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Back in high school (1980s) we had a variant for when we were running
short
of lunch break.  We called it Chultima, and at each move we could play as
chess, or as ultima.  This made for some very short games, and most of us
were howling with laughter at the (in hindsight) really stupid moves we
had just made.

[For some reason we had slightly different terminology:
   Chameleon   -> Amoeba ('changed shape', or similar spurious reason)
   Pawn        -> Roller (because they rolled up and down ranks)
   Long Leaper -> Leaper (could only jump a single adjacent piece like a
weakened draughts/checkers king)

Also, the coordinator could only take one piece at a time: in the useful
direction.]

When I was playing this game I simply could not do it with a regular chess
set. Being a fanatic speed-chess player of 5 min. games where you have to
move mostly as a reflex, the chess personalities of the piece images were
simply hard-wired in my brain.

So I made a separate set of pieces, looking nothing like chess men, based
on a set of checkers chips and other pieces of wood. The pawns were just
plain chips (since I don't play checkers, they meant nothing to me, so
no
harm there). The King could of course still be represented as an ordinary
chess King, since it moves like one. But for the Long Leaper I used a
cylinder (remaniscent of a draughts King), for the Immobilizer a Cube
(looked pretty immobile...), for the Coordinator a checkers chip mounted
perpendicular on another (representing a dish antenna, symbolizing its
action at a distance), for the Chameleon a spere (supported on a chip) to
represent a spherical mirror in which every piece would see itself. The
whole set looked quite nice, with a pretty homogeneous style.

Done! Look at http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/ultima.html

I learned this game as 'Hyperchess', with some rule differences:

1.  The upside-down rook is the coordinator and the right-side-up one is
the immobilizer.
2.  Pawns ('straddlers') can only capture by trapping a unit between
two
_pawns_, not a pawn and another friendly piece (though a chameleon and a
pawn or two chameleons) can capture an enemy pawn).  They also capture
passively: any enemy piece moving between two pawns dies instantly.
3.  Knights ('Striders') cannot make multiple captures.
4.  The withdrawer can only move back a single square when capturing.
5.  Coordinators can capture passively: the two squares in the rectangle
formed by the king and the coordinator are instant death for enemy
pieces.
 Coordinators can also capture pieces when the king moves.

Overall, I think the main effect of these differences (especially 2 and
4)
is that capturing is much more difficult.  The most noticeable difference
between 'hyperchess' and chess is that capturing is a very rare
occurrence in hyperchess.

Every game should be played by people that master the rules in order to
reach a theoretical depth. It's not serious to have discussion on rules -
this doesn't serve any purpose.

It's impossible to find some real game theory on Ultima in the Internet.
How about having it here, at the chessvariants pages? If there are any
experienced players around, perphaps they would like to gather
observations just in one place?

There is a better solution to 'Ultima Problem 9! The variant that I play does not allow for suicide, so barring this, the soluction is simply: White: LL at F8 -> G7, blocking all moves but a suicide, or leaping (LL H8 go have fun!)

White now threatens checkmate with LL G7->G6!

This brings up an important question of mine:

Do pieces in Baroque/Ultima have 'Kill zones' (areas of instantaneous vaporization) - That is, Do they create instant death in their 'kill zone' at all times, or must a piece move into a position to make the kill?

(ie: can my LL G7 move into G6 in above solution?)

Thanks

- Kris

Hi all, fans of ultima!

Here is the only site, as I know, which gives you the possibility to play ultima on-line in real time: http://adage-studio.com:8080/universal. Rules as the official rules, as published first by Abbott. You have to register in order to play. There are also two other ultima-like games: Rococo and Supremo.

I wish know whether you like the site. Suggestions are welcome.

A puzzle:
Immobilizer=0,
King=1,
Withdrawer=1,
Coordinator=2,
Pincer-Pawn=3,
Long-Leaper=3,

Question:Chameleon=?

I'm sorry, maybe, this question was already answered in one of previous comments, but i want to ask: how chameleon exactly captures? Wich of these statements is true:
1. It can capture several pieces of different kinds with method of one of these pieces (for example, captures by custodianship 1 pawn, 1 withdrawer and 1 long leaper).
2. It can capture several pieces of different kinds, each with capturing method of that piece (for example, it can withdrawl from withdrawer, moving itself, surrounding pawn, capturing both withdrawer and pawn).
3. Can capture pieces of only 1 kind with 1 move.
Probably, statement 2 is true, as here player never have to choose capturing method to use ater moving chameleon.

Apart from the Ultima piece symbols assigned to characters KMLXCWPkmlxcwp, it also contains symbols of a square (Ii) and a circle (Oo), which could be useful for other games (eg. Go).