Programming

Forum Archive : Programming

 
Source code

From:   Gary Wong
Address:   gary@cs.arizona.edu
Date:   3 December 1999
Subject:   Re: backgammon and computer
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   wt4sdzzwhy.fsf@brigantine.CS.Arizona.EDU

Pierre-Olivier LUCET writes:
> Can someone give me help about a project I have, it concerns bakgammon
> and I will need help about basic strategy hints or rules which can be
> implemented in a computer. Of course, the best will be a ready-to-use
> algorythme but I'm not dreaming.

The sources to several backgammon playing programs are available on the
net:

 Gerry Tesauro's pubeval (1993):
   ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/connect/code/tesauro/

 Alan Char's backgammon game in 4.4BSD (1993):
   ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/games/backgammon/

 Lambert Klasen and Detlef Steuer's xgammon 0.96 (1994):
   ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/games/x11/strategy/xgammon.0.96.tar.gz

 GNU Backgammon 0.02 (1999):
   http://gnubg.sourceforge.net/

I believe GNU Backgammon is significantly stronger than the others (but I
would say that :-).  However, pubeval and gnubg are neural nets and so
their "knowledge" (as visible to the programmer) is largely opaque; their
ability is mostly encapsulated in the net weights rather than procedural
code.  This might mean that xgammon and the BSD backgammon would be more
educational to inspect.

If you are more interested in algorithm descriptions than source code, good
places to start hunting include:

 The programming section in Tom Keith's _Backgammon Galore_ newsgroup
 archive:
   http://www.bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?menu+programming

 The backgammon section of Jay Scott's _Machine Learning in Games_:
   http://forum.swarthmore.edu/~jay/learn-game/systems/gammon.html


Cheers,
Gary.
--
        Gary Wong, Department of Computer Science, University of Arizona
            gary@cs.arizona.edu     http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~gary/
 
Did you find the information in this article useful?          

Do you have any comments you'd like to add?     

 

Programming

Adjusting to a weaker opponent  (Brian Sheppard, July 1997) 
Anticomputer positions  (Bill Taylor+, June 1998) 
BKG 9.8 vs. Villa  (Raccoon+, Aug 2006) 
BKG 9.8 vs. Villa  (Andreas Schneider, June 1992) 
BKG beats world champion  (Marty Storer, Sept 1991) 
Backgames  (David Montgomery+, June 1998)  [Long message]
Blockading feature  (Sam Pottle+, Feb 1999)  [Long message]
Board encoding for neural network  (Brian Sheppard, Feb 1997) 
Bot weaknesses  (Douglas Zare, Mar 2003) 
Building and training a neural-net player  (Brian Sheppard, Aug 1998) 
How to count plies?  (Chuck Bower+, Jan 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
How to count plies?  (tanglebear+, Mar 2003) 
Ideas for improving computer play  (David Montgomery, Feb 1994) 
Ideas on computer players  (Brian Sheppard, Feb 1997) 
Introduction  (Gareth McCaughan, Oct 1994) 
Measuring Difficulty  (John Robson+, Feb 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Methods of encoding positions  (Gary Wong, Jan 2001) 
N-ply algorithm  (eXtreme Gammon, Jan 2011) 
Neural net questions  (Brian Sheppard, Mar 1999) 
Pruning the list of moves  (David Montgomery+, Feb 1994) 
Search in Trees with Chance Nodes  (Thomas Hauk, Feb 2004) 
Source code  (Gary Wong, Dec 1999) 
TD-Gammon vs. Robertie  (David Escoffery, June 1992) 
Training for different gammon values  (Gerry Tesauro, Feb 1996) 
Training neural nets  (Walter Trice, Nov 2000) 
Variance reduction in races  (David Montgomery+, Dec 1998)  [Long message]
Variance reduction of rollouts  (Michael J. Zehr+, Aug 1998)  [Long message]
Variance reduction of rollouts  (Jim Williams, June 1997) 
What is a "neural net"?  (Gary Wong, Oct 1998) 
Writing a backgammon program  (Gary Wong, Jan 1999) 

[GammOnLine forum]  From GammOnLine       [Long message]  Long message       [Recommended reading]  Recommended reading       [Recent addition]  Recent addition
 

  Book Suggestions
Books
Cheating
Chouettes
Computer Dice
Cube Handling
Cube Handling in Races
Equipment
Etiquette
Extreme Gammon
Fun and frustration
GNU Backgammon
History
Jellyfish
Learning
Luck versus Skill
Magazines & E-zines
Match Archives
Match Equities
Match Play
Match Play at 2-away/2-away
Miscellaneous
Opening Rolls
Pip Counting
Play Sites
Probability and Statistics
Programming
Propositions
Puzzles
Ratings
Rollouts
Rules
Rulings
Snowie
Software
Source Code
Strategy--Backgames
Strategy--Bearing Off
Strategy--Checker play
Terminology
Theory
Tournaments
Uncategorized
Variations

 

Return to:  Backgammon Galore : Forum Archive Main Page