stuck. That keeps me from liking the game unreservedly. Too much depends on other players regardless of what you do.
The Enigma of Leonardo
Ellis 7, Jon 6, Peleg 6, Abraham 5The second game from RightGames, this is a card driven pattern forming game. Each card has 2 symbols on it, out of a total of 12 symbols altogether. Some of the cards are duplicates (have both the same two symbols), while most cards either match or don't in one of the two symbols. The card quality is poor.
The game also has a number of small tiles with one symbol each. You collect these during the game, trying to get 7. You can't have more than one of the same type. Oddly, each tile has one symbol on one side and a different one on the back. In order to find the symbol you need when you have earned one, you have to flip the symbols over and around, and you must hope that they are not already on the backs of symbols you or another player already collected. This was a bizarre, highly annoying production choice. We managed to always (eventually) find what we needed, but I haven't checked to see if this is always possible.
Each player has a "cross" of five cards in front of him. On your turn, play a card into your cross, take the card you replaced and replace the card in the same location of the cross on the player on your left, and then discard the card you replaced from that player. When you form a line down or across on your own cross with one of the symbols matching on all three cards, you take the matching symbol tile. You can't take the same symbols twice. However, should you ever have all five cards with a matching symbol, you can take one symbol of your choice; but you can only do this once per game.
At first it was hard to notice or care about other players' crosses, and fairly simple to gain symbols every turn or two. As the game went on, we began to a) mess with the player on our left, and b) anticipate what we would get from the player on our right. Eventually I was looking across the table to see what he would give to the player on my right and whether that same card would then end up in my cross.
So there is some interaction, and a little planning and hoping. But it seems to be a crap-shoot as to what cards you pick and whether they will help you. I would like to be able to skip my turn in order to toss out all my cards and pick five more. But with four players holding 10 cards each (5 in hand and 5 in their crosses), the deck contains only a few more cards, so we had to mix half a dozen times, which is too many. A larger deck would have been nice. Apparently an expansion to the game is available.
Abraham liked it more than the previous game. I thought it was OK. Ellis and Peleg weren't impressed. Again, the game would be more appropriate for a younger audience, and not for experienced gamers.
Thứ Ba, 16 tháng 8, 2011
On OpenGameArt 2 and FreeSound 2
This is old news: OpenGameArt 2 launched and with it an improved interface for browsing and submitting freely licensed game art. Testing, feedback and submissions welcome of course. :)
FreeSound is also moving forward, away from FTP-submissions, away from CC-Sampling+, although it seems that noncommercial licenses will be supported. A beta of the new site is open for public testing!
A very curious feature is the "bulk license change", which is what you see first when logging into FreeSound 2:
If you're a FreeSound contributor, please log into the new site and select CC0 or CC-BY.
I finally got hold of a video of OpenGameArt's admin BartK talking about his site at Libre Graphics Meeting May 2011:
Does any of these submission forms scare you away? Did you notice an obvious interface design mistake? Got any libre art sharing news to spread? Let us know in the comments!
OpenGameArt 2 submission form
FreeSound is also moving forward, away from FTP-submissions, away from CC-Sampling+, although it seems that noncommercial licenses will be supported. A beta of the new site is open for public testing!
FreeSound 2 submission form - the upload button is flash...
FreeSound Bulk License Change
I finally got hold of a video of OpenGameArt's admin BartK talking about his site at Libre Graphics Meeting May 2011:
Does any of these submission forms scare you away? Did you notice an obvious interface design mistake? Got any libre art sharing news to spread? Let us know in the comments!
Chủ Nhật, 14 tháng 8, 2011
Hi, I'm Yehuda
Random Strangers
It amazes me how the acts of random strangers determine so much of my life. On Tisha Ba'av (a day of public mourning for the destroyed temple of Jerusalem), I began to walk in the general direction of the two shuls that I knew, without any clear plan as to which one I would attend. I ran into a family getting into a car, obviously on their way to shul, so I asked them for a recommendation. Turns out that they were going to the Carleback shul (Kinor David), one of the two shuls. I rode with them, and that determined where I davened on Tisha Ba'av.
In shul, after I finished Maariv (Evening service) and waited for everyone else to finish, after which we would read Eicha (Lamentations), I quietly told the Rabbi that if he doesn't have enough readers for Eicha that I could read a chapter. He looked at me in a humoring way and thanked me for my offer but assured me that they had enough reader by now (of course). Two minutes later I saw him confer with someone, and he suddenly signaled to me that I should read chapter 2. Heh.
The person who read chapters 3 and 4 (out of a total of 5 chapters) was the guy who drove me to shul.
Friday Night
I spent my first shabbat in Raanana. Tal elected to stay home from shul, so I went on my own.
This time I met someone on the street and followed him to a shul, which turned out to be Lechu Neranena, the other shul I happened to know. I sat down to wait for Mincha (afternoon service). For some reason, I hoped that someone would notice that I was new to the shul and alone, and come over to welcome me. There are very few shuls that this would happen; I'm sad to say that this wasn't one of them.
On my left were a group of "talkers": 50-70 year old men, speaking in English and joking amongst themselves. They had all the copies of the weekly "Torah Tidbits", which I like to read for the advertisements. I went over and snagged one, hoping that this would engender conversation, but other than a quip about my requiring membership privileges to take a copy (a joke), I still didn't get a greeting.
A few minutes later the gabbai (shul organizer) asked if anyone wanted to lead Mincha. I waited a few moments to see if anyone had a chiyuv (obligation), but no one did. The gabbai asked again, and it was obvious that the "talkers" weren't going to volunteer, so I did. It took a few moments to get the gabbai's attention, but eventually I did and I lead Mincha for the shul. I figured that would be a honorable way of drawing attention to myself.
Afterwards, I sat down directly in the talkers section, but other than one or two yasher coach's ("well done"), still nothing. Well, I guessed the subtle way wasn't going to work.
So, after Maariv, I turned to the person next to me and said, "Hi, I'm Yehuda. I'm new here. Do you know any families with girls aged 17 to 19 or so for my daughter to meet?" [1] And thus began a conversation. He pointed to a family next to me, and it turns out that the boy next to me had a 17 year old sister. But his father was not home that shabbat. When asked if I have other children, I told about Saarya (my son) who is in yeshivah Yerucham, and the guy called to a man two seats away whose children also go to Yerucham. Yes, they knew Saarya.
I still had to bluntly ask if I and Tal could come for dinner that evening; but once I asked, the offer was generously extended. In truth, I had dinner enough for Tal and myself in our new home, but it was store-bought since I don't yet have a working stove/oven. Dinner was delicious and generous, and the family was very nice.
Next day I went back to the same shul (Lechu Neranena) and the gabbai came to me near the end of shul, told me he was impressed that I volunteered to lead Mincha, and that he had thought I was somebody's guest, not a new resident. He told me about all the shiurim (lectures) and kiddushes that followed services. I went to one and he introduced me to many of the other people; nearly all from the talkers section, all of whom stayed for the kiddush and the shiur (English gemara in Masechet Bava Metziah, a section from the Talmud). They all said hi, individually asking me about where I came from, where I moved to, what I did, where my kids were, etc. Suddenly, I felt welcome.
Between the 60 or so people, they downed at least three full bottles of single malt scotch, lots of kugel, herring, humus, and crackers. The beer came out during the shiur. There was a speech by the guy who sponsored the week's food and drink, thanking everyone for coming, and praising the community and the kiddush club for being just that: a community, a neighborhood, and a family.
The gabbai walked me back almost to my home, telling me about the various classes and a local mixed English and Hebrew kollel (learning community) that is open all week, every day. And that I was most welcome. And that he will be away next week, but would like to have me as a guest after that.
Games
I had Abraham and Sara over for lunch. A and S are former Jerusalem members now living in Raanana, just like me. They have a cute new baby.
After lunch we played a full game of Tichu. Tal and I started off well, eventually gaining a lead of 660 to 240. Our luck ran out, and Abraham's gumption rose. He called and made at least three Tichu's, and we ended up losing.
Tal then convinced A and S to play Mau, a card game I pretty much loathe [2]. Tal was the only one "in the know" against the three of us who weren't, and it wasn't quite as excruciating as most of my experiences playing the game. We even had some laughter. I won the first game. My new rule, though a tad annoying, also elicited laughs during the second game. However, that was enough Mau for A and S.
They left, so I didn't get a chance to teach them Team Hearts. Some other time.
[1] I added the last clause to assure him that I wasn't a creepy man who wanted to meet 17-19 year old girls.
[2] Though not as much as Fluxx ... ok, maybe as much.
It amazes me how the acts of random strangers determine so much of my life. On Tisha Ba'av (a day of public mourning for the destroyed temple of Jerusalem), I began to walk in the general direction of the two shuls that I knew, without any clear plan as to which one I would attend. I ran into a family getting into a car, obviously on their way to shul, so I asked them for a recommendation. Turns out that they were going to the Carleback shul (Kinor David), one of the two shuls. I rode with them, and that determined where I davened on Tisha Ba'av.
In shul, after I finished Maariv (Evening service) and waited for everyone else to finish, after which we would read Eicha (Lamentations), I quietly told the Rabbi that if he doesn't have enough readers for Eicha that I could read a chapter. He looked at me in a humoring way and thanked me for my offer but assured me that they had enough reader by now (of course). Two minutes later I saw him confer with someone, and he suddenly signaled to me that I should read chapter 2. Heh.
The person who read chapters 3 and 4 (out of a total of 5 chapters) was the guy who drove me to shul.
Friday Night
I spent my first shabbat in Raanana. Tal elected to stay home from shul, so I went on my own.
This time I met someone on the street and followed him to a shul, which turned out to be Lechu Neranena, the other shul I happened to know. I sat down to wait for Mincha (afternoon service). For some reason, I hoped that someone would notice that I was new to the shul and alone, and come over to welcome me. There are very few shuls that this would happen; I'm sad to say that this wasn't one of them.
On my left were a group of "talkers": 50-70 year old men, speaking in English and joking amongst themselves. They had all the copies of the weekly "Torah Tidbits", which I like to read for the advertisements. I went over and snagged one, hoping that this would engender conversation, but other than a quip about my requiring membership privileges to take a copy (a joke), I still didn't get a greeting.
A few minutes later the gabbai (shul organizer) asked if anyone wanted to lead Mincha. I waited a few moments to see if anyone had a chiyuv (obligation), but no one did. The gabbai asked again, and it was obvious that the "talkers" weren't going to volunteer, so I did. It took a few moments to get the gabbai's attention, but eventually I did and I lead Mincha for the shul. I figured that would be a honorable way of drawing attention to myself.
Afterwards, I sat down directly in the talkers section, but other than one or two yasher coach's ("well done"), still nothing. Well, I guessed the subtle way wasn't going to work.
So, after Maariv, I turned to the person next to me and said, "Hi, I'm Yehuda. I'm new here. Do you know any families with girls aged 17 to 19 or so for my daughter to meet?" [1] And thus began a conversation. He pointed to a family next to me, and it turns out that the boy next to me had a 17 year old sister. But his father was not home that shabbat. When asked if I have other children, I told about Saarya (my son) who is in yeshivah Yerucham, and the guy called to a man two seats away whose children also go to Yerucham. Yes, they knew Saarya.
I still had to bluntly ask if I and Tal could come for dinner that evening; but once I asked, the offer was generously extended. In truth, I had dinner enough for Tal and myself in our new home, but it was store-bought since I don't yet have a working stove/oven. Dinner was delicious and generous, and the family was very nice.
Next day I went back to the same shul (Lechu Neranena) and the gabbai came to me near the end of shul, told me he was impressed that I volunteered to lead Mincha, and that he had thought I was somebody's guest, not a new resident. He told me about all the shiurim (lectures) and kiddushes that followed services. I went to one and he introduced me to many of the other people; nearly all from the talkers section, all of whom stayed for the kiddush and the shiur (English gemara in Masechet Bava Metziah, a section from the Talmud). They all said hi, individually asking me about where I came from, where I moved to, what I did, where my kids were, etc. Suddenly, I felt welcome.
Between the 60 or so people, they downed at least three full bottles of single malt scotch, lots of kugel, herring, humus, and crackers. The beer came out during the shiur. There was a speech by the guy who sponsored the week's food and drink, thanking everyone for coming, and praising the community and the kiddush club for being just that: a community, a neighborhood, and a family.
The gabbai walked me back almost to my home, telling me about the various classes and a local mixed English and Hebrew kollel (learning community) that is open all week, every day. And that I was most welcome. And that he will be away next week, but would like to have me as a guest after that.
Games
I had Abraham and Sara over for lunch. A and S are former Jerusalem members now living in Raanana, just like me. They have a cute new baby.
After lunch we played a full game of Tichu. Tal and I started off well, eventually gaining a lead of 660 to 240. Our luck ran out, and Abraham's gumption rose. He called and made at least three Tichu's, and we ended up losing.
Tal then convinced A and S to play Mau, a card game I pretty much loathe [2]. Tal was the only one "in the know" against the three of us who weren't, and it wasn't quite as excruciating as most of my experiences playing the game. We even had some laughter. I won the first game. My new rule, though a tad annoying, also elicited laughs during the second game. However, that was enough Mau for A and S.
They left, so I didn't get a chance to teach them Team Hearts. Some other time.
[1] I added the last clause to assure him that I wasn't a creepy man who wanted to meet 17-19 year old girls.
[2] Though not as much as Fluxx ... ok, maybe as much.
Thứ Bảy, 13 tháng 8, 2011
Session Report, in which Nadine beats me on the tie in two games
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: It's Alive, Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence.
Nadine hosts and I was able to make it.
Nadine hosts and I was able to make it.
Thứ Hai, 8 tháng 8, 2011
Open Source in Humble Indie Bundle #3: Haaf's Game Engine (HGE)
HGE's Particle Editor
The proprietary games sale Humble Indie Bundle has a tradition of including open source engine releases.
In all of the other humble bundles there has always been at least one game that opened its source (in #2 it was revenge of the titans. in #1 it was penumbra, lugaru, aquaria and gish).- Fer C.
Bundle #3 is soon over and the *nix port of the Windows-only zlib-licensed engine HGE has been now released as open source as well. It is the engine used by Hammerfight from the Bundle. Visit the pages: hge, hge-unix.
The non-free BASS audio library was replaced with OpenAL.
The hge-unix readme states "10 I don't know anything about the Windows version of HGE.", which might mean that developers have to juggle two engine versions and audio libraries if they want to support the three main platforms. Or hge-unix needs to be ported back to windows systems.
You can read more about the port in the blog post HGE comes to Mac and Linux by Ryan Gordon aka icculus. Or perhaps watch his talk about Linux/open source gaming (again?).
Chủ Nhật, 7 tháng 8, 2011
LinWarrior r19+
I tested and recorded the latest LinWarrior git revision (a few changes since release19). Some of the new features in r19 and after include:
- Atmospheric daytime setting
- New units (Flopsy, Scorpion and Tank)
- Cockpit frame in first-person view
- Trees, trees, trees
The LinWarrior engine is still being developed, for example mechs are still hardcoded rather than configured in textfiles right now.
PS: A video of actual gameplay, rather than just testing the controls. Unfortunately no sound but 1920x1200 resolution...
Thứ Bảy, 6 tháng 8, 2011
Cubosphere: First Beta
The first beta release of Cubosphere is available.
The game reminds of irrlamb and Neverball but is in fact a tile-based puzzle, rather than a free-physics/precision game. It has a simple level editor and 18 visual/audible styles to chose from. Some features of the 200+ levels are lasers, frying blocks, teleporters, switches, elevators and enemies.
The game reminds of irrlamb and Neverball but is in fact a tile-based puzzle, rather than a free-physics/precision game. It has a simple level editor and 18 visual/audible styles to chose from. Some features of the 200+ levels are lasers, frying blocks, teleporters, switches, elevators and enemies.
Thứ Sáu, 5 tháng 8, 2011
Session Report, in which it's my last night shepherding the group and a new player shows up
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: It's Alive, Puerto Rico x 2.
Nadine and Gili take over the group from now on. A new player comes, rather disappointed to hear that I'm moving away. And we play our classic games: It's Alive and Puerto Rico.
Nadine and Gili take over the group from now on. A new player comes, rather disappointed to hear that I'm moving away. And we play our classic games: It's Alive and Puerto Rico.
Thứ Hai, 1 tháng 8, 2011
Đăng ký:
Nhận xét (Atom)