My favorite visualization game is Mental 3D Tic-Tac-Toe. It combines the usual game strategy with visualization and memorization. In other words, both sides of the brain are used.
There are some online explanations of regular Mental Tic-Tac-Toe (http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Mental-Tic-Tac-Toe) using the familiar 2D flat board:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
But, when I was a kid of about 13 years old, I decided to increase the difficulty of regular Mental Tic-Tac-Toe by turning the 2D board into a 3D cube of three levels with each level having nine spaces:
Level 3 (top):
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Level 2 (middle):
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Level 1 (bottom):
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
The goal is still to get three claimed spaces in a row, but now the rows can operate in 3D; horizontally, vertically and even diagonally. A player?s ?turn? involves the player announcing the unclaimed space to be claimed, such as ?level 2, square 5.? The second player then takes a turn in the same way. The difficulty, of course, requires both players to remember the result of all turns. As players perfect the game, they may announce simply the numerical description of a turn, such as ?2, 5? instead of ?level 2, square 5? to help speed up each turn. Also, as players perfect the game using three levels of nine spaces each, difficulty can be increased by using five levels of 25 spaces each, and so on.
To others who watch the game, it appears as a strange recitation of numbers by two people who get very excited about something that is beyond the grasp of most observers.
It isn?t exactly Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, but for those who watch a game of Mental 3D Tic-Tac-Toe in play, it is just as fun and seemingly Aspie. Hehe!
16 Jul 2014, 7:04 pm
