Checkers has been mathematically solved -- indeed it's the largest game that has been solved so far.

What does this mean? It means that a proof has been worked out, in conjunction with some intelligent brute force move checking, that shows that if played perfectly, the game will end in a draw. And indeed, Jonathan Schaeffer, the researcher behind this (and an amazing games/AI expert in other areas, such as Hold 'Em Poker), has released a new version of his AI player, called Chinook, that cannot be beaten. The best anyone can do against this player, no matter how smart they are, is draw. End of story.

If you're having trouble understanding this, think of tic-tac-toe, which also always ends in a draw if played perfectly. Now we know checkers is exactly the same way, although while a human can be easily taught to play tic-tac-toe perfectly, I doubt the same could be said about checkers. That would be my first question for Schaeffer: can an expert learn to play it perfectly, now that we know how it's done? Or is the solution just too complex for us humans?

Scientifically, this achievement is interesting because checkers is a hard problem, and Schaeffer managed (albeit during over a decade) to finally solve it. That means similar approaches can be used for other similarly hard problems. Non-scientifically, this is interesting because it says something about games. Notably, I found this quote in the linked article worth quoting:

David Levy, president of the International Computer Games Association in London, UK, says he isn't planning to play against Chinook. "There would be a certain inevitability about the result."

Well, yes. But does this mean that expert checker players will no longer have any interest in playing? Unless my question to Schaeffer above is answered in the affirmative, probably not. Discrete games like checkers and chess are fun for humans to play precisely because the human brain is incapable of playing it perfectly. I am assuming that this will continue to be, even with Schaeffer's accomplishment, but if indeed it's possible to learn perfect checkers play, the game is effectively dead, just as tic-tac-toe is for those who care to learn the patterns.

So the next question is: can this happen to chess? The answer is yes, and it probably will one day, although the problem is on a much greater scale. If I had to guess, I would say that chess, like checkers and tic-tac-toe, always ends in a draw when played perfectly. Of course, it could be like Connect Four instead (or vice versa), where the first play always wins when playing perfectly. But if chess is ever solved, it is even less likely that perfect play could be boiled down to some trainable patterns such that a human could emulate it.

I guess that's why we call these discrete, rule-based back-and-forths "games" -- because deep down we know that the fun is all based in human shortcomings. Non-discrete games like baseball would be "solved" too, in a way, if a perfect robot batter could be constructed, but that's one kind of perfect play that normal humans could never emulate.

And so if you do figure out how to play checkers perfectly, and if chess is next to go down, then comfort yourself by learning to play Go. That's by far the largest traditional board game that humans play, and it's possible that it won't be solved until quantum computing becomes the norm. (via bb)

A couple of weekends ago, I finally made my way to the Pinball Hall of Fame, located not too far from my apartment. I had heard that this pinball museum had opened sometime last year, but for one reason or another, I never made it down. Turns out it's one of the coolest finds in Las Vegas.

As soon as you walk in, it's clear how authentically vintage the Hall of Fame is. The first row contains 12 or so machines, laid side-by-side, many of them clearly hailing from the classic pinball days. As I went further into the room, I was surprised again and again by yet another full row of classic machines. All told, there are probably 60-70 pinball machines in there, ranging from the 1940's to present day. And did I mention that they're all playable?

I played a dinosaur-themed machine from the 70's, a Western-themed one from the late 40's, and an odd magnet-based game called "Orbital" where the ball rotates around bumper "planets" -- and then I played the so-called "Holy Grail of pinball machines" -- "The Pinball Circus."

"The Pinball Circus" is the best pinball machine I have ever played. $1.5 million dollars was spent designing it sometime in the early 90's, but for various reasons, only two were ever made. The Pinball Hall of Fame has one of them. It's built vertically, more like an arcade game than the usual inclined plane structure found in pinball machines, and has four tiers, each of which with its own set of flippers.

So you start at the bottom, go up a ramp to a small area with a single flipper, which can hit it up another ramp onto an animatronic elephant, which lifts up your ball to another level with two flippers, which can hit it into a divot where a giraffe lifts the ball up another foot or so to the top of the machine, where it's deposited into a clown's mouth, also with two flippers. At that point, the ball can be hit down its throat if you can knock down the teeth. Of course, you can fall at every level back down to the first, where you can lose your ball.

Here is a detailed picture of the playfield. It looks a little confusing at that angle, but it isn't while you're playing. It costs $1 to play, but you get at least five balls and the gameplay is fast-paced and scored by entertaining circus music.

Yet another Las Vegas gem tucked away in an unassuming strip mall.

Pictures from GameSetWatch, which has some more details about "The Pinball Circus."

It's five months after the launch date, but Wii's are still nearly impossible to find at retailers or from legitimate online sellers at the retail cost of $250. The Freakonomics blog thinks that Nintendo and game developers are being hurt by the shortage, and that retailers are getting the benefits. My take is that everyone is a winner, except busy consumers who don't have time to wait in line at their local Best Buy at 7:30am on Sundays.

My Wii, by the way, was recently ordered from Amazon - they only sell them in small increments and I was able to get in an order -- at cost, and with free one-day shipping, since they've already missed their shipping date. All well and good, but where's my Wii?!

It's been awhile.

Brown, Ford, and Hussein died. (They need one more for a bridge game.)

Many top ten lists have been released, reminding me that movies take a long time to come out when you live in a third tier city. (Still waiting for Volver, Pan's Labyrinth, and Children of Men.) And that the music world is way too big and fractured to make any casual sense of. And that I rarely read recently published books.

Indiana Jones 4 is finally going into production this year for a May 2008 release.

Nevada has a new governor who, in a fit of ego and self-aggrandization, was secretly sworn in at midnight on January 1st: "We didn't want any word out in advance because of the security concerns... This is a new world since 9-11 and the first major change in Nevada government since then."

I now have a Mii on my brother's Wii.

And I'm a little more than halfway through Against the Day. Turns out it's hard to find any reading time when you're home visiting family.

Darn. I tore through 4 of the 5 puzzles with great speed, but got stuck on the very first puzzle, the Sudoku challenge. Despite the fact that my only exposure to Sudoku has been through this contest, I had been doing quite well on them. My problem was purely observational; I kept on putting symbols in place that were clearly violating the constraints. Hey, it's hard to keep track of nine weird looking symbols. So in the end, it took me 45-50 minutes to do the whole thing, 95% of that on the Sudoku, which I'm pretty sure is not winner-worthy. That's OK -- I heard the grand prize would've required more than $30,000 of federal taxes.

So, on a whim, I decided to complete some of the puzzles on Google's movie tie-in, the Da Vinci Code Quest. It consisted of 24 puzzles over 24 days -- I did the first 21 bored on a Sunday and finished the rest right after they were released. The first 10,000 participants to finish all 24 were promised a cryptex in the mail and a chance to win some prizes.

Today, in the mail, I got a mysteriously heavy box in the mail from noblecollection.com. Inside was one of the 10,000 winning cryptexes. The code to open the cryptex was written on the box: "GRAIL." I entered it in, and the cryptex opened up. (Is there any way for me to change the code?) A rolled parchment was tucked inside, with the words "Congratulations!" and a URL written upon it. Now I get to partake in a time-sensitive puzzle contest this weekend -- if I complete in the shortest time, I win.

Here are some pictures of the cryptex:

  

A hokey contest when I first started, yes, but getting the cryptex in the mail was pretty neat.