[HN Gopher] Mornington Crescent
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       Mornington Crescent
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2024-02-12 20:14 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.isihac.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.isihac.net)
        
       | 082349872349872 wrote:
       | non-brits may wish to refer to:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)
        
         | nickt wrote:
         | > A "type-in" computer version of the game for the BBC Micro
         | was included in the April 1985 edition of The Micro User.
         | 
         | Excellent.
        
           | vulcan01 wrote:
           | There is an esoteric programming language inspired by this:
           | https://esolangs.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent
           | 
           | (It can sometimes be seen at codegolf.stackexchange.com)
        
             | KineticLensman wrote:
             | I've been teaching myself Rust by writing a Lisp
             | interpreter (I've successfully achieved recursive function
             | calls) but I may have to put this on pause and write an
             | interpreter for Mornington Crescent, in Rust, and then see
             | if I can use _that_ to build a Lisp interpreter.
             | 
             | I may skip Tail Call Optimisation, though.
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | Ah, so it's a bit like the traditional Dutch game _stiften_ :
         | https://youtube.com/watch?v=hZBHkJFcYII?t=394
        
         | graemep wrote:
         | Telling people defeats the purpose of it.
        
         | chippiewill wrote:
         | That's Numberwang!
        
         | amiga386 wrote:
         | It's like a cross between Double Fanucci and Go Johnny Go Go Go
         | Go (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtSvaSZ-xLU), if you're
         | familiar with those games.
        
       | mindcrime wrote:
       | According to the 1993 annex to the Washburn codification of the
       | rules, the site isihac.net is no longer considered a valid
       | reference, and anybody consulting this site during a game
       | automatically forfeits their turn.
        
         | andyjohnson0 wrote:
         | > anybody consulting this site during a game automatically
         | forfeits their turn.
         | 
         | If a Perridale Variation has been invoked and one or more
         | players are in Nid then the forfeiture rule does not apply.
        
           | KineticLensman wrote:
           | That's NumberWang!
        
           | afandian wrote:
           | I think that given the HN audience, we should really be
           | playing the Atlantic version. Not only is the spelling
           | partially reversed, but the Perridale Variation is reduced to
           | a single direction. Forfeiture rules are therefore
           | irrelevant. It's significantly simpler, but it's more
           | engaging for a beginner audience.
        
       | gbxyz wrote:
       | Teaching an LLM to play Mornington Crescent
       | https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGejrSJfE/
        
         | IanCal wrote:
         | Nice!
         | 
         | GPT-4 can play, it will actually pick up on what you're doing
         | and follow along. It's a bit stilted if it's got its history of
         | explaining what places are, though does pick up on inventing
         | move names and similar. It'll follow your lead if you start
         | invoking random rules & history.
         | 
         | > Given your astute deployment of the reverse-polish maneuver
         | to Angel, it's clear I must think creatively to maintain a
         | competitive stance in our game. Angel's position on the
         | Northern Line presents an intriguing array of tactical
         | responses.
         | 
         | > In light of this, and adhering to the spirit of our pre-98
         | rule set, I will execute a move that's both unexpected and
         | steeped in the lore of our game. I navigate to Stratford,
         | invoking the East London Shuffle.
         | 
         | https://chat.openai.com/share/6a275e17-ea27-4c35-b0a3-6d9f2c...
        
       | henrikschroder wrote:
       | You can play this game in it's simplest form with children, to
       | teach them about anticipation and social cues and hidden rules.
       | 
       | The base game is super simple. You go around taking turns, each
       | player saying a London underground station - or pick a similar,
       | familiar, enumerable set - and the first one who says Mornington
       | Crescent wins the game. When someone does, you quickly announce
       | the winner and _immediately start a new round_.
       | 
       | If you play it with children, see how long it takes them to
       | realize that the fun lies in _not_ saying the winning station.
       | And how much fun you can have by anticipating what the others are
       | going to say.
        
         | afandian wrote:
         | My wife and I are convinced that Pokemon is a giant secret
         | extended game of Mornington Crescent played by the younger
         | generation. Which is a comfort.
        
         | vundercind wrote:
         | Anyone got other good social-games for kids?
         | 
         | I'll contribute: Questions, in which one attempts to carry on a
         | "conversation" consisting entirely of questions _that may not
         | be nonsensical or non-sequiturs_. First person to ask a garbage
         | /illegal question or to make a statement, loses. Traditionally
         | initiated with "would you like to play questions?"
         | 
         | And: some of the imagination games from _Impro_ can be good.
         | Collaborative automatic writing (though the adult will need to
         | self-censor a bit); tricking a kid who "can't think of stories"
         | into writing a story by asking you questions about a "secret
         | story" you wrote (you did no such thing--of course you
         | eventually clue them in that they're far more imaginative than
         | they believed), that kind of stuff.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | Did you know that Whose Line Is It Anyway has some great
           | examples of that first game?
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cX8KLOb0w8
        
         | stavros wrote:
         | I don't understand this. Why wouldn't I just immediately say
         | Mornington Crescent? And why would I anticipate what the next
         | person says? Why don't they just say Mornington Crescent? This
         | is baffling.
        
       | noteness wrote:
       | There is an esolang based on this:
       | https://esolangs.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent
        
       | afandian wrote:
       | Always nice to see one's national parlour sport on the HN front
       | page. It may seem completely impenetrable on initial and deeper
       | inspection, but I'm sure us Brits will be happy to try to answer
       | any questions.
        
       | tetris11 wrote:
       | Everyone forgets that the original rules were based on the idea
       | that stations that had k=3 shared nearest neighbours couldn't be
       | used, and that adjacency was measured by DBSCAN clustering,
       | instead of Leiden partitions that the kids use now.
       | 
       | The game has gotten lazy since I were a lad.
        
         | afandian wrote:
         | I think that only came in once the signalling went metric?
         | Earl's Court (last time I looked) still had some originals.
         | It's always been shades of grey.
        
           | IanCal wrote:
           | > It's always been shades of grey.
           | 
           | For home games, and perhaps for even local leagues, sure. But
           | the IMCF (the International Mornington Crescent Federation,
           | not the International Mornington Crescent Foundation) has
           | been clear on this since the '86 upset.
        
             | afandian wrote:
             | Pardon the snark. But international games always start from
             | St Pancras (and Waterloo once upon a time). If "home games"
             | had that luxury we probably wouldn't even be discussing
             | this.
        
               | adw wrote:
               | You're neglecting the extensive theory which has
               | developed around the "Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, and 3"
               | opener. Go west, young competitor!
        
         | michaelt wrote:
         | Sure granddad, that's all very well if you're playing the
         | classical time limit - but with the rise of fast-paced online
         | play, the old way just isn't scalable. The big providers just
         | can't afford it, so long as everyone expects their games to be
         | hosted for free.
         | 
         | And so what if kids these days are playing a slightly different
         | game - can't we celebrate the fact they're playing at all,
         | instead of engaging in this elitist gatekeeping?
        
           | afandian wrote:
           | Without that "gatekeeping" the game would have descended into
           | confused chaos, with no clear rules long ago. Maybe it's time
           | for change, but we should be grateful that there is still a
           | game to play.
        
       | amiga386 wrote:
       | I know there are a lot of ISIHAC fans here, and they love seeing
       | parlour games like Mornington Crescent played with skill, panache
       | and verve, especially when expertly compered by a sexy and
       | stunning host.
       | 
       | I'll just link to a recent game that everyone will get a kick out
       | of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwerGS2x5xc
        
       | Symbiote wrote:
       | It's years since I've played this, so forgive me if I miss some
       | of the intricacies of the recent St Hillary changes, I'm more
       | familiar with the XVI edition rulebook.
       | 
       | Denmark Hill.
        
         | afandian wrote:
         | Angel.
         | 
         | (St Hillary Changes have roundly been seen as whitewash, and
         | rarely affect game-play)
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | I'll risk High Street Kensington...
        
             | bmsleight_ wrote:
             | Morden
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-12 23:00 UTC)