Sprouts

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Does anyone remember the topology game Sprouts?

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Sprouts%20(game)

It was popularised by the SF writer Piers Anthony in his book Macroscope.

I remember being addicted to the game years ago ( it helped stave off terminal boredom in many a lecture), but now it just makes my brain hurt!

[Admin]

I've never heard of it. ???

It looks like one of things that can become an obsession.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

It sure is!

Interesting to see that they've now proved a forced win for the first player for up to eleven dots if the remainder after dividing by six is three, four or five. When I was a sprog, we tried proving the win for the smaller numbers, but we had to take so many "shortcuts" that we soon gave up. After that, we just assumed that a reasonable number of dots ( six to nine, say) would produce a game far too hard for anyone to predict. Back then, of course, computers were just toys, and we wouldn't have thought of using them even if we'd had the skills.

I remember asking a couple of friends who were maths postgrads about proving the wins, but they were far too busy making a living at poker and backgammon to bother with it.

Ah me! what a sad waste of brains youth is. :)

[vbloke]

*brain asplodes*

[Lord Muck oGentry]

*brain asplodes*

I know, I know...If anyone asks me nowadays " Can I pick your brains?", the stock answer is " Anything you find, you can keep." :)