For reasons I don’t understand, many secularists and atheists are also gamers. While I can appreciate their enthusiasm, I don’t really share it, as I’d rather read a book or go to a good movie than play a video game. However, here’s an exception that I enjoyed for about 15 minutes.
It’s called Chat Noir (black cat), and your object is to trap the cat before it leaves the playing field. Try to encircle the cat with dark green dots (click on them with your mouse or its equivalent, one at a time) before it can escape to an outer dot.
Click on the screenshot below to begin. I never even came close to winning. The cat is too damn wily! After you’ve lost, press “reset” at the bottom to have another go.
Diane G. (who has succeeded), sent me a screenshot of two of her successes. There are two ways to win, she says. The first is to simply trap the cat by blocking out the outer circles (once the cat gets on an outer dot, you’ve lost):
The other way is simply via fusillade: blocking the cat by completely encircling it with black dots. You have to be quick on the mouse for this oneL
Did anyone win?
I won on the first try in 30 seconds….Is is April 1st?
If they would let you just drag the mouse around the cat it would be much easier.
Many Christians are also gamers, and it is funny to read their commentary on whether or not playing a certain game is ‘acceptable’ due to ‘demons’ and whatnot.
This Christian does not want his children playing the popular game World of Warcraft because of demons and witchcraft!
http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/a-christian-view-of-world-of-warcraft/
It’s true, many christians do seem to think that fallen sky-fairies are real and are coming for them. It’s one of many reasons rational people think religious people are insane.
🙂
It’s on a blog called “Heart of Wisdom” which sounds about as Gothic and camp as “World of Warcraft”.
Presumably, the killing-people bit is quite okay, it’s just the demons, and casting spells (and scantily clad females) that are objectionable.
The comments on that page are a good laugh. I liked the hair-splitter who tried to differentiate between Harry Potter (bad) and Narnia / LOTR (okay because CSLewis and Tolkien were Xtians. Presumably if J K Rowling sees the light, Harry Potter will become okay as well?)
Oh, and WoW is also ‘highly addictive’. I hate to say it but so’s WEIT. 🙁
cr
I found this game years ago but the page it was on disappeared. I have several screenshots of games I won, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to find it again. There are a number of games that are similar – where the effect is to trap or block your opponent. One two-player board game version was called Twixt, sold by 3M and, later, Avalon-Hill.
Winning largely depends on the pseudorandom placement of the opening dark dots you get. A third strategy for winning is to keep clicking on “Reset” until you get a favorable opening layout. It’s been a long time since I was in the game business, but I still remember all the analysis techniques I used bak then.
Yes, the only time I won was when the placement of obstructions at the beginning blocked the cat in one direction about 3 spaces away. That gave me the opportunity to place new obstructions at the opposite side.
Indeed, the best starting strategy is to hit RESET until a satisfactory condition is met.
“Winning largely depends on the pseudorandom placement of the opening dark dots you get.”
After playing a few games, I have to agree.
Actually, I don’t find that necessary. The trick is just to start your “fence” far enough away from the cat so that you can put 2 or 3 fence dots together before he gets there…switch to far enough away in the other direction when he switches direction, and try to make curves to trap him in corners…
I am sorry but “enjoy” is not the word I would use to describe this torture. It seemed that the faster I clicked the faster the cat moved. I need a drink….
I won on the fourth try.
I have been playing this game for years. I win about 75% of the time. The technique is in laying out a spaced fence ahead of the cat as below: (I hope the spacing works in the display, If not copy to a monospaced font)
O X O
O O
O X O
or
O O O X O
O X O O O
When you know where the cat is heading you can stop up the holes
The other one I enjoy from the same source is the clueless crossword
http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/crossword/crossword.html
I won on the 3rd try and yes, I used the same method as you did.
I agree, with the right strategy and practice, I also win about 75% of the time. This is similar to a 2-person game called “Hex”, if you’ve heard of that.
I like the clueless crosswords, thanks!
I keep losing. I suppose I will win if I keep at it, but my gamer drive is lost. I used to routinely play Halo on Legendary difficulty.
Funny – I think I’m a good deal better than I ever was fifteen years ago. I tried my hand at those Dark Souls/From Software games recently and I’d never have gotten anywhere with them back when I was a teenager.
With your first move, nudge the cat toward your strongest area. Then do your best to lead the cat toward a false hope – a space you know you’ll be able to block before escape – while you fill other exits. I’ve been able to win fairly regularly this way.
I won about 70% of the times. It depends on the original position of the blocks I guess.
Too busy to actually analyze right now but I think that with no original blocks and the cat always playing the optimal strategy, the cat should always win.
Like E.A.Blair (#4) I remember this from years back, but the site went away (sitename started with “shaw” and was in Canada, had a bunch of games; but I’ve deleted it from bookmarks). Most are winnable as long as you play carefully (putting down dots far enough away from the cat that you can build the fence, then closing in when it’s trapped, so a mistake doesn’t hurt) – maybe all are if you have the optimal strategy, though I don’t know it. Good for a little not-quite-mindless fun every so often.
I won after several failures. The game reminds me of the effort I have to take in order to get my cat, Buddy, into a pet carrier. While I now have a system that works, it took an Internet video to show me the way.
Oh? And how’s that?
At last, a computer game that’s at my level of competence. Thank you Diane and Prof CC (Emeritus).
About 70% success is what I get. Very much like the game GO. If you lay out alternating blocked squares at ~the perimeter this will draw the cat in that direction. Alternating blocks take one move to fill in, but take the cat two moves to adjust to. This buys lots more free moves. Pretty simple.
It helps to have played Hex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_%28board_game%29
I won on the 3d attempt without reading the later strategies.
First a trial spin, then trying Diane’s encircling strategy, finally figuring from the cat’s moves that I could do Quidam’s holey fence with Jeff’s lure for encirclement.
And the 3d time I was lucky on the pseudorandom thingie too…
After two failed efforts, I won by starting at the edges immediately – and the edges only.
Avoid clicking on circles right next to the cat, but instead on circles two dots away and lure it into an already occupied area.
I think I am using a variant of Quidam’s strategy.
I never could trap the cat and left, disgusted in my stupidity.
I got addicted to Minesweeper. So much so I had to delete it off my work PC before someone else noticed and ordered me to.
Best implementation was on the Acorn Archimedes. Second best, Gnome Mines on Linux. Second worst, Minesweeper on Windows (the fault was, it uncovered a square, not on depressing the mouse button, but on releasing it. Imagine a gun that only fires when you release the trigger. So if you were moving fast with the mouse you’d likely be on the next-door square when it executed and boom!)
Worst of all was on a recent airline on-board games, the implementation used one button to toggle between ‘flagging’ (suspected mine) and ‘uncovering’ a square, and another button to execute the selected action. Stupid, and the potential for ‘finger trouble’ is obvious.
cr
I trapped the cats a couple of times. But then I spend half an hour feeding pigeons.
http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/hato/hato.html
This is embarrassing, but…I’m not sure what the goal is there?
I won in less than a minute on my first go. Mind you, twenty minutes ago I had to herd some stray sheep out of my garden, so I had had some appropriate practice.
As Dave Eberth said @14, GO players can figure out how to win fairly easily. I haven’t been able to do it with a start of 3 dark spaces or fewer yet, however.