French translation

A new version of Pasang Emas is out featuring French translation, courtesy of weblate.org community.

Enjoy!

Norwegian Bokmål translation

A new version of Pasang Emas is out featuring Norwegian Bokmål translation, courtesy of weblate.org community.

The Arabic translation is still languishing. If you would like to help, please go to Pasang Emas translation project at https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/pasang-emas/.

Enjoy!

Updated German translation

Version 6.1.0 of Pasang Emas is out with an updated German translation courtesy of Markus Enzenberger.

Enjoy.

Available in AppImage format

Version 6 of Pasang Emas has been released. The user interface got a major facelift, especially playing online. For the first time, in addition to the usual source package, the app is also available in AppFormat that you can readily run after downloading and setting its "execute" permission.

Enjoy!

Playing pasang on Raspberry Pi 3

I'm having fun with my new toy, namely a Raspberry Pi 3 running Raspbian. Not surprisingly, it can be used to play Pasang Emas. Here are the steps:

• Download Pasang Emas from pasang-emas.sourceforge.net (the latest release file is pasang-emas-5.2.0.tar.xz).
• Unzip/extract the downloaded file.
• Inside a command line terminal, go to the unzipped folder. In my case, I used this command:
  
  

      $ cd Downloads/pasang-emas-5.2.0/

  
  
• Then, install all dependencies. The following command should do the work:
  
  

      $ sudo apt install build-essential gtk+-3.0 yelp itstool libxml2-utils

  
  
• Then build and install Pasang Emas using the following commands:
  
  

      $ ./configure
      $ make
      $ sudo make install

Now, the irritating part. While you can now start the game by typing "pasang-emas" on the command line terminal, the main desktop menu will only be updated to show the new Pasang Emas entry after... sigh... rebooting. No, Pasang Emas is not guilty here.

Anyway, enjoy!

Deluxe edition of pasang

I'm not in the habit of endorsing or advertising commercial products in this blog, but I have to mention this wonderful rendition of pasang by nestorgames: https://nestorgames.com/#pasangdeluxe_detail.

Feast your eyes on the masterpiece. Drool.

Package for Ubuntu

A Launchpad user, Anton Asche, created a personal package archive (PPA) for Pasang Emas. The link is

https://launchpad.net/~aasche/+archive/ubuntu/pasang-emas/+packages

Ubuntu users can add ppa:aasche/pasang-emas to their repository. Users from other distributions like Debian can download the deb package and install it using the command line:

# apt install ./pasang-emas_version_architecture.deb

Currently, Yelp (a help viewer) must be installed separately.

I'm grateful for this contribution. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to play Pasang Emas.

Chuki: another game using pasang board

The Wikipedia entry for pasang was recently edited (24 June 2016) to add an account of chuki, a game from Johore. It seems that chuki board is identical to pasang board. However, the two games are totally different as chuki uses dices. The reference for chuki is Culin, Stewart. "Chess and Playing Cards: Catalogue of Games and Implements for Divination". Here is a page from the book:

I am sure pasang fans are drooling over that nice chuki board shown in the illustration.

One big question: is chuki still played?

German translation

Version 5.2.0 of Pasang Emas is out with an updated German translation, thanks to Markus Enzenberger.

Enjoy.

Tool migration

Version 5.1.0 of Pasang Emas is out. There is not much changes in terms of user experience compared to the previous version, except if you are creating your own custom patterns. You may have discovered that your custom patterns are not persistent. This is a bug that I didn't even notice until recently. Perhaps it was introduced by a library update. This bug is fixed; custom patterns are now properly saved.

Most of the changes are in the build tools. Pasang Emas has removed its dependence on some deprecated stuffs. It now uses yelp-tools for its help files and git.mk to generate filters for version tracking. All these are not important for end-users but are vital to extend the life of Pasang Emas.

Enjoy.

Hot picked

Pasang Emas has been featured in the HotPicks section of the venerable Linux Format magazine. Twice.

The first time was in August 2010 issue, covering Pasang Emas version 2.1.0. I keep a print copy of that issue as a treasure. The second time was in June 2015 covering version 5.0.0. I believe Linux Format is no longer available in print form. Otherwise, I would have rushed to buy a copy.

Play face to face

Version 5 of Pasang Emas is out with a new fresh look. This version supports two-player mode so you can play with your friend on a tablet face to face.

Spread the word and enjoy.

Fixes coming

It has been a long time since I touched Pasang Emas. After all, it has been a rather stable product with no urgent defect to attend to. I was aware of changes in GTK+ (a toolkit that Pasang Emas uses), but I did not think that they would significantly affect Pasang Emas.

The situation changed when I received the following announcement on a mailing list:

    Since glib 2.41.2, the mutex/cond implementation on Linux has changed. The
    code compiled with Vala < 0.26 which targets at least glib 2.32 with
    --target-glib 2.32 will suffer from deadlocks.

That message means Pasang Emas may fail to run on newer GNU/Linux systems.

So, I hastily took action and fixed this. I also discovered that some changes in GTK+ cause some parts of Pasang Emas to fail. This has been fixed too.

However, I'm not ready to make a release yet. I want to do some code cleanup. If you are impatient for the next release of Pasang Emas, you can get the latest development version from its git repository. The latest development version is usually usable.

Get it from 1Mobile

Pasang Emas for Android is now also available from 1Mobile.

What do you call those mobile pieces?

In pasang, each player has only one mobile piece. This piece is called a "kas". A "kas". Singular, despite the 's' at the end.

"Kas" is a Malay word. What to call it in English? "Kas" is the most obvious choice. Pasang Emas uses "kas" in its help document.

The word "ka" (plural "kas") is used in the Wikipedia entry for pasang (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasang). This was picked up by The Brunei Times.

So, what is it? "Ka" or "kas"? Just accept both. No war!

Hari Raya gift to pasang fans

Version 4 of Pasang Emas has been recently released. There has been a major overhaul to the theme engine to allow more customization. In particular, the score board is now also themeable. The built-in themes have been considerably improved.

As always, Pasang Emas is a free software. Consider this new version as my Hari Raya gift to pasang fans (even if you don't celebrate Hari Raya, and even if you stumble upon this new version after the festive season is over).

You are welcome to contribute your own themes. The best way to start making your own theme is to look at the "Wooden" theme which is bundled with Pasang Emas.

Pasang Emas for Android

Please help spread the word. Pasang Emas is now available for Android from http://pasang-android.sourceforge.net. As always, Pasang Emas is a free software. That means you are free to use it, to modify it and to distribute it.

Pasang Emas for Android provides human-versus-human and human-versus-machine mode.

Enjoy!

Cygwin package for Pasang Emas

People have been asking me about Pasang Emas for Windows. My usual response has been that I've no resources to support a Windows package, but any programmer should be able to build one.

Now I have a more helpful answer. Cygwin Ports has a Cygwin package for Pasang Emas. Get it there.

Pasang Emas vs traditional pasang

The game rules implemented in Pasang Emas are based on two major sources. The first source is a book named "Mari Bermain Pasang" published by the Brunei Museum. The book is unfortunately very vague about the rules and cannot really be used as a definitive reference. The second source is an actual human expert whose authority in pasang is unquestionable.

Pasang Emas truly implements the rules of pasang, except for a few harmless deviations. These includes the following non-enforcements of traditional rules:

• Traditionally, in the opening move the second player must choose a passage from a diagonally opposite quarter of the board. This is to allow quiet development. In Pasang Emas, the second player may select a passage near the first player's, thus allowing immediate open confrontation.
• Traditionally, the player who captures the last piece will be the first player to move in the next round. In Pasang Emas, there is no such rule.
• The kas can either be selected by sliding a piece adjacent to the empty passage, or by jumping over such a piece. Traditionally, both player must agree to select by jumping only or by sliding only. Pasang Emas does not include this restriction.

By not enforcing these rules, Pasang Emas is actually enriching the game without spoiling its flavour. In a networked human-vs-human game, the players may still follow the traditional restrictions.

The most significant deviation is the following:

• Traditionally, a player may partially capture a capturable line of tokens. For example, if a player can capture a line of 5 tokens, she may choose to capture just 3 of them. In Pasang Emas, the player must capture the entire line.

I suspect partial captures are mostly used as a handicap against temperamental losers. By not allowing this flexibility, Pasang Emas has changed the game somewhat. It is conceivable that sometimes a partial capture is indeed the best move. But, it is not clear whether the game is better with or without it. In any case, I don't think this is a severe deviation as partial captures are rarely used. I personally hasn't witnessed any.

There is another deviation which I don't consider a deviation at all:

• Traditionally, a player cannot interfere with the opponent’s development. In particular, a player cannot "steal" tokens that are opened up and claimed by the opponent, unless such a move is necessary to avoid suntuk (running out of moves). Pasang Emas cannot implement this imprecise rule.

The no-stealing rule is really vague that it has no place in a serious game. It forbids players from interfering with each other’s development. How, while the battle is fought over a common field? I would see no validity in my opponent’s advanced claim over a territory because any given position arises out of a duel rather than a single-handed manoeuvre.

Like any traditional games, there must be several folk versions of pasang out there, possibly with incompatible rules. (I have even heard of pasang for four players). The rules implemented by Pasang Emas are the "standard", the same ones taught in schools for their extra-curricular activities.

Mutiara Motif Designer

The development of Pasang Emas has been stagnant for some time for good reasons. First, it is rather mature and there seems to be no urgent bugs to fix. Second, I have been busy with another software project called Mutiara. With Mutiara, you can easily create intricate motifs. The images for the Fragrance theme of Pasang Emas was created entirely using Mutiara.

I'm happy to announce the first public release of Mutiara. Though flagged as beta, this version is usable.

Now that this initial release is done, I will return to Pasang Emas development. My immediate plan is to migrate it to gtk3.