# I Want My Tri-Dimensional Chess Set! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** chess\ **Created:** [July 17, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920 "2006-07-17T20:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/21 "2006-07-19T20:59:06Z")
First: thanks to all for your replies. Second: > [@Leviosaurus](#): > > Not to be snarky, but why don’t you make one yourself? You can buy several inexpensive chess boards and cut them up for the basic components. Get it looking good enough and you could sell them yourself. No snarkiness taken, I assure you. The reason I don’t make one myself is twofold: a) I have the Franklin Mint version, and b) I lack the technology to make a GOOD one. Sure, I could cobble it together out of some scraps of plexiglass and a bunch of Bic pen barrels, but what I DON’T understand is why no-one markets a respectable version of this game at a sensible price. I’m not looking for lead-crystal boards and whatnot; but a reasonably priced mass-market version doesn’t seem too much to ask for. The Franklin Mint version sells (at last look) for over $200. That’s insane. I should be able to get a reasonably manufactured one for $50 or less, but I can’t. Hence, my angst. Third: **NoClueBoy** : Ironically, I _am_ from Iowa…_seriously_…just up the road from the Official Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, as it happens. I don’t get out to cons much. I just don’t understand why this has never been marketed. It’s a fascinating twist on traditional chess, and Star Trek is the phenomenon that we all know it has been. I’m sure people have created one-off replicas of the set, and I’m sure they charge an arm and a leg for them. The question is: why hasn’t this ever been mass-marketed? Why isn’t there a cheap version of it for sale? Why can’t you get it on Amazon? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/22 "2006-07-19T21:52:30Z")
[QUOTE=Dijon Warlock] First: thanks to all for your replies. Second: No snarkiness taken, I assure you. The reason I don’t make one myself is twofold: a) I have the Franklin Mint version, and b) I lack the technology to make a GOOD one. Sure, I could cobble it together out of some scraps of plexiglass and a bunch of Bic pen barrels, but what I DON’T understand is why no-one markets a respectable version of this game at a sensible price. I’m not looking for lead-crystal boards and whatnot; but a reasonably priced mass-market version doesn’t seem too much to ask for. The Franklin Mint version sells (at last look) for over $200. That’s insane. I should be able to get a reasonably manufactured one for $50 or less, but I can’t. Hence, my angst. Third: **NoClueBoy** : Ironically, I _am_ from Iowa…_seriously_…just up the road from the Official Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, as it happens. I don’t get out to cons much. I just don’t understand why this has never been marketed. It’s a fascinating twist on traditional chess, and Star Trek is the phenomenon that we all know it has been. I’m sure people have created one-off replicas of the set, and I’m sure they charge an arm and a leg for them. The question is: why hasn’t this ever been mass-marketed? Why isn’t there a cheap version of it for sale? Why can’t you get it on Amazon? [/QUOTE] Check the link in post #19. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/23 "2006-07-20T05:16:36Z")
Not to brag or anything like that, but me and a friend of mine created a 4 dimenstional chess game in high school. Only problem we had was that you needed a computer to handle all the time jumps casue writting everything down just got tedious. but damn it was cool. We incorperated a few pieces from indian and chinese chese, and created a few new one. My personal fav was the assassian which would end the game if it got within one square of the king. It only moved one square at a time, but considering you could “borrow” up to five moves from the future (game has a preset move limit) it was could be damn devisating. I’m a geek, what of it? :wally ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/24 "2006-07-20T05:16:41Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Check the link in post #19. [/QUOTE] I did, but that’s not the game I’m going for. A friend of mine had one of those when we were in high school, and I’ve seen it marketed as a Star Trek chess set, but it isn’t. The one you linked to is three 8 x 8 boards stacked vertically. The one I want (and have, thanks to the Franklin Mint, but is too little, too flimsy, and too overpriced) is three 4 x 4 boards offset like stairs by two ranks each, along with four 2 x 2 “attack boards” that fit onto the corners of the main boards. THAT’S what was played on Star Trek, and that’s what I wish someone would make and mass market for under the FM’s price of $240. Check the Ebay link that was provided. It’s a different board altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/25 "2006-07-20T10:02:42Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] So, to be clear on this: Captures are resolved before the mirroring to the other board? So if you have a black knight and a white bishop on (i), in the appropriate places, the knight could take the bishop, and then mirror to (ii)? And the spot on the other board must be vacant of pieces of either color? [/quote] Absolutely right. > [@Chronos](#): > > If I’m understanding this correctly, this would make a piece supported on the other board uncapturable… Except that it would be impossible for two pieces to end up on the same positions on both boards. Which means you could also play it on a single board, using some sort of two-state flag on each piece. At that point, it looks almost like regular chess, except that a piece may only capture another piece of the same flag, and a piece may jump freely over pieces of the opposite flag. Also right. Mind you, it’s probably easier to use the two boards than to try to read the flag-states of every piece on the board. It might work with a computer implementation, where a piece can be either “solid” or “ghost”, and neither kind of piece affects the other - a “ghost” doesn’t obstruct, and is not obstructed by, a “solid”, and can neither capture nor be captured by one. Or get yourself a set of clear glass pieces to swap with the regular ones, move by move. (But you’d be bound to slip up sooner or later.) An interesting side-effect of this is that knights now have a colour-restriction like bishops - on each board, each knight can occupy squares of one colour, because a knight’s “colour” is parity-dependent the same way as its “flag” is. For instance, the white QN begins on (i)b1, which is white, and can only occupy white squares, and capture on black ones, on board (i) - and vice versa on board (ii). ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/28 "2015-04-04T17:56:04Z")
Got reopened due to a spammer, but seems as good a time as any. Did you get yours? There are some good ones on the internet from time to time. A guy at [web address removed] had a set of rules and a fairly pricey board for sale in the e-mail I got on this thread subscription. I assume he was the spam that got deleted, because all he posted was a link, but he did a pretty decent job of it. It really was a bit high, tho. Almost $300. Still, seemed to solve some of the OP’s issues. If mods consider this spamming, too, oh well. I’m not affiliated with the guy, just followed the spam link for the hell of it. You might search on Facebook for the Larry Nemecek fan page. He writes Trek books and his wife was a TNG and VOY writer and asst. He always answers questions, very friendly and very Trekky guy. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920/29 "2015-04-04T19:20:54Z")
**Moderator Note** I removed the web address from your post. Not only was it a spammer, but he was selling an unlicensed copy of the Star Trek 3d Chess set. Please do not repost spam links (even if not in link form) once a spammer’s post has been removed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-my-tri-dimensional-chess-set/364920.md?page=1)