Backgammon v3.1
by Andras Schall
05/11/2000

A well featured freeware version of the popular Backgammon game for any device running Palm OS^TM

DISCLAIMER

Backgammon v3.1 -- Copyright ⌐ 2000-2001 -- All Rights Reserved.

License Agreement: This software is freeware and therefore completely free of any charge. You may freely distribute it via any mean including but not limited to Infrared port, a web site or a CD-ROM. You can make your customers pay for distribution costs, but NOT for the software itself. You MUST always include this file together with Backgammon v3.1, the only exception being when you "beam" it via the Infrared port.

NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES: This product and any related documentation is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The entire risk arising out of use or performance of this product and information remains with you.
In no event shall the author of this software be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, system crashes, loss of data, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or of inability to use this product.

3Com, Graffiti, HotSync, and Palm Computing are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. Palm III, Palm OS, and Palm Pilot are trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners

1. Introduction

2. Features

3. Menus and Preferences

4. Installation

5. Version History

6. Future Enhancements

7. Check out the FAQ

1. Introduction

Backgammon is a game of luck and skill. It is the oldest board game recorded in human history, most probably dating back to the Persian Empire some 5000 years ago. The ancient Greeks as well as the Romans played it. The game we know today was refined in England in the seventeenth century, which is also when it acquired its name, Backgammon.

The rules of backgammon are simple and easy to learn. In fact, it is quite remarkable that a game as rich and interesting as backgammon has such a simple set of rules. The description of those rules is outside of the scope of this document, but you can check out many Internet sites on the subject, they are of high quality and explain also basic strategies. Try Backgammon Galore or Salar's Backgammon page.

2. Features

• Play against your Palm
• Beginner and Advanced AI
• Play against another human player or yourself (Ideal for learning basic strategies)
• Let your Palm play against itself (Ideal for learning basic strategies)
• Use doubling cube
• The Palm can give you a hint on what to play
• Memorise your score including Gammons (worth 2 points) and Backgammons (worth 3 points)
• Undo your last move
• Undo the Palm's last move
• Reverse board orientation (progress from left to right or from right to left according to your habits)
• Play black or white indifferently
• 4 and 16 grey level support
• Color support
• Switch dice by tapping them with the pen
• Die colour indicates colour of current player
• Palm indicates possible moves

3. Menu and Preferrence

• Action menu
  • New : Start a new game
  • Undo : Undo last move. You can also undo the Palm's moves this way. When disable "Done" tapping is checked, you cannot undo your second move, neither those of the Palm.
  • Done : Same effect than pressing the "DONE" button on the board : opponent's turn begins. If disable "Done" tapping is checked, you don't need to use this command.
  • Hint : Gives advice on how to move. The hint screen shows up for 2 seconds than board comes back to the original position.


• Score menu
  • View : View score.
  • Reset : Reset score to 0 - 0. This is done automatically, when changing the players on the preferences screen.


• Setting menu
  • Preferences : Pops up the preferences screen.
  • About : Pops up the "About" dialog box.


• Preferences Screen
  • White player : Choose whether you or the Palm should play this colour
  • Black player : Choose whether you or the Palm should play this colour
    If you choose "computer" for both colours, the palm will play against itself
  • Classical orientation : You progress from left to right when checked, and from right to left otherwise
  • Disable "Done" tapping : When unchecked, you need to press the "DONE" button to validate your moves and also to acknowledge those of you opponent. When checked, you don't need to acknowledge your moves, but you cannot undo them either. You cannot use the doubling cube, when checked
  • Doubling cube : When checked, a doubling cube is present on the board. If you tap this cube, the palm will either resign or accept to raise the stake
    
  • Color Depth : Select the number of grey levels that you want to use. 256 means color support. Depending on the prc that you load, you may not have access to some color depths
    

4. Installation

If you have Backgammon v2.0 installed, you must remove it completely before installing any later version. If you fail to do this, Backgammon will take up 21 kb more on your Palm device, and you will not enjoy the enhancements of the newer version.

To save some place in your precious memory, I made built different versions of Backgammon, with more or less grey level support. You have the choice to install ANY ONE the following files: Backgammon_2.prc, Backgammon_4.prc, Backgammon_16.prc and Backgammon_256.prc. Installing Backgammon_X.prc means color depth can be X or less. Install Backgammon_256.prc only if you have a color device, and Backgammon_16.prc otherwise. If you want to save space on your Palm, install Backgammon_2.prc or Backgammon_4.prc

5. Version History

• Version 3.1
  • Grey level and Color support
  • Beginner and Advanced players
  • Checkers that have just been moved appear in slightly different color
  • Undo available through "delete" graffiti stroke


• Version 3.0
  • Doubling Cube
  • Random number generator initialized on every roll


• Version 2.2
  • Palm gives you hint on what to play
  • Palm indicates possible moves
  • Some minor bug fixes


• Version 2.1
  • Screen blinking is fixed
  • Computer plays doubles much faster
  • Dice are the same colour than player
  • Name has changed to Bkgammon (compatibility with Backgammon from Standalone)
  • Some minor bug fixes


• Version 2.0
  • First version released on the Internet
  • Complete rework of user interface
  • Palm can play against itself

6. Future Enhancements

• Improve advanced player's AI
• Improve doubling cube AI
• Clean up source code in order to be published
• Add help inside the software

Please send me feedback so I can incorporate your ideas.
When submitting bug report, don't forget to include hardware and software (Palm OS, hacks, etc...) description.

7. FAQ

• OK, how do I start playing?
  When you start up Backgammon v3.1, you should be presented with the board, 30 tokens, and two dice. If you want to play the right die first, just tap on one of the dice, they will switch position immediately. Tap the token that you want to play; if this move is valid the token will move by the number of spaces indicated on the left die. When you have moved a token for both dice, tap on the "Done" button to indicate that you are finished.
  Than, the computer will play. You must tap again the "Done" button to acknowledge its move.
  Now it's your turn again!



• What is a doubling cube?
  By default, each game you win is worth 1 point, unless you do a gammon (2 points) or a backgammon (3 points). At any turn BEFORE YOU ROLL YOUR DICE, you can propose to double the stake. You opponent can either accept or resign, and lose immediately 1 point. If he accepts, from then on, only he can propose to double the stake again. You can accept, or resign and lose s2 points. And so on...



• Fine, how can I double?
  In "Preferences" you need to turn "Disable Done Tapping" off, and turn "Doubline Cube" On. You will see a die with a "1" appear in the lower left corner. You can tap on this die instead of tapping the "Done" button, when acknowledging YOUR OPPONENT's turn. If opponent accepts, the cube will show the new stake "2", otherwise you will be credit 1 point, and a new game begins. When The Palm decides to double, you will be presented 2 buttons "Accept" and "Resign". Click the button corresponding to your choice.

  




• I'm a backgammon guru and I think your software isn't smart in playing the doubling cube.
  Well, version 3.0 was the first attempt to implement the doubling cube, and there is I didn't rework this implementation yet. I would say this is only a beta. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with the doubling cube. So if you have any comment or suggestion on how to implement or where to find a better algorithm concerning doubling cubes, please tell me, that might help me a lot!



• How can I undo a move?
  Before pressing the "Done" button to validate your move, choose "Undo" on the menu bar. You can alternatively use the "delete" graffiti stroke.This will bring you back to the initial position. You can move again.



• Can I decide which die I play first?
  You can switch the two dice' position, just click with your pen on any of the two dice. That's it.



• I didn't see my opponent's move. How can I be sure it was valid?
  The checkers your opponent moved appear in a slightly different color, until you press the done button. You can also choose "Undo" on the menu bar. The initial position will show up for 2 seconds.



• What is the Disable "Done" tapping option (in the Preferences)?
  Obviously, it's annoying to tap on the "Done" button to validate your moves and acknowledge those of your opponent. If you check this option, the next turn begins without any validation or acknowledgement. This makes the game more fluid.
  The drawback of this option however is that you won't be able to undo your second move because the opponent's turn begins right away. You won't be able to check your opponent's move either, because your turn begins immediately after his ends. The doubling cube won't be available in this mode either.



• How can I make the Palm play against itself?
  In the preferences screen, select "Computer" for both black and white player.



• I installed Backgammon v3.1 on top of v2.0, but nothing happened.
  This is because you didn't remove version v2.0 before installing the latest update. Remove now completely Backgammon using your launcher (menu App / Delete). Reinstall Backgammon v3.1.



• Can you make an Acey-Deucey game also?
  Several people asked me to make such a game. I'm considering it, but the rules seem to be a little bit different, and probably the Palm should also play differently (Rework of the Artificial Intelligence). Other enhancements have higher priority for now, especially better AI.



• Does Backgammon 3.1 cheat?
  No it is not, and here are some reasons why it doesn't:
  
  • I made Backgammon mainly for myself, and I play dozens of games every week. Would I do so, if I knew it cheats?
  • Backgammon is a game of statistics and skill, I can see no point in altering the randomness of the dice. It would completely change the game!
  • In Backgammon, nobody (even the best player ever) can win against a cheater.
  • I don't have much free time for developping, I prefer to concentrate on usefull features, than implementing a cheating algorithm
  • The utlimate proof of not cheating will be however, when I publish the source code. This should be done sooner or later, depending on how much time it will take to clean it up, and comment it correctly.
  
  
  
  • Where can I download the latest version of Backgammon?
    You can download Backgammon on several Palm related sites, but for the very latest version try this link.
    You can also write a review for Backgammon.
  
  
  
  • How come such a nice software is free?
    I made this game in my spare time, mainly for entertaining myself. I never intended to make money out of it, I'm not sure you can make money with sharewares anyway. Backgammon is freeware and all future versions will still be free!!!!
    If you like this software however, send me an e-mail (schall@bigfoot.com) to tell me so. This is the unique reward I expect from You. My statistics are not very promising for now: last 2 months I had more than 120,000 downloads and less than 500 e-mails, that means an answer rate of about 0.5%. You can help to change these figures!
    Remember, any comment is welcome! Bug descriptions, suggestions, encouragements, all of these help me to deliver a better software.
    Thank you for playing Backgammon v3.1, enjoy!