The following is a report on my C# program, WinOthello. I designed it for my Artificial Intelligence course in November 2006.
Download (57 KB) the game or the source code (85 KB).
Provided under a permissive open source license.
.NET Framework 2.0 required.Abstract
As an exploration of artificial intelligence and particularly game state space search, I developed WinOthello to simulate Othello games. This application allows human and computer players to interact with a virtual game board displayed on the user's screen. The primary objective of WinOthello was to devise an adept computer player that proves challenging to average human players. This goal was achieved via a depth-limited
minimax search of the game space and quickened with the application of
alpha-beta pruning.
What is Othello?Othello is a strategic two-person board game. Players take turns placing pieces on an eight-by-eight board. Each piece has two distinct faces: a light face and a dark face. The first player is designated the dark player and places pieces on the board dark side up. The second player is the light player and places pieces light side up. Pieces can only be placed in positions that outflank the opponent's pieces. Outflanking occurs when a player places a piece that causes a contiguous line of one or more of the opponent's pieces to be bounded by the player's pieces. All of the opponent's outflanked pieces are then flipped over, and the turn ends. If a player can not place a piece, then play passes to the other player. The game ends when neither player can place any more pieces. The player with the most corresponding pieces on the board at the end of the game wins.
