Console Backgammon (C / ncurses) - First Project (2023)

A terminal-based implementation of the classic board game Backgammon, written in pure C. This project was created as my first major programming assignment (2023). It demonstrates fundamental concepts of low-level programming, including pointer arithmetic, memory management, and procedural logic implementation without the aid of Object-Oriented paradigms.

Features

• Player vs Computer AI: Play against a basic algorithmic opponent that evaluates moves based on game state.
• Rules Implementation: Full validation of Backgammon moves, including hitting logic, bar re-entry, and bearing off.
• Save/Load System: Ability to serialize the game state to a file and resume gameplay later.
• Visuals: Text-based user interface (TUI) utilizing the ncurses library for rendering the board in the terminal.

Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get a copy of the project up and running on your local machine.

Prerequisites

To run this project, you need a C compiler and the Ncurses library.

• Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

  sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev

• macOS:

  brew install ncurses

• Windows: Recommended to run via WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) or using a compatability layer like PDcurses with MinGW.

Compilation & Execution

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/your-username/console-backgammon.git](https://github.com/your-username/console-backgammon.git)
   cd console-backgammon

2. Compile the code:

   gcc main.c -o backgammon -lncurses

3. Run the game:

   ./backgammon

Controls

Once the game is running, you can use the following keys to interact with the menu and gameplay:

Key	Action	Description
M	Move	Roll the dice and start your turn.
N	New Game	Reset the board and start a new match.
S	Save	Save current game state to save_file.txt.
L	Load	Load game state from save_file.txt.
Q	Quit	Exit the application.

Gameplay Input: When asked for a move, type the column number (e.g., 06 or 24) to select the pawn, and then the destination column.

Author

Lukasz Swiecicki

• Year 2023
• Project created as part of University coursework.
• Focus: C Programming, Algorithms, Data Structures.