Keep those games alive!

Children are inventive, original and very messy. As they get older they start losing these nice qualities. Some manage to hold on. This is what I am trying to do with this blog. My brother - a great inventor of games - kept most of my childhood happily occupied with his original games. This blog started out as a way to keep those games alive. Do read the first few posts to enter his wonderful world. Reader contributions welcome :)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Cows and Bulls

For all those who wear the hat of a six year old while reading this blog, PREPARE TO UPGRADE! This is a cerebral game, contributed by Shyam.

He says, "The whole concept of the game 'cows and bulls' is hitting the bull's eye - hence the name."

Will explain the rest of the game using a scenario. Two players needed, and two players you shall have - call them Veeru and Jai.

Veeru writes a 4 digit secret number on a piece of paper, the Jai starts guessing the number. Veeru has to follow one simple rule while making up the 4 digit number - No repeating any digit. As in, numbers like 1918, 2020, 1124, 6188 - NOT ALLOWED.

So Veeru writes 1947 on the paper. Jai has NO clue what that number is for the first 2-3 chances. Jai tries a random guess - 2468. Writes it on paper and shows Veeru.

Veeru says, "1 cow, 0 bulls".

1 cow because on correct digit i.e., '4' appears.
0 bulls because, there are NO numbers which are at the same spot as Veeru's number(1947).

From this first clue, Jai writes his next number - again random - 1357

Veeru says, "0 cows, 2 bulls".

Jai hit 2 bulls because, "1" and "7" are at the right spot.

Then, Jai takes a third guess: - 1349
Wrong guess, he thinks "1" and "3" are the bulls. And this is how the rest of the game went:

1349 --- 1 cow, 2 bulls
1392 --- 1 cow, 1 bull (Jai: 'Either 3 is a bull OR 1 is a bull, not both')
1952 --- 0 cows, 2 bulls (Jai: 'I thought from my old 1357 guess, '5' is there')
1054 --- 1 cow, 1 bull
1954 --- 1 cow, 2 bulls
1974 --- 2 cows, 2 bulls ( Jai: 'Now I got ALL four digits, 2 in correct place, 2 misplaced')
1947 --- 4 BULLS !!!

And finally, an end-note by Shyam on this game:
This game requires analysis of each guess and discarding numbers in the right fashion. Usually, average is 6-7 guesses. If beyond this, something is really wrong - either the guesser is getting things wrong OR, the one who says 'cows and bulls' is messing things up.

ENJOY!

21 Comments:

Blogger Shyam said...

Thanks for putting the game here!!!

6:19 PM  
Blogger Sumithra said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7:32 AM  
Blogger Sumithra said...

Me first!! Well, Technically :D (like Obi wd say)

7:33 AM  
Blogger Sumithra said...

It's quite an interesting game :-)

7:37 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

Thanks Shyam, for sharing this with me :-)

Congrats Sunshine! (and sorry, no pics!)

7:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

awesome game... but i guess needs something called as "brain" to play this one... sorry cannot take this one up due to the absence of the abovesaid stuff...

keep the games coming in :)

10:24 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

Hey Iyer, you do yourself disservice - your dhammal blog is proof that there is something up there, even if unlike any other I have encountered :-)

1:53 PM  
Blogger Obi Wan said...

Me 2nd... technically of course :-)

Cloudy, this is too complicated for my mental level. Sorry, can't play this one. Make the games easier pls :-)

9:57 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

Hey Obi, even the Veeru/Jai angle didn't inspire you? :-)

1:01 PM  
Blogger The Comic Project said...

awesome game. Too cerebral for me. no upgrades possible. But awesome game. sorry cloudy. I really haven't been hopping around much :-(((((((

7:15 AM  
Blogger Shyam said...

Do you know a word game called "Ghost"?

6:42 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

@TCP: Nice to see you here!

Shyam, don't know Ghost... tell me! tell me! :-)

8:21 AM  
Blogger PRIDERA said...

Remember playing this game all the time during student days ... was a wonderful timepass :)

1:08 PM  
Blogger The Comic Project said...

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr what do you mean by NICE TO SEE YOU HERE.. I know i dont come around often..you dont have to rub it in :(

6:00 PM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

@Pridera: Thanks :)

@TCP: Hey, rubbing what in???? Always glad to see you, even on TCP!

8:09 AM  
Blogger Sumithra said...

Knock! Knock! Time for the next game :D

3:56 PM  
Blogger Bharath Hemachandran said...

I love cows and bulls! Only I normally play it with words. Of course this is a little easier because the number of combinations are less, and tougher because the numbers don't have to make sense, so narrowing the numbers down will be harder!

Have you done the paper hand held video game before? That is an awesome paper... umm video game.

12:31 PM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8:44 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

@Bharat: No, I don't know the paper hand held video game. Sounds interesting, please please tell me! Will put it up on the blog :)

8:45 AM  
Blogger Cloudy said...

@Sunshine: Coming soooooon! (I hope... - no time, no time!)

8:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work » »

12:05 PM  

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