- The MSN Gaming ZoneThe Name of the Game
Derived from the words ‘back’ and ‘gamen’, which in Middle English means ‘game’ is quite an ancient game with deep-rooted origins. While the game enjoyed mediocre popularity through its origin and journey, it is only when backgammon went online, that its popularity grew multifold. Here you can check out some backgammon download software available from online gaming sites, which improved throughout the history of backgammon computer years.
Backgammon First Computer Game
Backgammon has constantly been an interesting and challenging subject of study for various computer scientists. The first attempts in making backgammon a computer game began in the late 1970s, when Hans Berliner wrote a strong computer opponent titled the BKG 9.8. This was the first step in online backgammon and quite a steady one. Initially this software was seen to perform badly, even against poor players, but many knew and understood that this was only a transitional phase for the software. Learning from its failures, various principles of fuzzy logic were applied, and by the year 1979, the BKG 9.8 started to perform in a much better fashion. For the first time, the software played against the world’s leading backgammon champion Luigi and won the match at 7-1. While Berliner and many other online backgammon enthusiasts were pleased at the victory, Berliner stated that it was just a matter of luck for the computer; it had received more favorable dice rolls. Similar experiments were on at various parts of the world and by late 1980s, many pioneers in online backgammon experiments began to experience success with the usage of neural networks.
Neural networks and the first online game battles
The principal of neural networks was soon applied by Gerald Tesauro of IBM who brought out the TD-Gammon, which had better capabilities to play at the level of experts. This system was based on neural networks and had the capability to utilize temporal difference learning, which was applied to the data obtained from self-plays. Assessments on the game software made by Bill Robertie and Kill brought out that the software was at par with the world’s top backgammon players.
Backgammon Online Software - Snowie and Jellyfish
As research in backgammon continued, two new programs were put in place. These commercial programs were Jellyfish, a neural net. The name is derived from the similarity to a biological brain where backgammon is learnt through playing hundreds of games. Another software that was developed at the same time was Snowie, a highly popular name in the backgammon community today. The software went through various versions starting at Sonwie 1, 2 and 3 where the software used special learning methodologies similar to TD learning algorithm. Besides this, shareware BG Blitz and GNU backgammon were also implemented.
These software did much more than play the game, they could help players analyze their moves and improve their game on the long run. These programs have been useful solely due to the ‘weights’ tables of their neural networks, which comes from months of tedious training.
The Game Goes Online
As software developed and new technologies came into the fore, the Internet made revolutionary changes into the way humans communicated and worked in a global platform. What began as a tool for sharing knowledge and doing business, soon emerged as a world wide casino for online gambling. Soon the age old backgammon revolutionized into online backgammon. New software was developed for the online gaming environment to facilitate play between two human players from different parts of the world. On July 19, 1992, the first real-time online backgammon game began with the First Internet Backgammon Server. Today also, this is the longest running non-commercial server dedicated to backgammon. It enjoys a huge database of backgammon players from across the world. Soon various servers started to function and attracted people with various lures into the world of casino games and backgammon in a small way.
Online Gaming and US Ban
While various online gaming companies were offering online casinos and gaming options, backgammon was always in the background. It was only when US outlawed online gaming in 2006, that backgammon entered the picture in a big way. Since the year 2006, online gaming companies have been including backgammon as a major gaming activity. Many companies are even offering the gaming interface in regional languages for easy play and interaction.
Backgammon will always be the oldest game in the history of civilization and through time has evolved and emerged as a highly popular game even today. True, the board has changed, the players have changed and the rules have evolved and bettered with time. But the elements of thrill and skill still remain.
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