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othello.doc
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1979-02-17
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Extracts from The Family Book Of Games by David Pritchard. Brockhampton Press 1994
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REVERSI or OTHELLO
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Reversi is a two player abstract game that is at present enjoying
a revival in a slightly modified form as the proprietary game of
Othello. It is quick to play, with simple rules yet profound strategy.
PLAY
~~~~
The players 'men' are double sided black and white counters, 64
shared between the players. After the initial 'dressing' of the centre
4 squares Black then starts. Play alternates, each player in turn
placing a disk, own colour upper-most, on a vacant square.Once a disk
is placed it is never moved. At least one disk must be captured at
each turn of play. A disk is captured by trapping it between two of
the opponent's disks, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The
disks must occupy consecutive squares. The captured disk is then
turned over ('flipped') to become, for the present, the property of
the player.
STRATEGY
~~~~~~~~
Reversi has only been seriously studied in recent years and there
is no common view on correct strategy. Certain guidelines have however
been established of which perhaps the most surprising is that it is a
mistake to aim for maximum captures in the early and middle game.
Rather the contrary; single captures are to be preferred since they
cut down the opponent's options.
The relative values of the different squares are in dispute but
it is accepted that corner squares are the most valuable since not
only does a disc in the corner act as an anchor in three directions,
but by definition it can never be captured - the four corners are the
only really safe squares on the board.
Play moves out inevitably from the centre and the emphasis should
be more on avoiding weak squares than capturing strong ones. The 12
squares surrounding the middle may be considered safe, but thereafter
play becomes increasingly critical. The truly dangerous squares are
those adjacent to the corners, since occupation of any of them may
give the corner away.
My Othello emulator V2.00 - 24/10/97
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having enjoyed playing the real game at a relatives house I
couldnt find a copy in the shops and anyway I thought it would be a
nice programming project, so I give you my version of Othello.
Othello has great game-play and my version allows you to play
against the computer, or two humans can play by sharing the mouse. The
program should be a good trainer for the real game.
If the right mouse button is held down the capture count for each
square is displayed at the side of the board, however if you read the
extract from David Pritchard's "Family Book Of Games" you will see
that it can be a mistake to always try for a maximum win. The running
total count of each players 'men' is displayed at each side.
Preferences are available by pressing the P key, and the same
control keys are available during the game; eg. F10 turns the computer
ON/OFF. In the unlikely event that you want to QUIT press either the
Esc or the Q key.
AMOS
~~~~
In case you cant tell, I wrote Othello using Amos. Amos gets
criticised by the Amiga Magazines, and very little support is on offer
for those of us who are still happy to use it. I dont really
understand this attitude, it seems that some people are so full of
their own cleverness that they just cant tolerate a 'Lamers' language
like Amos. Its the same sort of attitude that PC owners use toward the
Amiga. So what if Amos games have a typical 'look'. I have no
delusions that I am going to write a commercial game. Lets have some
support for amatuers who just enjoy getting there beloved computer to
do amazing things. I dont mind seeing non-professional software on
magazine cover disks, it makes the Amiga scene seem more friendly. If
the expectation of excellence was dropped Amiga magazines would
receive many more readers submissions. I came to computing in middle
life while bringing up a young family.I just dont have the time to
devote to learning lower level languages, and anyway Amos provides
enough power for my needs. I just love using Amos on my Amiga and will
continue until something better than the Pee Cee turns up! It had
better!
HomeMade Software
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEIL IVES
55,HOWSELL RD
MALVERN
BRITAIN
WR14 1TH
Tel: 01684 564822