A System of Simultaneous Movement Using Cyberboard
Back to the PBeM Emporium
After discussing the issue of simultaneous move games with Dale Larson, he suggested a method that I think is stunning in its simplicity and elegance. When you are playing a game where simultaneous movement is part of the design (Fire When Ready comes to mind), perform the following steps.
- Make a Game file (*.gam) the usual way
- Save a copy and entitle it "Master_(whatever).gam"
- Send each side a copy of the original game file.
- Execute the turn.
- Save the *.gmv file.
- Designate one guy as the keeper of the holy master gamebox.
- Import *.gmv turns into the gamebox.
- When you bring the second turn into the gamebox using import, the system will ask you if you want to use the prior turn state or the current one to import the moves into. Choose the current state.
- What will happen will be that both moves will execute into the gamebox on top of each other (consider this to be simultaneous).
- Send the Master Game file out to both players to display the results.
I've tried this with Fire When Ready; it works like a charm.