Thanks to whiterabbit for his reply, however my internet connection was working fine (could ping sites). No problems with firewall (maintained by server), T1 connection (no modem, no router), had just cleaned all cookies/temp stuff which I do very frequently, so no obvious solution. Its academic at this point since it has expired, but this has happened more than once at seemingly random cases, and there is never enough time to solve whatever problems arise (I only have time occasionally to check GOTD site for interesting programs). Would be nice if there were someone to communicate the problem to, but then they would probably have to start charging for programs.
James Mackey

Nice game, installed fine under XP SP2. It is a bit tough to distinuish between the animals on screen, but clicking on them tells you which animal you have selected - along with who beats whom. My 5 year old looked at it and said it looks like chess. He understood the basics after a couple of games and has "insisted" on helping me play.

I want to thank GAOTD for the last couple of games. I had put in my comments last time about looking for multi-player games that the whole family could play.

Hi chessy,

You have to instal any giveaway within a specific time frame. If you hadn't installed it before the change over to the next giveaway the activation module is no longer active, so you get the message you received. Unfortunately there's no way of activating the game now.

i downloaded the file but later on when i go to install it says need to chek with gaotd site for license and says offer is over. Anyone pls tell me how to now activate it?

Thanks Transcendance

the pronunciation should be 斗 "doe" (fighting), 兽 "show" (beast), 棋 "chee" (cheese without the "sssss")(means chess). So literally it means "fighting beast chess", simply known as animal chess. They made a mistake when translating into "Xou Dou Qi", it should be "Dou Xou Qi".

Last time, there was an error message which I couldn't get addressed - no access to forums. Now, of course, I'm away from home on dialup, hoping it will come in without error.

I'm running the game just fine on Vista Home Premium, which has DirectX 10, so I doubt folks will need to load Direct X 9. Peoples problems are likely something else.
Appears to be a true standalone, which is a big selling point for me, since there's little likelihood that a true standalone can damage your computer. Graphics are attractive. 3D pieces are nice, though, if you don't look close, the lion kinda looks like a warthog. The bottom line is, though, you need another player. As others have said, the AI is - to put it simply - STUPID. Sorry, this is a nice game and I salute the developer and GOTD for offering it. With another player, this could be a real treat. So it's a keeper. But, I'm a terrible game player with a poor geometric sense and I was able to beat the AI always playing white on any difficulty setting. That's after playing the tutorial on easy. It's an informative tutorial. The AI is tougher on black, though even on the difficult setting I was able to spot almost immediately the fundamental mistake it was making and beat it most of the time. It seems to often move pieces at random.
As to the Stratego discussion, the good help file has a short, general discussion of classic Chinese games. It says that Stratego was based on another, more complex game that also spawned this one. You can see the similarities: two water hazards on the sides, the trap spots are a little like mines, the elephant is the Marshall, the rat is the spy, for example.
Good stuff; glad I came today. Hope the developer will consider toughening up the AI.

Hi James comment #31,

There could be a couple of reasons why you're getting the message, but it implies that there isn't a connection between your computer and the internet. It may be that your firewall needs to be set up to accept connections between your computer and the giveaway servers. Initially try turning off your firewall (only to test to see if that is the problem, then turn it back on immediately). If you still can't get a connection try the following:


Turn off your modem and/or router, leave them off for a minute or so then reboot the system.

Clean out your internet cache - right click on your internet icon and choose internet properties. From the window that opens you can clear the internets cache and get rid of cookies etc.


I hope this helps.

Regards

Whiterabbit

In Brazil, there was a comercial game named Blitz. It's the same game. The difference is that the animals were changed by weapons.

6:50 PM I have tried 4 times to activate this program. I get an error Failed to connect every time. i downloaded a 2nd time with the same results. Is anyone else having this problem?

Don't get this game for its AI, I was able to beat it at its hardest level about 10 minutes after d/ling it (I have never played the game before).

Oh, good! I've been looking for a game where the object is "to go onto."

:P

This is a fun and interesting strategy game. This game is NOT the same as Stratego, although there are loose similarities. The similarities are ranked pieces with the lowest able to take the highest, and the presence of two pieces of water. Stratego keeps the enemy's pieces hidden, different moves for different pieces, has bombs, and a hidden flag. When equal pieces attack they are both removed. In this game the rat can go into the water and the lion and tiger can jump over the water. When equal pieces attack, the first to move wins. The goal and traps are visible, and fixed. One problem with the game is getting used to the shapes, but that can be a problem for games like chess in general, anyway. A fun alternative to Stratego or Chess, with an intelligent opponent built in that will take a while to outsmart.

RG - My guess would be something like "Zhoo Doo Key"

Thank you GGOTD for another very interesting game that I would probably never have heard of elsewhere. It's a wonderful change of pace from all the cookie-cutter games that we're bombarded with on a daily basis.

There is, however, one game that you never repeated and I would love to see again - Treasures of Montezuma. IMHO it's the best match 3 game I ever played and I seem to recall that Whiterabbit agreed with me.

Thanks for all your hard work!

****Sorry Local as much as I agree with you, I had to edit out your first paragraph*******

@The people that may have a problem running this game on Vista.

Vista comes with DX10 installed and no DX09.
It can be a good idea to install DX09 on top of that so you can play many more erroneous games, this included.

Looks like a good game and will surely download it, but how is it pronounced?

I'm really enjoying this run of board games, thank you gotd. :~D

Hi Mo,

Try downloading the latest DX9.0c file. It comes with it's own installer, so you can be assured that the files will be installed to the correct place. I've provided a link to the latest version bove in my first comment (#1).

If that doesn't work you can uninstal the game by deleting the installed folder. there's no registration details in the registry as this is a free standing game. The activation process activates a file within the actual game.

Regards

Whiterabbit.


Suggestions for games you would like to see should be posted in the appropriate thread over in the forums. :lol:

I forgot to say, I wanted to uninstall it, but it's not listed in the programs (add/remove)

Oh and I have Vista, not sure if that is the reason it's not working!

I was really hopeful with this one, it downloaded ok and installed BUT wouldn't run, as it was missing the DLL, I downloaded the DLL and tried to install it in the game's directory (C:\Games\Xou_Dou_Qi\Xou_Dou_Qi )and tried running it again and it failed again, then I tried to install it in the directory C:\Windows\Systgem32 as it said on the website and that still didn<t work, so this was a big waste of time!

Another awesome board game offering, TYVM!

Fascinating game; I'll try this one.

#15: Take a prozac. It ain't "real time strategy game of the day", or "hidden object game of the day"; it's simply "game of the day". Don't like it? Move along.

Please could we have some hidden objects games or platform games where you only use the four up down left and right keys? Would really love some of these. Thank you so much for reading.

Thanks.
What about some Alien shooter type of games or may be Robox types.

Can GGOTD STOP giving board games? PART OF COMMENT EDITED DUE TO INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE. I want them to give games like Janes Hotel, those Time-Manegement games or RTS games

Very interesting. Similar to Surakarta but better. No problems loading or playing on Vista.

Thanks GOTD!

I know this game.It an really tradition board game in chinese and have a long history.However i think it's going to extinct 20years later lol.Nice that GGAOTD offered some classic game.Nice offer,i will download it.

It also reminds me of the "Field Tactics" game from the Nintendo DS compendium "42 All-Time Classics". Only there are a LOT more pieces in that game...

Isn't this game the same as the game stratego???

Seems to be very similar to German's 'Stratego', just a bit smaller...

The rules were a bit different from the version I played. A bit hard to differentiate some of the animals too - my tiger got eaten up after I mistook it for a lion.

Thanks for the game
it works fine on Vista

Hmmm, a welcome trend, these board games. I know the original, and if the download is even half as entertaining, it's a keeper!

Really sad that the AI is so weak. If you want some challenge you must play with another person.

Love it...another different game!

Worked just fine on XP and I wasn't missing the dll!

Now to figure out how to win...

Suki

I can't believe there's this game on computers. It's a game I played long time ago when i was a kid. A popular board game in the primary/secondary school days in my country, along with chess and Chinese chess. A must-play for all board game lovers.

I didn't get this before. I have enjoyed the last couple of games by these people. This is fun and looks pleasing as well. No problem with the download.

This game looks interesting. Is it somewhat like chess? I love unique type of game. I will download it. Hope it satisfies me.

Xou Dou Qi (19.14Mb)

Introduction and Installation

This was first given away in July 2007; where it received a positive 89% of 186 votes with 79 comments, which you can read HERE. The downloaded zip file unpacks to a dual setup and activation module plus a read me document. Installation is simple; just click on the set up file. The installation path should be C:/Games, or whichever hard drive you have as your root directory (for example I have windows installed to my D:/ drive rather than the traditional C:/ drive.) As usual you’ll need to make a note of where the game was installed so that you can create a shortcut. There’s a short tutorial in the games discussion forums that tells you how to create a desktop and Start Menu shortcut.

Some community members received error messages saying a particular graphics dll was missing. If this occurs again you can download the correct dll from HERE Originally posted by Chris Bolt, comment #16; or alternatively download the latest directX 9.0c from HERE

(Read Fubars comment regarding the use of single dll’s from the previous comments section #37 via the first link above).

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The Game:

The game was made by the same developers of last weeks giveaway Surakarta and it has the same menus and mechanisms such as the ability to cancel your last move (as many time as you like), or get a hint for your next move. There’s also a good tutorial that will help you through your first game and explain the rules as you progress. They may seem complex at first, but bear in mind this was traditionally a children’s game in China, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up the rules. :lol: You can change the viewpoint from 3D to 2D and also rotate the board if you wish using the controls underneath the playing area. You can also access a shortened main menu (which doesn't have the multiplayer button) from here as well. The game offers single player and multiplayer modes, but the latter suffers from the same lack of any official servers that Surakarta did, though you can set up a multiplayer game using your own computer as a server as well as play on a local network. The gaming board can be moved into four different 3D and a 2D top down view. From the main menu you can also access the games rules as well as high scores. The options menu allows you to toggle the music and sound effects on or off and control the volume, though there’s only music (of a oriental flavor) when you’re in the menu area’s. On starting the game you are presented with a configuration window where you can set the game up to play either against another human or the computer and also set one of the three difficulty levels. As with most Merscom sponsored games, Xou Dou Qi is a free standing game, so you can play it from any external drive or even from a CD.

The origins of this traditional Chinese game go back as far as the fifth century. On the board, two teams oppose each other, each having eight pieces: the elephant, the lion, the panther, the dog, the wolf, the cat and the rat, (sometimes called a mouse). The objective is to go onto take all your opponents pieces. According to its rank, a piece can capture an opponent’s piece. The elephant, the most powerful, can eat all other pieces. Only the rat, which is the smallest creature, represents any danger to it! Simple rules associated with largest strategic possibilities make this game a very good initiation to chess logic, in a very attractive way.

Reference accessed 26th Feb 09


Rules:

The game is played on a board of nine rows and seven columns. The board has several special areas: each player has at his side of the board a Den, which is surrounded by three Traps. In the middle of the board there are two Lakes.


Each piece moves one square horizontally or vertically (not diagonally). The mouse is the only animal that is allowed to go to water square; none of the other animals may move to a water square.
The lion and the tiger may jump over the water, when going in a horizontal and vertical straight line. (They jump to a square at the border of a lake to another square at the border of the same lake. For instance, a lion at a4 can only jump to d4.) When jumping, there may not be a mouse on one of the squares that is crossed; there may be a mouse on the square that is landed on.
Pieces have a strength: stronger pieces take weaker pieces. The elephant can take all other pieces, the lion all other pieces except the elephant, the tiger is the third strongest piece, i.e., wins from all pieces except lion and elephant, then come in order the jaguar/leopard, dog, wolf, cat, and mouse. There is one exception: a mouse can take an elephant. However, the elephant can also take a mouse, i.e., the moving player wins the battle between elephant and mouse. One takes a piece by moving a stronger piece (or a piece of equal strength) via a legal move to the square containing that piece. When jumping, lions and tigers can take pieces that are on the square they land on. Mice may not take elephants from outside a water square. A piece can take a piece of equal strength: when two pieces are of equal strength, then the piece that moves takes the other piece.

A piece of a player in one of his own trap squares cannot be taken by the opponent. Pieces in a trap square of the opponent are very weak: they can be taken by any other piece when in such a trap square.

A player may not move a piece to his own den. A player wins the game by moving a piece to the den of the opponent.

Reference accessed 26th Feb 09 (reference originally found by Ballpeen)

Apparently using the above rules makes it very easy to gain a draw a lot of the time. There are alternate rules quoted in the second reference above which I’ll leave for you to find for yourself. :lol:


System requirements:

o Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP
o Pentium III 700 MHz
o RAM 128 Mb
o 28.99 Mb free disk space
o 3D Graphics card DirectX
o DirectX 9.0c




Conclusion:

Another excellent world game that should get your heads whirring and is worth 7 or 8 out of 10 in my opinion. A great game of strategy that is purportedly for children. It's a pity the music loop is only one minute in length as I'd liked to have copied it to my music folder. The file is an MP3, so you could change the music if you wished, though you must change the replaced files name to intro.

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Additional Resources:



Images:


See Images of Xou Dou Qi all on one page HERE


See Images of Xou Dou Qi as a slideshow HERE


See Googled Images of Xou Dou Qi HERE


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