Sphere-Go

[Asmodeus]

IT HAS BEEN A WHILE

did anyone try to copy the concept for himself yet?

[quietimes]

I love the final product. Where did you find the board materials? It's hard to get a feel for the size, other than smaller. Did you ever youtube it?

[i3ullseye]

I think it looks awesome!

Got me thinking. Maybe a traditional lined board of sorts, with a frame built around it.... then fill it with clear marbles. Get the same structure you have with the magnets, but with a more traditional surface showing through to the bottom. Then play with black and white marbles.

.... hmmmm......

[topazg]

Can't you get hold of matte magnets? If you could, and then acquire black, white and gold matte colours, I think it would be infinitely easier on the eye and retain all the practicalities.

Love the idea though

[Asmodeus]

I like it so far. The shinies do hurt my eyes, tho. Given that you made the playing pieces black and white, is there a way to make the shiny board-spheres yellow, like a painted goban?

sure, just spraypaint all 400 individual magnetic board spheres in the color zou like

[Asmodeus]

I think it looks awesome!

Got me thinking. Maybe a traditional lined board of sorts, with a frame built around it.... then fill it with clear marbles. Get the same structure you have with the magnets, but with a more traditional surface showing through to the bottom. Then play with black and white marbles.

.... hmmmm......

possible ...you could buy long cuboidic magnets to make the board ...i like the idea, thanks

[Asmodeus]

Can't you get hold of matte magnets? If you could, and then acquire black, white and gold matte colours, I think it would be infinitely easier on the eye and retain all the practicalities.

Love the idea though

i was happy to get the 400 magnets for cheap (like 60eurocents per piece "cheap"), i could sandblast them or spraypaint them or make them shine in another metallic color by electrolysis ....but ...i'm the lazy kind of guy ...i like it the way it is

[Asmodeus]

By the way ...I figured out why traditional Go-Stones aren't round but biconvex ....if they are round they roll off the damn table too easily

Another drawback of the set is that the magnetic board spheres make nice bracelets and necklaces for the nice girls I meet so I am left with almost no magnets now.

The magnets I got from magnetportal.de and the stones from edelsteine.de all together it came out pretty expensive with about 350euros. (who cares)

It was a nice experiment and if I REEEEAAALLLYY needed another compact go set I'd make it again.

Now I'm left with beautiful girls wearing the magnetic stones as bracelets or necklaces and 400 black and white stone spheres i play with for no reason now and then. (perfect)

So you've guessed right ...The set is no longer in existence in it's former form.

THE NEXT BIG THING I'LL DO:

Make wooden cuboids (magnetic of course) that snap together to make a board the size of a standard go-board and use regular stones (maybe i'll spice it up with some weird colors or something else visually distracting just to mess with all the conservative traditionalists or not. )

Why?
1. Because I can.
2. Because with the wood I'd keep the old satisfying sound of the stones hitting the board.
3. Because the Board would be much much more compactible and easier to transport.

I won't take any care about weight, just volume.
I'll try to keep the construction simple but I'm sure that point will fail

Time-Horizon; it should be finished by the end of the year

untill then ...please leave all your positive and (especially) negative comments here.
I enjoy reading them
Thanks
Have a nice day

[Asmodeus]

I love the final product. Where did you find the board materials? It's hard to get a feel for the size, other than smaller. Did you ever youtube it?

THANKS! I'm glad you like it ...HEY! make one for yourself. you basically just have to order the materials and when you've got everything at home the construction of the board just takes minutes. (plus it's fun to play with the magnets just for fun)
nope, didn't youtube it, sorry. can't anymore now.
materials are from magnetportal.de and edelsteine.de

[Asmodeus]

Very cool! It looks quite sci-fi even if the shiny-ness is distracting.

yeah thanks ..i like sci-fi looking things

[Asmodeus]

I actually kinda love, how it turned out! Yes, shiny and I guess a bit hard on the eyes if you have been plating on traditional gobans, but for a total noob like me who's not used to anything yet it seems to be a totally acceptable way of playing. the weight might be a dealbreaker for me, but, well, it's mostly just me being frail.

don't let the weight deterr you ...it is obese, yes. but it's not fat, it's got big bones
))))))))

[Soleniae]

This is extremely interesting to me - I actually made a forum account just to chime in.

I know it was mentioned but, the visibility issue could be easily solved by sandblasting - that'll mute the finish enough to keep it from overwhelming the stones.

If you go forward with the magnetic cubes, might I recommend slightly separating them, so there is a minute gap that the stones can settle into? Would really help to keep the stones from moving around in an unstable setting - on a train or boat, any non-level surface, during an earthquake, etc.

Cool stuff. I won't be building this anytime soon, but it's an incredibly neat project.

[Bantari]

I thought of ways to make a Go-set portable and this unique and simple set is the result.
Thought I'd share it with you all.
It consists of the "board" that is made of 400 magnetic spheres (10mm) and the (non-magnetic) "stones" spheres (8mm).
I'll realize the plans in about a month or so when I have the time for it and post some pictures here then.
But ..untill then:
Please let me know what you think of it!

My first though was: very confusing, will get a lot of getting used to. When I think of how I visualize Go, its round stones on a square grid, so circles on squares, which makes the stones stand out nicely. This makes it round stones on a round "grid", so circles on circles, which is much harder for me to tell apart.

Also, the edge of the board will be tough to get used to, I think. I might have the urge to put the "stones" on the outside of the edge spheres, as I would do on the grid. Will have to remember that the edge of the board is actuall "inside" the board.

However, after thinking about it for a while and looking at your images, my second though was: Hmm, this has potential. If you make the bottom spheres glass and transparent, and place them over a grid, so the grid will still be visible, you might have a nice sturdy Go set, suitable for playing in various conditions.

Then I read about magnets (recently I read in random snipplets, it seems, and not very sequentially) and you lost me again... If you want to use magnets, then why not just magnetic stones on metal field? Or metalic stones on magnetized field? What is the purpose of the bottom spheres then, are they just for the "cool and unusual" look? This seems to be a case of form-over-function, if I have ever seen one.

Still, I think the idea of using spheres as the base of placing other spheres on has merit. I remember playing another game this way, not sure what it was, tic-tac-toe maybe... Well, its not important which game it was, only that the mechanics worked really well, I though, and the whole field was pretty sturdy, I could play in a car and on a train.

On the other hand, with all the stones being spheres/balls themselves, I'd hate to be the one chasing after them if the bowl gets tipped on a plane or something. Well, maybe as long as you don't make them out of rubber... Or if they are magnetized they will just stick to the neares metal object.

Anyways, you asked for thoughts. This is what came to mind after reading about your idea. Now I can read what others have said.

[Bantari]

The whole bundle weighs 4 pounds (1841g)...

I think this is great, conceptually!
However, I would look for different materials. I find it very hard to see the "stones" and tell them apart form empty intersections, depending on how the light falls. The overall idea still needs a lof of getting used to, but this can be taken care of with time, I think.