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<H1>Interview with Robert Abbott</H1>
<p>Dear Robert Abbott, </p>

<p>Thank you for giving us this interview, in the month that
your game <A HREF="../other.dir/ultima.html">Ultima</A> is Chess Variant of the Month (November 2001).</p>

<I><p>Can you tell something about yourself? (E.g., where do you
live, how old are you, what is/was your profession, etc.)</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Im 68, I live in Jupiter Florida,
and I guess Im what youd call retired. I used to work as a computer programmer (mostly IBM 360 assembler
language). Some of my games made a
little bit of money, but never enough for me to live on. </span></p>


<p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Speaking of programming, I recently
learned JavaScript (well, I learned about half of the language) and Ive also
been using HTML. Theyve been a lot of
fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p></BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>First, some questions on Ultima. How did you create this
game?</p></I>

<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Please refer to <A HREF="http://www.logicmazes.com/games/ultima.html">my web site for the
answer to this. I just finished working
on a page about Ultima</A> and it gives a pretty good explanation of the creation
of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>In a text in World Game Review, you stated that you thought
that Ultima has serious flaws. Why can this be true when many people like to
play this game?</p>
</I>

<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I dont really know. I played it for years myself, but then I got
frustrated that it was so hard to see what was going on. Im also not very good at Ultima or at any
games of this type. (I should point
out, however, that Im the worlds greatest Eleusis player, though thats hard
to prove.)</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>Ultima seems to have taken on a life of its own. Even if you revise it 50 more times, there will be people playing the 1963 rules. How do you feel about that?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Well, I cant object to people not
playing my 1968 version because it was a pretty bad idea. However, I wish game players would be more
open to revised versions. Alex Randolph told me that game players never want
you to change anything.</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>I read in the Encyclopedia of Chess Variants that you chose
Baroque as the original name of Ultima, but that the publisher insisted on
changing the name. Why *did* the publisher of &quot;Abbott's New Card
Games&quot; insist on calling the game Ultima?</p>
</I>

<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Im not sure. I still like Baroque better than Ultima, but
maybe the publisher thought that Ultima was more accessible. He also told me that he would have changed
the name of Eleusis if it hadnt appeared previously in Scientific American.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>By the way, my publisher, Sol Stein,
was a really bright guy and knew what he was doing. Theres the often repeated tale of the publisher (or the
producer, or the suits) ruining the idea of the creative artist. This story is not always true and the artist
is frequently wrong. For example, the
publisher of my game Epaminondas told me the name was a bad idea, but I
insisted on keeping it. I now realize
he was right and I was wrong. </span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>You wrote that you hope that others would make a better
revision of Ultima. One of the editors of the Chess Variant Pages suggested to
make a contest for the best revision of Ultima. (Another of our editors thought
it was not a good idea...) What do you think about that idea? Would you in case
such a contest would happen be willing to be a judge?</p>
</I>

<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I dont think a contest would be a
good idea, but it would be great if (1) someone came up with an Ultima revision
and wrote a description of it, (2) Chess Variants posted the description on its
web site, (3) players tried the variant and wrote comments about it, and (4)
Chess Variants posted the comments. The
process could start over with another revision. This could go on for years. </span></p>


<p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>A revision need not change all the
forms of capture. It would be a major
accomplishment if a revision changed just one form of capture and got it to
work within the framework of the game.</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>One of the pleasant features of Ultima is that it can be
played with most chess sets. Should this also be true for a revision of Ultima?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Ultima could continue to be played on
a chessboard or it could be turned into a proprietary game. Either way would be okay. There probably isnt any commercial
potential in the game.</span> </p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>What is the process how you create a game?</p>

</I><BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I dont know.</span><span
style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></p></BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>What do you think makes a good game?</p>
</I>

<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I could write a book about this, but
I wont.</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>What led you to game design in the first place?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Im not sure, but I always felt like
doing something creative.</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>What games did you play as a kid?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>All the Parker Brothers games and a
lot of card games.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>What games do you play now?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Hardly any.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<I><p>When, where, and with who do you play games?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I dont have any friends who are
serious about games, but my wife and I play something every now and then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</BLOCKQUOTE><I><p>There are several chess variants that utilize playing cards.
Have you invented, or considered inventing a chess variant that utilizes cards?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>No, Ive never done much with chess
variants. I have tried <A HREF="../incinf.dir/kriegspiel.html">Kriegspiel</A>, and
I once wrote a program for the TRS-80 that acted as a Kriegspiel referee. Actually, I never thought of Ultima as a
chess variant since only one of its pieces uses the replacement capture, which
is the main characteristic of chess. Ultima just uses the physical equipment of chess.</span></p></BLOCKQUOTE>

<I><p>You also created many highly original puzzles. Some unusual
and rather complex <A HREF="http://www.logicmazes.com">mazes/labyrinths can be found on your website</A>. How do you
get the ideas for these puzzles?</p>
</I>
<BLOCKQUOTE><p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>The first maze I did was The Farmer
Goes to Market, which appeared in Martin Gardners column back in 1962. It was inspired by the system of one-way
streets that the traffic engineer Henry Barnes created in Denver. At the time I thought of this as just a
puzzle, not a maze. Later in the 1980s
I started doing more of these puzzles and I saw that they were more like mazes
than like puzzles and they had all the appeal of mazes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>By the way, Ive tried to create
games based on mazes but never with any success. I dont think anyone else has created an interesting game that
incorporated a maze.</span></p>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>Thank you for the interview!</p>

<h2>Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.logicmazes.com/">Logic Mazes</a>. Robert Abbott's website.
<li><a href="http://www.logicmazes.com/games/ultima.html">Ultima: Robert Abbott's webpage on the game</a>.
<li><a href="../other.dir/ultima.html">Ultima</a>. Illustrated and animated rules.
</ul>

<hr>
Questions by Peter Aronson, Hans Bodlaender, and David Howe. Answers by Robert Abbott. Webpage made by Hans Bodlaender. (c) 2001.
<hr>
WWW page created: November 26, 2001.
<div>
<p>For author and/or inventor information on this item see: <b><a href="http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displayitem.php?itemid=AbbottInterview">this item's information page</a></b>.
<br>Created on: <b>November 26, 2001</b>. Last modified on: <b><a href="http://www.chessvariants.org/index/mainquery.php?type=Any&orderby=ModifiedDate&displayauthor=1&displayinventor=1&monthlastmod=2001-11">November 26, 2001</a></b>.
<h2>See Also</h2>There are other pages that are related to this item. <b><a href="http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displayitem.php?itemid=AbbottInterview#seealso">See Also</a></b>.
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