Woooooohooo!! :D
I've started playing backgammon again. So far it was just my brother and me playing for fun, barely knowing the rules. And, well, it got a bit boring after a while – always checking the manual to figure out in which direction it's played and how the pieces are laid out. Plus, of course, the factor that a complete amateur playing against another complete amateur equals a pretty dull game. Therefore we haven't played it for years now.
And this is where technology comes in! :]
I searched a bit around for a decent free backgammon game client with a nice AI – and found it in GNU Backgammon (or just gnubg for short). It's quite a small package but packed with goodies like very customizable 2d and 3d boards, options like animations, shadows, tutorial mode, etc.
I can only suggest it to anyone who's a fan of backgammon or at least wants to give it a shot. I don't really understand the tutorial mode – well, except the part when it claims I'm a complete moron for doing that move – but I'm sure it's quite useful when you take time to read the manual. ;)
So, why am I so hyped up about it? Well, today's the first time I've beat the beginner AI (afer it kicking my arse very seriously the past dozen times or so).
hook out → left my Gentoo to update MySQL, gone studying and later on to work at CyberPipe