Corellian Spike - BIGGEST Error in the Rules

It's no secret that the rule book that comes with the Corellian Spike Sabacc game sold at Disney Parks is filled with errors. Most of these flaws aren't that big of deal. A misspelled word here, ambiguous descriptions, mismatched images to cards...etc. For the most part the underlying logic and design of the game is simple and honestly pretty elegant.

But there is one error that stands above the rest. An error so glaring and confusing it almost literally breaks the game. Many an internet argument has broken out due to this one thing in particular.

No, it's not the gain/swap debacle. But that's the second most confusing thing. Although I've covered that technically.

WHAT IS A ONE PAIR SABACC?

On the surface this seems like a straight forward question. You might consult your handy dandy rule book and say "Ah yes, a SABACC is zero with one pair". But then you look at the example next to it and start to question your whole existence.

By most traditional definitions a pair or something is usually two. We could be talking about a pair of shoes, socks, gloves, aces, whatever, it's almost always over 1 and below 3.

But the example they chose to show for the most important hand of the game has 3 cards.

Per the description, +3 +3 -6 would be considered a one pair Sabacc. Or even +5 +5 -10. However the rules are nice enough to state that the +3 +3 -6 would win (lowest integer wins), despite not making it clear that the +5 +5 needs a -10 to complete the hand, but whatever.

So what does this mean?

It mostly means that whoever did the graphical aspect of the rule book was wrong and misinterpreted the text that was given to them. Kinda like how they put the wrong card images on the FLEET example.

Thankfully they're aware of this error and are supposedly fixing it. But I'd imagine that won't happen until they run out of their current stock. As of late last year, no corrections have been reported. 

Anyway, a mismatched example isn't going to bother most people. The description of the hand and the values printed are still correct. So even if you notice the misprint, the underlying concept of the hand is still pretty clear.

Ok, that's all great, but which one is correct???

In short the correct "one pair Sabacc" should be two cards. Or at least the higher ranked hand would be the "one pair Sabacc". But I'll concede that the "3 card one pair Sabacc" (wow that was weird to type) does "technically" count as a "one pair" or does exist in the context of the flawed rule book. However I would caution against playing Sabacc with that level of semantic overlay...

>>>>>the internet

>>>>> "no, you're wrong"

And Now 3 Reasons Why This is Correct

• Hand Hierarchy
  A Sabacc consisting of two cards is a "Sabacc", a Sabacc that has 3 cards is a "Sabacc". But the one with 3 cards has more cards and that's ranked lower than the SABACC hand. Basically the hand hierarchy still indicates which is the winning hand.

• Other Hand Examples
  The one pair Sabacc shows up in other hands as well. The most notable example is the YEE HAA, which "Zero with one pair and a zero card".

• Amount of Cards
  In most games there are rules either clearly stated or inherently defined within the design of the game that are so key to it's operation, they are usually printed before anything else. Or really, if you're trying to decide if a rule works, or in this case if your interpretation of the rule works. Then it at the very least it should not violate any of those core concepts. 
  
  A Rule of Two is "Zero with two pairs". The rule book shows one example with 5 cards and the other with 4. Not only does the 4 card "two pair" rank higher given the hierarchy, but the 5 card should almost need to violate one other rule. There is no way you can have over 5 cards in normal play. To be consistent (and that's a key word here) with the "one pair" thing, the Rule of Two would have to consist of 6 cards. Like... (+5 +5 -10 ) + (+1 +1 -2).
  
  
  

BONUS

However you might still be asking yourself, "How can two cards of different values be considered a pair?"

There are two answers to this:

1. It's about the AMOUNT of cards in your hand
   Example: +2 -2 has two cards, aka "one pair"
2. Sabacc is a zero/absolute value based game
   Example: hands are judged on their location to zero on a number line (kinda).
   It's why a (+1,-1) beats a (+2,-2). So for all intents and purposes, aside from a (+1,-1) just being a Sabacc, the absolute value of -1 is 1 and the absolute value of 1 is 1. And isn't 1==1?

So there you have it. I'm not even going to go into why a two card hand is statistically more difficult to achieve. The way I see it if you still don't believe anything I said, a statistical analysis will just fan the flames. And sure, I could be wrong and the designers of the game intended for a one pair Sabacc to be three cards. If that's the case I'll stand by my usual "I will literally eat a Sabacc card if I'm wrong" bet on all this.

But more importantly I just want to help make the game easier to understand and enjoyable to play. If you enjoy playing with a 3 card Sabacc beating a 2 card, whatever. Play how you want to play if you enjoy it. I only do all this to help those confused about the rules understand and play the most enjoyable ways possible. 

And if you like Sabacc and want to support the development of my online Sabacc game.

Click here for my gofundme.

Sabacc Crowdfunding Link

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

I'm Making a Sabacc Game

If you follow my Instagram, or have hung around here enough to notice I haven't been posting as much. It's because I have been doing things. These things in their entirety can be listed as the following:

• studying

For over a year now I have been teaching myself different programming languages and taking a self guided deep dive into computer science. It's been one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've ever done in my life.

The purpose of all that studying was largely professional (plus I knew I'd never have that much uninterrupted time again), but along the way I always thought to myself "you know, once I get good enough, I bet I could create a Sabacc game". 

Well my friends that day has finally come.

LETS MAKE SABACC

First off, I just want to make something abundantly clear. I am in no way creating this game to make money. It is purely a project I'm doing to enhance my portfolio and apply certain concepts. If you're curious as to why I'm including this disclaimer first, go ahead and google "sabacc lawsuit". It's one of the larger reasons why the game has never seen a meaningful release after that and is super interesting if you're into IP law.

What version of Sabacc am I making?

Since the 76 card variant of the game already exists on most mobile platforms, and has largely been covered by fans since the 80's. I am focusing on translating the Sabacc variant of "Corellian Spike", which is the most recent canon version of the game supported by Disney and sold at Disney Parks.

If you haven't heard of it, or would like a refresher on the rules. Click here for my previous post on the topic.

For all intents and purposes when I say "Corellian Spike", I'm referring to the game of Sabacc in it's 62 card form where the objective is zero based. As far as I'm aware there has never been a game released (that's easily playable) based off of Corellian Spike (CS). 

Plus it's my favorite and I think it'd make a great game.

Planning the Project:

Since I'm making the transition to the software development field, I figure why not try and make all this more official. It'll help get the game done sooner, and help figure out what I need to do. 

First let's talk goals:

1. Educate myself on the fundamentals of Object-Oriented-Programming (OOP)
2. Know the rules of Sabacc
3. Pick a programming language to start with for the demo/prototype
4. Acquire game images/assets
5. Figure out how to make it playable by the average person
6. Assemble a team to assist with the stuff I don't know yet
7. Funding
8. Release beta by July (it isn't going to be a full game, don't worry)

I'm sure I am missing something, but those are the main goals for the project so far. I'll adopt a more AGILE approach and maybe even keep a SCRUM board eventually.

What do I have done so far?

Well... a surprisingly decent amount if I do say so myself. It's not perfect, and to be fair I haven't worked on it much recently But I would like to change that, and to get it into the hands of all those who love the game.

• Language: Python
• Modules: arcade, random
• Card images courtesy of Jacob Densford

I was able to get going pretty quick on the graphical component of the game since I already had all the images and I knew a little about the required modules.

As I mentioned already, my initial goal is to create a basic deck simulator. I was able to put that together in short order thanks to a basic solitaire template. From there I had to figure out how to  model the cards and learn how to do some other things. 

What I still need to do for the deck simulator:

• Display card values
• Display hand total
• Methods for hand actions (such as gain, swap, etc)
• figure out how to make card I'm hovering over in the discard pile switch out upon release
• Button or drag and drop for gain (but it's using the face down draw pile)
• Sabacc dice button (and randomize card action)
• Maybe an off-screen opponent or total to beat
• Figure out how to release it to people
• web based
• .exe
• mobile..

Funding

While my intention isn't to make money off this game, I am also without a job at the moment. The plan was always to use the next month or so (running out of "so") to study and round out my portfolio.

Not only would funding help make the development of this game possible. It would allow me to dedicate the time and resources to complete it without having to worry about "how am I going to afford to eat today?". 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

And really, I would like to spend more time doing all this Sabacc stuff anyway. But that's kind of what got me thinking I should be spending my time more productively. I somehow have the world's largest compendium of Sabacc knowledge online (as far as I know). And all that takes time and energy. The same time and energy I have been using to study all this stuff over the past year.

I don't really fancy myself an "influencer", and have never made any money off of my page. So if this is the kind of content and such you enjoy, a little contribution could go a long way. Plus at the end of this there might be a game to play online with friends.

Anyway, thanks for reading folks. There will be more updates to come. 

Sabacc: The Cursed Star Wars Game

 Sabacc?

Perhaps you've heard of it. If not, it's a quasi-fictional card game within the Star Wars universe. Think of it as space-math poker mixed with blackjack. Or read up on it in one of my other posts.

But despite the game being one of the most popular in-universe Star Wars card games, it has yet to receive a wide release of any note. Or at all.

You might be thinking "Yo dude, you're wrong. I've bought it and own it. I'm even playing it right now!".

While there have been a handful of attempts to release the game, it has never been widely available under the name of "Sabacc". And that's what I'm going to cover today.

THE ODD HISTORY OF SABACC

The first mention of Sabacc (or what would become Sabacc) was in the 2nd draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Then called "Sabacca" (my favorite Sabacc joke ever), it was left on the cutting room floor and mostly forgotten. That is until 1983 with the release of a series of Lando Calrissian novels.

No longer named after our favorite co-pilot, the name of the game was changed to "Sabacc". 'Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu' featured the first ever mention of Sabacc and a bit of its gameplay/rules. But as the title of the book will tell you, it's not "Lando Calrissian Just Plays Sabacc the Whole Time" (although he kinda does). So it was likely disregarded as a story element by most.

Fast forward to the year 1989.

The 80's were almost over, Batman hit theaters, and Star Wars Crisis on Cloud City was released. The Star Wars RPG (by West End Games) finally gave dozens of fans the chance to experience a Crisis on Cloud City. But what makes this title significant is that it featured the first and basically *only* physical release of the little SW game that could, Sabacc.

Because it was only a book, the Sabacc cards were paper and had to be torn out. Which was no small feat as there were 76 of them. The book also included rules and everything else needed to start playing.

And then...

Not much happened. As popular as the Star Wars RPG series undoubtedly was, the game of Sabacc never really broke into the mainstream. It's hard to imagine a time when there wasn't new Star Wars content every week. But the mid-80s to early 90s was like operating a moisture farm on Tatooine when it came to Star Wars content.

So aside from assorted Geocites Star Wars pages detailing the rules of Sabacc. The game as it functions in our universe went into relative obscurity.

A New Era Begins

It would take nearly 30 years from managing Crisis's on Cloud City to see another release of Sabacc. In 2018 the Solo movie was released. If we're measuring the impact a 'Star Wars' has on the popularity of fictional card games. The 1989 SW RPG rates at about 1 Ewok. The Solo movie rates about 30 Ewoks. (please note that my Ewok scale isn't real, yet)

But gone would be what I call "Traditional Sabacc", and in its place is a "variant" called Corellian Spike. While outwardly very different from the older game, it inevitably inherited most of the gameplay mechanics. Instead of the objective being to get to 23, Corellian Spike has the goal be to get to zero. Which I honestly like better. 

We literally got Sabacc on screen. And not just a throwaway scene either. It was a big part of the movie. They even had a "Sabacc Trainer" to teach the cast. So it would make sense that a game would inevitably be released.

Kinda sorta

Around this same time there was a fairly significant legal battle between a mobile game company and Lucas Film. Without going into detail, the implications of this lawsuit left the game of Sabacc in a weird limbo. How does one get around this?

Just name your product "Solo Card Game".

Remember that guy from the beginning that said I was wrong? Well I dare you to find the word "Sabacc" anywhere on the packaging or instructions. Go on, I'll wait.

Unfortunately the "Solo Card Game" didn't find its audience and was discontinued. Throughout 2019 it wasn't uncommon to find them at liquidation outlets and the like. It can still be found online for under $10.

Galaxy's Edge

If the Solo Card Game wins the award for "the widest release of a card game like Sabacc but not called Sabacc". The aptly titled "Sabacc" found at Galaxy's Edge wins for the "only game literally called Sabacc". 

BUT

You can only get it at Galaxy's Edge (Disney World & Disneyland). And yes, I know it can be found online from second hand dealers, but it's 100% exclusive to Disney Parks. 

For those curious, the version sold at Galaxy's Edge is nearly identical to the Solo Card Game. There are some minor and major differences. But the overall product is the same (except throw away the Solo Card Game rules, they are horrible). And for what it's worth, Hasbro no longer has the rights to the game.

Galaxy's Edge-ish

In a bleak year such as 2020, even a capitalistic merchandising gimmick seemed like a ray of hope. So when Disney decided to release Galaxy's Edge inspired products outside of the park, we were all stoked.

I mean, kinda.

Instead of releasing a slimmed down version of the game that's sold at the parks, we got "Sabacc shaped playing cards". Which to be fair isn't false advertising. They are indeed playing cards, and do resemble Sabacc cards. So if you know nothing about Sabacc, and only a little about playing cards--- you are in luck.

Someone on Reddit put it best. "It's like buying those Mickey Mouse ice cream treats at the grocery store. No it's not the same, but it still provides that unique experience at home." --- or something like that.

My main issue with this product is that it fails on several levels. It's not Sabacc, and they aren't great playing cards, The latter is especially true if you are familiar with the game, as several of the design choices directly contradict the product they sell at the park. 

And what's even more frustrating is that this could've been the best overall release of Sabacc. The design and quality of the cards are pretty good (at least better than the Solo card game). The packaging and roll out would've been ideal to introduce people to the game. But instead it's a half-baked deck of cards that actually cost less than the Mandalorian playing cards.

My Sabacc Collection

I'm not certain what the future of Sabacc holds. But for an imaginary card game that started out as a scrapped story idea, its trajectory has been pretty strange.

Honorable Mention

This version of Sabacc never really got an "official release" but something was released by official sources. I believe it was released at Star Wars Celebration 2017. But nothing outside of that. However it did get a scene in Rebels.