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ARM Club 3
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awarchi
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!Awarchi
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!Help
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Text File
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1997-08-03
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6KB
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120 lines
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------//
//--- Help-file for Awarchi version 0.32 ---//
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------//
Principle of the game:
======================
The awele is an ancient african board game which, though not as sophisticated
as chess, will hopefully keep you busy for a moment. The board is separated
into two sides, the upper and the lower. Each side has a 'HOME' (the big
holes), that's used for counting points.
Side for player 2
_____ __ __ __ __ __ __ _____
| | || || || || || || | |
Home for P2 | 2 | __ __ __ __ __ __ | 1 | Home for P1
|___| || || || || || || |___|
Side for player 1
Each player makes a movement with the hole he chooses, in turn. A movement
consists in taking all beans in one of your hole (or square, or whatever) and
fill the adjacent holes, one bean at a time, anticlockwise. If it's your
turn, you can't pass it. If any sides empties, the game's over and the
winner's the one who has the highest beans count.
There is a couple of extra rules, that brings the game its touch:
(1) If your last bean ends in your home, you can play once more (with a
maximum of two)
(2) CAPTURE RULE: If your last bean ends in an empty hole, and the directly
opposite hole is not empty, then you get the last bean plus all the
beans of the opposite hole.
That's it ! Easy, huh ? So why not starting a game right now against the
computer or better still, against a human player ?
Risc OS 2 users:
================
Yes, thanks ! Or so I think ! The game was programmed with low memory
requirement in mind, and minimal wimp facilities, so I guess it's OK for
those of you who still have RO2 and/or 1 Meg of ram. Unfortunately, I was
said that the board didn't redraw properly with RO2 and a 16 colours (or
less) colour-mode. This isn't (quite) my fault, as RO2 doesn't provide
ColourTrans as standard. What I did was to provide two sets of boards, and
load whichever is appropriate at startup or when a mode change occur. This
could mean unacceptable behaviour (and delay) with a RO2 user playing from a
floppy disc and changing from 256 to 16 colours, but I simply have no other
way to do this (although I could do a simple dithering myself but it's
stretching for a game with a 96K wimpslot). RiscOS 3 users have no need to
worry, as the same system call will handle with any graphic mode and adapt on
the fly (Thanks again Acorn !).
'Technical' note:
=================
The algorithm for the computer player is a standard "min-max" technique
that's very nice to program with a high-end language like ...err... BASIC !
The drawback is, of course, response-time. The bare-bones algorithm was slow
(2 minute-long for the first stroke, on my ARM3 at level 6). Then, I tried my
best to improve the routine with alpha-beta pruning (or whatever they call it
in the litterature), and I hope I've succeeded so that not just StrongArm'd
RiscPCs can have a killer computer player (it's now 1.5 minute-long at level
8). Anyway, I can't see the point in playing against an unbeatable computer.
(Extra Note: It's still beatable at level 10, whether you start or not, and I
don't know why. I thought the code for the computer player was excellent but
I fear it's not).
The computer level is now menu-selectable. Level 8 is the maximum you should
ask for a 25MHz ARM3. Levels up to 10 have been implemented for the
masochistics among you (and also, to see neat computer fights with 2 tasks
running simultaneously). I recommend Level 4 which is a worthy opponent that
you should definitely train against. Lower values will not be very satisfying
for you, because of the 'horizon effect' that cripples the computer.
Unlike earlier versions, the computer player now behaves more like a human,
that is, it doesn't always play the move which earns him most points, but
chooses randomly between a list of possible best moves.
The game also sends help messages to the !Help application. It should be
easier to know how many beans are in the holes.
PostcardWare status:
====================
The program is free, no profit can be made with it, I keep the intellectual
property of it, BBSes and PD libraries may distribute it without my written
consent but may charge no more than ...say... 1 pound for p&p, etc... (Of
course, If a PD library sends me a disk with PD software, it will be sent all
my future work).
That was just the usual thing you see everywhere else and are tired to read,
but this is compulsory to prevent buggers from doing what they do best.
Now, If you enjoyed the program and would like to thank the author, why not
send him a little postcard from where you live. First of all, it's very
little nuisance from your point of view and costs little. Secondly, the
user-feedback makes me happy and I know where in the world my program is
used.
Aawwwh, I forgot to say that YOU MUST NOT MODIFY MY PROGRAM IN ANY WAY AND
ANYTHING MUST STAY AS IS. Of course, if you're a naughty-naughty hacker boy,
you will poke into the program, but all I want is that you DO NOT SPREAD
MODIFIED VERSIONS (or you send improvements to me, so that I acknowledge
add-ons). Are we agreed ? Good !
Finally, I can be reached at (especially if you have a commercial game
project and would like some raytraced graphics):
Jérôme Mathevet
8 rue Maurice Genevoix
38150 ROUSSILLON
FRANCE
or through a non-personal e-mail adress: Frederic.Elisei@sidonie.imag.fr
(I must stress to my female fan-club that electronic messages are first read
by Frédéric, so NO KISS AND HUGS !)
Credits:
========
Full credits must be given to:
Alain Brobecker (Baah) for layout advices and enjoying my game
Frédéric Elisei (ARMoric) for programming tips and moral support