Sick of drawing games in hand

Hey everyone

When I play my favorite game, dots and boxes, I am sick of having to draw the board by hand to analyze it (and often I don't do it because it takes too long). I think it would be great if the game had a feature similar to that of Twixt where you can click analyze and play ahead in the game (playing for both players). Would someone be willing to program it? Or is it a big task? It just makes it a lot easier to analyze.

Kind regards

I would like to see analysis boards for most games (except einstein and soccer). Currently there is chess, twixt, and go, I think that is it.

Some games could simply use the chess analysis board, for example, breakthrough, four in a row, etc as they are simply 8x8 boards (I have actually used the littlegolem chess analysis board to analyze breakthrough games, but I had to set up the position)

Other games like amazons could just use a modified chess board to 10x10

Other games would require a bit more. The trick is to convince Richard to implement these...

Or maybe someone could create analysis boards outside of littlegolem then create links to them in this or another forum (best if they opened up in a new window). The analysis tool should have an easy import function to simply transfer the game from littlegolem to the analysis board. Has anyone created an analysis tool for any of these games that they would like to share?

That would be GREAT.

I just looked at the analysis feature of TwixT and realized that it is really great, especially the option to comment on all finished games.
This means I strongly support the idea of an analysis feature in Dots and Boxes similar to that in TwixT, though I doubt any online analysis board could replace intensive hours-long paper-and-pencil analysis. ;)

Please give credit where credit is due; the Twixt commentator is a 'gift' from Alan Hensel (one of several, actually). Yes - it would be SPLENDID to have this feature available for other games; agreed.

Meow

Does someone have the knowhow to do this? FatPhil perhaps? hint hint

Way too many pots on the stove at the moment, sorry. I do agree it's a great idea.

Hi Thnikkaman,

I'm just reading your post now, on 12/22.

I had this same problem several years ago, when I was playing Havannah. I didn't have a good way of analyzing my games... and it bothered me! So I ended up spending several weeks, as I recall, writing a little program to help me. I named the program "Havannah Helper."

http://www.edcollins.com/havannah-helper/index.html

HH was VERY useful for me, during the entire time I was playing Havannah. It made my games more enjoyable, and surely helped me to a few more wins than what I would have had otherwise.

Now, I definitely don't have the desire or time to write a similar Dots and Boxes program for you, (I'm not a D&B player) but I did have a couple of extra hours this evening, so I put something together that MIGHT help a LITTLE bit.

It is NOT the all-purpose program you're expecting, trust me. Sorry. But maybe it's a little bit better than the method you're using now. If not... well, that's okay.. it was good practice for me to write it.

This program is an Excel program, and uses Visual Basic macros. Thus, it requires Microsoft Excel to run, which you might not even have for all I know. If you don't... sorry. But it was quick and easy to create.

You (or anyone else) can download a copy of the program here:

http://www.edcollins.com/dots-boxes-assistant.xlsm

A small HELP tab is included. Basically, you just enter your Little Golem Dots and Boxes Game number in the appropriate box, and then click the DOWNLOAD button. The Excel program will then visit the Golem site and download your game and display it on the screen. You can then click on the "walls" of your dots and boxes game and try different lines of play. The program will automatically detect when a box needs to be filled in, and will do so, based upon whose move it is.

Prior to analyzing a few lines, click the SAVE POSITION TO MEMORY button. Then, when you're finished trying a line of play, simply click the LOAD POSITION FROM MEMORY button to retrieve the last saved position. From there you can begin analyzing another line.

Basically, that's about it.

It's not perfect, but it seems to work pretty well for me. I've been testing it for the past half an hour, and I can find no more bugs (but I know some surely still exist) so it's probably ready for you (or others) to use.

P.S. I'm REALLY SURPRISED there isn't already a Dots and Boxes program out there that does what you describe. No one's taken the time to write one yet? What's up with that? I recall seeing an Amazon program years ago that does this, and of course I'm also familiar with the Twixt program that allows one to analyze their games. (And, of course, there are dozens of different chess GUIs for us chess players.)

If I can put this little thing together in an single evening, surely a Dots and Boxes fan can spend a few weeks and put together a much nicer program.

Wow the souds great. The interactivity wi little golem really makes a huge difference. I am looking forward to trying it, thanks a lot.

Havn't had a chance to try it until now but man, it is great. The fact that it can pull games based on ID and the fact that it understands the rule makes all the difference in the world. Thanks a bunch, I will be using this a lot.

To analyze dots and boxes games I've been using an iPhone app called "Dots Free". It's a pretty lousy app, actually, but it's the only one I've found with an infinite undo button. The most annoying part is that every time I want to analyze a different game, I have to input the entire current game state. But it's tolerable.

I had been pondering trying to write something in javascript that would load data from Little Golem to make this easier (I hadn't even realized such things existed for other games). I haven't tried Ed's program, but I don't usually have Excel, so I may try still try to write my own analyzer. No promises, but I'll give it a try if I have time.

" I have to input the entire current game state" <-- exactly that is normally my problem.

Well, I'm glad you found my little program useful. I'm sorry for all of the users who aren't able to try it, because they don't have Excel. But I suspect oehpsk or someone else, will put something even better together real soon.

I'll bite the bullet and build an online game analysis tool. It's purely web-based (i.e. no download, no plugins required) and works across platforms including mobile devices. Initially, I'm targeting Havannah; once the infrastructure is there, I'll extend it to cover other games.

Here's a screenshot of what I've got after a couple hours of work:

Reposting the screenshot !http://imgur.com/KkIth!

One more try: !http://i.imgur.com/xxXNG.jpg!

That really sounds great :) platform indepedence, no plugin and a framework such that it can be implemented for other games too sounds super. We (I am sure I speak for others than just myself) are really grateful, it is an excellent tool to have when trying to analyze your game and I think it will improve the general quality of play.

I would definitely be among the grateful!

Havannah Board 1.0 is released! Check out this thread.

Connect6 Board 1.0 is released!

I would suggest labeling the input of the import as "game number" rather than "game id". "game id" sounds like it wants "#1508965", as shown on, for instance, http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/tournament/tournament.jsp?trnid=ut.connect6.663.1.3 and http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/game/game.jsp?gid=1508965, but that field wants only the numeric digits "1508965".

@MarleysGhost: Thanks for the suggestion. I've uploaded a new version that accepts both '1508965' and '#1508965' as game id. Please reload the page to see the fix.

looks great :) looking forward to using it. You could write Richard and recommend him adding the link to the games themselves (like in twixt) making it even easier.

Dots-and-boxes Board 1.0 is released!

hooray :)

Or if it is too hard to make Richar do it, maybe somehow someone smart could maker a button in your browser that goes to the corresponding analyze game (someone already made buttons for next and previous move).