deutsche version

please give me your opinion


related to the boardgame of the same name, which was published by Hans-im-Glück publisher/germany.

Emergence

to the development of the windows version of Yucata' it came rather coincidentally: after I had purchased the game in a department store of Paderborn and a short trying out i liked the simplicity of the rules and the strict logic and strategy of the game. At the same time I intended to try out a few programming techniques which were taught to me at the university. Since I program games in my spare time gladly, I decided to take Yucata' for a boardgame conversion to a windows based version. The current version represents a provisional termination: there are still many possibilities for improvement. A network interface would be a good idea, so that one could play the boardgame in the local area network or over internet with several persons...

(Hi-)Story

"In the deepest rain forests of Mexico, near the town of Palenque, stands the Mayan Sun temple. Here in 1995, the famous archaeologist and games expert Stefan Dorra, discovered the remains of an ancient game. He used these to reconstruct the game, probably last played around 1300 A.D. The spaces on the board of Yucata' exactly match the ground plan of this renowned archaeological site. The pale and dark stones in the game represent good and evil influences, which the players seek to collect, or avoid. Probably Yucata' was played solely by Mayan priests, as part of their ancient rituals, but there aren't many Mayan priests around these days, so it's probably safe enough to play the game, without any risk of angering the Gods."

Installation

After downloading the file "YucataSetup.exe" (size: 2.8 MB, current version: v1.8.1 english/german/french/czech) on your computer you simply have to start the installation process by activating the Yucata.exe self extracting archive - don't worry, all executables are scanned by McAfee-Virusscanner and therefore should not contain any virus. Recommended for successful installing is a Windows 95/98-system, a computer with at least 32MB RAM and a HiColor VGA (with at least 65536 colours). With 256 colors it also works, but the colors are very falsified. You find a detailed explanation of the gamerules and the program operation after the installation in the help menu of the program. For reading the help files the Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 3.0 or higher is necessary (some earlier installations of Windows 95 also need the following service package released by Microsoft: HHUPD.exe size: 700 kB). If the Setup shouldn't work properly you might have to install an update of the Microsoft Windows Installer Engine (a subsystem of the operating system). The corresponding releases you'll find here:

Windows Installer for Windows NT.
Windows Installer for Windows 9x.

e-Contact

Questions, ideas and improvement suggestions (or if you only want to tell me, whether you like the game or not) please send your words to feedback@tobias-schilgen.de. Critics and comments are always welcome.

Have fun when discovering the old rituals of the maya priests... :-)

Tobias Schilgen.