I was finally able to test the G8 game timer with DMS at our annual
Rubicon, and I am happy to say that worked better than other timer
I've seen.

- It is easy to programme
- it has large, easy to read symbols both on buttons and display
- the sound signal is unobtrusive
- and it allows a "no delay between players" playing style.

It worked fine with the standard rules (using the 1-player setting),
but I thought it could be fun to develop new rules for use with
personalised settings, and I have come up with the following ideas:

A) Each player receives a standard maximum time for finishing the
entire race. This should either be the "ideal" time to finish the race
- or it could deliberately be set to a lower value, forcing all
players to "refill" their available time.

B) Each player will receive a standard maximum turn time of 30
seconds.

C) The players may use the individual settings to reduce or increase
their personal turn time (see below).

D) The game will be played in strict player order since the timer
cannot "see" the physical placing of the cars. During one real game
and 24 test games (with 6 cars) has this not given any problems. Even
though a car can now block other cars is it still a rare occurance.

Speed is of the essence in this game, and with a continuous count-down
timer should pauses be kept at a minimum. A number of changes has
therefore been made to the use of flags:

E) WHITE FLAG: New use. The leading car is marked with a white flag.
Every time a new car takes the lead must the player place the flag
next to his car as part of his turn.

TIME PENALTIES: No flag. A car must stop immediately when the beeper
sounds. The car will not be physically moved after the timer has run
out, but any penalties the car would have suffered IF it has continued
will be enforced. If the dice hasn't been placed in dice box yet, will
accident checks be made using the dice in lower/higher (1-6) order
using the faces currently visible.

F) BLACK FLAGS: New use. The last car is marked with a black flag.
Every time a new car fails to catch up must the player place the flag
next to his car as part of his turn.

TOTAL WRECKAGE: No car will leave the race due to damage. A player may
still be forced out if he runs out of time.

G) ACCIDENTS: Yellow and Red flags are no longer used. A number of
small dice are used instead. Accidents are calculated in the usual
way, and the number of unused pips are marked by placing small dice in
front of the car.

The timer will continue until the player's turn runs out by itself
(which is why a shorter turn time is favorable unless it stresses you
too much).

In his next turn must he use the LOWER face of all dice. The dice must
be placed in the box as usual, but the car may only move any pips in
excess of those on the small dice. Should the number of small pips be
greater than the current roll will the car not move and remaining pips
are carried over to the next turn. The player must remove/adjust the
small dice in his own turn time, but may end his turn as soon as he is
finished.

H) During the actual race my a player only adjust the timer when in
pit. The TURN timer may be set to any time he prefer (higher if he
makes to many errors, lower if he wants to save time when having
accidents. Players who never fails never need to adjust it since they
will never use more seconds than needed anyway).

The TOTAL timer may be increased by a fixed setting (like 30 sec) for
each turn lost in the pit. (So a player could gain 1m30s by spending 3
turns in the pit). Obviously it will be waste of time to "tank" more
time than needed.

I) Any car failing to reach the pit before running out of gas (time)
is out of the race.

Mik