StanJr Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Like there is no tomorrow. I have never played a real game of Backgammon where doublets come so naturally. But in Atari Backgammon, the AI gets a doublet one out of every five tosses. Is it programmed to be a low-down dirty cheater or is it just exploiting shoddy programming? Either way, it's making me insane. :mad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Well, you can use your own dice and "dial" them in! The right difficulty switch in "b" position let's you do that! Have you ever seen it roll double nines yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Oh, I thought it was about cheats for the Backgammon game. I wondered what kind of cheats there would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Simply put, the random generator in the program sucks (for both players). IIRC it was a choice between rolling too many doubles or virtually none at all. As mentioned, you can dial in your own values. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Simply put, the random generator in the program sucks (for both players). IIRC it was a choice between rolling too many doubles or virtually none at all. As mentioned, you can dial in your own values. Can it be hacked so it doesn't suck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Yeah...come up with a different routine for $C5 & $C6 One way that should make the results more-unpredictable would be to use one or both free bytes of ram memory to hold a random seed value to be passed to $C2 for the number of roll time frames (the game uses absolute value #$78 at LF347 - and does it again if bits 0-2 end up with a value of zero or seven). Or, you could alter how a "random" value is picked (ram location $E2 is just ROL'ed with whatever happens to be in carry status...which is why the same dice values appear frequently together). It's easier just to use real dice The program is not intelligent enough to "cheat". The double-nines issue is a specifically-coded easter egg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 No double nines, yet, but that would be cool to see. Dialing in your own numbers is the worst kind of cheating. I would roll a six doublet every time and win for sure. I guess I'll keep playing with the crappy dice, although the chance for a gammon is highly unlikely and a backgammon pretty much impossible. Stupid shoddy programming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 ..., the AI gets a doublet one out of every five tosses.... The odds are 1 every 6, that doesn't sound that far off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Revealing the easter egg can be done easily in board setup of Acey-Deucey...start the game with both difficulties set at B and select a higher number for the first die so that you have the first move. Block all 6 of it's opening spots so it has no valid opening moves, and flip Left Difficulty to A to make your move with one of the remaining stones. Give the dice a 1 and 2 roll for the computer's turn to allow it to pick doubles. This is mistakenly called a programming bug on the Digital Press Easter Egg page: http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/26backgammon.htm Being allowed to pick doubles in this case IS a programming error (being unable to move the initial 1 and 2 should end it's turn according to the rules)...but the easter egg does not depend upon that mistake. It can be revealed any time the computer is allowed to pick doubles but has no valid moves for any dice value 1-6 (regardless of where the stones are). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 BTW how would you roll double-6's consistantly using real dice? Don't you have any that are not loaded? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 20, 2012 Author Share Posted May 20, 2012 That's my point, if you can roll yourself a guaranteed doublet-six every time, that is the worst kind of cheating as you could never get that with real dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 20, 2012 Share Posted May 20, 2012 So don't do it. Dial in the values you've thrown from the real (non-loaded) dice. Problem solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 20, 2012 Author Share Posted May 20, 2012 Oh, I see. That is an interesting option, isn't it. I assume that I dial in the AI rolls as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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