The Tungsten PDA

Continuing the search for simple games that can devour our free time (and even work), today talk about Reversi, also known as Othello. The reversi is a game for two people, who share 64 sheets of equal but different faces (each player is assigned a color), which will take turns putting on a board divided into 64 squares, who has gained more chips on the board to finish the game.

A departure from current Reversi

Its origins lie in England, in the nineteenth century, where Londoners and John W. Lewis Waterman Mollett marketed in 1880, each game with similar rules. In 1971 the Japanese Goro Hasegawa changed two rules of the game and recorded under the name of Othello, inspired by the works of Shakespeare with the same name. ( "Othello" in Spanish). Currently only plays with the rules of Othello, although they usually refer to these rules under the name reversi never used and not the original rules of reversi.

The Othello creates interest among developers because of the simplicity of its rules: only one type of motion, a single type of chips, etc.. Mobility mean a player along the line is 8 movements. As a total of 60 movements can make the maximum number of potential games is about 10 to 54. Moreover, the maximum number of possible positions is estimated at around 10 to 30.

In Othello, as in the Reversi, used a board of 8 rows by 64 columns and 8 identical chips, round, white on one side and black on the other. From inception, in Othello placed four tabs: two white sheets in D4 and E5, and two black in E4 and D5. In reversi these four boxes were empty and would begin to occupy alternately, typically beginning with the player who leads the black chips. This is the first difference between the rules of Reversi and Othello: a single restriction on opening

The second and final difference between Reversi and Othello lies in the number of chips available to each player to make his movements. In Othello shared the sixty-four chips, while the Reversi each player has only thirty-two chips (differences exist only if one player passes, because then the other player will have to move again spending a chips and the end of the game will not be enough to make his last movements, thus being forced to spend).

The rules are simple to play:

• Starting with who leads the chips black players must make a move in shifts, unless they are unable to none, going in this case the opponent's turn. The movement involves placing a sheet so that flanks one or more sheets of color contrast and turn those chips to move the show to own color.
• It turned all the files that were flanked at that time to place the card color contrast. These chips, so they are flanked, should form a straight line (diagonal or orthogonal) of the same color sheets between two sheets of opposite color (one of them the newly placed and the other already present).
• The game ends when no player can move (usually when the board is full, or almost, of chips) and who wins in that time have more chips on the board showing its color.

As I said, the game Othello has been a very valued by computer, and proof of this is the amount of options available to play in our Palm. However, not all engines of the game are equally optimized (or perhaps invaluable played whenever possible). Some take half a minute to think every move, which can be annoying. So it is something to appreciate at choosing one, and I have stressed to analyze them. Of course everyone is free, and some also open source:

• The best option, in my opinion of course, is PilOth. Apparently the engine is quite strong, although we can control it by limiting the number of seconds you have to think about the move, or the depth to which they can reach calculating alternatives. It has ability to undo and redo all movements of the game and analyze them one to one by the program. You can even play against himself, to teach us. It has a way of editing board to place chips in an initial state and continue from there, and can also export and import items using the clipboard (eg copying of a note), in order to import items that we find on the Internet for example. And it has the option to show the board full-screen, thus making use of the entire screen. In short, a very comprehensive program, which will cover the needs of both novices and experts.

PilOth allows analyzing the play, or only show the board

• Another good program is Othello Stabu. Also with a good game engine allows played by two human against Palm, or let the machine play against itself. We have three levels of difficulty: the easiest program responds instantly, while the level difficult thinks for a few seconds, no more than ten. It has ability to undo the last move, but not redo.

Stabu is simpler than PilOth

• Another programme that has convinced me is invested. It shows during the game moves possible, has three levels of difficulty, and is also available for Windows, such as Java application and even has a web version. However, it is not very fast, and we can not control it. In so easy on my Tungsten E2 every move takes about 2-5 seconds, and advanced level in more than 10 seconds in some cases. It has a record of games played, with maximum ratings.

There are even more freeware, as Othello or Verdi, who deserve a test as much as the previous ones, because each one has its pros and cons. But with so much choice, it is hard not to find one that finds a place in our Palm to entertain us for a while at any time.

By: Mark Gonzalez Troyas in Analysis
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