Pro Backgammon

For Windows 95

Price: 29,95 German marks

Overview:

Professional Backgammon is a Windows95 game, it uses a 640*480 window. It has 16, 256 and 65536 color graphics, 44khz 8-bit speech and a new MIDI-song. There are 2 types of boards and stones: Felt and Stone. The author made this game because he could not find a Tric-Trac game for IBM-PC. This game lets you change the rules, so you can play all possible Tric-Trac variations known to the author. There are 3 rule-presets: Backgammon, Nackgammon and Beverwijk Tric-Trac. The game needs about 1 second to move. It has unlimited "Undo" and "Redo", which means that you can undo a game to its start-point en redo it all the way to the last move again. The "Best Turn" button, plays the best possible turn, in Tric-Trac games where you first have to move all the stones from the bar, this is useful. Computer moves are schematically shown on the board. The computer player uses, for Backgammon, a "brain" library when it starts a game to do the best first move. At the end the computer tells you if you won, or lost, the game by a "single" or a "double". The following capture shows a Tric-Trac game with 16 color felt-graphics and schematic showing of the computer moves:

The rules for all Tric-Trac variations in this game:

The game is for 2 players, human and computer. The human plays the lighter stones, the computer the darker stones.

The human plays according to the white arrows in the above picture, the computer according to the black arrows. The order of playing: First move all the stones from the In-Box to Field 1, then move all the stones through Field 2 and 3 to Field 4, then move all the stones to the Out-Box. You win the game when you have all your stones in the out-box before the opponent does.

The games is played with 2 normal dices. When, for example, a 2 and 4 is thrown, the player can step from position 1 to 3 and from position 5 to 9 when he has stones on those positions. He can also add the dice-values and step from 1 to 3 and 3 to 7 with 1 stone.

When the opponent has 2 or more stones on a row, you can not put your stones on that row. When the opponent has 1 stone on a row, you can move your stones to that row and move the opponent stone to the opponent In-Box.

When a player can not do all his moves, he may not play an eventual extra turn.

The changeable rules in this game:

This is how the rules-window in the game looks like:

The board setup at the start of the game: "Empty", at the start of the game, all the stones are in the In-Box. "Backgammon", all the stones are on the fields according to the Backgammon-rules.

The number of stones per player "5", the players each have 5 stones to play with. "10". "15". "20". "25". "30".

The maximum number of stones on a row: "Unlimited", you can put an unlimited number of stones on a row. "5", no more then 5 stones on a row.

Dice combination 1 and 2 (Tric-Trac): "Use", when you throw a 1 and a 2, you can play 2 times 1, 2 times 2, 2 times 5 and 2 times 6. "Do not use".

Which dice to play first: "Any". "Lowest first", when you throw, for example, a 4 and a 6, you must first play the 4. When you can not play the 4, it is not allowed to play the 6 and your turn is over. In case of a Tric-Trac, you must follow the order 2 times 1, 2 times 2, 2 times 5 and 2 times 6. When both dices are the same and it is a Upper-sides-and-opposite-sides game, you must play the upper sides first.

What to play when both dices are the same number: "Two times upper sides", when both dices are the same, you play 2 times the upper sides. When, for example, you throw a 5 and a 5, you can play 4 times 5. "Upper sides and opposite sides", when, for example, you throw a 5 and a 5, you play 2 times 5 and 2 times 2, 2 is the opposite side on the dice. To make it simple, you can use the calculation "7-dice" to get the opposite side. In the above example: 7-5=2.

When to play an extra turn: "Never". "When the dices are equal or Tric-Trac", when you throw equal dices or Tric-Trac and you could play all the moves, you may throw again and play an extra turn. "When the dices are equal or Tric-Trac, maximum 3 times", you get no more then 3 extra turns.

Move stones in the last field: "Always". "Only when there are no stones on the other 3 fields", when there are stones on fields 1, 2 or 3, you may not move stones that are already in field 4. "Never", when a stone is in Field 4, it can only be played to the Out-Box.

A stone can be moved out when: "It is moved higher then the last board-position", you do not have to move the stone exactly in the Out-Box, you also may move over the Out-Box. When, for example, your stone is on row 23, you can move it in the Out-Box when you throw a 2 or higher. "It is moved in the Out-Box", when, for example, your stone is on row 23, you only can move it in the Out-Box when you throw a 2.

Here is another screenshot, it shows a Backgammon game with 65536 color stone-graphics and schematic showing of the computer moves. The screenshot has been reduced to a low-quality jpeg to make it load faster on the internet:

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