Connection game

A connection game is a game where the goal is to use the pieces to create a connection between some parts of the board. The first connection game was Hex, which was invented in 1942, after which several other connection games have been created.

Timeline

Hex (Piet Hein 1942 and John Nash 1948)

The original connection game. Played on a rhombic hex grid.

Y (Craige Schenstead and Charles Titus, 1950s)

Played on a triangluar grid of hexagons

Twixt (Alex Randolph, 1960s)

Played on a square grid of holes into which the players place pegs. The pegs can be connected via bridges.

Havannah (Christian Freeling, 1980)

Quax (Bill Taylor?, 2000?)

Played on a square grid with the possibility of diagonal connections.

Onyx (Larry Back, 2000)

Played on an original grid consisting of both triangles and squares. It is the first connection game with a capturing rule.

Gonnect (João Pedro Neto, 2000)

This game is simply Go, but with a different goal, namely to create a connection between any two opposite sides.

Unlur (Jorge Gómez Arrausi, 2001)

Played on a hexagonal hex grid. Unique in the way that the players have different objectives.

Connecto (unknown author, unknown year)

Played on an interlaced square board.

MindNinja

Atoll (Mark Steere, 2008)

Atoll is an infinite set of games of which Hex is the lowest order member. For the case in which the number of perimeter segments is the minimum allowable, four, Atoll is exactly the same game as Hex.

See the rule sheet for more information.

References

Cameron Browne, "Connection Games: Variations on a Theme"