StanJr Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Now that I have both, I decided to sit down and actually play them for a minute (I am a glutton for punishment). And in playing, I noticed something odd. Both games FORCE you to make a jump if you can. ALL other moves are locked out, save for the jump. Is this a Checkers rule I do not know about? Secondly, I noticed that both games play EXTREMELY similar. So I was wondering, how similar are the codes for these games? Obvious graphic differences aside, are the sections of code governing the gameplay and AI nearly identical, or do they both take different paths to arrive at the same destination? Oh, and I am determined to beat the computer at BOTH of them. Stella is NOT better than me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 I always wondered why there needed to be 2 versions of Checkers for the Atari 2600. Did they both get worked on in unison and one or the other was hoping to get theirs to the market first? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 I'm not sure, but both games suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Yes it is a rule, you must jump if you are able to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 I think that both games came out at right about the same time. Neither game is fun, but at least Allan Miller was able to squeeze it into 2K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireTiger Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 tourny checkers forces jumps...home rules may or may not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Yeah I think official Checkers rules say jumps are mandatory. However kids playing it play however they want which of course is fine I wonder if pitted in a tournament who would win.. Activision vs. Atari Checkers.. Battle of the champions! Do either game allow you to choose black or white? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Activision's looks cooler, I refuse to play either game enough to decide which one has the better "feel." I doubt that it makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiggerthehun Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 It's my checkers, and I'll jump if I want to - jump if I want to - jump if I want to - you would jump too if the computer made you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Yeah I think official Checkers rules say jumps are mandatory. However kids playing it play however they want which of course is fine Not if you were me. I had rules made up for up to 4 crowns on a piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockman_x_2002 Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Now that I have both, I decided to sit down and actually play them for a minute (I am a glutton for punishment). And in playing, I noticed something odd. Both games FORCE you to make a jump if you can. ALL other moves are locked out, save for the jump. Is this a Checkers rule I do not know about? The official rules as stated by the back of my checkers board say that if you have a move resulting in a jump, then you must take the jump. If you fail to take a jump and your opponent catches you, then your opponent has the option of removing the offending checker from the board, called a "blow." Of course since the computer knows if you have a jump or not, then such an illegal move is impossible to make anyhow, so that throws the whole "blow" rule out the window unless you program it into the computer to allow illegal rules (and a random decision 80/20 as to whether or not to penalize for it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Now that I have both, I decided to sit down and actually play them for a minute (I am a glutton for punishment). And in playing, I noticed something odd. Both games FORCE you to make a jump if you can. ALL other moves are locked out, save for the jump. Is this a Checkers rule I do not know about? The official rules as stated by the back of my checkers board say that if you have a move resulting in a jump, then you must take the jump. If you fail to take a jump and your opponent catches you, then your opponent has the option of removing the offending checker from the board, called a "blow." Of course since the computer knows if you have a jump or not, then such an illegal move is impossible to make anyhow, so that throws the whole "blow" rule out the window unless you program it into the computer to allow illegal rules (and a random decision 80/20 as to whether or not to penalize for it). Yeah. They should code it as a sacrifice option. You CAN ignore the jump, but you'll lose hte piece that didn't jump. An option that can be to your advantage sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted July 31, 2004 Author Share Posted July 31, 2004 wow, I guess I learned something about Checkers today! Thanks, folks! As kids we never forced jumps, so this seemed odd to me. Thanks for all the info! @tigger, very cute, sir, very cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Posted August 2, 2004 Share Posted August 2, 2004 Stan, If you have 2 consoles you could pit the 2 game versions against each other. Head to head. Find out which one is king. Probably need to do a best of 7 series to be fair and alternate which one goes first. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockman_x_2002 Posted August 2, 2004 Share Posted August 2, 2004 Stan, If you have 2 consoles you could pit the 2 game versions against each other. Head to head. Find out which one is king. Probably need to do a best of 7 series to be fair and alternate which one goes first. Cheers! Or you could use an emulator for one game and then play the other on the actual console. Make the same moves on both versions of the game and see if any different strategies are used in the game's logic. If not, then I would presume that both games would make exactly the same moves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susuwatari Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Maybe someone here could hack one of the Checker and disable the forced jump to allow "home rule". I used to play a lot on Commodore PET and that version didn't have forced jump and didn't complain if I missed a potional jump. Useful for blocking your oppoment. My favorite is to leave 4 pieces all on the back row so your oppoment can't get crowned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 From what I understand, they were working on the games at the same time without knowing it. http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/v...deocheckers.htm Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Stan, If you have 2 consoles you could pit the 2 game versions against each other. Head to head. Find out which one is king. Probably need to do a best of 7 series to be fair and alternate which one goes first. Cheers! I've thought about doing this before. You could include Intellivision checkers also. Any other checker games out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted August 3, 2004 Author Share Posted August 3, 2004 Well, I FINALLY beat the both of them. And I can tell you, an aggressive strategy can completely shut down the AI in both games. They appear to play slightly differently, but they can be pretty easily defeated. I used the "take to the sides" strategy v. the Video Checkers AI and the "clear the middle" strategy on the Activision AI. I'm going to try switching strategies and see if that makes any difference. Why am I playing these games so much? To be honest, though, they aren't THAT bad if you just want to sit down to a game of checkers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 One interesting thing is Carol Shaw designed Video Checkers before going to Activision, while Alan Miller, one of the founders of Activision, did Checkers. So you could say they were both done by Activision programmers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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