[BradMM]

I tried finding someone to write about this and wound up here.

When I play backgammon solo on my MacBook, my "opponent" claims victory when I'm clearly winning. For example, I had all my pieces in my home quadrant and was taking them off when I get the "You've been mooned" message. WHAZZUPWIDAT???

[the Battle Cat]

I had an old freeware game of backgammon on my Mac SE back in the day. Whenever it got behind it started rolling doubles. It always rolled a double, the exact double it needed, to win the game. I've never gotten another backgammon game since.

My theory (thanks in part to your contribution) is that all backgammon programmers are the spawn of the devil, and after eating a big bowl of children in the morning, they set out to write a dirty stinkin' cheatin' game of backgammon.

[BradMM]

the Battle Cat, on February 9th 2008, 10:23 AM, said:

I had an old freeware game of backgammon on my Mac SE back in the day. Whenever it got behind it started rolling doubles. It always rolled a double, the exact double it needed, to win the game. I've never gotten another backgammon game since.

My theory (thanks in part to your contribution) is that all backgammon programmers are the spawn of the devil, and after eating a big bowl of children in the morning, they set out to write a dirty stinkin' cheatin' game of backgammon.

My version is the one that came with the MacBook back in June when I bought it... you'd think that someone would have caught it if the programmers are all spawn of the devil.... unless Steve Jobs is the devil himself!!!

[Douglas]

BradMM, on February 9th 2008, 06:04 PM, said:

unless Steve Jobs is the devil himself!!!

No, but he does pitchfork babies when nobody is looking!

[Bill Ramey]

"Does this game cheat?" is one of the most common questions that Backgammon programmers get asked. In fact, all backgammon games get accused of cheating eventually. What's going on is that people remember when the computer rolls what it needs but forget when they roll what they need. The end result is that it looks as if the program is cheating.

[Eric5h5]

Unless you get to see the source code, there's no way to be 100% sure....

--Eric

[the Battle Cat]

Eric5h5, on February 13th 2008, 12:19 PM, said:

Unless you get to see the source code, there's no way to be 100% sure....

--Eric

You can trust Eric on this Bill, he wrote a damn dirty cheating Fractscape program and he knows what he is talking about.

[Eric5h5]

the Battle Cat, on February 13th 2008, 03:58 PM, said:

You can trust Eric on this Bill, he wrote a damn dirty cheating Fractscape program and he knows what he is talking about.

Are you trying to get me to admit that Fractscape cheats at Backgammon? Well, I'll do no such thing, and I strongly deny that there's any cheating code in it that rolls doubles whenever it needs to. In fact I categorically deny that it contains any Backgammon code whatsoever and you can't prove otherwise!

--Eric

[the Battle Cat]

Eric5h5, on February 13th 2008, 03:42 PM, said:

Are you trying to get me to admit that Fractscape cheats at Backgammon? Well, I'll do no such thing, and I strongly deny that there's any cheating code in it that rolls doubles whenever it needs to. In fact I categorically deny that it contains any Backgammon code whatsoever and you can't prove otherwise!

--Eric

I decompiled your skanky Fractscape program and found this code right at the very beginning

!Fractscape v1.0
!By Eric Whatevermylastnameis
!
10 GOSUB LAUNCH_BACKGAMMON_IN_SECRET_WINDOW
20 GOSUB ROLL_BOXCARS_TO_WIN_STARTING_THROW
30 GOSUB ROLL_BOXCARS_A_COUPLE_MORE_TIMES
40 GOSUB LAUNCH_FRACTSCAPE_IN_MAIN_WINDOW
50 GOSUB STEAL_SSN_FROM_USER_SAFARI_CACHE
60 GOSUB USER_ROLLS_ACEY_DEUCY
70 GOSUB ROLL_BOXCARS_A_COUPLE_MORE_TIMES
80 GOSUB USER_ROLLS_ACEY_DEUCY

You had your chance. I didn't want to do this to you. You forced my hand.

[Eric5h5]

BASIC?

Actually, I think I've only played Backgammon once. And it wasn't on a computer.

--Eric

[No One]

Eric5h5, on February 13th 2008, 06:33 PM, said:

BASIC?

Woah! He insults you by implying that you write your programs in BASIC and that's how you respond? Come on. Fight back! Claim you write everything in Prolog. Then everyone will respect you... and fear you. Mostly fear.

[Eric5h5]

Yeah, I'd fear me too. Prolog?

--Eric

[Whaleman]

I almost wrote a game in prolog once...


...the goal was to reserve lecture rooms... very exciting. I actually wrote a calendar routine for it as well since I didn't want to use the system commands to get dates. I also did a grammar checker (that I doesn't uses now, hecketh no!).

[BradMM]

Bill Ramey, on February 13th 2008, 12:45 PM, said:

"Does this game cheat?" is one of the most common questions that Backgammon programmers get asked. In fact, all backgammon games get accused of cheating eventually. What's going on is that people remember when the computer rolls what it needs but forget when they roll what they need. The end result is that it looks as if the program is cheating.

THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL!!! If I have most of my pieces (tiles?) in my home quadrant and then I roll a double four, the game should not register that I just lost! Any time I get ahead, the game just declares that it won! It has nothing to do with whether or not I get the roll that I wanted.