This file contains the same information that is stored in the stack, and is provided with Super Othello to let you change font and text size, as well as printing it.
What the buttons do
• Information shows this field.
• New game starts a new game (press shift while clicking on New game to play on an alternate board).
• Reset board resets the entire board, clears the stat-fields and ends any game in progress without checking for a winner. It will also compact the stack.
• Settings takes you to the settings card.
• Tutorial teaches you the rules for flipping, complete with examples.
• End game... ends the game in progress (if any) and checks for a winner. (Useful if no legal moves can be performed by either black or white.)
• Skip move left skips a white move when it is white’s turn.
• Skip move rights skips a black move when it is black’s turn.
How the Othello menu works
• About Super Othello displays a splash screen.
• New Game starts a new game.
• Save Game... saves the current game.
• Load Game... loads a saved game.
• Review Game lets you watch a game played earlier which was logged.
• Log on will toggle logging of games, so you can review them later.
• Player vs Player, Mac vs Player and Mac vs Mac sets the playing modes (self-explanatory).
• Super Intelligent set the intelligence level to (drum roll) super intelligent.
• Use Alternate Board toggles the use of alternate boards.
• Settings takes you to the settings card.
• Two-pass Chip Checking lets you decide whether or not you want to use exactly that, two-pass chip checking. It will only work with Super Intelligence.
How to play Super Othello
The object of Othello is to gain as much of the board as possible before the game ends. The game ends when either one of the players has no chips of his color on the board, when all 64 chips have been placed or when neither of the players can place a chip. A general hint is not to go for many flips early in the game. Wait until there are about 5-10 chips left for both players to put on the board before you make your chip-gaining moves.
There are two players, each with 32 chips. The one with the white chips open the game. (In reality, each player only have 30 chips to work with, as 4 chips is placed on the board when the game begins. Also note that this figure changes if you play on an alternate board.)
To see the rules for how the chips can be flipped, click on the "Tutorial" button.
During the entire game, statistics for both players are shown on their respective sides. (Notice those two chips to the right and left?) Info shown here is
◊ how many chips the player has left
◊ how much of the board the player has occupied
◊ how many chips the player has left to place on the board
◊ how many of the total number of chips that belong to the player
To begin a game of Othello, just click on the New game button or select New Game from the Othello menu. The type of game you have defined on the settings card will be started (Player vs Player, Mac vs Player of Mac vs Mac). To abort a Mac vs Mac game, hold the command key down until the game stops. Alternatively, you can press command-period (.) to stop the game immediately and then click on "End game...".
In the beginning of games where the Mac plays one or both of the players, the Mac will use more time to figure out a move than later in the game. This is because there are no more than 4 chips on the board, and the Mac progressively learns where chips have already been placed, and then later skips checking of those squares.
After playing Super Othello for a while, it might get a little bit easy. Right now, Super Othello doesn’t do very well when it comes to choosing good moves, but it gets a little bit harder if you play as white. The super intelligence is fortunately improving with every major upgrade, so Super Othello is getting better (albeit slow...).
To turn flip animation on or off, just use the radio button on the Settings card. When on, you can enter a flip delay in sixthies of a second. I recommend that you don't enter anything above 5 as this really slows the animation down. 0 is the default value.
What is two-pass chip checking?
Two-pass chip checking (TPCC from now) is an extra module to the Super Intelligence difficulty level. What it does is checking available chips one more time, finding better moves than originaly planned for.
For instance, it prioritizes edges in a much bigger degree than without TPCC, and it doesn’t always take a corner square when available (though it usually does this anyway - the chances of it NOT taking the corner is about 1 out of 4).
Note that TPCC will be used for both black and white if the computer plays against itself and both sides have super intelligence.
Difficulty levels explained
To select super intelligence, simply go to the Settings card and select the appropriate SI version. Then start a new game.
If it is a Mac vs. Mac game that is to be played, you will be asked if white, black or both should have super intelligence. If a Mac vs. human game is to be played, the opposite color which you play will automatically get super intelligence.
NOTE: By knowing how the computer prioritizes squares, beating it will be easier. If you decide to read this section, much of the game play might end up being spoiled.
TPCC will prioritize edges in a much bigger degree than before, as well as looking more critically at placing chips on corner squares near the end of the game. It also checks low priority squares better, and deciding more intelligently which one to use. (I will NOT give away the low priority squares, find them yourself!).
If you set the difficulty level to Beginner, the Mac picks a random square on the board and starts searching for an available square. When it finds one which allows a legal move, a chip is placed on that square. In other words, it takes the first opportunity it finds (which is rarely the best move).
If you decide to set the difficulty level to Easy or Novice (Novice being the hardest of the two), the Mac will find two or three legal moves (respectively) and then find out which one of those gains most chips. Again, the moves it make is rarely very good (but can be surprising).
If the difficulty level is set to Advanced, the Mac will check the board for EVERY legal move and then find out which of the moves it should prioritize, using these rules:
• If a corner square is found, that square will be used, no matter what. (The checking of the board is interupted completely.)
• If a square at the edge of the board is found, it will no longer prioritize moves which flip the equal number of chips as the move at the edge.
• If a square that flips more chips than previous squares (including squares at the edge of the board) is found, it will most likely be used unless the Mac finds one that flips even more chips.
• If a square is found that flips the equal number of chips as other moves, a random element is introduced to pick between the moves.
The difficulty levels Hard and Novice (harder) only checks for 2/3 and 1/3 (respectively) of the squares near the edge and then prioritizes them, compared to Advanced which checks all.
Extra boards, logging, saving and resuming games
Included with this release is 5 extra boards, which introduces some variation into Super Othello. What they do is that they alter the initial board setup. You really must try it out to see the effects.
To use an alternate board, keep the shift key pressed as you click on New game. You will be prompted for an extra board, you can select one of the boards included with this release or one you have made (to learn how to make a board, you can use the stack "SO Board Maker". The more technical can read the file "BORD File Format").
To log a game, and later review it, you must make sure that "Log on" is checked in the Othello menu. When the game ends, you will be promted to saved the logged game. Enter a name for the logged game and click on Save. That’s it.
To review a logged game, simply select Review Game... from the Othello menu. Select the logged game to review and choose the delay between the moves. Short is half a second, medium is 1.5 seconds and long is 3.5 seconds. If neither of these apply to you, you can enter your own value, in sixties of a second, by holding the option key down after opening the logged game.
Saving a game is as simple as selecting Save Game... from the Othello menu while a game is in progress. Then enter a name for the game and it is saved.
Resuming a game is done by selecting Load Game... from the Othello menu and select the game to be opened. Simple, huh?
Settings
- Difficulty levels: Select the difficulty level for the Mac (both Black and White) here. The columns on the left are for the White difficulty level (Mac vs Player) and the columns on the right are for the black difficulty level (Mac vs Mac). You can now select from three more or less different levels of super intelligence by clicking at the different radio buttons. The combined version randomly chooses between the two super intelligence levels.
- Player options: These options define what kind of game you are going to play (or watch), as well as decide what color you play. White lets you begin the game. Pretty self-explanatory.
