I am dead serious about how far off-topic this is; I can't even come up
with an ObTrav for it. Nevertheless, there are enough computer geek types -
other than me - on this list that I figure there might well be some
interest in the game in question.

First, the "administrivia" about the game: It's called TURING MACHINE, it's
by Le Scorpion Masque, and it's about US$40 from Amazon.

What you get: A box containing a lot of thick cardboard. No dice, no
electronics, no plastic (except maybe the thick cardboard is plastic
coated, I'm not sure). Some of the cardboard assembles into a rack for some
of the other cardboard. It also contains some paper, specifically, a pad
that you can use to keep track of your progress through the game. You
supply the pencil or pen.

Most of the rest of the cardboard divides into three types: Some cards that
describe conditions that a numeric code might or might not meet, some cards
with holes in them that you use to create the numeric codes, and some cards
that have a bunch of check-marks and X marks on them, that are used to tell
whether the numeric code you're testing actually meets the condition you're
testing against.

The mechanism is really quite ingenious: you stack the three cards that
compose your numeric code together; there will be _one_ hole that lines up
on all three. You then take this stack, and overlay it on the relevant card
with the checks and Xes on it; either a check or an X will be visible,
telling you that your code either does or does not meet the criterion being
tested.

Each game has a set of four to six criteria that the numeric code meets;
you can test at most three of them in any turn. Your objective is to
determine the one numeric code that meets all of the criteria that are
available in the game for testing; depending on certain decisions you make
about play, the win may be determined by "first one to find the code" or
"the one who found it with the fewest tests".

You can even play this solo, and challenge yourself against the game's
website, turingmachine.info - there are challenges, and you 'win' if you
meet the challenge in fewer tests than the website lists.

If you "use up" all the challenges in the boxed set, you can get more from
the website - and you can use the website to create new challenges of your
own.

I found it fascinating, and was able to quickly figure out what the logic
of the mechanism was, and was seriously thinking of ways to create a
digital version of the game - until I saw what could be done at the
website; they were quite definitely ahead of me - I can't help but think
that it was a bunch of computer geeks that came up with the basic mechanism
for the game, and probably got a bunch of engineering geeks to come up with
a way to implement it without electronics.

It may not be the _best_ $40 that I ever spent, but it also definitely
wasn't a _waste_ of $40...

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