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Rules of Ultima
Created by Robert Abbott, Ultima is played like Chess except that all pieces but the King move and capture differently, and the game can be won by either checkmate or stalemate of the opponent's King. For backwards compatibility with the previous preset by Antoine Fourrière, this preset will allow the use of space deletions for suicides. However, it also supports promotions to @ and moving the piece off the space to nowhere. The latter will be used in the list of legal moves, as it is easier to select with the mouse.
The King may move one space in any direction but not into check. Unlike other pieces, it captures by displacement. There is no castling in this game, and unlike other pieces, an immobilized King may not commit suicide, though a player with one may choose to resign instead.
The Withdrawer moves as a Queen without capturing by displacement. It captures any enemy piece that was adjacent to it before its move that it moves directly away from. So, it captures only one piece at a time.
The Coordinator can move as a Queen without capturing by displacement, and it captures any enemy piece on any corner of the rectangle it forms with the King upon its move. This allows it to capture two pieces at once. When it shares a rank or file with its King, the corners are fully occupied by the King and Coordinator, leaving no corner with an enemy piece to be captured.
The Pincer Pawn moves as a Rook without capturing by displacement. On reaching its destination, it captures any orthogonally adjacent enemy piece that is adjacent to another of the player's pieces along the same rank or file as it is adjacent with the Pincer Pawn.
The Long Leaper moves as a Queen without capturing. To capture pieces, it must hop over them along a single diagonal or orthogonal direction. It may not hop over pieces on the same side, and any enemy piece it hops over must have an empty space immediately behind it. Within the bounds of these restrictions, it can capture as many pieces in one move as the size of the board allows. For the 8x8 board used in Ultima, it may capture up to three pieces at once.
The Immobilizer can move as a Queen without capturing. It immobilizes any adjacent piece of the opponent, rendering it completely unable to move or capture except to commit suicide, which will remove it from the board. This should normally be in the form of the piece moving to nothing. Since a King's suicide would be tantamount to resignation, this will be handled through the normal process of resignation and not through letting the King move off its space, which makes it easier to determine stalemate. Unlike other pieces, Immobilizers cannot capture other pieces.
The Chameleon may move as a Queen without capturing by displacement, and it may use another piece's own powers against it. It will immobilize the opponent's Immobilizer if they are adjacent, and it can capture other pieces of the opponent through their own powers of capture. With repect to Long Leapers, it cannot capture or jump over any pieces between it and the Long Leaper even though a Long Leaper would be able to. So, it sometimes cannot capture a Long Leaper that it could capture if it were a Long Leaper. With respect to Pincer Pawns, it can capture them only by moving orthogonally, as Pincer Pawns do. With respect to the King, it can check it from only one space away. Since the Chameleon borrows its capturing power from another piece and has no native capturing power of its own, it cannot capture another Chameleon.
How to Move Pieces
Full Algebraic Notation
Algebraic notation identifies each space by a coordinate that begins with its file label and ends with its rank label. On the Chess board, files go up and down from one player to the other, and ranks go from left to right. In most games, files are represented by letters, and ranks are represented by numbers, but there is no fixed rule requiring this for all games, and some games, such as Shogi, reverse this convention. If you look at the diagram, you will usually see the file labels going from left to right and the file labels going up and down. And if you hover your mouse over a space, you will normally see the name of the coordinate appear in a tooltip.
It is not uncommon to see algebraic notation being used for Chess, but it is often in an abbreviated format that requires you to know both the rules of the game and the current position to know exactly which piece moves where. For example, the notation "Ne6" indicates that a Knight is moving to e6, but it doesn't indicate which Knight, and it doesn't specify where the Knight is coming from. To figure this out, you need to know how a Knight moves and which Knight on the board can make a legal move to e6.
Although rules may be programmed for individual games, Game Courier itself does not know the rules of any game, and it is unable to parse abbreviated algebraic notation. Therefore, it relies on full algebraic notation, which completely specifies the move without requiring any knowledge of the game's rules or the current position. The most usual type of full algebraic notation indicates the piece that is moving by its label, the space it is moving from, and the space it moving to. In Chess, a typical first move might be written as "P e2-e4". When you hover your mouse over a piece, you will normally see the piece label followed by the coordinate for the space, and when you hover it over an empty space, you will normally see the coordinate label. Including the piece label in your notation allows Game Courier to check that the piece you're moving is the right one, and it makes game notation easier to follow, but it is not mandatory.
You may promote a piece by including a promotion move after your regular move. A promotion move has a piece go directly to a coordinate. Here is an example: "p e7-e8; q-e8".
You may remove a piece from a space by adding an @ to the space or by omitting the destination coordinate. For example, both "@-e4" and "e4-" would remove the piece on "e4". This is useful for en passant when you are playing a game that does not handle this automatically. For example, "P d5-e6; e5-" removes the Pawn on e5 after a Pawn moves from d5 to e6.
You will not need to remove spaces for most games, but if you should need to, you can do this by omitting the first coordinate in a move. For example, "-e4" would remove e4 from the board. To add or return a space to the board, you may add an @ or any other piece to it.
Available Pieces
Pieces are represented by labels, usually using uppercase letters for White and lowercase letter for Black. When you enter a move or specify the starting position for a game, you should remember that piece labels are case-sensitive. Many piece sets are available for use with Game Courier, and this table shows you which pieces belong to the piece set you are currently using.
These pieces come from a set containing more pieces, but this preset has had the set of pieces reduced to those used in the game.
Credits
This preset uses the Galactic settings file for Ultima, which was made by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001
Kibbitzing Etiquette
Kibbitzing is the practice of commenting on a game you are not playing. In commenting on a game, please follow these rules of etiquette.
(1) If you notice that someone has made an illegal move, please mention it. Some Game Courier presets cannot enforce rules, but Game Courier does enable players to take back any previous move. Details on how to take back a move are provided in the User's Guide, linked to above the board.
(2) Unless otherwise specifically asked to, do not offer hints or suggestions to players on what moves they should make. In general, avoid coaching comments.
(3) Once a game is over, it should be alright to offer your analysis of the game and your specific comments on what moves players should have made. If some players don't want this, they may mention it in the Kibbitzing section, and you should honor this request by not commenting on the game.
(4) Be polite. At the appropriate time, offer any criticism you have in a constructive manner. Avoid heckling players for bad moves.
(5) Don't spam this space with irrelevant comments. If you have a comment about Game Courier, rather than about the specific game you're viewing, please post it on Game Courier's Index page to give it.