BACKGAMMON(6)

🎲 BACKGAMMON 💅

okay so this is the backgammon(6) page from the Games Manual, and bestie, it's literally the whole vibe — you play backgammon against the computer or against a "friend" (the quotes are doing a LOT of work there, iykyk). There's also teachgammon if you're like… brand new. We love a beginner-friendly moment. ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

backgammon — the game of backgammon, fr fr

teachgammon — learn to play backgammon 🧚

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

backgammon [-] [-nrwb] [-pr] [-pw] [-pb] [-t term] [-s file]
teachgammon

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So this program lets you play backgammon against the computer, or against a "friend" 👀. Every command is just one letter, so you literally don't need to type a carriage return — except at the end of a move, where you do. Sorry, that's the rule.

The program is mostly self-explanatory, so a question mark (?) will usually get you some help. Iconic behaviour, honestly.

If you answer y when it asks whether you want the rules, you get the whole package:

• text explaining the rules of the game
• some hints on strategy
• instructions on how to use the program
• and a tutorial that's a practice game against the computer 🎀

And if you just want to know how to use the program? Answer y when it asks if you want instructions. Two different questions, bestie. Don't mix them up.

The possible arguments for backgammon (most are unnecessary but some are very convenient, slay) consist of:

• -n — don't ask for rules or instructions
• -r — player is red (implies n)
• -w — player is white (implies n)
• -b — two players, red and white (implies n)
• -pr — print the board before red's turn
• -pw — print the board before white's turn
• -pb — print the board before both player's turn
• -t term — terminal is type term, uses /usr/share/misc/termcap
• -s file — recover previously saved game from file

Any unrecognized arguments are just ignored 🙈. And an argument of a lone - gets you a description of possible arguments — like a little menu, we love a menu.

⭐ Now the important part: if term has capabilities for direct cursor movement (see termcap(5)), backgammon "fixes" the board after each move, so the board doesn't need to be reprinted — unless the screen suffers some horrendous malady 💀. Also, any p option will be ignored in that case. (The t option isn't necessary unless the terminal type doesn't match the entry in the /usr/share/misc/termcap data base.)

---

🔥 QUICK REFERENCE 🔥

When the program prompts by typing only your color, type a space or carriage return to roll, or:

• d — to double
• p — to print the board
• q — to quit
• s — to save the game for later

When the program prompts with Move:, type:

• p — to print the board
• q — to quit
• s — to save the game

…or a move, which is a sequence of:

• s-f — move from s to f
• s/r — move one man on s the roll r separated by commas or spaces and ending with a newline

Available abbreviations are:

• s-f1-f2 — means s-f1,f1-f2
• s/r1r2 — means s/r1,s/r2

Use b for bar and h for home, or 0 or 25 as appropriate. 🎀

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Alan Char

---

🦋 FILES 🦋

• /usr/bin/teachgammon — rules and tutorial
• /usr/share/misc/termcap — terminal capabilities

---

💀 BUGS 💀

The program's strategy needs much work. 😭 That's it. That's the bug report. No cap.

---

✨ cute little sign-off ✨

This page came from the Debian crew, dated May 31, 1993 — a whole vintage moment, honestly, and it still ate. 🫶 Go roll some dice, bestie. 💜