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November 19, 2008
Katch Teh Kitteh
While my wife and I are at work all day, I imagine that our dog and cat, which are locked in a 150 square foot family room all day, are chasing each other around, playing "Blink First", batting around dried cat turds from the litter box, or plotting some evil to spring on us as we get home. But usually when we get home, the two are laying around, looking bored. Well, if you're bored on hump day, you can do what I imagine the dog would love to do if the cat were younger and more into games. You can play Katch Teh Kitteh. A grid of 121 spaces is laid out with a black cat on one of the spaces. Some of the spaces are randomly blocked so the cat can't move there. You get to block one space every move. The cat gets to move one space every move. Block the black cat so it's completely penned in and you win. It's quite addictive. I'm not sure it's even possible to always block the cat.
[HT - Barking Moonbat Early Warning System]
November 19, 2008 by Marty | Permalink
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Comments
That game's about my speed.
Cat is pretty stupid, but so am I.
Posted by: Chris | Nov 19, 2008 5:45:22 PM
I think I finally got the hang of it... you have to "go long" and hope he heads the direction you're already blocking.
Posted by: Ben | Nov 20, 2008 9:01:44 AM
I can beat the stupid cat between 4-6 times out of every 10, and this represents an improvement. I think some of the random arrangements at the start do not allow a win. Also, I've noticed that the number of blocked cells at the start varies considerably. Though, I will say, that the cat's initial placement is not totally random. In fact, he always starts at the same cell. If he were placed randomly, he might end up near the edge sometimes. This would give him a totally unstoppable advantage.
Posted by: Marty | Nov 20, 2008 9:10:24 AM
Also, given the size and geometry of the grid, teh kitteh is at least 5 moves away from an edge at any given time. Thus, it should be easy to determine whether there exist any unwinnable games or not through simple math. I actually had a board with ONE blocked cell on it, so it's pretty easy to say that if the "no cell" scenario is unwinnable, then so should be the one cell (because the cat could just move in the opposite direction of the single cell).
This game sorta reminds me of a really really weird, hexagonal version of Go.
Posted by: Ben | Nov 20, 2008 12:49:25 PM
The first time I played, I thought the edge was sort of like a wall in a room- you could corner the cat against it.
Boy, did I get egg on my face.
Stupid cat.
This game would be even better if you also had a gun with like 1 or 2 rounds.
Posted by: Chris | Nov 20, 2008 8:10:31 PM
(?) Then the cat was already trapped!
Posted by: Marty | Nov 20, 2008 8:18:35 PM
I'm starting to think, without being able to prove it, that the game is winnable every time. Lately I only lose when I make a mistake. Strategy is to block far away from the cat. Also, take advantage of the fact that if the cat is more than a move away from a wall you're building, you can bloc every other space and fill in when the cat "decides" which hole to attack. Finally, the cat's strategy seems to have him explore a cul-de-sac if it contains an open way out. He will go in and if the cul-de-sac is long and you finally block it, he has to back out, gaining you some moves to cover up elsewhere.
There's a page at BoingBoing.com where this game is linked and discussed. The comment section is full of people who have come up with the same strategy. Several, however, seem to be serious math types who are also blowhards. They link to some papers and claim the game is winnable, or that it's an open question. I've looked at some of the papers (and so have other commenters there) and the original linker usually has missed the point. The paper discusses a more general version of the game that does not strictly apply to the case at hand. But the discussion did show me that, as I expected, some of the more general versions of the game, which is sometimes called Angel and Devil, (e.g. infinite game boards) are well studied by mathematicians.
Posted by: Marty | Nov 21, 2008 10:19:48 AM
