David Cannon wrote on Thu, Jul 15, 2010 10:09 AM UTC:
Hi Hafsteinn!
You can download the full version of Zillions
here. The cost is $24.98 (or a little extra, if you want to receive a CD). Believe me, it's worth it!
I wouldn't worry too much about 'stealing' others' pieces. Anything completely original wouldn't be a chess variant - it would be something else entirely! Of course, you can't just copy the game in toto and present it as your own, but there's nothing wrong with borrowing ideas, as long as you acknowledge the source. I did this with a number of my games, such as Diamond Chess 306. The tiling pattern and many of the pieces are taken from Parachess, an earlier game by Tony Paletta. I did invent a number of new pieces, but many of them are logical extensions of Paletta's ideas. I briefly acknowledged my debt to him (and to Fergus Duniho, for some other ideas) on the web page, and in more detail on the information file that I included in the Zillions package.
One weakness, as I see it, with a lot of 3D games is that the King is too mobile, making checkmate problematic. We'd all do well to explore ways to address this.
I wouldn't worry too much about 'stealing' others' pieces. Anything completely original wouldn't be a chess variant - it would be something else entirely! Of course, you can't just copy the game in toto and present it as your own, but there's nothing wrong with borrowing ideas, as long as you acknowledge the source. I did this with a number of my games, such as Diamond Chess 306. The tiling pattern and many of the pieces are taken from Parachess, an earlier game by Tony Paletta. I did invent a number of new pieces, but many of them are logical extensions of Paletta's ideas. I briefly acknowledged my debt to him (and to Fergus Duniho, for some other ideas) on the web page, and in more detail on the information file that I included in the Zillions package.
One weakness, as I see it, with a lot of 3D games is that the King is too mobile, making checkmate problematic. We'd all do well to explore ways to address this.