Tiki Bros. Chess Talk: Also – Observations on the Android OS

Green: Good evetermorning to you Pogoians!

Red: Good everterwhat?!

Green: It’s obviously a combination of good EVEning, afTERnoon and MORNING all rolled into one. You know, depending on when the reader is reading this. Good evertermorning again!

Red: And you wonder why when we are shopping in the grocery store I pretend I don’t know you.

Green: I think you’re just jealous that I thought of it first. Hehe! Shall we get started on the questions?

Red: I guess so, but you are still a weirdo! Ah okay, here we go:

Dear Red & Green,

I received an EA game card for my birthday and for the life of me I can’t find anywhere where it tells me if I can use it to purchase Pogo downloadable games. I know I can use the card to purchase Pogo Gems or 3 months of Pogo but what if I don’t want Gems & my yearly subscription is already done & paid for.

-Keri K

Green: First off Keri – Happy Birthday! But sadly, the answer is no, EA Game cards cannot be used for Pogo Download Game Center games.

Red: It is never too late to get a start on next year’s subscription right Green?

Green: Ya know, you could also try selling the card to a friend at work. Maybe introduce someone new to Pogo! Sorry we couldn’t be much help on this one Keri!
Here you go Red:

Hi Tiki Brothers,

Hope you both are keeping well. I was wondering if you could please give me an easy way to understand Chess so I could win my badge. There are only two games I don’t understand (could be because I’m a 73 year-old senior.)
Thank you,

-mavnmir

Red: Ah Chess! You know Green, being carved out of wood, you and I sort of look like chess pieces a little bit don’t you think?

Green: In your case Red, you look like a red checker! Haha!

Red: Hey I resent that! Chess is sort of interesting since it looks similar to checkers, but the different “moves” the pieces can make are more varied. But, good news, Pogo has taken care of the guess work as to how each piece works. The Pogo system does not allow you to move a piece to a spot it cannot go.

Green: There are five types of chess pieces on each team.
8 pawns – They move straight forward but attack the square diagonally in front of them – good for blocking off parts of the game board.
2 Rooks – These look like little castles. Rooks can move in a straight line all the way across the board as far as they like.
2 Bishops – These move diagonally across the board as far as they like. They look like tall pawns.
2 knights – These look like little horses. They move in a sort of L pattern.
1 Queen – They look like a tall bishop with a queen hat. They can move diagonal or in straight lines as far as they like.
1 King – The king can move once square at a time only to any square near itself.

Red: You and your opponent take turns moving your pieces on the board. Unlike checkers, instead of jumping pieces to take them off the board, your goal is to move your pieces into other pieces. If your piece ends up on an opponent’s piece during your turn, you can take their piece. Remember that pawns can only attack up and left or up and right to them.

Green: Your intention is to put your opponent’s king in “Check”. Check means the opponent’s king is in imminent danger of being captured and has to move the next round, (Or they must move another piece that gets the king out of “check”). If there is no other move the opponent can make you’ve placed them in “Check-mate” and that means you’ve won! Keep in mind that if this happens after too few moves, the game is invalid and either someone is terribly bad at Chess, or there was some collusion done in order to get the game to end too early!

Red: Wow, this column is starting to sound like Tiki Bros. Chess talk! Either way, chess is for players young and old alike, so we suggest you give it a try. Perhaps with someone who is patient! I’m sure they will help you out. Good luck mavnmir! P.S. You said there are two games you don’t understand I’m dying to know what the other game is. I’m guessing its Bridge! I could never much understand that game. If you think you could explain the rules in less than a short paragraph, let us know!

Tell you what Green, I’ll do the next question for ya!

Dear Tiki Bros,

I was happy to see that you have released the Pogo games application for Android phones. I was waiting for that application for a long time, but was really disappointed. I went to download it, just to see that my device is not compatible with the application. I have a HTC Wildfire S phone with Android system 2.3.3, which is above the posted technical requirements of a device with Android system 2.2 or up.

-Ivan

Green: Hi Ivan. Well, it looks like you’ve made an interesting observation about the Android operating system. There are hundreds of devices out on the market but all the devices are slightly different from each other and sometimes even if you have the high enough operating system, the application in question is just not compatible with your phone, tablet or other device.

Red: Pogo did our best to make the Pogo Games application available on as many devices as possible. In order to do this, we must test the game on all these different devices and make sure the experience in the game is correct, and the game works as expected. Unfortunately as you’ve already discovered, your device is not on the current list.

Green: Don’t fear though! We are still testing other devices and our producers are determined to get the application on more devices as soon as possible! For instance, I know of one particularly flammable Android tablet out there on the market that many players are asking Pogo to support! Thanks for the question Ivan, hopefully you can play Pogo on your Wildfire soon!

Ok – guess what Red? Our last question isn’t really a question. Remember last week when we posed a riddle saying “What if Pogo had an $80 gem package that had 1800 Gems. How many bonus Gems would you be getting and what would the discount be?”

Red: Oh yeah I remember that! Did anyone actually answer? This article is not supposed to be a math quiz!

Green: Indeed someone did! We actually got several emails with the right answer. We randomly selected this correct answer from all those that were sent in:

Dear Tikis,

My answer for the $80 gem package question is: You get 600 bonus gems at a 33% discount.
And didn’t you know??? Gophers love to eat pretzels. That’s how they keep their fur nice and brown :)

-Amy

Red: Correct you are Amy! Congratulations! I totally forgot about the gopher pretzel thing too. Hmm I think we’ll just go with that and say that yes – that is the cosmic connection between gophers and pretzels! Good for you.

Green: You heard it here first folk. If your pretzels ever go missing in your kitchen cabinet, blame a gopher! Haha! Have a great evetermorning everyone!

Red: Good grief Green! Evetermorning is about the silliest thing you’ve ever come up with, honestly! Have a good one everyone! See you next time!