*** B A C K G A M M O N ***
Precursors of this classic game Backgammon have been found to
exist in several ancient civilizations, including those of the early
Greeks and Romans. But the earliest version of the game is believed to
have been created in 3000 B.C. by the Ur of Chaldes. (A land called
Chaldea was a region of South Babylonia along the Persian Gulf.)
Perhaps you are already an old hand at this old game, or maybe
you're one of those who has always ondered "What's this strange design
on the back of my checkerboard?"Anyone familiar with Backgammon,however
knows that it can challenge Checkers or even Chess in its ability to
involve and interest players from all around the world. In this version
of the game, the computer (mine is named Rosie) is your opponent--and a
damn good one at that.
KNOW THE RULES
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The Backgammon board contains 24 positions--12 on each side.
Players move their checkers (commonly called pips) around the board on
these locations through rolls of 2 dice.
The computer plays yellow and moves clockwise,while the user plays
red and moves counter-clockwise. The game board is set up the the
following manner:
POSITION PLAYER # OF PIPS
1 computer 2
6 user 5
8 user 3
12 computer 5
13 user 5
17 computer 3
19 computer 5
24 user 2
The computer's "inner-table" is positions 19 through 24, and the
users inner-table is positions 1 through 6. The object of the game is
to move all of your pips to your own inner-table, and then off the
board. The computer rolls the dice for you: on the first roll,the one
with the highest number will begin the game first. Your computer will
throw your dice. After the roll is determined, you may move one or two
of your pips, using both dice (one at a time) to move one pip, or
moving two pips--one with each die.
Once the computer has rolled the dice, it will ask you to enter a
move. Numbers less than 10 must be entered with a leading zero: 01, 04,
07, ect. The prompt FROM-- indicates that the computer expects you to
enter that current location of the pip you would like to move. After
entering a legal location, it will then add to the prompt. For example,
if your first entry was 13,the display would look like this:
FROM--13 TO--
You would mow need to enter the location where you would like to move
the pip. If it is legal, the graphics display of the board is updated
to show the pip at its new location.
You can land only on an empty position,on a position occupied by
your own pips, or on top of a single pip of your opponent. When this
happens, the computer's piece is placed on the Bar, which is in the
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*** B A C K G A M M O N ***
center of the board.. If one of your pips is relegated to the Bar, you
must place it back on the board before you can move any other pips. To
get back on the board, you must roll a value that can move the pip onto
the board without landing on a position occupied by 2 or more opponents
pips. You move onto the board at position 24. You could place your pip
in position 24 if you rolled a 1, on 23 if you rolled a 2, on 22 if
you rolled a 3, and so on, depending on how many pips occupied those
positions. The computer must do the same if you knock its pips onto the
Bar. The computers re-enters the board at position 1.
Once all of your pips are on your inner-table, you can start
moving them off the board. The first player to get of of his or hers
pips off the board is the winner. Imagine now there is a position 0;you
must move your pips to position 0 to get of the board. You can do this
by using an exact roll of the dice, or you can use exactvalues of the
dice to move your pips closer to the board's exit. Using a value larger
than what is needed to get your innermost pips off the board is also
legal. For example, if you have only two pips left on the board at
locations 3 and 5, and you roll a 2 and a 6,you would do the following:
FROM--05 TO--00
FROM--03 TO--01
You would then have one pip left on the board. Notice that the
exact value needed to move off the board was entered, even though the
value of one die was greater than this value. This is important because
the computer keeps score of the remaining number of moves each player
will have to make to get all the pips off of the board. When one player
moves all of his or hers pips off the board, that player scores 0. The
other player loses by the number of moves remaining in his or her
score. When ever you throw doubles, you can move your pips four times
the value of one die. Have Fun!
>> MARK GEER <<
>> MEQUON,WI <<
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