Ishido Formation

''Ishido: The Way of Stones'' is a puzzle video game released in 1990 by Accolade and developed by Publishing International. It was designed by Michael Feinberg and programmed by Ian Gilman and Michael Sandige. The game's producer was Brad Fregger, and Brodie Lockard (the designer of the ''Shanghai'' computer game) contributed with graphics.

Gameplay

''Ishido'' is a puzzle board game consisting of a set of 72 stones and a game board of 96 squares.

Every stone has two attributes: a color and a symbol. There are six colors and six symbols in each stone set, thus creating 36 unique stones. Since each stone comes in a pair, there are therefore 72 stones in each stone set.

The primary objective of ''Ishido'' is to place all 72 stones onto the board of 96 squares. The challenge arises because stones must be placed adjacent to others that they match, either by color or symbol. When the board begins to fill up, this objective is not so easily accomplished.

A valuable move is the ''4-way'', in which a stone is placed in the midst of four others, two of which are matched by color, and two which are matched by symbol.

''Ishido'' comes with six differently themed stone sets, five different game boards, and a variety of Oriental chimes and sound effects.

Release history

After Epyx failed to publish it for Christmas '89, the original ''Ishido'' game was published by Publishing International in a limited edition in a hand-made walnut slip box with disks for Mac and Mac II. The limited edition retailed for $495. Then the following year, 1990, Accolade published the first mass-market version for the Macintosh, with ports to DOS, Amiga, Game Boy, and Sega Genesis in the same year. The Famicom Disk System and Atari Lynx versions were published in 1990 & 1991 respectively. The ''Microsoft Entertainment Pack'' contains an adaptation of Ishido called ''Stones''.

The Genesis port of the game was involved in the copyright trial, '' Sega v. Accolade''.

A physical board game version of ''Ishido'' was published in Japan by ASCII in 1992.

Reception

''Compute!'' called the Macintosh version of ''Ishido'' "addictive ... a peaceful encounter with an Oriental flavor". ''The New York Times'' wrote that it "is one of those deceptively simple games, like Go, that gradually reveal their subtleties ... most engrossing". ''Computer Gaming World'' called the game "a remarkably complex entertainment resource, with some pleasant surprises". The magazine liked ''Ishido''s VGA graphics, and concluded that it would please both novice and experienced strategy game players. The Atari Lynx version of the game was reviewed in 1992 in ''Dragon'' #181 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave the game a B+.

''Ishido'' was rated 'Five Mice' by ''MacUser'', which called it a "flawless" strategy game "in the 'a minute to learn, a lifetime to master' tradition" but criticized the limited edition release's price. ''PC Magazine'' said the game was simple enough to be almost immediately accessible and enjoyable, yet complex enough to provide hours and hours of challenging play. Reviewing ''Ishido''s re-release in 1995, ''MacUser'' gave it 4 out of 5 mice. ''Macworld'' named the Macintosh version of ''Ishido: The Way of Stones'' the Best Brain Teaser game of 1990, complimenting its need for strategy and "entrancing" graphics, alongside the feature of being able to create custom gamepieces; ''Macworld'' put ''Ishido'' into their Macintosh Game Hall of Fame.

Oracle and legend

Integrated into ''Ishido'' is an oracle, a way to ask questions of the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, the ''I Ching''.

First the user poses a question. Then they meditate upon it while playing the game. When they attain a '4-way' match, ''Ishido'', utilizing the same algorithm as the authentic yarrow stalk method of consulting the oracle, obtains an answer.

An original translation of the ''I Ching'', which used the Wilhelm/Baynes and Anthony translations as primary sources, was written for the game by Michael Feinberg.

''Ishido'' came with a 20-page booklet, "The Legend of Ishido". It began:

The story was fictional and written by Michael Feinberg. Nevertheless, many believed that ''Ishido'' actually was an ancient game, recently re-discovered.Scott, Jason; textfiles.com, ''"Ishido: The Way of Stones"

(retrieved on 2007-09-16)

References

External links

Ian Gilman's ''Ishido'' page

''Ishido: The Way of Stones''
at MobyGames
* {{abime, id=2671

''Web version on Birrell.org''

1990 video games
Accolade, Inc. games
Amiga games
Atari Lynx games
Classic Mac OS games
DOS games
Famicom Disk System games
FM Towns games
Game Boy games
MSX2 games
NEC PC-8801 games
NEC PC-9801 games
Publishing International games
Puzzle video games
Sega Genesis games
Single-player video games
Video games developed in the United States
X68000 games