Hope you enjoy my story and picture. I'm fairly happy with the picture 
and credit 'PM 2Ring' and, in turn, Chris B for the spiral staircase -- 
I just need to work out some way to smooth the under-stair. Also thanks 
to the 'Hi-tech Go' threads for inspiring my picture.

Cheers!
Rick Measham



Dearest Kami,

     I have finally managed to find time to send you this postcard. I 
had Martin take a shot of one of the amazing things we've found on 
Betelguse-IV. One that I'm sure you, with your love of games theory, 
will love. It appears to be a form of 4 dimensional tic-tac-toe.

     I'm not sure how much of what we're finding here is getting on your 
news reports, but this is exactly as the inhabitants of BGIV (or Juicers 
as your popular press is calling them -- god I hope that doesn't take 
off!) have left things. We're careful not to touch as we still have no 
idea where or why they've disappeared.

     The game in question seems to have been won by the person playing 
the red pieces. It appears the former inhabitants use of force fields is 
well beyond our own simplistic use in military and space applications, 
as this simple game shows.

     So far every house that hasn't had it's protection turned on has 
had the entire ground floor devoted to a game similar to this. The only 
difference is in the technology and complexity -- which don't always go 
hand-in-hand. Just this morning Jonson found an enourmous house he was 
able to get into. The bottom floor had what he computes to be a 
6-dimensional game, but made entirely of an organic structure simmilar 
to bamboo!

    The houses here are similar in build to those of earth in that 
they're a mixture of the bamboo stuff or timber with stone or earthen 
outer layer. They're about the same size floors too -- maybe a little 
smaller. We figure the missing inhabitants were just slightly smaller 
than us because the chairs are just a touch lower than we're used to.

    You'll laugh when I tell you that the roofs all look like those 
dinky roofs on Pizza Hut back on Sol-III! Made us all miss home more 
than ever.

    We don't know that we'll ever see each other again, but know you're 
never far from my thoughts.

Comfort Always,
    Sjahn.

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"Rick Measham" <rickm*at%isite.net.au> schreef in bericht
news:42868a2c@news.povray.org...
> Hope you enjoy my story and picture. I'm fairly happy with the picture
> and credit 'PM 2Ring' and, in turn, Chris B for the spiral staircase --
> I just need to work out some way to smooth the under-stair. Also thanks
> to the 'Hi-tech Go' threads for inspiring my picture.
>
> Cheers!
> Rick Measham
>
>
Excellent! I love the story, and the game seems fascinating. one thing
though: Betelgeuse is a red giant star, so I would expect the daylight much
redder. perhaps the grass outside should be a different color too. Your
scene seems to be situated on Sol III instead.

Thomas

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Rick Measham wrote:

>     I have finally managed to find time to send you this postcard. I had 
> Martin take a shot of one of the amazing things we've found on 
> Betelguse-IV. One that I'm sure you, with your love of games theory, 
> will love. It appears to be a form of 4 dimensional tic-tac-toe.

Having played a bunch of 3-D, 4-D, 5-D tic-tac-toe in high school
several eons ago, I'll just mention that 4x4x4x... is a much better
game than 3x3x3....  The 3x3x... game is won by moving into the center
and (as I remember) you can then force a win.  4x4x4x... does not have
that problem (the center is diffuse).

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Thomas de Groot wrote:
> Excellent! I love the story, and the game seems fascinating. one thing
> though: Betelgeuse is a red giant star, so I would expect the daylight much
> redder. perhaps the grass outside should be a different color too. Your
> scene seems to be situated on Sol III instead.

As my ol' grandpappy used to say "Never let the truth get in the way of 
a good story!"

I've changed the angle too coz my wife said the stairs confused her.

Cheers!
Rick Measham

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"Rick Measham" <rickm*at%isite.net.au> schreef in bericht
news:42882fdf@news.povray.org...
>
> As my ol' grandpappy used to say "Never let the truth get in the way of
> a good story!"
>

He was absolutely right!

Thomas

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Scott David Daniels wrote:

> Rick Measham wrote:
> 
>>     I have finally managed to find time to send you this postcard. I had
>> Martin take a shot of one of the amazing things we've found on
>> Betelguse-IV. One that I'm sure you, with your love of games theory,
>> will love. It appears to be a form of 4 dimensional tic-tac-toe.
> 
> Having played a bunch of 3-D, 4-D, 5-D tic-tac-toe in high school
> several eons ago, I'll just mention that 4x4x4x... is a much better
> game than 3x3x3....  The 3x3x... game is won by moving into the center
> and (as I remember) you can then force a win.  4x4x4x... does not have
> that problem (the center is diffuse).

heh, never thought of 4x4x...
We instead changed the rules so the winner was the player with the
most lines after both players passed in turn.  A bit like a full
game of Go compared with Atari Go come to think of it.

Nice pic btw.
-- 
Bill Hails
http://thyme.homelinux.net/

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