Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 September 5#n-in-a-row game

How many football players from the University of Nevada Reno have made it to the NFL and who are they?>>>> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:100E:B029:9208:D9CD:5223:815A:D867 (talk) 00:08, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

:Try [http://espn.go.com/nfl/college/_/letter/n this site] and scroll down to "Nevada-Reno". HueSatLum 00:33, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

::That only shows current players, HueSatLum. For current and past players, the answer is apparently [http://www.databasefootball.com/players/bycollege.htm?sch=University+of+Nevada%2DReno 54]. Deor (talk) 00:37, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

:::Deor, that site is apparently out of date since, at a minimum, it doesn't include Colin Kaepernick, who has been in the league two years now. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:44, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

::::This page, from a usually very reliable suite of sports websites, says 52 and lists them: [http://www.pro-football-reference.com/colleges/nevadareno/] Kaepernick is among them, but I haven't compared the two lists to see what accounts for the difference in numbers. --Xuxl (talk) 13:58, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

There is a certain game with a rule similar to the "tic tac toe" game, of making a line of n-in-a-row items (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). However, unlike that game, players may not put their play anywhere in the board: the board has vertical slots, and the player selects one of those slots and places a coin with his colour in it, the coin falls to the bottom of the board, or above the coin placed the last time in the slot.

So, to make a line of 3, you may drop the coin in 3 unused slots (horizontal), 3 coins in the same slot (vertical), or one in a slot, two on the next, and three in the next (diagonal).

Do you know the name of the game I'm talking about? Cambalachero (talk) 13:44, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

:It has various names depending on where and by who it's being played, and by whether the aim is to match 3, 4, 5 or more pieces. But the most well-known form of the game is marketed by Milton Bradley under the Connect Four trademark. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 13:52, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

::An ancient predecessor of this game is "Three Men's Morris" - a Roman example can be at the Verulamium Museum. Alansplodge (talk) 14:28, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

:There's a 3D 4×4×4 version called Score Four. Pogo.com also has an online 2D version, called Blooop, with a 10×10 board where you try for 4 in a row matches or better: [http://uk.pogo.com/games/blooop#]. StuRat (talk) 01:38, 6 September 2012 (UTC)