11 ms·

Got a kick out of seeing this post. If I am not leaping to the wrong conclusions from your user name, then I know who you are and I'm the original author of tha

Got a kick out of seeing this post. If I am not leaping to the wrong conclusions from your user name, then I know who you are and I'm the original author of that backgammon game :). I worked with your Dad to publish it back in 1990 or 1991. And yes, we got complaints all the time about die rolls favoring the computer player. At least as of a few years ago you could still find some archived usenet threads where we tried to put those to rest by discussing the architectural features you alluded to, as well as publishing some multi-million roll statistical distributions. I recall that Joe Celko brought up the situation in one of his digressions on pseudo-randomness. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

EvanAnderson 6y ago
To save anybody else from having to do the research on this rabbit hole I believe the game in question is: https://www.mobygames.com/game/mvp-backgammon https://www.mobygames.com/game/mvp-backgammon Some fun background from 1996: https://bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+59 https://bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+59
- markbnj 6y ago
  Yes, that's the game, and I am the author of the usenet post you linked. Thanks for digging it up! I haven't seen that in years.
organsnyder 6y ago
Hey Mark! Just saw this. You indeed have the right person. Here's an archived version of the MVP site (ugh that design was terrible, even for the early 2000s) that tried to deflect some of the angry phone calls: https://web.archive.org/web/20060325184439/http://www.mvpsoft.com/backgammon-cheat.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060325184439/http://www.mvpsof...
- markbnj 6y ago
  That's awesome :). I remember writing that defense. I was very young and certain of myself, apparently. Well the die rolls may not have been "as close to absolute randomness as is possible with a PC" but I still think they were pretty good. Thanks for digging that up. It was really an unexpected pleasure to run into you here and see your post on this.

EvanAnderson 6y ago

To save anybody else from having to do the research on this rabbit hole I believe the game in question is: https://www.mobygames.com/game/mvp-backgammon https://www.mobygames.com/game/mvp-backgammon Some fun background from 1996: https://bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+59 https://bkgm.com/rgb/rgb.cgi?view+59

markbnj 6y ago
Yes, that's the game, and I am the author of the usenet post you linked. Thanks for digging it up! I haven't seen that in years.

organsnyder 6y ago

Hey Mark! Just saw this. You indeed have the right person. Here's an archived version of the MVP site (ugh that design was terrible, even for the early 2000s) that tried to deflect some of the angry phone calls: https://web.archive.org/web/20060325184439/http://www.mvpsoft.com/backgammon-cheat.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060325184439/http://www.mvpsof...

markbnj 6y ago
That's awesome :). I remember writing that defense. I was very young and certain of myself, apparently. Well the die rolls may not have been "as close to absolute randomness as is possible with a PC" but I still think they were pretty good. Thanks for digging that up. It was really an unexpected pleasure to run into you here and see your post on this.