BackGammon Varia game

[Peter van Campen]

Greetings, I'm writing a new game for PC Windows95 Hi-Color (16-bit)
and 16 color called: Backgammon Varia
My reason to write "another" Backgammon is that I like to play
variations on the boardgame, like Trik Trak.
You can change the rules of the game, as default I have my
personal favorite settings:

The board setup at the start of the game:
* Empty
Backgammon

The number of stones per player (Can be entered by hand):
* 15

The maximum number of stones on a row:
Unlimited
* 5

Dice combination 1 and 2 (Trik Trak):
Do not use
* Use

Which dice to play first:
Any
Lowest
* Lowest, except when both dices are the same number or Trik Trak

What to play when both dices are the same number:
Two times upper sides
* Upper sides and oppenent sides

When to play an extra turn:
Never
When both dices are the same or Trik Trak
* When both dices are the same or Trik Trak, maximum three times

Movement in the last field:
Always
Only when you have pieces on the other fields
* Never

The fun part of these settings are:
-You can throw up many types of blokkades to force the other player
to set his pieces on the higher (4-6) last field positions.
-When you only have stones on position 6 in the last field, you
must throw double sixes, hilarious when you are way ahead of
your oppenent. :-)

There will be 2 types of artificial Intelligences:

-Raw calculation-power, calculating all possible dice-combinations
and moves. Needs probably a fast processor, but I don't know how
fast it will be in reality.

-Smart A.I. based on my own tactics, certain board-setups are higher
ranked then others, I love blokkades and double-six situations.

Release info:

I expect to finish the game in a month, maybe in a week when
I'm not hired for other work.
There will be a PD version with my favorite settings as default,
you can't change them: I've made about 40 other programs, most of
them on Amiga. Experience tells me that people need to be pushed to
register shareware or buy commercial software.
(Just a little bit, I can't complain about a low number of
registrations.)
The price for the full working version will be $15 dollars.
When the program is released, you can send cash money by mail, the
banks ask to much money to cash foreign checks or postal orders.
I will send you a key-file by e-mail, or real-life mail.
(If you don't trust me: search for Peter van Campen with the
altavista.digital.com searcher, you'll find VideoTracker, this is my
last Amiga-project, it is widely available on the net.)

Why I write this message:

- I like to know if there are other Backgammon games with these
options, I couldn't find them which "forced" me to write my
own.

- If you want other options or have ideas, please tell me !

- I like to spread the PD version via Web-pages, big FTP-sites and
PD Compact discs. Since this is my first big project on PC, I
could use some hints about good ways to do this.

That's it, hope to hear from you !

PV.C...@inter.nl.net IRC:Rattle Author of VideoTracker