Backgammon Royale Full Docs   for The Humble Guys (THG)   by Humble DOX

///////////////// ///////////// ///////////////// ///////////// ///// ///// ///// ///// ///////////// ///// ///// ///////////// ///// ///// ///// ///////////// ///// ///// ///////////// The Humble Guy's HumbleDox Presents Backgammon Royale Full Docs The Oxford Softworks Backgammon Instructions Requirements Atari 520 ST (or larger) with a monitor or TV and mouse. Amiga A500 (or larger) with a monitor or TV and mouse. IBM PC or 100% Compatible with at least 256k of EMS, MS- DOS 2.0 or higher, with CGA, EGA, VGA or hercules graphics card. Use of a Microsoft-compatible mouse is optional. Quick Guide for Documentation-Phobics Moving Men : Using the mouse arrow, and one click of the left mouse button, men can be picked up and moved to a destination position, where a second click will release the man. If you pick up a piece and change your mind about moving it, either replace it on the point from where it was picked from, or release the man on a position off of the board. Double Game, Display Score, Dice Values and other features are available from the menu. Our Guarantee Should your master disc fail to load please return the disc only with a clear description of the problem to: Oxford Softworks Stonefield House 198 The Hill Burford Oxfordshire OX8 4HX Copyright It is an offence against national and international copyright laws to make copies, in any form or on any media, of this program-, or documentation for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use. This product contains copyright materia in the form of proprietary software programs and printed ,documentation. CP Software will seek heavy damages from any person and/or corporation found to bc in violation of these copyrights. Breach of copyright can also lead to criminal proceedings. Loading Backgammon Atari Insert The Oxford Softworks Backgammon disk. press the reset button and then double click on the icon for BG.PRG Amiga To load. switch on your machine and insert the disc at the Workbench prompt. It will then load. Boot into MSDOS, insert The Oxford Softworks Backgammon disk in drive A, and type BG and press the RETURN key. General Introduction to Backgammon Backgammon one of the world's most ancient games has been played for thousands of years in all parts of the world. It was played in Egypt, Greece and Rome and probably derives from the earlier oriental game of Pachisi, in which the movements of counters on a board are governed by the throw of dice. It was played throughout the Middle Ages in Europe as Table's until Chess became the more popular game in the fifteenth century. In the early seventeenth century improvements in the game gave it a tremendous revival and It swept Europe under various names: Backgammon In England, Gammon in Scotland. Tric-trac in France, Puff in German, Tarola Reale in Italy. Another craze for the game occurred just before World War 1, and it is still widely played in the Middle East as Tric-trac. Rules of Play General The Board A rectangular board is shown on the screen. It is divided into two halves by a vertical bar. One half Is called the inner (or home) table. the other the outer table. The Oxford Softworks Backgammon (black pieces) and you (white pieces) face each other. Twelve alternately coloured triangles called points prospect from each side of the board towards the centre. Pieces Each side has 15 checkerlike pieces (often called men or stones) of two contrasting colours (black and white). The movement of the Black pieces are from Black's inner table clockwise to White's home table. Your pieces travel in the opposite direction. Dice Each player uses two casting dice plus one doubling dice which appear on the right hand side of the screen. Start of the Game The Oxford Softworks Backgammon rolls the two dice, the upper one for you, the lower one for itself. The player getting the highest member plays first by using the numbers on both dice. Thereafter, the turn of play alternates with each player rolling both dice. If the first dice rolling gives a double, the stake of the game is doubled and the dice arc rolled again. Notation Each point is shown numbered on the board unless you have turned the notation off (see Play menu), If notation is on then a move list is also shown. The moves are in the form of B12- W6, meaning that a man has moved from black's position 12 to white's position 6. The Play The object of he game is for each player to move his 15 men into the inner table on his own side of the board, and then bear them off the board, The numbers on the two dice, taken separately, show the number of points over which the men may be moved. When one man has been moved the number of pointS indicated by one die, the other number may be used either to move the same man further or to move another man. When a player gets a doublet (both dice with the same value) it counts double. A 6-6, for instance, counts as four sixes, a total of 24 points, not 12. Since a doublet consists of four numbers, the player may move as many as four men, You must attempt to use both (or all four) numbers if you can. If you can use only one number, you must try to use the higher (or as many as can be used of a doublet). If none of the numbers you rolled are usable, the play passes to the computer. The Moves A point is open to a player when it is not occupied by two or more of his opponent's men. A single man on a point is called a blot. When a man of the opposite colour lands on a point occupied by a blot, the blot is hit and is consequently moved on to the bar. A man on the bar may re-enter the board when a number is thrown that will place the man on an unblocked point of his opponent's home table. All men on the bar must bc re- entered before any other moves may be made by that player, When a player has two or more men on a point this point is said to be blocked, and an opponent's man may not come to rest on the point although it can move past the blocked point, If a player blocks six adjacent points and has one or more of his opponent's men behind it, he has made a prime. If he blocks all six points of his home table when his opponent still has one or more men on the bar, he is said to have a shut out. It is possible to have more than five men on one point. Any additional man is dropped at the bottom and the number appearing there indicates the total number of men on that Bearing Off Men Once a player has advanced all 15 of his men to his own inner table, he may start bearing off, which consists In removing men from the board. The first player to bear off all his 15 men wins. A man may be borne off any point whose number shows on either die. For example, if white gets 4-3 he may re-move a stone from W4 and another from W3 Instead of bearing off he may also use the numbers to move within his inner table. When a number rolled is higher than the highest point on which a player has any men, he must then bear off from the next highest point available. If, after having started to bear off, a man Is hit, It goes to the bar and must enter, and come around again to the Inner table, before the player can continues bearing off. Scoring The first player to bear off all his men wins the game. If the loser has borne off at least one man, and has no men left In the winner's inner table, he loses a single game. If he has not borne off a single man, he loses double (gammon). If In addition, he has a man left In his opponent's inner table or on the bar, he loses triple (backgammon). Doubling Backgammon Is played for an agreed base stake welch may be Increased by doubling during play, and by gammon and backgammon (as above). An automatic double occurs when equal numbers are rolled on the first roll, and both players roll again. Either player has the right to offer the first voluntary double before casting, and this right alternates thereafter. The opponent must agree to play at the double stake, or forfeit the game a~d the stake. If he accepts the double, the game continues at the increased stake. The player who offered the double may not Immediately double again. The privilege of making the next double falls to his opponent and If he doubles, the first player either resigns and loses at the double stakes or accepts and the game continues with stakes that are four times the original amount. There Is no limit to the number of doubles that may be made but the option of offering doubles alternates between players These doubles Program Menus The menus are implemented in slightly different ways on different machines, but the menus all have the same menu items. ATARI A normal GEM menu is used, except that the menu titles will not appear until the right mouse button is clicked. AMIGA A normal Intuition menu is used, accessed by holding down the right mouse button. PC To access the menu. move the mouse to the top of the screen for the menu to appear. Items may be selected by moving the mouse over them and pressing the left mouse button. If no mouse is connected, the menu bar will appear after pressing Fl key and items may be selected by using the cursor keys and pressing Return when the required item is highlighted. In general the mouse pointer may be moved using the cursor keys, with the INSert key emulating a left button and the DELete key the right button. Desk/Special Menu About Backgammon Introduces the Oxford Softworks Backgammon. Game Menu Double As mentioned above each player has the right to offer the first voluntary double before casting. and this right alternates thereafter. Two cases are possible: In the first case. the Oxford Softworks Backgammon may offer to double you. An alert box will appear on the screen you accept the doubling offer. click on Accept You must then play at the double stake. If you refuse to double, click on Reject, the Oxford Softworks Backgammon wins the game and the current stake. Second case. You may offer your opponent to double, You can either use the menu by clicking on Double, or click on the doubling cube itself. If the Oxford Softworks Backgammon agrees to play at the doubled stake, the message, I accept your offer to double will appear. Display Score Indicates your current score. New Forfeit the current game, and begin a new one. Save Saves the game history up to the current position. Load Loads a previously saved game. Erase To erase a game. Quit Allows you to quit The Oxford Softworks Backgammon. Play Menu Take back This option allows you to step back through the move history. Taking you to the start of each move you have made. Forward Allows you to step forward though the move history. Go 1st Takes you to the first move in the history, from where the game may be replayed using the Forward option. Go last Returns to the last move that was played. Dice Values Menu Computers Enables you to set the value of the program's dice for its next move. Players Enables you to change the value of the dice for the present move. When either of these options are selected a dialogue box appears on the screen from which the required dice values can be chosen. Preferences Menu Notation Display the board co-ordinates and the computer's last move. Sound PC's Turns the sound on or off. Pick up You can control the way the men are moved using these two options. change the style at any time during a game. Drag You must click on the piece and hold the button down to move the piece: releasing the button will drop the piece. Click Clicking on the piece once will pick the piece up; clicking on it again will drop the piece. Style of Play Menu You have the ability to control the style of the computer's play, using the Aggressive and Defensive settings. You can change the style at any time during a game. Speed Adjusts the speed of play.