"Migraine" is a card game I devised a while back. It used to be called U.C.G. when the rules were up on my old site. Since then, it has gone through some minor revisions with the help of my ridiculously-good-game-player friend Robb. So, here are the revised rules, for all to enjoy. Hopefully later on I'll have time to put up some nice visual aids.

(Note: The name I wanted to use for this game was "Mindrape". Some squeamish people complained. I personally still call it that, though.)

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To play Migraine, you'll need two players and a modified deck of cards. Specifically, you will only be playing with the face cards and the aces. Sufficient table space and a means of keeping score are optional.

By some method of your own choosing, designate one player to be the first dealer. Dealers will alternate each round.

The object of the game is to score at least 15 points, with at least two more points than the opponent. Points are scored each round according to how well you can guess the identity of the hidden card, based on the information you see and observe.

(The choice of 15 points is somewhat arbitrary; feel free to tweak this value to your own needs.)

At the start of each round, the dealer will shuffle the deck and offer the opponent an opportunity to cut the deck. After this, the dealer will deal all the cards in the deck out as follows:

1. One card face up in the middle of the table.
2. One card face down beside the first card. Ensure that neither player sees this card. This card is called the "sabre".
3. One card face up in front of each player, starting with the player opposite the dealer. The area containing these cards placed in front of the player is called that player's "field".
4. Six cards to each player, alternating between players and beginning with the player opposite the dealer. These six cards form the player's starting hand.

After the dealing has concluded, each player may look at their hand.

Each round, after dealing, progresses through these phases:

1. Hostile Discard
2. Pensive Discard
3. Declaration
4. Scoring

Each phase is described in detail in the next few sections.

During this phase, each player selects one card from his or her hand and places it face down in his or her opponent's field. After both players have done so, the cards are turned face up simultaneously. This is to ensure that neither player's decision is affected by the other's.

During this phase, each player selects two cards from his or her hand and places them face down into his or her own field. After both players have done so, these cards are turned face up simultaneously. Again, this is to ensure that decisions are made equally and fairly. Each player should now have four face up cards in his or her field and three cards left in his or her hand.

After all discards have been made, the player opposing the dealer makes his or her declaration. The declaration is what decides how the player's hand will score points relative to the sabre. The valid declarations are "by rank", "by suit" and "chuck". (The scoring system is described in the next section.) After this declaration is made, the dealer makes his or her declaration.

After both declarations have been made, the sabre is turned face up and each player reveals his or her hand. Then each player scores points based on his or her declaration, the sabre, and his or her hand or field. The scoring is summarized in the following table:

Declaration	Scoring
By Rank	1 point if one card in hand has same rank as the sabre 3 points if two cards in hand have same rank as the sabre 7 points if all cards in hand have same rank as the sabre
By Suit	1 point if one card in hand has same suit as the sabre 3 points if two cards in hand have same suit as the sabre 7 points if all cards in hand have same suit as the sabre
Chuck	3 points if all cards in field share the same rank or suit 5 points if three cards in field and the sabre share the same rank or suit

After points have been scored, if the game is not over, the opposing player becomes the dealer and another round begins.

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Well, that's all the rules. Go off and have fun. I find this game gives me headaches. But meh.

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I've updated Random Chess by adding some simple chess variants. Mostly they're just simple starting board position variations, but a couple of them use some modified pieces. The ones that I find the most fun to watch are Maharaja and Hecatomb. Enjoy.

Random Chess

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My next G.A.M.E. release is another port of an old Visual Basic program of mine.

As you can probably guess from the title, Random Chess is a program that plays chess randomly. There's not much more to it than that. It's fairly simple, although I had to go ahead and make the underlying code stupidly complicated. But whatever. Maybe I'll add stuff to it later. As with the rest of my G.A.M.E. games, this is a Java applet, so you'll need the latest version of the Java runtime environment to run it. Well, enjoy!

Random Chess

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About one and a half years ago, one evening, I was bored. So I clicked the mouse a few times and ended up with VB open in front of me. Then I thought, "you know, I've always wanted to make an RPG. I'm going to sit here and program until I've finished an RPG."

So I ended up writing code and drawing graphics madly for a few hours. I paused for nothing, not even to correct spelling mistakes. The graphics are crude. The towns are identical. The map is narrow. And the enemies are squares. But this matters not, for I had finally managed to make an RPG. And what's more, I actually managed to put together a game that I like.

You see, about midway through the development, I realized that I was designing a time trial. That is, the challenge in the game is seeing how fast you can complete it. So I put in a clock, and The World"s Fatetst RPG was made whole.

When G.A.M.E. was first released, I decided to port WFR to a Java applet so I could put it online for people to enjoy. The porting took longer than the initial programming, but I wasn't rushing. The port makes some things nicer, but uses the original (shoddy) graphics.

The Java applet version is currently being graciously hosted by my friend John. I'm linking for this one, since John has gone to the effort to maintain a high scores list for WFR. Props to John.

The World"s Fatetst RPG -- Online Version

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