Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Backgammon

If you look at the bottom I've included a nifty new thingamabob from LabPixies. It's backgammon! My most favorite boardgame ever since I beat Khashi 7 to nil. Yes you read right that's SEVEN GAMES TO NONE!!! In one go I must add, I've never seen a guy go from pink to red to purple so quickly.

I must warn you that the computer cheats but if you're smart it's really satifying to beat the sonuvabitch.

Check out other nifty gadgets at their website www.labpixies.com.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The computer does not cheat.

Arugula said...

In fact, the program ABSOLUTELY cheats. I don't say this as a result of losing to it. I've downloaded their Javascript code and de-obfuscated it. (That took some time) The "random" dice throws occur in loops that repeat until conditions are met. Conditions such as, you have pieces knocked off and you roll to get back on. Chances are, you'll roll a double something that the computer happens to have 2 pieces on. If you happen to leave multiples open. The loop keeps going until it can knock at least 1 piece off (sometimes 2). It's really frustrating.

-Adam

jturner said...

The computer is suspect---but I'm not sure it cheats. In one sense, it cheats in favor of the player. It often gives a 'double' roll as the opening for the player, but never to itself. This itself is illegal, because a game can never start with a double, in real backgammon. since the opening move always belongs to the player who rolls the higher number with a single die, who then gets both single rolls as his opener.

But note, if you play a lot, when the opening roll is a double (in the computer game), it is never the computer's double.

Arugula said...

jtur88 - This "doubles only for the player" is no mystery. When the initial roll is made, if the firs die is higher, the computer starts, otherwise, the player starts. If it's a doubles roll, the first die is not higher - thus - player goes first.

Backgammon