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homa

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Joined: 05/11/2021
Location: Germany
Posts: 718

Posted: 09:28pm 19 Oct 2026

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https://youtu.be/x2N5_EjmmYE

Hello to all PC3 owners!

I'd like to introduce MMbg PC3 - a complete backgammon program for the Pico Computer 3.

Features
- match play 1 to 15 points with doubling cube and Crawford rule
- uses the neural nets of GNU Backgammon: the "big" engine plays at about gnubg "Expert" level (0-ply) and wins ~47 % of 5-point matches against gnubg "World class" (2-ply), measured over 1236 matches
- written completely in MMBasic - no CSUB needed
- HDMI graphics (MODE 3) with smooth animation, plus an ASCII board on the serial terminal
- keyboard or USB mouse, multi-level undo, auto save and resume
- .mat export and GNUbg IDs for analysis in gnubg, optional sound
- for tinkerers: gnubg on a PC as opponent over WLAN, overnight test runs

Requirements
PC3 with firmware PicoMitePC3 V7.00.00 RC2 or later.

Installation
Unzip the ZIP onto the SD card, then:

CHDIR "B:/mmbg"
LOAD "mmbg_pc3.bas", C
RUN

The manual (English and German PDF) is included.

The version for the PicoCalc (PiCa) will follow ...

Have fun playing and testing! Please report all bugs here.

Matthias

MMbg_PC3.zip

Volhout

Guru

Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 6187

Posted: 05:07am 20 Oct 2026

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Wauw

Cant wait to Try it out.

Volhout
Edited 2026-10-20 15:07 by Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

PilotPirx

Senior Member

Joined: 03/11/2020
Location: Germany
Posts: 152

Posted: 07:20am 20 Oct 2026

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That's great,
I'm looking forward to the PicoCalc version.
Does it also require MMbasic V7?
If so, I'll have to update.

javavi

Guru

Joined: 01/10/2023
Location: Ukraine
Posts: 621

Posted: 05:45pm 21 Oct 2026

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Great,
I really liked your game. I lost five times in a row. It must have a really good built-in opponent, or maybe I'm just a bad player, probably because I've always played the Eastern version of backgammon. :))

By the way, is it possible to make a game using the rules of Eastern backgammon?

Thanks.

homa

Guru

Joined: 05/11/2021
Location: Germany
Posts: 718

Posted: 07:47pm 21 Oct 2026

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Hi Javavi,

Thanks a lot for your kind feedback! I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed playing the game (even if the AI gave you a tough time! :)).

To answer your question about adding Eastern backgammon rules: to be honest, I'm not familiar with all the specific details and variations of Eastern backgammon.

More importantly, the game's strong AI is based on the gnubg neural network, which was trained strictly on the standard Western rules. Teaching an AI to play Eastern backgammon would require building and training a whole new neural network from scratch for those specific rules.

That isn't something I am planning to pursue for this project right now. However, the code is open for anyone who would like to adapt it or implement those rules themselves!

Matthias

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