Simple really, steel sphere with magnetic pieces, set to rotate like a standard globe.
It would be perfect for such games as Go and Othello.
Obvious problem of distortion occurs: 13 squares around middle and three at top, or 5 huge around middle and 5 teeny at top. Going with the former would cause some confusion as to which squares would be next to which, so
I say make it look like a soccer ball. While this would change the rules and play of many games, it would still be fun, and the odd pentagons would make for some interesting strategy.
I'm not sure checkers would work on this without some major overhaul or my second design idea. A checker board is 8x8, and 8 squares around the poles would be hard to do, unless one used pegs instead of magnets, and each time you pushed your peg in it lit the whole square up that color. If this is feasible, then perhaps a lite-brite-esque sphere would have a vast amount of peg holes and preprogrammed square divisions (8x8 for checkers, more for go).
By moving east or west, respectively, the two players would effectively be playing Wow's Toroidal Checkers.
But this makes it a mite bit complicated/expensive for my tastes.
Illustrations would help.-- JeremiahBritt, Jan 25 2005 The Checkered Sphere [FarmerJohn, Jan 25 2005] Toroidal checkers Toroidal_20Checkers...which brings us back to this.... [Cats Whiskers, Jan 25 2005] 3D "life"?-- Ling, Jan 25 2005 The inline illustration clears it all up for me.
Maybe a cylinder is a better choice for board games.-- bristolz, Jan 25 2005 "Life" oroborus style? Either full of second chances or depressing monotony.
On the other hand, "Risk" sphere would be pretty nifty.-- JeremiahBritt, Jan 25 2005 I think, if you want no edges, a torus would be the best option. There won't be much distortion of a square grid.
In fact, you don't even need a torus to play it: just use a normal board and say a counter going off the left side returns on the right, and a counter going off the top of the board returns on the bottom. Although this does defeat the object of the idea somewhat.-- Cats Whiskers, Jan 25 2005 A torus like a donut shape? That would be an interesting game indeed.
I always loved that the torus had the bizarre topological feature that, if you had an inflateable donut (for water or snow recreation) and tore a small hole in its side, you could pull it through itself, inside out, and have an donut again; the hole passes through as well.
Was the litebrite version better?-- JeremiahBritt, Jan 28 2005 Spherical Scrabble...
[+]-- shapu, Jan 28 2005 Disappointed - thought this was going to be a nostalgia thing for those 1980's Comp. Sci. ray-tracing projects.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 28 2005 HOW DO YOU DO ILLUSTRATIONS?-- DesertFox, Jan 28 2005 You'll have to talk to bakesperson.-- FarmerJohn, Jan 28 2005 I think it's great. Although the rules to this 'checkers' would almost certainly have to change to an extent where checkers is not an applicable term. I think checkers sucks anyway. +-- The Jolly Misanthrope, Jun 23 2005 random, halfbakery