“Several game levels will allow you to discover the Othello game or to become a champion
The Othello game is a strategy board game like chess or checkers. The rules are very simple: the two players put down alternately black and white disks on the board. When you put down a disk of your own color, you must trap one or more opponent’s disks between the new disk and an existing one of your own color. The trapped disks become yours and take your own color. The object is to have as many disks as possible at the end of the game.
If you want more details about the Othello’s rules, you can easily find them on the Web, or you can learn them experimentally by playing with this program.
The game was named Othello in reference to Shakespeare’s well known play. I named my program Athalie in reference to the famous French playwriter Racine’s play.
The main characteristics of Athalie are:
- seven game levels,
- two user interfaces that can be used either independently or simultaneously,
- a replay mode allowing you to change a move or the game level, to reverse the roles or to review the game,
- two players mode,
- display of allowed squares when it is player’s turn,
- stopwatches for the two competitors (only on OLED display).
The game
Othello is a well-known game. It has its own federation and its own championships. It has the rare particularity that some programs can beat the best human players because of the difficulty in imagining the state of the board after several moves. Athalie is far from this level, but it can help you to progress to a fairly good level.
If you are a beginner, here are the two main tips to follow to improve your strategy:
- try to limit your opponent’s possible moves and increase yours. To do so, it is a good idea to limit the number of your disks, except at the end of the game,
- try to occupy the corner squares.”