That does sound good. We could switch to the Eastern after we get comfortable with the setup and game play.

Would there be a benefit to such a change, Caissus? Seems like it would be more confusing than anything, to us beginners.

The Japanese pieces, too. I've been learning Shogi (managed to find a commercial copy in the store), and that game has about a gazillion different depictions for the pieces.

I don't know how I'm managing to learn 'em, but I recognize the basic pieces now. I just have to memorize what their promoted counterparts look like. lol

Yes, I figured it would be too much of a pain to implement. Would be interesting, though.

(from http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/bughouse.html)

Bughouse is a chess game for four players, played on two boards. Actually, it is two chess games played simultaneously in teams. The black player on board 1 is partnered with the white player on board 2, and vice versa. To win, a team must win on either of their boards.
The most notable difference from normal chess is that pieces captured on one board are handed to the partner on the other board. He can drop these pieces on his board for one of his turns.
***

Piece drops work pretty much like loop chess, except you get to drop the pieces your partner captures from his board, and you hand the pieces you capture over to him.

I would be interested to see bughouse implemented here. I usually suck at it at lightning speed, but maybe I won't screw it up too badly for my partner on a correspondence game.

lol