Grid Movement

In this third addition to the GIPF Project players compete to acquire sets of multi-colored balls. This is mostly accomplished by jumping one ball over one or more others, Checkers-style, on a hex board. A player's turn consists of either jumping (which can be forced) or placing any color ball on the board and removing an empty space from the edge of the board. In this manner, the play space continually shrinks, giving the endgame an almost claustrophobic feel.

This game is part of project GIPF.

Home Page: http://www.gipf.com/zertz/index.html

The players each start with 5 rings on the board. Every time a ring is moved, it leaves a marker behind. Markers are white on one side and black on the other. When markers are jumped over by a ring they must be flipped, so their color is constantly changing. The players must try to form a row of 5 markers with their own color face up. If a player succeeds in doing so, he removes one of his rings as an indication that he has formed such a row. The first player to remove 3 of his rings wins the game. In other words, each row you make brings you closer to victory-but also makes you weaker, because you have one fewer ring to play with. Very tricky!

TZAAR is a game about making choices. Both players have 30 pieces, divided in three types: 6 Tzaars, 9 Tzarras and 15 Totts. The 3 types of pieces form a trinity: They cannot exist without each other. The aim is either to make the opponent run out of one of the three types of pieces or to put him in a position in which he cannot capture anymore. The tricky question the players will have to ask themselves on each of their turns is: “Shall I make myself stronger or my opponent weaker?” Meaning: Will you capture an opponent’s piece and make him weaker, or will you jump on top of one of your own pieces and make yourself stronger? If you choose to jump on top of your own pieces too often, you will probably leave your opponent with too many pieces on the board. On the other hand, if you capture too often, you may end up with pieces that are not strong enough at the end of the game. What to do? Up to you to decide!

TZAAR is the most recent game in project GIPF, replacing TAMSK which was felt to not quite fit in with the others due to its use of sand timers.

Online Play

Boardspace.net (real time, against human or robot opponents)
Gamerz (turn-based, play by email or play by web)
Boîte_à_jeux (turn-based, play by web, robot opponents also available)

Local Computer Play

HTZAAR (made from Haskell, OpenGL, and SDL; can be compiled for Windows or Linux) (NOTE: this is no longer maintained)
http://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~pbv/stuff/hstzaar HsTZAAR: improved version of HTZAAR with better AI and better graphical interface. Source code in Haskell; can be compiled for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.
http://www.johannes-schwagereit.de/tz1 TZ1: A program to play TZAAR, developed in Java.

Torres is an abstract game of resource management and tactical pawn movement. Players are attempting to build up castles and position their knights to score the most points each turn. Players have a limited supply of knights and action cards that allow special actions to be taken. Efficient use of pieces and cards, along with a thoughtful awareness of future possibilities, is the heart of this game.

Torres is considered by many to be an informal member of what is referred to as the Mask Trilogy.

Tobago is an adventure game, in which the players possess different parts of treasure maps. During the game, more and more information about the locations of the treasures are revealed, and the possible locations are narrowed down. When a player identifies the location of one of the treasures, they try to reach it as fast as possible to secure the findings.

The game features a modular game board.