Version 1.4 6/6/04 | | | | | | _____ | ________________________________ |/ \| / \ | | / I guarantee this guide is more \ | O O | | fun than a barrel of monkeys! | | _\ | \ ...because I don't like monkeys. / | ___ | \________________________________/ \ \_/ / \___/ Backgammon Walkthrough by The Lost Gamer (ilovecartoonssomuch@yahoo.com) http://the_lost_gamer.tripod.com/ Copyright 2004 For the latest version of this guide, check http://the_lost_gamer.tripod.com/guides.html Table of Contents: 001. General information 002. How to Play Backgammon 003. Playing This Game 004. Credits 001-General Information ----------------------------------------------------------- This is a walkthrough for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game called Backgammon. To contact me, e-mail ilovecartoonssomuch@yahoo.com, but make the subject blank if you do. 002-How to Play Backgammon ----------------------------------------------------------- This is how to play backgammon in general. The board will look like the following diagram. Each of The positions (in reality, they are isoceles triangles) are numbered. White and red refer to whose side of the board it is, the person controlling the red pieces has the top side and the person controlling the white pieces has the bottom side. | \12/\11/\10/\9/\8/\7/ | | \6/\5/\4/\3/\2/\1/ | red __ | -- -- -- - - - | | - - - - - - | | || |B| | |64|| Outer Table |A| Home Table | |__|| |R| | | __ __ __ _ _ _ | | _ _ _ _ _ _ | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white The pieces (each player has fifteen) are sorted as follows: On 1, each player has two pieces on their opponent's side. On 6, each player has five pieces on their side. On 8, each player has three pieces on their side. On 12, each player has five pieces on their opponent's side. Red pieces move in a clockwise direction. White pieces move in a counter-clockwise direction. Note that no piece can move past one of the two 1 spots. The two players roll dice. The player who rolls a higher number wins (in the event of a tie, the stakes are doubled and they roll again). The starting player rolls two dice. The two numbers the dice show are the length of that person's turn. For example, if player A rolls a 3 and a 6, player A can move any one of his pieces 3 or 6 spaces (player A can even move one piece 3 spaces, and then move that piece 6 spaces). If a person rolls a double (which means the two dice are the same number), he or she can make four turns. For example, if player B rolls two threes, player B can move four pieces three spaces. The limitation to moving is that you can't move to a spot if two or more of your opponent's pieces are on that spot. If only one of your opponent's pieces are on a spot, that is called a "blot". If you land on an enemy blot, the piece on that blot is taken away, and put on the bar. It can only reenter on a free spot on the opponent's side of the board. You can't move with one of your pieces on the bar. Here's an example from a game played between two players, Dilbert and Wally. Dilbert is playing as white (his pieces are O's), and Wally is playing as red (his pieces are X's). Here's what the bottom right of the board looks like: |B| O O | |A| O X O _ O _ | |R| /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white Dilbert rolls a one and a two. He moves both of his pieces that are on the six spot. The board then looks like this: | | O O | |X| _ O O _ O _ | | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white Since Dilbert landed on one of Wally's blots, Wally's blot is moved onto the bar. This is bad news for Wally, because Wally needs to get that piece back on the board. It's against the rules for Wally to make any moves with one of his pieces on the bar. So how does Wally get his piece back on the board? Easy. Next time Wally rolls the dice, he will have two numbers. Let's say he rolls a 4 and a 2. He can put his piece on the board on the 4 spot or the 2 spot. Since Wally is playing as red, he can only put it on the 4 or 2 spot on the white side of the table (a blot can only reenter the game on the opponent's side of the table). But wait! If we look at the board, Dilbert has two pieces on spots 4 and 2. Wally can't move to those spots because you can't land on a spot with two or more of your opponent's pieces on it. So Wally can't get back on the board. This means he can't move because you cannot move with a piece on the bar. So Wally's turn is over because he can't move. Tough luck, Wally. On Wally's next turn, he gets a 5 and a 2. Dilbert has a blot on spot 5, so Wally moves there and hits it. Now the tables have turned! Now Dilbert is stuck with a piece on the bar, while Wally is free to move whatever piece he wants. Now I'll talk about the doubling cube, the cube that says 64 and is to the left of the board. The doubling cube has six sides (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64). At any point in a game, a player can, before moving, flip the cube to 2. You do this by pressing select. If a double is denied, the person who denied it forfeits the game and loses a unit. If it is accepted, the game continues and the winner will get twice as many units for winning. If your opponent requests a double, you can immediately Redouble. This is called a "beaver". Now onto winning the game. Let's go back the game between Dilbert and Wally. After several more turns, the part of the board we're looking at looks like this: | | O |B| O O O O |A| O O O O O | |R| O O O _ O O | | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white Dilbert has all fifteen of his pieces on his side, to the right of the bar. Now he can do a process known as "bearing off". He can remove pieces from the board, depending on what numbers he rolls. For example, let's say he rolls a piece 6 and a 3. Since Dilbert rolled a 6, he can take one of his pieces on the 6 spot off of the board. Since he also rolled a 3, Dilbert must move one of his pieces 3 spots. He cannot take away one of the pieces on 1 or 2 (a rule I don't like). If Dilbert gets all of his pieces off before Wally gets a single piece off, this is called a "gammon", and Dilbert gets twice as much credit. If he gets a gammon and Wally has a piece either on the bar or in Dilbert's home table, this is called "backgammon" and Dilbert gets three times as much credit. Once Dilbert gets rid of all of his pieces, he wins the game. Congratulations to Dilbert. A Note on Blots --------------- This might seem obvious, but it's a good thing to mention anyway. I'll make my point by going back to the game between Dilbert and Wally. |B| O O | |A| O X _ _ O _ | |R| /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Dilbert has a blot on 4. It's safe from being hit, because all of Wally's pieces (the X's) have moved past it. Say Dilbert gets a 1 and a 5. He moves his pieces on spot 6. | | O | |X| _ O _ _ O O | | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Now Dilbert has 2 open blots, and Wally has a chance to reenter the game on either of those blots. Not cool! That's the danger of blots...you can't hit a blot without creating a blot. I recommending using one of your moves to hit a blot, and using the second move to put another piece on the blot you created. Blocking -------- Blocking is a good strategy. It involves preventing your opponent from making any moves. Let's use an example, where I'm playing against Dilbert, the reigning backgammon champion. I'm white, he's red. | | | O | | X O O | | O O x | | X_ __ __ O O O | | O O _ _ _ X | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Here, since the board looks like this, it's a good idea if I pull a blocking strategy. Notice how my pieces are arranged. I've almost got the 9-5 spots covered. This is key. I roll a two and a four. Yes! I move the 8 blot and a 6 piece so the board looks like: | X O O | | O O O x | | X_ __ __ O _ O | | O O O _ _ X | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Now I have the 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 spots blocked. Dilbert can't land on them. Which means, in order to get past them, which he has to do if he wants to win, Dilbert will have to roll at least a 5. Dilbert's in a bad position now. If he moves one of his two pieces on 1, it will have to be to 2 or 3, because I've blocked all of the other possible moves. And from there, Dilbert has to land on 8, because I've blocked all the other moves. To state that another way, Dilbert has to roll a 1-6 or a 2-5 to get past my blockade. That's bad news for Dilbert. To further show how cool the blockade is, let's say that Dilbert gets lucky and gets a 1-6 or 2-5. The board will look like this. | X O O | | O O O | | X_ __ __ O X O | | O O O _ _ X | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Now Dilbert has two blots, which is not good for him. Even worse, one of the blots is one point eight. What would happen if I hit that blot and established a point there? The board would look like this: | X O O O |X| O O O | | X_ __ __ O O O | | O O O _ _ X | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Now I have a blockade of six points in a row. There is no possible way for Dilbert to get past that, because a six is the highest that a person can roll. This is known as a "prime". Now I simply bring my other pieces into this area, hopefully setting up more points as I go along. Here is the other kind of block, which is very cool if you ever get it. |B| O O O O O | |A| O X O O O O | |R| /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side This block seems useless. Four of the spaces I've blocked are 1, 2, 3, and 4. Dilbert couldn't land on them if he wanted to! But let's say I managed to hit Dilbert's blot on 5, and I establish that point. | | O O O O O O | |X| O O O O O O | | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side Dilbert is screwed now! He can't get back into the game! Now I can do whatever I want with my remaining pieces! This is known as a "closed board". Keep in mind that I don't have to already have a big blockade on the table to get something like that. For example, if I had something like this: | X O | | O O O | | X_ _O __ O O _ |X| O O O _ _ _ | | /12\/11\/10\/9\/8\/7\ | | /6\/5\/4\/3\/2\/1\ | white side I could pull off a block like that with a little luck. As long as Dilbert doesn't roll a 1, 2, or 3, it will be my turn without him having moved any of his pieces. That's a 50% chance. If that happens, say, twice in a row, I can easily slip my pieces into position to set up a blockade there. 003-Playing This Game ----------------------------------------------------------- Start the game. Press start. Three options pop up. From top to bottom, they are: New Game, Continue, and Options. These are discussed in the following starred paragraphs. * Continue leads you to a password screen, which lets you continue a previous game by entering the password you got. * Options lets you mess around with some options. Use right/left to change a setting, and use up/down to select a setting. The settings are music (turn it on or off), sound effects (turn it on or off), music (select which music gets played; choose which of five tracks you want played or have the game randomly choose one for you), move display (turn this on or off; when you pick up a piece, the possible places you can put it are marked; by turning off this, you won't see the possible moves displayed), speech (before a game, your opponents talk to you; turn this off or on), exit (select this to get out of options). * New game leads you to another menu, in which you can select tournament mode, opponent mode, normal mode, or rule setting. These are discussed in the following paragraphs (denoted by "O"'s) o Rule Setting gives you even more options to mess around with. You can mess around with end scoring, doubling, jacoby rule, beaver, auto double, times, and exit. End scoring is not too useful as the main part of this game has predetermined end scoring. Whatever. When you're playing against someone, you don't win the match by winning the game; you win the match by getting the required amount of units. Use end scoring to change the required amount to 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, or 25. Doubling (doubling the stakes of a game) can be turned on or off. This nullifies the Jacoby rule, beavers, and auto doubling. The Jacoby rule states that a gammon or backgammon does not count unless the doubling cube has been used. Turn this on or off. Beaver can be turned on/off, which means you can or can't use the doubling cube immediately after your opponent has. Auto double is an interesting option. Remember, when the game starts and each player rolls a die, there can be a tie. When this happens, the stakes of the game get doubled. They double every time this happens, and remember that this can happen multiple times in a row. You can turn this off. Times is the second part of the auto double function. Since the doubling of the stakes can happen multiple times, you can select how many times (1-6). Exit lets you exit rule setting. o Normal mode sets you up against another player. If another person is connected to your NES, that person is player two. Otherwise, you control both players one and two (the idea is that you and your opponent trades the controller after each move). o Tournament mode is the main part of the game. You enter a world-wide backgammon tournament. You have to beat six opponents to win the tournament. Here's a nice chart of your opponents: Number | Sex | Age | Points Needed to Win ----------------------------------------- 1 | M | 31 | 3 2 | F | 16 | 5 3 | M | 27 | 7 4 | F | 11 | 9 5 | F | 26 | 15 6 | M | 68 | 25 The points (needed to win) are given to the winner of a game. Each win gives the winner one point, though, of course, you can use the doubling cube and/or get a (back)gammon to increase the stakes of a game. After winning the tournament, the backgammon computer challenges you to a match that requires 30 points to win. o Opponent mode lets you choose which of the people in the tournament you want to play against. The standard rules (no doubling, preset end points) are nullified. 004-Credits ----------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is copyright of The Lost Gamer, 2004. If you want to use any part of this FAQ, ask me first (instructions under general information)