Dejarik

Dejarik, also known as holographic chess or holochess, is a primarily-fictional board game appearing in the Star Wars space opera franchise that uses holographic figures as pieces. The game has been roughly described as that universe's equivalent of terrestrial chess^[a] since it is played on a board with a chequered pattern, each piece has a specific way of moving and attacking, and if it lands on a spot occupied by an opponent, it destroys the other piece. Over the years, several official and fan-made replicas have been made. As of 2021, no single, official rule set for the game has been released, and instead, a number of different rule sets (mostly designed by fans) for the game co-exist. Even the number of figures to be used in the game is unclear, although the best known variant uses eight.

A copy of the 1:1 scale of the game released in 2007 as "Star Wars. Dejarik Holochess Set. Expansion Pack" by Sideshow Collectibles.

The game debuted in the 1977 film Star Wars, in a scene on board the Millennium Falcon. It is notable as one of the classic, early examples of holograms, 3D and AR in fiction.

Origins and history

Dejarik first appeared on screen in the 1977 space opera film Star Wars. In a scene lasting about 15 seconds, while traveling from Tatooine to Alderaan aboard Han Solo's light Corellian space freighter the Millennium Falcon, the Wookiee Chewbacca plays the game against the droid R2-D2. When R2 seems to be winning, Chewbacca rages, to which C-3PO comments on his useless anger. Han Solo then chimes in on how it is better not to displease Chewbacca, since Wookiees are famous for ripping their opponents' arms, at which point a scared 3PO changes his mind and suggests that R2 "let the Wookiee win". The dejarik board later appears when the starship is flying from the Death Star to Yavin IV, as Luke Skywalker sits in front of it, mourning Obi-Wan Kenobi's death at the hands of Darth Vader.^[2]

The movie prop representing the game used in the scene was designed and created by Phil Tippett and Jon Berg.^[3][4] The game later made appearances in a number of Star Wars media, including the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. In the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Finn briefly activates the Falcon's dejarik board, and in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, Chewbacca and Tobias Beckett play the game aboard the Millennium Falcon.^[5][6][7][8]

In the Star Wars Universe

Dejarik is a popular holographic game in the world of Star Wars, installed, for example, on the decks of starships in order to provide entertainment during long flights through hyperspace. A typical game station consists of a hologram generator, usually placed in the cylindrical base of the set, on which there is a board made of three circles filled with alternating white and black fields. When launched, colorful, three-dimensional characters are generated. These characters are controlled by the player using a keyboard built into the table. Each piece has its own specific abilities that can be used during the game. When two characters take the same place on the board, they fight each other.^[5][6][9]

The 1977 scene was originally designed to include ten figures, but the version shown in the film in 2018 has ten.^[b] This was because ten figures were originally designed in 1977, but George Lucas preferred the visually "less cluttered" version with eight. In Solo, a prequel to the 1977 Star Wars, Chewbacca damages the dejarik projector on the Millennium Falcon, providing an in-universe explanation as to why there are only eight figures on the screen. This implies that the full version of the game should have ten, not eight, figures.^[5][6][11]

Rules

The detailed rules of the game were not described in the film or other official media, and due to a lack of an official, licensed release of the game, a number of fans have created their own ruleset variants over the years.^[9][13][14] More official rules were created in 2017, when the first licensed computer game implementing dejarik (Star Wars: Jedi Challenges) was created;^{[15][16][17][18]} in 2019, a licensed board game version known as Galaxy's Edge: Dejarik Board Game with Checkers was also released, but with different rules than the computer version from 2017.^[19][20] In 2020 it was announced that at some point, Lucasfilm developed gameplay rules for dejarik, but as of 2021 they were still not publicly released.^[21] All known rules so far (as of 2021) are for the version with eight figures.^[13]

Significance

In addition to a number of licensed merchandise products,^[19][22] several Star Wars fans have created their own dejarik game replicas over the years.^[23][24] A theme-park replica of the game has been created in 2017 in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park.^[8][25]

Dejarik has been the subject of scientific research in the field of human–computer interaction^[26] and has been identified as one of the classic, early examples of holograms^[27][28] and AR (augmented reality) in fiction.^[29][30][31] Dejarik has also inspired a number of inventors to create physical devices that would imitate the holographic effects seen in the film,^[32][33] from older products such the 1983 Archon computer game^[34] to more recent ones such as those designed by Voxiebox.^[35]

See also

• 3D chess
• Sabacc
• Star Wars Chess

Notes

1. In the sense that a chess variant is understood as a game "related to, derived from, or inspired by chess".^[1]
2. The original eight pieces are named Ghhhk, Grimtaash the Molator, the Houjix, the Kintan strider, the K'lor'slug, the Mantellian Savrip, the Monnok, the Ng'ok; those names were first revealed in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game.^[10][8] The two pieces revealed in the 2018 movie are named the Bulbous and the Scrimp.^[11] A reference to an eleventh piece, named karkath, is made in the 2018 Star Wars novel, Last Shot.^[12]

References

1. David Brine Pritchard (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-9524142-0-9. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
2. Lucas, George (director) (May 25, 1977). Star Wars (Motion picture). Lucasfilm.
3. Wixson, Heather A. (November 11, 2017). Monster Squad: Celebrating the Artists Behind Cinema's Most Memorable Creatures. BearManor Media. p. 310. from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
4. "Solo: A Star Wars Story". Tippett Studio. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
5. "Star Wars' Holochess Game Was Really Thought Out". CinemaBlend. September 22, 2018. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
6. "30 Things You Completely Missed in Solo: A Star Wars Story". ScreenRant. May 25, 2018. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
7. "Star Wars 7 Featurette Reveals the Making of an Easter Egg". ScreenRant. December 22, 2015. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
8. "Let the Wookiee Win: The Story of Dejarik". StarWars.com. May 9, 2016. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
9. Smith, Mike (March 14, 2012). "Fiction's most famous games – and how to play them for real | Unplugged". Yahoo Games Canada. from the original on December 11, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
10. Christian Blauvelt (September 24, 2019). Star Wars How Not to Get Eaten by Ewoks and Other Galactic Survival Skills. DK Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4654-9863-2. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
11. Newbold, Mark (April 22, 2021). "Regal Robot: Scrimp and Bulbous, the 'lost' Dejarik pieces". Fantha Tracks. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
12. Daniel José Older (April 17, 2018). Last Shot (Star Wars): A Han and Lando Novel. Random House Publishing Group. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-525-62215-4. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
13. "Dejarik Rules Collection". Google Docs. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
14. Clark, Mark (August 1, 2015). Star Wars FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Trilogy That Changed the Movies. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 325. ISBN 978-1-4950-4608-7. from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
15. Bergen, Doris (February 15, 2021). The Handbook of Developmentally Appropriate Toys. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4758-4921-9. from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
16. Gartenberg, Chaim (April 18, 2018). "Star Wars holochess comes to the iPhone with ARKit". The Verge. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
17. Bishop, Bryan (August 31, 2017). "Star Wars: Jedi Challenges pits you against Kylo Ren with an augmented reality lightsaber". The Verge. from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
18. Bishop, Bryan (July 15, 2017). "Disney is making a Star Wars holochess game with augmented reality". The Verge. from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
19. Newbold, Mark (June 5, 2019). "Galaxy's Edge: Dejarik Holochess set review". Fantha Tracks. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
20. Galaxy's Edge Dejarik Holochess Boardgame Set, from the original on May 1, 2021, retrieved May 1, 2021
21. "Always Two There Are Trivia Gallery". StarWars.com. March 9, 2020. from the original on March 9, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
22. Newsdesk, Laughing Place Disney (April 22, 2021). "Star Wars Holochess Prop Replica Deluxe Set with "Lost" Dejarik Creatures Announced by Regal Robot". LaughingPlace.com. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
23. Walsh, Michael (March 8, 2021). "Fan-Made STAR WARS Dejarik Set Is a 3D Printed Delight". Nerdist. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
24. "Fan Builds Fully Functioning Holochess Table". Dork Side of the Force. November 12, 2015. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
25. Orellana, Vanessa Hand. "Inside Disneyland's Star Wars Galaxy's Edge". CNET. from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
26. Kubicki, Sébastien; Querrec, Ronan (August 2017). "Le "Dejarik" : Jouons à ce jeu provenant d'une galaxie lointaine en Réalité Augmentée et sur Table Interactive". 29ème conférence francophone sur l'Interaction Homme-Machine. Poitiers, France: 2 p. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
27. Taylor, Allen G. (2016), Taylor, Allen G. (ed.), "Creating Holographic Objects", Develop Microsoft HoloLens Apps Now, Berkeley, CA: Apress, pp. 161–167, doi:10.1007/978-1-4842-2202-7_14, ISBN 978-1-4842-2202-7, from the original on October 14, 2021, retrieved May 1, 2021
28. Bendel, Oliver (2019), Zhou, Yuefang; Fischer, Martin H. (eds.), "Hologram Girl", AI Love You : Developments in Human-Robot Intimate Relationships, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 149–165, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19734-6_8, ISBN 978-3-030-19734-6, from the original on October 14, 2021, retrieved May 1, 2021
29. Diephuis, Jeremiah, Georgi Kostov, and Gabriel Mittermair. "All AR-Board: Seamless AR Marker Integration into Board Games May 1, 2021, at the Wayback Machine." 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)
30. "Mobile Augmented Reality for Learning: A Case Study". March 21, 2016. from the original on March 21, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
31. Marina, Knauer; Joschka, Mütterlein (2016). "Two Worlds, One Gameplay: A Classification of Visual AR Games" (PDF). Conference: 1st International Joint Conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the Foundations of Digital Games Conferences (FDG) at: Dundee, Scotland. (PDF) from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
32. "Holograms: are they still the preserve of science fiction?". the Guardian. May 22, 2018. from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
33. Luke, Dormehl (October 2, 2019). "Holochess, anyone? This AR game system gives tabletop gaming a digital upgrade". www.digitaltrends.com. from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
34. "Archon - Overview". AllGame. November 14, 2014. from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
35. "Voxiebox: A real-life Star Wars 3D holographic display that plays video games". ExtremeTech. from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.

External links

• Dejarik at BoardGameGeek