Hugh Sconyers’ HYPER-BACKGAMMON CD-ROM

CLASSIC BACKGAMMON

Backgammon, an exciting game of skill and luck, has been played worldwide for centuries. First versions appear to have been played by the Persians nearly 5,000 years ago. The game then spread westward across the Middle East. Backgammon boards, discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs and burial sites, date back as early as 1500 B.C. In the old city of Pompeii, archaeologists found a version of the game in virtually every Roman household. After the Crusades, backgammon became popular in Europe and England and was mentioned in literature by classic authors including Chaucer and Shakespeare.

In 1743, the rules and strategy were codified by Edmund Hoyle. Further edification to the terms of play were made in 1931 when the Card and Backgammon Committee of New York’s Racquet and Tennis Club created a set of official rules.

These rules were then adapted and revised by the International Backgammon Association. Today, backgammon is played by all ages and remains one of the world’s oldest and most popular board games. Every year the World Championship Backgammon Tournament is held in Monte Carlo, with the total prize money in excess of a quarter million dollars.

HYPER-BACKGAMMON

HYPER-BACKGAMMON is a derivative of Backgammon that was developed in recent years. HYPER-BACKGAMMON is much faster and in many ways more exciting than the original game. It has quickly acquired a sizable and enthusiastic following of players.

In classic backgammon, each player has fifteen pieces or men. Players alternate turns rolling the dice and moving their men in opposite directions around the board. In HYPER-GAMMON each player has only 3 men.

A WORD ABOUT YOUR HYPER-BACKGAMMON OPPONENT, THE COMPUTER

HYPER-BACKGAMMON was developed by Hugh Sconyers, a two-time world team backgammon player. To acquire the data, Mr. Sconyers programmed a computer to calculate all the equities for every possible combination of men and doubling cube when playing HYPER-BACKGAMMON. Two years later, the computer had determined the best play for over 32,176,875 different scenarios. When playing against the computer, you are facing a most imposing opponent. If your score is plus or minus by only a small amount after a large number of games, you should consider quitting your day job and start touring the professional backgammon circuit!

The Windows interface allows you to see the exact equities for the four cube positions. In addition, it displays the best move for any roll. The data is correct to ±0.05%.