Retro Backgammon 1.0.4

Retro Backgammon 1.0.4: the Speed setting on both boards.

• Speed in the menu on the 4-inch board too: Slow / Normal / Fast / Off, tap to cycle; remembered on the board. The 4-inch starts on Slow (its pace so far), the 7-inch on Normal.
• A roomier menu: five rows of two - Undo step, New game, Undo move, Hint, Resign, Claim win, Speed, Reset score, Calibrate touch (4-inch only) and Close.

Install without building anything

• Browser: the Install button on https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-backgammon.html#install (Chrome or Edge, board plugged in by USB) - it recognises the board and installs the right file.
• esptool:
  • 4-inch: esptool.py --chip esp32 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.4-e32r40t.bin
  • 7-inch: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.4-ws7.bin (use the board's USB socket)

Installing the full image resets the 4-inch board's touch calibration: touch the four corners when asked.

Created by Chris Whittington. Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Retro Backgammon 1.0.3

Retro Backgammon 1.0.3: a second, bigger board, and smoother play.

New board: Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7 - a 7-inch, 800x480 capacitive touch screen. The same game, scaled up to the bigger screen, with no touch calibration. Firmware: retro-backgammon-1.0.3-ws7.bin.

On both boards

• Faster screen: a full redraw takes about 0.09 s (it was about 0.35 s on the 4-inch board).
• Easier moves: when only one checker can move - always so with one on the bar - it's selected for you and its targets light up; you can also tap a destination directly when only one checker can reach it. After a move the same checker stays selected if it can go on (doubles).
• Roll, DONE, pass and NEW GAME: the whole tray column is the button now - taps just below the dice used to be missed.
• Quicker CPU turns and dice roll, an opening-roll animation for a new game, and the CPU's move no longer plays underneath a Take / Drop dialog.

7-inch board

• A Speed setting in the menu (Slow / Normal / Fast / Off), remembered on the board.

Install without building anything

• Browser: the Install button on https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-backgammon.html#install (Chrome or Edge, board plugged in by USB) - it recognises the board and installs the right file.
• esptool:
  • 4-inch: esptool.py --chip esp32 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.3-e32r40t.bin
  • 7-inch: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.3-ws7.bin (use the board's USB socket)

Installing the full image resets the 4-inch board's touch calibration: touch the four corners when asked.

Created by Chris Whittington. Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Retro Backgammon 1.0.2

Retro Backgammon 1.0.2: claiming a win, and a faster screen.

• Claim win (menu): ask the CPU to concede a single, gammon or backgammon. It concedes if you'd expect at least that much by playing on; otherwise it says what you expect and offers the most it would concede, or refuses if you aren't clearly winning.
• Reasons and counter-offers when resigning: a refused resignation now says what the CPU expects from playing on, and offers the smallest resignation it would accept - or you can play on.
• Better judgement: once your move is done, or you can't move, the CPU judges a resignation or claim from the actual position with itself on roll.
• About 3.5x faster full-screen redraws (roughly 1.2 s down to 0.35 s), so the menu, dialogs and the start of the CPU's turn respond much sooner; the look is unchanged.

Install without building anything

• Browser: the Install button on https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-backgammon.html#install (Chrome or Edge, board plugged in by USB).
• esptool: esptool.py --chip esp32 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.2-e32r40t.bin

Installing the full image resets the touch calibration: touch the four corners when asked.

Created by Chris Whittington. Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Retro Backgammon 1.0.1

Retro Backgammon 1.0.1: smoother play.

• Instant handover: when you tap the dice to finish your turn, the CPU's dice start rolling straight away (about half a second sooner).
• Smoother animation in crowded positions: checker moves now redraw at around 70 frames a second where they had dropped to about 20.
• Dice stay on show: the last dice remain in the tray at the end of a game (NEW GAME blinks under them) and until the opening roll of the next one, instead of the tray going blank.

Install without building anything

• Browser: the Install button on https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-backgammon.html#install (Chrome or Edge, board plugged in by USB).
• esptool: esptool.py --chip esp32 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.1-e32r40t.bin

Installing the full image resets the touch calibration: touch the four corners when asked.

Created by Chris Whittington. Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE and NOTICE.

Retro Backgammon 1.0.0

First release of Retro Backgammon: the Backgammon-NN neural network as a playable game on the 4.0-inch ESP32-32E touch-screen board (E32R40T).

Install without building anything

• Browser: the Install button on https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-backgammon.html#install (Chrome or Edge, board plugged in by USB).
• esptool: esptool.py --chip esp32 write_flash 0x0 retro-backgammon-1.0.0-e32r40t.bin

On first start, touch the four corners when asked, to calibrate the screen.

In the game: tap-to-move with legal-move highlights, animated dice and checkers, the doubling cube (money play), move and cube hints, undo, resigning, and a running score.

Created by Chris Whittington. Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE and NOTICE.