History Main / GameOfNim

%%* ''Film/LastYearAtMarienbad'', a surreal French New Wave movie. It's considered to be the TropeMaker. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.

* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'': This is one of the OnlySmartPeopleMayPass puzzles in the Whimsyworld VR. A crow in Future World has [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/canine-supervisor/ twenty spheres]] and challenges you to take the last one. Baron Mistycorn [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/under-the/ comes up with a solution]] that is essentially CuttingTheKnot.

%%* ''VideoGames/ZorkZero'': Fortunately, you can cheat--[[spoiler:the number of flowers in each corner of the screen when you're playing Nim gives you a winning move each turn]]. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.

* ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'': A mandatory puzzle in an amusement park has you and your opponent take turns popping balloons, picking to pop one, two, or three each turn.

* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'': In the Whimsyworld VR, a crow in Future World has [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/canine-supervisor/ twenty spheres]] and challenges you to take the last one. Baron Mistycorn [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/under-the/ comes up with a solution]] that is essentially CuttingTheKnot.

* ''Website/{{TED}}'': The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMFpOcLroOg&list=PLJicmE8fK0EiFRt1Hm5a_7SJFaikIFW30&index=26 "Rogue AI Riddle"]] pits the player against an {{AI}} in a variant of the game. There's only one 'stack' (water level in the AI's lair) and each party only is able to remove 1, 3, or 4 units at a time. The rogue AI is even named NIM.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'': In "Problem-Solving in Shangri-La", both the kids and [[BigBad Hacker]] have to win two out of three games of him before they can leave. Shangri-La being a LandOfDragons, it's played with sentient mini-Terracotta warriors and dragons.

* ''The Keepers: Lost Progeny'': In the bonus chapter of the collector's edition, you play against the computer. Each player takes turns to remove between one and three daggers. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:you can't win in ordinary play, as a) you always go first, and b) the computer follows every move by taking (4-''n'') daggers, where ''n'' is the number you took. You can only "win" by playing three games--during the third, the computer will make a [[ArtificialStupidity deliberate mistake]]]].

%%* ''VideoGame/MathWorkshop'' has a version with toy rockets. The goal is to be the one who launches the last rocket. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.

%%** One puzzle involves a fountain and some valves

* In the Whimsyworld VR in ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', a crow in Future World [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/canine-supervisor/ has twenty spheres]] and challenges you to take the last one. Baron Mistycorn [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/under-the/ comes up with a solution]] ... [[CuttingTheKnot sort of]].

* The ''Website/{{TED}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMFpOcLroOg&list=PLJicmE8fK0EiFRt1Hm5a_7SJFaikIFW30&index=26 Rogue AI Riddle]] pits the player against an artificial intelligence in a variant of the game that involves only one 'stack' (water level in the AI's lair), and each party only being able to remove 1, 3, or 4 units at a time. The rogue AI is even ''named'' NIM.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'': "Problem-Solving in Shangri-La" spotlights this game, with both the kids and [[BigBad Hacker]] having to win two out of three games before they can leave. Shangri-La being a LandOfDragons, it's played with sentient mini-Terracotta warriors and dragons.

* The Platform/{{Wonderswan}} ''Manga/OnePiece'' game ''VideoGame/{{Become the Pirate King}}!'' (the franchise's very first) has an adaptation of Mihawk's [[CurbstompBattle "fight" against Zoro at the Baratie]], and the "matchsticks" represent how many ([[HopelessBossFight ineffectual]]) attacks each player makes against him; whoever's stuck making the thirtieth attack loses, and gets [[NotQuiteDead chopped down to 1 HP]] by his counterattack. Things are spiced up by a limited-use Special Attack mechanic (a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator that may let you make anywhere up to ''nine'' attacks) and occasional power-ups that either let you skip a turn or add an extra attack opportunity.
* ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'': In the minigame Honeycomb Havoc, you have a tree with fruits, coins, and beehives set up in a row, and each of the four players can take one or two items from the tree -- if you get the beehive, you're out.
%%* ''VideoGame/SpaceRangers'' includes this as one of the text quests concerning game tournaments. Like other stock puzzles, it provides galactic prestige for winning. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.
* A variety of this game made an appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', in which you had to make sure your opponent took the last coin from a box... Although the [[ArtificialStupidity CPU apparently didn't know how to count]], as he would often take multiple coins if there was more than one coin left, causing him to lose.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretIslandOfDrQuandary'' had [=DiscAppear=], which is a Nim variant played with compact discs [[StylisticSuck with titles like "The Boston Pops Play the Beach Boys"]]. It's implied that whoever gets stuck with the last disc [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment has to listen to it]], but fortunately the ''player'' is spared such a fate. What's not so obvious is that the hardest difficulty level [[MisereGame inverts the goal]] by changing the ingredient needed from this mini-game.
* One EX Mission in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' is to win at a counting-based variant of this game against one of your crewmates, called "Don't Count Thirty". The solution is [[spoiler:to control every fourth number - 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, and 29.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' Dream World, you can play a game against ghost-type Pokémon where the players take turns blowing out candles. Some candles, however, give you extra points, while others subtract them, and later ones take two turns to extinguish.
* In ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan'' for the Nintendo Game Boy, there is a bonus stage where you play a game against Krang by removing shurikens until there are none left, with the winner being the one who removes the last shuriken.
* In the bonus chapter of the collector's edition of ''The Keepers: Lost Progeny'', you play against the computer, with each player taking it in turns to remove between one and three daggers. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:you can't win in ordinary play, as a) you always go first, and b) the computer follows every move by taking (4 - ''n'') daggers, where ''n'' is the number you took. You can only "win" by playing three games - during the third, the computer will make a [[ArtificialStupidity deliberate mistake]]]].
%%* Shows up twice in VideoGame/ProfessorLayton in ''Spectre's Call'' -- first time as a puzzle involving a fountain and some valves, second time involving the hotel owner and taking the last bottle. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.
* A mandatory puzzle in an amusement park in ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'' has you and your opponent take turns popping balloons, picking to pop one, two, or three each turn.
%%* Used in ''VideoGames/ZorkZero'', like many other {{Stock Puzzle}}s. Fortunately, you can cheat -- [[spoiler:the number of flowers in each corner of the screen when you're playing Nim gives you a winning move each turn]]. %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.
* The InteractiveFiction title ''VideoGames/{{Humbug}}'' pits you against an octopus in a game of Nim.
* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', there is an NPC in Alvanista Castle who will challenge you to a "substraction game" in which players take turns removing 1, 2 or 3 rocks from a pile, with whoever taking the last one losing. It's made extra difficult by the player having only 3 seconds to choose a number. Should you win though, the NPC will give you a combat accessory, though to get that in the [=PS1=] version you will also have to play a second round with a ''much'' bigger pile of rocks. You will also get a title for Cress for winning the harder variant.
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfEternia'' you can play an "arithmetic contest" MiniGame against a {{NPC}} in Barole, which is basically the Game of Nim with the additional rule that no more than three tokens can be taken per turn. Winning will unlock the "Mathematician" title for Reid, which is kinda deserved because the dev team seems to have implemented a perfect-play algorithm and the game will win if the player makes a single mistake starting with the question "who goes first?".

* The second game in ''VideoGame/CursedTrilogy'' has Randall play a version of the game with a cloaked figure. There is a set of marbles on the table, either player can take up to four at a time, you choose who goes first, and if the figure takes the last marble you die. [[spoiler:The answer is to let the figure go first, then take marbles on each of your turns so that the total marbles taken between their turn and yours is 5.]]

The game begins with matchsticks arranged in three rows: three on the top, five in the middle and seven at the bottom. Players take turns removing matches, from only one row at a time. The objective is to remove the last match.

The solution involves writing the number of matchsticks in each row in binary and making selections so that there are an even number of each binary digit.

More general versions of both games exist with different numbers and sizes of rows (or piles, as the case may be). In all cases, depending on the starting position [[labelnote:note]]If there is a valid move according to the strategy above, it's the player who goes first. Otherwise, it's the player who goes second.[[/labelnote]], either one side or the other can follow the strategies above, and cannot be beaten if the player follows it carefully. If they make a mistake, the other player may take over with said strategy. This makes it very easy to implement in a computer game - the human player has the advantage and can win if they do the right thing, but a single slip-up and the computer will win instead.

* Yucky Choccy, a version involving a bar of chocolate, the corner chunk of which is soap, so the loser is the person who has to eat the soap, is [[http://www.whydomath.org/Reading_Room_Material/ian_stewart/chocolate/chocolate.html described]] in one of Ian Stewart's maths columns in ''Scientific American''.

* The Platform/{{Wonderswan}} ''Manga/OnePiece'' game ''Become the Pirate King!'' (the franchise's very first) has an adaptation of Mihawk's [[CurbstompBattle "fight" against Zoro at the Baratie]], and the "matchsticks" represent how many ([[HopelessBossFight ineffectual]]) attacks each player makes against him; whoever's stuck making the thirtieth attack loses, and gets [[NotQuiteDead chopped down to 1 HP]] by his counterattack. Things are spiced up by a limited-use Special Attack mechanic (a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator that may let you make anywhere up to ''nine'' attacks) and occasional power-ups that either let you skip a turn or add an extra attack opportunity.

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[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* One episode of [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh anime]] had Dark Yugi challenge the school's AlphaBitch Kaoruko Himekoji to ''misère nim'', with the matchsticks in question being the flowers on the latter's [[ExactWords person]]. As usual, Dark Yugi pulls a come-from-behind victory - while his opponent focused entirely on the bouquet she was holding, she forgot she had an extra flower in her ''hair''. As an added element of HoistByHisOwnPetard, Yugi figured out Kaourko attacked and chloroformed his friend Miho because of rose petals he found near Miho which had fallen from the exact same rose he pulled to win the game.

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[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Yucky Choccy was played in an episode of ''Creator/DaraOBriain's School Of Hard Sums'', with a tray of chocolates and a chilli pepper.
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[[folder:Tabletop Games]]

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[[folder:Webcomics]]

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[[folder:Web Original]]

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[[folder:Western Animation]]

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%%[[folder:Real Life]]

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* The UsefulNotes/{{Wonderswan}} ''Manga/OnePiece'' game ''Become the Pirate King!'' (the franchise's very first) has an adaptation of Mihawk's [[CurbstompBattle "fight" against Zoro at the Baratie]], and the "matchsticks" represent how many ([[HopelessBossFight ineffectual]]) attacks each player makes against him; whoever's stuck making the thirtieth attack loses, and gets [[NotQuiteDead chopped down to 1 HP]] by his counterattack. Things are spiced up by a limited-use Special Attack mechanic (a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator that may let you make anywhere up to ''nine'' attacks) and occasional power-ups that either let you skip a turn or add an extra attack opportunity.

* ''VideoGame/TheSecretIslandOfDrQuandary'' had [=DiscAppear=], which is a Nim variant played with compact discs [[StylisticSuck with titles like "The Boston Pops Play the Beach Boys"]]. It's implied that whoever gets stuck with the last disc [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment has to listen to it]], but fortunately the ''player'' is spared such a fate. What's not obvious at all is that the hardest difficulty level inverts the goal by changing the ingredient needed from this mini-game.

%%[[folder:Western Animation]]
%%* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' featured this game, played with miniature sentient warriors. [[GarnishingTheStory And dragons.]] %%Example needs explanation to make sense on its own.
%%[[/folder]]

* One episode of [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh anime]] had Dark Yugi challenge the school's AlphaBitch to ''misère nim'', with the matchsticks in question being the flowers on the latter's [[ExactWords person]]. As usual, Dark Yugi pulls a come-from-behind victory - while his opponent focused entirely on the bouquet she was holding, she forgot she had an extra flower in her ''hair''.

One popular variant (aka ''misère nim'') requires one to force one's opponent to remove the last match.

More general versions of both games exist with different numbers and sizes of rows (or piles, as the case may be). In all cases, depending on the starting position [[labelnote:note]]If there is a valid move according to the strategy above, it's the player who goes first. Otherwise, it's the player who goes second.[[/labelnote]], either one side or the other can follow the strategies above, and cannot be beaten if the player follows it carefully. If they make a mistake, the other player may take over with said strategy. This makes it very easy to implement in a computer game - the human player has the advantage and can win if he does the right thing, but a single slip-up and the computer will win instead.

!!This trope makes an appearance in:

* One episode of [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh anime]] had Dark Yugi challenge the school's AlphaBitch to ''misère nim'', with the matchsticks in question being the flowers on the latter's [[ExactWords person]]. As usual, Dark Yugi pulls a come-from-behind victory - while his opponent focused entirely on the bouquet she was holding, she forgot she had an extra flower in her ''hair''.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/LastYearAtMarienbad'', a surreal French New Wave movie. It's considered to be the TropeMaker.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Yucky Choccy (below) was played in an episode of ''Creator/DaraOBriain's School Of Hard Sums'', with a tray of chocolates and a chilli pepper.
[[/folder]]

* The obscure UsefulNotes/{{Wonderswan}} ''Manga/OnePiece'' game ''Become the Pirate King!'' (the franchise's very first) has a truly unusual version combined with HopelessBossFight. To wit - it's an adaptation of Mihawk's [[CurbstompBattle "fight" against Zoro at the Baratie]], and the "matchsticks" represent how many (ineffectual) attacks each player makes against him; whoever's stuck making the thirtieth attack loses, and gets [[NotQuiteDead chopped down to 1 HP]] by his counterattack. Things are spiced up by a limited-use Special Attack mechanic (a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator that may let you make anywhere up to ''nine'' attacks) and occasional power-ups that either let you skip a turn or add an extra attack opportunity.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceRangers'' includes this as one of the text quests concerning game tournaments. Like other stock puzzles, it provides galactic prestige for winning.

* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' Dream World, you can play a similar game against ghost-type Pokémon, where the players take turns blowing out candles. Some candles, however, give you extra points, while others subtract them, and later ones take two turns to extinguish.
* In ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan'' for the Nintendo Game Boy, there is a bonus stage where you play a similar game against Krang by removing shurikens until there are none left, with the winner being the one who removes the last shuriken.
* A similar game appears in the bonus chapter of the collector's edition of ''The Keepers: Lost Progeny''. You play against the computer, with each player taking it in turns to remove between one and three daggers. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:you can't win in ordinary play, as a) you always go first, and b) the computer follows every move by taking (4 - ''n'') daggers, where ''n'' is the number you took. You can only "win" by playing three games - during the third, the computer will make a [[ArtificialStupidity deliberate mistake]]]].
* Shows up twice in VideoGame/ProfessorLayton in ''Spectre's Call'' -- first time as a puzzle involving a fountain and some valves, second time involving the hotel owner and taking the last bottle.
* Shows up as a mandatory puzzle in an amusement park in ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'', where you take turns popping balloons, picking to pop one, two, or three each turn.
* Used in ''VideoGames/ZorkZero'', like many other [[StockPuzzle Stock Puzzles]]. Fortunately, you can cheat -- [[spoiler:the number of flowers in each corner of the screen when you're playing Nim gives you a winning move each turn]].

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfEternia'' you can play an "arithmetic contest" MiniGame against a {{NPC}} in Barole, which is basically the Game of Nim with the additional rule that no more of three tokens can be taken per turn. Winning will unlock the "Mathematician" title for Reid, which is kinda deserved because the dev team seems to have implemented a perfect-play algorithm and the game will win if the player makes a single mistake starting with the question "who goes first?".
* ''VideoGame/MathWorkshop'' has a version with toy rockets. The goal is to be the one who launches the last rocket.

* This is one of the OnlySmartPeopleMayPass puzzles in the Whimsyworld VR in ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', with a crow in Future World who [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/canine-supervisor/ has twenty spheres]] and challenges you to take the last one. Baron Mistycorn [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/under-the/ comes up with a solution]] ... [[CuttingTheKnot sort of]].

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' featured this game, played with miniature sentient warriors. [[GarnishingTheStory And dragons.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* It's possible to use this game to win money in bars. After all, you're guaranteed a win if you know the winning strategy.
** A "better" variant, which can truly befuddle your opponent, is to ask your opponent to lay out as many matches as they want, split into as many piles as they want, while you decide whether to go first or second. Once again, the winning strategy is given above.
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* Honeycomb Havoc in ''VideoGame/MarioParty 2'' where you have a tree with fruits, coins, and beehives set up in a row, and each of the four players can take one or two items from the tree -- if you get the beehive, you're out.

* The obscure UsefulNotes/{{Wonderswan}} ''Manga/OnePiece'' game ''Become the Pirate King!'' (the franchise's very first) has a truly unusual version combined with HopelessBossFight. To wit - it's an adaptation of Mihawk's [[CurbstompBattle "fight" against Zoro at the Baratie]], and the "matchsticks" represent how many (ineffectual) attacks each player makes against him; whoever's stuck making the thirtieth attack loses, and gets [[OnlyMostlyDead chopped down to 1 HP]] by his counterattack. Things are spiced up by a limited-use Special Attack mechanic (a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator that may let you make anywhere up to ''nine'' attacks) and occasional power-ups that either let you skip a turn or add an extra attack opportunity.

* The ''Website/{{TED}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMFpOcLroOg&list=PLJicmE8fK0EiFRt1Hm5a_7SJFaikIFW30&index=26 Rogue AI Riddle]] pits the player against an artificial intelligence in a variant of the game that involves only one 'stack' (water level in the AI's lair), and each party only being able to remove 1, 3, or 4 units at a time.

** ''Azran Legacy'' has another variation.

[[folder: Web Original]]