Reversi - Version History

Reversi Applet

This list gives an overview of the evolution of my little Reversi applet.

Version 2.4 - Aug 05, 2000
Moved the applet to my new web space. Bundled as a JAR file. New features in the user interface:
Aug 06, 2000:
Aug 07, 2000:
Version 2.3 - Nov 25, 1997
Previous versions got mighty confused when multiple instances of the applet ran within the same browser. (For instance, if you opened two windows in Netscape, both running the applet.) This should work fine now.

Dec 3, 1997:
Apr 12, 1999:
Version 2.2 - Nov 17, 1997
I noticed that some people (in particular, one person calling itself "c.x.") filled the high-score list with their entries, crowding everyone else out. Since I didn't like this, I changed the applet and my CGI scripts to retain only the three best entries of a particular player.

Nov 20, 1997:
Version 2.1 - Nov 14, 1996
New additional component in the evaluation function: in the middle game, the applet now also considers mobility per region of the board. Seems to make it play slightly better except on level "Easy".

Nov 15, 1996:
Apr 05, 1997:
Version 2.0 - Oct 12, 1996
Major improvements: speed tuning (the game engine isn't object-oriented anymore, which alone brings a speed improvement of about 50%), corrected some bugs in the algorithm and the table of edge configurations, improved the evaluation function. The applet also displays its moves one after the other when the user has to pass instead of showing them all at once. (This behavior in V1.4 was due to threading problems of Java implementations on Solaris 2.5.)

Oct 17, 1996:
Oct 26, 1996:
Oct 30, 1996:
Version 1.4 - Sep 26, 1996
Added option to let the computer play black, i.e. to make it make the first move. Cleaned up interface (centering of strings). Displays the search depth for each move now. High-score list now includes color (the one the user played!)

Sep 27, 1996:
Version 1.3 - Sep 20, 1996
Added high score list plus the necessary CGI scripts on the server side.

Sep 23, 1996:
Sep 24, 1996:
Sep 25, 1996:
Sep 26, 1996:
Both measures are a direct consequence of somebody playing on level "Expert" with a timeout of 30 seconds and winning 53 - 11: with only 30 seconds, the "Expert" level cannot play better than "Beginner" level - it just doesn't have time enough to do more than a very shallow look-ahead.

Version 1.2 - Sep 18, 1996
Slightly improved table. Has a minor effect on higher levels, but makes especially level "Easy" avoid some all too obvious blunders.

Version 1.1 - Sep 13, 1996
Much improved version. Incorporated corner count in the evaluation function, cleaned up internal structure of the applet (much more object-oriented now). Added time-out button.

Version 1.0 - Aug 30, 1996
First Java implementation - a quick and dirty port from C to Java, with some simplifications in the evaluation function to keep the size of the applet manageable.

Version 0.1 - April 9, 1993
Original C version, implemented on a Mac. No graphical interface, since I was more interested in the game engine, this version only had a simple character interface.