jadarite: Normally, you're "just supposed to remember" which is the left and which is the right. For those of us who prefer not to be so vague, look at the following image: http://www.chessvariants.com/shogivariants.dir/toripieces.gif

You will notice a (very) small character in red above each of the quails, which differy very slightly. The left has a serif'ed "I" part on the bottom, while the right has a box.

Also, you can see that only the swallow and falcon promote (to goose and eagle, respectively).

This is a very different shogi variant, with most piece movements not found in any other variants (L/R quail, pheasant, eagle, & goose).

http://www.chessvariants.com/shogivariants.dir/tori.html provides a run-down of the rough rules; at least, what their differences are compared to normal shogi.

jurek and jadarite: The difference in the quails is the kanji [japanese character] that shows up on the top of the piece.
右 = "migi" = right
左 = "hidari" = left

鶉 = uzura = quail

I suggest you use nihongoresources.com to search for the characters. :)
Very good work so far.


Sorry, i didn't read more than a few posts down.
If you need any help hunt me on msn: andre_c_neves [AT] hotmail [DOT] com


fencer: Taikyoku shogi? Heh, joking. ;)

portugal:

To make space, I moved the main kanji down a bit, and then instead of adding 右 and 左, I put katakana ロand エat the top of the pieces. Same address http://marcuswebsite.googlepages.com/torishogipieces.html

jadarite: Could you maybe make those katakana characters red, like on the chessvariants image? Typically, the left/right kanji characters are on the back side (since they don't promote) of the pieces and in red.

jurek:

I can make them red. "Typically, the left/right kanji characters are on the back side", but how do you see that while playing a game? Wouldn't it be more convenient to see it on the front?

jadarite: Eep!
You can't break the kanji, then it'll be a different one! ;)
Those two katakana are the katakana for the sounds "ro" ( ロ ) and "e" ( エ ).
Any Japanese would go wild if he saw such changes. =P

It's like breaking a word in half: instead of "castle" you write "cast", and it's a different thing.

---

It looks great with the whole kanji.

( side note: 口 is also the kanji for "mouth" - kuchi ^_^)

portugal

I think it depends on the person. Someone could be equally upset that we have letters for pieces as the default set. My intention is to make a simplified version for people to learn the game.

Also, there is nothing wrong with what I did. I was referencing the radicals for each piece. They just happen to look like katakana characters as well.

http://japanese.about.com/blkod2.htm - migi
http://japanese.about.com/blkod24.htm - hidari

jadarite: Do you think you could make a set of "westernized" tori shogi pieces for those who cannot read Japanese characters? Similar to the standard Shogi set.

Fencer:

Yes, I can. The question is, what do people want on it? Since there can be letters which aren't as complex, there are more options. I can add arrows also or leave them out if people prefer. Another thing is which letters to use. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tori_shogi they show abbreviations for the pieces and instead of goose they have "+Sw" for promoted swallow and "+Fa" for promoted falcon instead of eagle.

I haven't played the game, but if it's the same as regular Shogi, I would want to see "G" instead "+Sw" just like I would prefer to see "H" for horse instead of "+B" for promoted bishop. Feedback on this would be appreciated. Another note, do people want the lettering to be capital and then lower case "Ph" or "PH" for phoenix? Since there are two pieces which have "P", I'll keep it to 2 letters for consistency.

jadarite: To my opinion, it's better to write "+Sw" than "G" or "+B" than "H" as shogi western players don't always know the name of the promoted pieces, but just know them as "promoted".
As it is so in "regular" Shogi, I would also do it so in Tori Shogi.

jadarite: I would prefer pieces that indicate movement, just as currently with Shogi and MiniShogi. On chessvariants, I've seen pieces that uses dots and arrows to indicate movement (arrows for rook and bishop like moves, different coloured dots for moving/jumping one or two spaces in the indicated diretion).