Every so often, I come across online versions of great board and card games that we play. As a family, we enjoy some of the more complex strategy games that we've featured on this site before (such as the Catan series).
Many of these games have inspired amateur programmers to design their own online versions for everyone to enjoy. We've started to compile a list of the games here and will continue to add them as they are discovered. Most of them require signing up for a free account on specific online service or a small download of the game client. Many of the sites and services also have rules and guidelines available. Services such as Brettspielwelt require a little extra effort to learn how to use their gaming client.
Acquire
A strategy game of stocks and minor empire building. Players place tiles to form companies, buy stock, merge and acquire other companies. It's one of the best of its type but its been out of print (the original Avalon Hill editions) for some time and very expensive on auction sites. Luckily there is an online version!
NetAcquire - this free standalone gaming client is best version we've seen. I've been playing this one for many years and it was recently updated to a new version. There is no service associated with it, but the game can be run in a constant host mode for your friends.
Carcassonne
There are a few online versions of this excellent tile-placing strategy game. Players score points by completing various structures (mainly roads and cities) or usurping them from opponents. It's one of our favorites.
Carcassonne at AsoBrain - one of the oldest and best online versions. Requires a free login account with AsoBrain.
Carcassonne at BrettspeilWelt - another excellent version, requires a free account. They also have the expansion versions available (Inns and Cathedrals, etc).
Carcassonne on Xbox Live - this is actually one of the prettiest versions. If you have an Xbox 360, check it out. It's pretty cheap (800 points). Now, of course this isn't free, but it's worth mentioning. It was offered for free on the Xbox 360's second birthday in November of 2007.
Citadels
An excellent card game where players attempt to build small cities with gold gained by playing cards in strategic order. Each card has a personality with specific characteristics or benefits to aid players or restrict opponents in their city building.
Citadels at Brettspeilwelt - An excellent real-time version. Requires a free account on the service and runs best with their game client.
Citadelles - An excellent real-time version that allows you to play with an AI opponent. Requires a free login account to play with other people.
Dominate Game (Risk) - This is essentially the classic game of Risk. Learning the system takes a little big of time, but it works well and supports specific map scenarios and custom configurations. A free login account is required. A paid version is also available for a few added perks.
Lost Cities
An deceivingly simple two-player strategy game where players go on expeditions by laying sequentially numbered cards down to score points. The style of playing before drawing adds a level of difficulty to the game. Unfinished expeditions lead to possibly devastating point losses.
Lost Cities by Ken Huffman - A very simplistic version with light graphics, but it works and you can play with a human opponent. Requires a free login account.
Lost Cities at Game Pixies - A simplistic version that runs under Java but allows play with both a human opponent and an AI player. Requires a free login account.
Princes of Florence at Brettspeilwelt - An excellent version of this popular resource and city building game. Requires a free account on Brettspeilwelt.
Puerto Rico - A standalone, multiplayer client of this hugely popular city building and economic strategy game. Players manage buying and selling crops to support their minor empires. This version requires installing a free programming client called Curl, and a free login account on a gaming server.
Ra
An interesting tile/bidding game where players attempt to acquire artifacts through an auction system. Simple to learn, not so simple to master! This one is a classic.
Ra at BrettspielWelt - Playable at BrettspielWelt with a free online account, using their gaming client. It's a decent version and very popular on the service.
Settlers of Catan
An insanely popular tile-based empire-building game. Players build roads, sea lanes, cities, basic armies, and metropolises while managing resources and expanding their fledgling empires. One of the major draws to Catan is that the arrangement of tiles completely changes the game each time it is played. Some versions have map tools built in to design your own layouts. This link brings you to our Catan page with links to all the online versions and information.
Tigris and Euprates
Probably one of the best strategy board games of all time, it is also one of the most difficult to master. It is essentially a tile placing and empire building game with a little Chess and random elements thrown in. Players attempt to control colored/themed tiles by putting leaders adjacent to them. Conflicts occur changing leadership and ultimately scoring points each round. The winner is the player with the most points in their lowest scored color/theme. It's extremely addicting.
Tigris and Euprates at BoardGameGeek - this is currently the only online version we're aware of. It is not real-time (you get an e-mail when it is your turn) but the board updates every time someone makes a move. It is basically a PBEM/online hybrid, or turn-based version, but it works well.
Years ago there was an online Java server that supported Tigris and a few other games like it, but I believe it to be offline. If you know of this service, please leave a comment and let us know!
____
More to come. There are many more games on BrettspielWelt for sure - we'll add those and more to expand the list.
Every so often (almost yearly now), I feel a great urge to revisit games that I had spent countless hours playing in the past. Many times they are games on ancient or defunct computer systems (Atari or Commodore), 20-year old arcade games, or DOS-based classics. Microsoft's move to Windows XP left a lot of MS-DOS and even Windows 95 era games in the dust. Even with the XP's compatibility mode (which thankfully has worked for a good deal of favorites), many games won't run or worse yet, won't even install.
Magic: The Gathering is one of the most successful collectible card games and has seen its fair share of electronic versions. One of the most popular was Microprose's PC version released in 1997 for Windows 95. It used cards from the fourth edition of the game (with many deadly cards like Black Lotus and Serra Angel) and the two add-on games (Spells of the Ancients and Duels of the Planeswalkers) added cards from a couple of expansion sets each. With all versions installed, and the ManaLink patch for multiplayer, it was a steal for the price. It was also graphically adequate for its time. The single player campaign mode was actually a lot of fun. You could also build custom decks and download those built by other players. All of this was before the official online version, MTG Online a few years later.
Recently, a friend enlightened about Shandalar.com's instructions on how to get the Microprose version up and running under Windows XP! Now, there are other options for running these old games (using Virtual PC, which I may cover in a future article) but this procedure will allow you to play without too much hassle. The whole thing takes about 10-15 minutes. I would recommend getting the fix file and loading into the compatibility tool instead of going through all of the settings for each .EXE file in the game.
Even if you've never played Magic before, this is worth checking out. The game can seem complex at first, so do yourself a favor and spend a little time reading the basic rules and learning the flow of the game. There is also a built-in tutorial to teach you the basic phases.
I've tried it out and am happy to report that it works very nicely! I am happily plundering cards and riches in the land of Shandalar once again!
Update: Shortly after I started playing this version, I discovered that a player-made patch - Manalink 2.0 - existed. You have to register and go to the "shop" to download the patch (or search on a BitTorrent site). It includes a ton of missing cards from the sets included in the game (gold-bordered legend creatures, etc) that you can use for dueling. Very very cool!
 After a six month break from the game, I re-activated my World of Warcraft account. The first thing I noticed after logging in was that all of my addons were out of date or broken.
Addons or "add-ons" are third party programs or interface modifications that interact with the WoW client. The vast majority of them change the user interface (UI) or add enhancements, such as statistics, to an already flashy environment. Nearly all mods/addons are likely safe for use and sanctioned by Blizzard, but it is important to check on their status from time to time to ensure that they have not been banned. As with any modification, these are all "use at your own risk". Some may cause odd environment behavior.
My current favorite is FuBar 2.0. FuBar is really a base modification that allows for a slew of smaller modules, or plugins, to be used with it. All of the plugins end in "..Fu", so you know they they'll work with FuBar. Some of the best plugins include LocationFu, BagFu, QuestFu, and RegenFu which help manage the game elements they are named after. For example, BagFu tells you how many total slots you have open out of your maximum available, and QuestFu adds real-time checking of quests you have in the area you are currently located in.
Another popular standard base is Titan Panel 3.1. With the standard install, Titan Panel shows your current XP stats (how much you're getting per hour, time to level, etc), a real time clock, bag information, a one-click all bag opener, group loot mode, and PVP honor stats. Just as with FuBar, Titan allows you to load dozens of plugins to enhance its basic features.
If you hope to make any money in WoW, you have to check out Auctioneer. The main draw to this addon is its ability to scan and track auctions in near real-time. Once a scan is completed, statistical data appears when mousing over items in your bank and inventory. Even if not using the auction extensions, the Informant tool shows where items are used. Did you ever wonder if that black pearl you found is worth keeping? Auctioneer will tell you what trade skills need it. The latest version also includes tools to post multiple items at once and compare all available statistics to compare what you want to sell with what is on the market.
Another essential is Gatherer. This one is absolutely awesome for any character that mines or gathers herbs. Gatherer will update your world map with nodes as you find them, and probabilities of what other elements were gained over time. This in itself is worth the download, however, if your guildmates also use the mod, you will receive updates from nodes they find, and vice versa! Over time, you could may have all your maps filled with nodes from your endeavors and your industrious guildmates!
Our growing World of Warcraft information page has these links and more to enhance your playing experience!
 It's been a while since we've looked at any new board games. For my son's 15th birthday, I decided to check out a game I've been thinking about for some time, called Power Grid. It's highly rated on various board gaming sites and rightly so.
The main reasons I tracked down a copy of Power Grid include its basic premise of resource management and expansion/empire building elements, and the fact that people say it's just about as fun with two people as it is with three or more. This factor is important to us since many of the more complex board games require a minimum of three people to get the most out of them. We've played a few games with just the two of us and can attest that it truly is fun for two, although the game is designed to play with up to six.
In a nutshell, players try to supply power to the most cities as possible by buying power plants and the resources required for them. Much of the game comes down to the strategy of when to upgrade your plants and the condition of the resource market. Resources generally get more expensive as the game progresses as more players buy them up, especially if more than one or two people are using the same resource types. This balances out a bit in the latter half of a session when the more expensive plants come into play, allowing for a better conversion of input to output. In other words, you start with plants that can power one or two cities for two to three resources, but later one plant may only require one or two resources to power three or four cities.
Each game turn consists of five phases: you buy plants through an auction process, then buy resources, expand/build your power network into cities, and finally decide your income based on what cities you want to supply power to. The player turn order changes each turn, much like Aladdin's Dragons. The building phases reverse the order, so you may not always wish to be the turn leader. This adds another level of balance. The player that gets first dibs on a power plant won't get first grabs at the resources - a key strategy point as prices rise.
The basic game comes with a board that contains a map of the United States on one side and Germany on the other (the game was designed by Germans, of course!) Expansion boards allow for new maps of other European countries and I imagine we'll want to check those out soon. So far, there are two map expansions - Benelux and Central Europe and France and Italy for a total of four more countries. Late in 2007, a card deck expansion was also released, allowing for some truly customized scenarios or the ability to increase and balance the number of power plants.
Power Grid is one of those beautifully crafted games that is not difficult to learn, but very challenging to master. We didn't spend three hours trying to decipher the rules (although some rules could be clearer or organized better) and by the second game we had it down well enough to skip consulting the rules more than once or twice. The Gamers Cafe highly recommends Power Grid for all ages! There's some basic math, and some chess skills may come in handy (planning for future moves), so we recommend an age of ten or higher.
Check out our specialized Power Grid page for more information on the game, and how to play it online!
 This Christmas, we picked up Rock Band Special Edition for our son, Lance. We knew he wanted one of the rhythm games for our XBox 360, and were excited to see Rock Band at the top of the list. Naturally, part of the excitement was that would could play it together as a family.
We've spent a good deal of time with the game and have a good grasp on the instruments and gameplay. It's a lot more fun than I thought it would be (and I already knew it would be). There's something unique about a game where you can actually put yourself into it, and I don't mean virtually, but physically. Most games, you control your avatar or online persona through a series of challenges that can be both fun and tedious. Rock Band not only puts you into the role of a rock star, but asks you to perform like one!
The deluxe package comes wired versions of a guitar, microphone, drum set, and the game. The only downside you only get three of the supported four instruments (a second guitar allows for both a lead and bass at the same time). My guess is Harmonix figured you already had one from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (which works fine in most cases - the exception being the Les Paul PS3 model, which isn't compatible with Rock Band at this time). The base game comes with about 45 tracks ranging from classic rock tunes, to older punk tracks, and some radio rock from the last two decades or so. The selection is tilted a bit towards recent radio stuff that is probably less "rock" than some of the classics included. Regardless, there is a good mix for those looking to rock out to some Black Sabbath, The Who, and The Rolling Stones. As of right now, there are already over two dozen downloadable tracks on XBox Live as well. We grabbed the Metallica and Black Sabbath pack (both are must-haves). The only downside here is the difficulty - you won't be playing Metallica too well unless you're already a guitar hero!
I defaulted to being the drummer simply because my son wanted to play guitar and my wife wanted to sing. I have a love/hate relationship with the drums - they can be degrading if you can't get the rhythm down. However, once you get the hang of them, I think drumming is the best role in the band. It's certainly the most physical and satisfying, especially when you finish a drum solo with a hearty cymbal crash. I have vowed to become a Rock Band drum master!
All the instruments share the same general scoring and performance method. The more notes you hit, the higher your score. Missed notes can be 'heard' and too many will get you booted from the show. Every so often you get the chance to perform a solo to get the crowd going. Once you learn how special notes (called energy notes) and the scoring works, you can bring back failed bandmates and generate frequent solos. The vocalist's solo time is best for shouting out to the crowd or belting out a heavy metal scream! Points generate stars for the performance which gain the band fans. As the band gains popularity it gains a manager, roadies, buses, jets, and the entire world opens up for shows.
With an Xbox Live account linked to a Windows Live ID, you can hook it up with an account on the Rock Band official web site to compare your stardom with other rockers and see how your band ranks up with others. The cool thing is that you only need Xbox Live Silver (the free account) to get this all set up.
Rock Band has given us a way to all enjoy something together - it's the ultimate party game! 
|
