This is gonna be a small update to the “Can Gemini play Backgammon” experiment. I realised how it could be useful to, instead, give Gemini notations rather than images, since it understands those rather than the images.
And so, I did one final experiment where I played Gemini on Backgammon… However, the game ended up going off the rails. It started off really solid where we made some good plays back and forth (I stuck to rolling 2d6 while it got a consistent string of doubles in descending order), but the issue came when I captured pieces that it wouldn’t be able to bring back into play with the doubles.
Essentially, the Notation system really bit me in the foot because while I was able to talk to it in Notations, it can’t do the same eventually, just telling me where to move the pieces. Ultimately, it got into a jumbled mess and it was ultimately Gemini that proposed we call it a game.
I’ll spare the details, but if you’re curious about how that game went, I’ll post it separately. This isn’t what the topic is about though, rather it’s for a program that it actually recommended to me: GNU Backgammon.
The basic gist is that it’s everything I wanted out of playing backgammon with Gemini on the gameplay front. An AI that can be programmed to be as easy or as challenging as you wish, edge of your seat gameplay that really makes you think, and ultimately a much better experience where every aspect of the game can be customised to your liking.
And when I mean everything can be customised, I mean it. You can choose what sort of variation you can play, how the cube works (long story short, you have a cube you can use to gamble your points for longer games), a tutor that can guide you on making better plays, even how the dice are rolled.
So, I was able to actually do the manual dice roll for Gemini, then go back to random but choose a seed so it’s not truly random. Problem was, things got confusing managing both Gemini’s plan and my movement, to the point where I just ended up playing the game against the built in CPU.
And then there’s the fact that you can have CPU vs CPU battles and watch in awe as they play against each other and… Oh man, I’m sorry. I can’t recommend this program enough if you’re a big fan of backgammon. This serves as a good practice tool to brush up on your skills, learn better strategies, and even improve yourself.
The same site also offers programs for running Go, Shogi, Chess, and many more! It’s definitely worth checking out if you have a knack for playing against a computer, though if you want to wrap your head around some nonsensical AI, playing against Gemini would do too.
Well, Bon Voyage, gamers!
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