Othello for Newton v1.00
Copyright 1994 by Michael Maciag
All Rights Reserved

THE RULES OF OTHELLO

Othello is a two-person game played on an eight-by-eight square board.
The objective of the game is to have more pieces of your color, one player
plays black - the other white, on the board at the end of the game.

All games start with two black pieces and two white pieces placed in
standard positions in the middle of the board. The players alternate
turns with Black moving first. A player has a maximum of 30 minutes to
make all moves, time being kept from the completion of the opponents move
to the completion of the players move

A player can legally move a piece onto a square on the board if the square
is empty and if the new piece brackets one of more of the opponents pieces.
Bracketed pieces are flipped to the player's color. If a player has no legal
moves during a turn they must pass.

The game is over when neither player has a legal move or when either player's
move time expires. If a player's time has expired the opposite player wins
the game. Otherwise, the player with the greatest number of pieces on the
board wins.


THE OTHELLO FOR NEWTON DISPLAY

The Othello for Newton ('OFN') display consists of general items and current
game items. The general items are the OFN Title bar, and the New, Prefs, About,
Action and Close controls. The Title bar can be used to drag the OFN window around
the screen of the Newton. The New button creates a new game to be played. Prefs 
displays the Preferences slip described below. The About button opens a view
containing brief descriptions of OFN. The Action button allows deletion, 
duplication and movement to a different store of the current game.

The current game specific items on the OFN display are grouped into Black player
information on the left side of the display, White player information on the right
side and non-player specific information in the middle.

The first non-player specific game item on the OFN display is the Game Name which is
found near the top of the display. The Game Name consists of a sequentially assigned
game number and the date and time the game was created.

Beneath the Game Name is the actual Game Board with the playing pieces placed upon it.
Beneath the Game Board is the Advisory Message area where current status and game
event messages are displayed.

On each side of the OFN display the following items are displayed for each player.
The Player Color is displayed at the top followed by the chosen Player Name (see below).
Then the Player Score, i.e. the number of the player's pieces currently on
the board, is shown.

Below the Player Score is the Player Clock showing the time remaining to that player.
Finally, a graphical representation of the Player Piece Tray is found along the side of
the Game Board illustrating the number of player's pieces yet to be played.


HOW TO PLAY OTHELLO FOR NEWTON

Each game of OFN begins with game characteristics taken from the current game 
preference settings. These settings can be examined or changed at any time by 
pressing the Prefs button which will display the Preferences slip.

The key settings are selection of who, or what, will play each side in a game.
The first player option selects the Newton operator to play the side. When this
option is chosen the player's name can be entered into the Preferences slip.

The second and third player options instructs OFN to play the side. With the
second option the program will play more quickly, but less skillfully, than it
would with the third option selected.

In addition to player selections, an option to turn the Newton sleep preference to
'never' during the game, allowing the game board and clocks to remain displayed during
periods of inactivity, and an option to have the program accompany game actions with
sound effects can be set.

Once game preference settings are set, a new game can begun by pressing the New 
button. This creates a new game in an initial state. Pressing the Start button
begins play with black to play first. If a human is playing the black side, black's
clock will countdown until either the player makes a legal move by clicking on
an empty square or the clock shows no time remaining. If a legal move is made
the opposite side gets a turn, unless they have no possible legal moves upon which
condition they are forced to pass.

The game may be paused at any time by pressing the Pause button and resumed 
thereafter by presing Resume. When the program is closed, by clicking the close
box or opening another (full-screen) program, the game currently underway is
automatically paused. When the program is started the game underway when the
program was last closed is redisplayed and can be resumed by pressing Resume.
When the program is started the first time after being installed a first game
is automatically created and placed in an initial state.

When a new game is created the current game, either unstarted, paused or finished,
is stored. Stored games can be retrieved by scrolling up or down or by selection
in overview mode which can be displayed by pressing the overview button. Games can
be deleted by selecting the delete option of the Action button. Games can be deleted
by selecting the delete option of the Action button. Both of these action are
undoable.

Pressing Undo anytime after a game move will backout the last human move. Note that
when OFN is your opponent that means that Undo will first backout OFN's move if
OFN made a move before you pressed Undo.

When OFN is playing a side and considering a move it may take just a few seconds,
at the beginner level, or it may take over a minute, at the intermediate level.
(This version of OFN does not offer an advanced level since that would require
many minutes to select one move. The future NewtonScript compiler should allow
an advanced level of play to be offered in future versions of OFN.)
To provide feedback during it's possibly lengthy move deliberations OFN will 
display a progress indicator on the side it is playing. To provide responsiveness
to the person operating the Newton it will periodically check for input which
allows you to request any action during a move deliberation. If your request
requires a stable state to be reached in OFN (e.g. creating a new game, closing
OFN) then a dialog will be displayed asking you if you wish to allow OFN to
complete it's move or whether it's deliberations should be immediately cancelled.
Note: Because of the significant difficulty in interupting a key calculation 
during the intermediate mode deliberations, user input during those deliberations
may not be responded to for up to two seconds. The input WILL eventually be
recognized, the command need not be repeated. This problem will be corrected 
in a subsequent version of OFN.



PLAY POINTERS

Different lines of play can be investigated by duplicating the current game and
then playing the different lines with those two games. Of course, any individual
move you make can be backed out with Undo as described above.

You can select OFN to play both sides of a game and thereby simply watch a
complete game progress.


FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The availability of the forthcoming NewtonScript compiler will provide 
significantly higher levels of play by OFN. Also under consideration for
incorporation into future versions of OFN are:

	.Newton to Newton Play
		The ability to play OFN against a (human?) opponent on another
		Newton utilizing beaming or NewtonMail.
		
	.Game Move History Review with WalkBack and WalkForward
		This will allow you to "slide" through the previous moves
		if a game, displaying the playing board at each point if
		desired. A game can be reversed, or forwarded, to any point
		to explore alternative lines of play.
		
	.Move Suggestion and Explanation
		OFN will suggest moves for human players and (try) to explain
		why it chosen a certain move. (The usefulness of the explain function
		will be questionable since current Othello computer players utilize
		a very different approach to selecting a move than human players
		do.)

Also, additional games are being investigated for possible implemention in
the Newton environment. One game under consideration is Go, which requires a very 
different approach to computer game playing techniques than that used in OFN.
Another, extremely ambitous, idea is to develop a version of Diplomacy. Just one
of the characteristics of Diplomacy that would make it very challenging to 
implement is the fact that it involves more than two players, each of whom
must "negotiate" with other players to achive victory.


Of course, when you register your copy of OFN, you will be able to comment on
these possible future enhancements and new products as well as suggest some 
of your own.


Michael Maciag