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Welcome to Ulfilas'

Bolo Page


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Enjoy your visit on this page!

I'd love to hear your comment regarding this page: its contents, layout, "fun value" and informativeness.

You may use this mail link:  or the one at the end of this page.

"What the heck is Bolo?" you might ask now. "Bolo" is a word in Hindi (the language spoken in India) which means "communication". Stuart Cheshire, who created the game Bolo we are dealing with here, chose this name wisely, for several reasons. First, Bolo is a network game and therefore a playful (and very active) form of communication between real people, as opposed to games between a human and a machine. Most computer games of this non-networked kind get boring after playing them for a few times. They lack social interaction, Bolo does not. Second, communication only works (well) in a democratic structure of equal parts. Bolo uses a form of networking which resembles a "ring", as opposed to a centralized server-client structure preferred by other network games. Therefore, within a Bolo game all players have equal resources, such as speed. It cannot happen that a player with a better network connection to the server gets an advantage.

Just to give you a break in reading here ;-): check out the Bolo Home Page and the Bolo Intro.

Third, the best teams in Bolo are those who communicate well in a fast "nonverbal" way: About concrete actions, and more importantly, about strategy. Fourth, Bolo allows for an incredible flexibility within a tight frame of rule-determining limits (which creates a "language" as the basis for communication). For example, there can be up to 16 players, and they may team up (or not) in any thinkable way. Also, the game is played on "maps" which can have all kinds of shapes and may be changed during the game a lot, but only walls, roads, mines and boats can be built, and "pillboxes" can be moved. This might all sound a little philosophical. However, years of success of the Bolo concept, and the social rules that were formed and are used by the Bolo player community for finding, setting up, beginning, conducting, interrupting, and ending games speak for themselves.
Bolo only runs on the Macintosh (see the links section for PC Bolo developments), and it takes a few days of practice to get ready for a decent internet game. Don't get overwhelmed and frustrated by its possibilities.
If you decide to have a look at Bolo, you will first get the impression that it is a "bang bang I shoot you" game. As you move along and improve you will learn that it is much more like chess. Don't be surprised. And sometimes it even resembles an irc channel with a little action ;-)

To get Bolo click

HERE Bolo starter pack HERE


The newest in Web technology: now you may view the (in)famous "Phil-grilling" quicktime movie right on this page.

If you don't see more than an icon above, then you'll need to download Netscape 2.02 and/or ViewMovie first.


If you like my page, maybe you'll like what I am doing for my Ph.D., too ;-). If you have about 30-40 spare minutes, and if you would like to get a chance to win some money, then check out my

WebLab

From here you can jump to several lists:

Canuck's Pilltake Sheet




Also you can jump back to my home page:

Movies

Wild Duck's "Most Important Move" (besides him retiring from and coming back to Bolo 8-0):

If you don't see more than an icon above, then you'll need to download Netscape 2.02 or newer and/or ViewMovie first.

A TOAST to Phil ;-) as sit.hqx-file.

A TOAST to Phil ;-) as "flattened" Quicktime movie (will play directly).

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Brains & Bots

LADMO (for PPC)<<< ftp from Switzerland

LADMO (for 68k)<<< ftp from Switzerland

The Ladmo (click here for newer beta-versions) is pretty good, but the aIndy is simply hot right now. As Cliffa has noted: it is commandable ("Pissa, sget pill 13").

Simply the best: aIndy 3.1

The following Indies are included for historical reasons, and also might be a wiser choice for newbies ;-)

Indy 2.02 (for PPC)<<< ftp from U.S.A.

Indy 2.02 (for 68k)<<< ftp from U.S.A.

AKBrain<<< ftp from U.S.A.

Spielborg<<< ftp from U.S.A.. This allows movie-making!

Brainwave 1.2<<< ftp from U.S.A.. This adds some nice features.

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Map Editors

BMap-Edit 3.0<<< ftp from U.S.A.

BoloStar<<< ftp from Switzerland

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Other Bolo links

The Bremen Bolo Page
The Bolo Home Page
Official Bolo Archive?(ftp link)
The Newbie's Guide to Internet BoloThe Modem Player«s GuideSwarthmore BoloStuart Cheshire's Page?(The man who created Bolo) and an article about Bolo he recommendsKevin Ryan's Bolo PagePC Bolo (Armoured Alliance)Bolo3D (ftp Link) and its pageBolo Brains: LadmoBoloWeb IntroductionEuroBoloWebEuroBolo RegistryBolo Map Market (by mok)Cliffa's Bolo Page and a local picture ;-)Amoeba's DISCONTINUED Bolo Page :-(Scotty's Bolo PageThe Other Guy's Bolo PageBolo LinksThe Bolo News Group?(news link)

Bolo Trackers

North American: bolo.usu.edu (50001)North American: ambrosiasw.com (50001)European: ray.abo.fi (50000)Australian: acacia.itd.uts.edu.au (50000)

Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel #bolo, if in Europe use ray.abo.fi as irc server.

Again: my e-mail address for comments (and challenges<;-)):

ulf.reips@uni-tuebingen.de

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Last reviewed 7/15/96 - - quickly on 5/19/00