(In the original version, the board is red plastic and is dome-shaped, with dimples into which marbles can be placed. The perimeter spaces are marked not with colors but with the letters SPLIT.) I came across this game on eBay, and realized that it could be a predecessor to Poly-Y, although as far as I know it would have to have been invented independently. (Schensted and Titus’s book Mudcrack Y and Poly-Y makes no mention of Split, unless I’ve forgotten it. I surmise that Split was an obscure game that attracted little notice.) And yet note that it is a connection game, played on a board which is essentially a geodesic dome, much like Poly-Y. On the other hand the object of Split is comparatively simple-minded, and it doesn’t suggest the potential for subtlety of Poly-Y. I haven’t played it yet, but evidently a game can be drawn, for instance if each player surrounds one of the other’s poles. It strikes me that this may happen frequently. On the other hand, if you happen to have a Split board, you could play a small version of Poly-Y on it by designating triplets of adjacent perimeter cells as “edges.” If anyone knows more about this game (such as the author’s name, and whether Schensted and Titus took any inspiration from it), I’d be interested in hearing from you. |
