where are my holographic chess sets of the future? and jetpacks!

Totally rhetorical question. So let's say Trillian kept cutting you off and so you decided, fine, I'll just read before I fall asleep, and sort of ended up re-reading Spock's World. Possibly My Enemy My Ally as well earlier this week, and then it's six thirty in the morning and you realize you didn't sleep and you should go to work.

My question is--anyone else really bitter there is no four dimensional chess yet? Don't lie. You totally want to play that damn game.

Comments

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

i would play that game with you.

hi i have been up all night overdosing on pine sugar, which i've discovered is both narcotic and hallucinogenic.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...pine sugar? Really?

[kernezelda]

...Is that a metaphor?

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

This is kind of funny, because I just found "My Enemy, My Ally" on the 'For Sale' cart at the library yesterday. :D

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It's one of my top Trek books for re-reading. It has so much in it of daily life and times on a starship as well as everything else. And aliens! With tentacles!

[kernezelda]

I am still bitter I couldn't get a 3-D chess set when I saw it advertised once at the Franklin Mint. *sniff* It was crystal- and gold-accented.

Ah, here's a pic.

Not that I could play it, given my difficulty playing 2-D chess, but still!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

want. *wide eyes* Want very, very much.

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

I really, truly AM bitter about that. SIGH. And now that half my friendslist is reading the books, maybe someone will know the answer to this one: which tie-in novel had them making a great big terrarium out of one of the cargo holds on the ship, and then they brought a PEGASUS inside, and Kirk rode it (of course)? Does anyone know? It's been bugging me for years and years!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

that is the most awesome thing ever. Vonda McIntyre, Enterprise (http://www.amazon.com/ENTERPRISE-CLASSIC-STAR-TREK-Star/dp/0671730320/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244214151&sr=8-8).

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

Miniature precision transporters! Vital for anti-intruder operations! Plus, personality diagnostic tools! And Harb Tanzer!

I want to be Ael when I grow up. I just finished it the other day, and The Romulan Way is taunting me now, lurking and ready to dart out and demand to be read now now now.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

There are two more in that series!

*falls over* I also would like to be Ael, carrying a sword and terrifying everyone.

[libitina]

Not really because on our three dimensional chess set the little pegs for the moving platforms kept breaking when you tried to shift them. Mer.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I AM PRETENDING THIS IS NOT TRUE. MUST KEEP THE MAGIC.

[beeej.livejournal.com]

You must read pretty fast. Spock's World isn't a really short book. :) I have a ginormous box of Trek books in the basement. I've sent copies of that one to several people over the years due to its sheer awesomeness.

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Spock's world was my favorite although I've never read My enemy, my ally.

[fyrdrakken]

Apparently our house internetz went out yesterday, along with our cable and even our landline phone. This is what happens when you switch to a package that bundles them all together for great savings -- you don't just lose one thing at a time, but the whole shebang. Two days after installation. I didn't notice last night, and I've been leaving my desktop alone till the weekend when I have time to jack with the backup drive anyway, but I'm pretty much with you on losing an entire night to reading. Only last night I lost the thread around midnight instead, but anyway.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I need to find a used bookstore so I can pick up more Trek books.

Personal favorites: The Wounded Sky and How Much For Just The Planet, the latter because it's one of the most hilarious books I've ever read, and not in the hilariously bad way. It can make me smile no matter what mood I'm in.

[reilael.livejournal.com]

I *do* want to play that damn game. Of course, I wouldn't be any good at it. But still.

I haven't read those books

[ayalesca.livejournal.com]

*intrigued* How does one play four-dimensional chess? Is one of the pieces a time machine?

Re: I haven't read those books

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The pieces are set in a holographic board and the players use tiny transporters to move the pieces around. Also, a move can also be timed out, or several moves timed out for later, though each move that is timed for later you lose a turn.

It would be so freakingly impossible and fantastic.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Eeee! When in doubt, check eBay! You can get the Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Rule Book on eBay for about $12, vintage from the 70s. Of course, you'd still need to get the chessboard (which is also on eBay bid up to about $86.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*g* Not for four-dimensional. Requires the use of transporters so pieces can be programmed to vanish for so many moves before appearing again.

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

ah dang, now I'm going to have to go and dig out all my old trek novels from the back of the bookcase and re-read them.

[niqaeli]

Man, I'd settle for a set for 3D chess. (Not that I'd be very good at it; I've never been very good at flat chess, having not practiced it nearly enough.)

I've also taken to contemplating 3D variants of other games. Go, for example. Go is a far more complex game than chess, and adding a third dimension would be fascinating.

I suspect you'd probably be looking at a holographic board, for 3D Go. I don't think any solid structure you could create would be, well, sufficiently accessible.

[lurkmuch.livejournal.com]

I would get my ass kicked SO HARD at 4-D chess. And yet I want it!!

I spent the week before the movie rereading all my dusty old Trek books, and I mentally replaced all the ridiculous canon re: Vulcans from Star Trek: Enterprise with that of Spock's World. It made me so much happier.

[azdaja-dafema.livejournal.com]

4D chess would be epic. Actually, I'd be happy playing a game with people as chess pieces. Which is 3D, but still pretty snazzy.
That said, what I'm going to do when I'm older is have one of those chess boards set up on a plinth somewhere like in Blade Runner and have a long distance game over about 20 years with someone. That'd be fun.

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

I wondered where you went last night. ;)

I really, really want to play 4d chess. That? Would be SO AWESOME.

[thornsilver]

Isn't it "three-dimensional" chess? (Given that the fourth dimension is time and all...)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

No, in My Enemy, My Ally, they invented four dimension chess with an ability to time out pieces.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hell with playing it -- I just want to see the rulebook.

[lurkerlynne.livejournal.com]

Diane Duane is crack, yes she is. I'll pick up a book I know cover to back and still stay up all night reading. Hell, I'll buy a book blind just because she wrote it!

Very few worldbuild the way she does. Whee!

[inteligrrl.livejournal.com]

The question I have is, have you ever read John Ford's "How Much For Just The Planet?" (http://www.amazon.com/Much-Just-Planet-Star-Trek/dp/0671038591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244310970&sr=8-1)? Even I, the girl who always protested she hated Star Trek:TOS, LOVE that book. It's crackfic in published form. If you don't own it BUY IT NOW. There are musical numbers, golf duels, and maniacal theater geeks. And when you're done you should watch Repo: A Genetic Opera, just to round out your quota of bizarre crack.