I have developed an entirely free and open source multiplayer backgammon service.

You can try it out by visiting https://bgammon.org or by connecting via SSH:

ssh bgammon.org -p 5000

I would very much appreciate help with testing and feedback from anyone who knows how to play backgammon, or is interested in learning. The rules of backgammon are available here:

https://bkgm.com/rules.html

The password prompt is currently non-functional, and private lobbies are not yet available. Otherwise, the service is ready to test out, particularly the accuracy of the backgammon simulation. Because there are no accounts yet, everyone is logged in as a guest.

A terminal-based client is available, and a graphical client is planned. The terminal-based client is available over the web at the link above. This is accomplished by using GoTTY.

Move pieces by dragging them or by clicking a source space and then a destination space. You may make multiple moves by dragging a checker directly to its final destination.

Source code:

• Server: https://code.rocketnine.space/tslocum/bgammon
• Client: https://code.rocketnine.space/tslocum/bgammon-cli

Feel free to contact me directly at trevor@rocket9labs.com with test results and feedback.

After the massive downgrade of Galaxy I appreciate every try to make something new.
But I am afraid as long as checkers are represented by X and O that won't attract many players.
I get a feeling of FIBS nostalgia but I think younger generations request checkers in 2 colours
as a bare minimum.

I'm curious how you intend to deal with cheaters

Thanks. I agree, color is needed to make it appealing to most people. Right now it's a very basic text-based client, I will be starting on a proper graphical client this evening, which will make use of color.

By cheaters, you mean people who use an engine to calculate the best move, right? There isn't any rigorous protection against cheaters in that regard yet, but I have tried to not incentivize people to cheat in any way as there aren't any prizes or points to be won.

Yeah that's precisely what I meant, and well, people will cheat because they can. Chess.com has to ban cheaters all the time, at all ranks.

yeah like the ones on www.zooescape.com who change the url from, say,

https://zooescape.com/backgammon.pl?...777&rng=987654
to

https://zooescape.com/backgammon.pl?...777&rng=987123

Just keep doing that until your dice fit.

I have just released the first version of the graphical client, featuring color!

Try it out and let me know what you think.

https://play.bgammon.org

I only get an empty page apart from:

First line: "loading ..."
Last line: "connecting ..."

It stays like this long-term.

Thanks for letting me know, this should be fixed now. You may need to refresh the page to get the new version.

The board is OK now. But I couldn't play because I was the only one there. I also haven't figured out yet where to set the number of points for the match.

The good news is I have just added support for playing matches worth more than one point, and have added the doubling cube as a new feature. Check it out and let me know what you think!

The bad news is... We have to tell more people about bgammon.org or there won't be anyone else to play.

The following major new features and changes have recently been released:

- Sound effects were added
- Support for additional languages was added
- Click-to-move support was added
- Legal moves highlight feature was added
- Spectating matches is now supported
- Pip counts are now displayed
- Mobile device support has been optimized

The first AI opponent, wildbg is also now available (look for “BOT_wildbg’s match”). wildbg is written in Rust, and is powered by neural networks. Can you beat it?

Join the bgammon.org community via Discord, Matrix or IRC at https://bgammon.org/community

It allowed me to bear off although I didn't have all checkers in my homeboard.

Some feedback:

Here are some absolute must-haves before I would play here:

• Forced moves should be played automatically with no action on my part.
• Similarly, if I do not have cube access, the dice should be automatically rolled for me.
• After the match is over, the match file should be made available for download.

Some suggestions:

• Point numbers are always numbered from the perspective of the person on roll. For example, when a player makes their five point with an opening 31 roll, that's annotated 8/5 6/5. However, on your site, when one's opponent does this, it's displayed as 17/20 19/20, which is not the accepted standard in backgammon.
• The animation of my opponent feels a little slow.

Nice job so far, well done.

JLee

Thanks, this should be resolved now.

Thanks for your feedback. I am glad to say that I have addressed several points, dice are now automatically rolled when possible and matches are now available for replay and download. I will look into the rest of your feedback when I find the time.

You will want to change the format of the match download to be accessible by ExtremeGammon, otherwise the download isn't much good.

JLee

There have been some new big changes recently, including:

- Play forced moves automatically
- Add checker animation speed setting
- Support advanced checker movement
- Support flipping board
- Support playing tabula games

The advanced checker movement and animation setting should make fast paced games much more comfortable.

I tried it and here's my feedback:

1) Obviously, not a lot of players to play against. Not much you can do about that.
2) I think I prefer the mechanics of XG for moving checkers although I do like the fact that you can move both dice with one checker at once.
3) Needs to have ability to export games. Maybe it does but I haven't figured out how.

Thanks. Will you please elaborate on #2? Did you try "Advanced checker movement" in settings? It enables single and double click movement that I hear is used in programs like GnuBG.

Exporting games is supported, when you are logged in games are automatically saved to your account and can be viewed by clicking the "History" button after logging in. Guests can also export games by typing "/download" when after finishing a match.