Manual

Contents

• Presentation
• Main display
• Menu

Presentation

The word Ajax comes from an odd mixture of the words Edax and Java. Indeed, Ajax may be considered as the little brother of Edax, a program I designed in C language and which was awarded as the French 2000 Champion Othello program. Ajax is a light Edax; nonetheless, most of the same recipes were applied to it. Consequently, Ajax is a strong software, probably the strongest Java applet; although it is much weaker than Edax and other similar software.

With Ajax I hope filling a gap: rareness of actually strong applets in the Web, for I am myself, as a weak player, able to beat most of them. I also try to offer a user interface of high quality and easy to use.

This page contains a brief description of the main display and of the menu.

Main display

Here is a preview of Ajax as it displays on a browser:

Display was designed to look esthetical without forgetting to remain easy to use, according to the following organisation:

• On the left, the Othello board, with a classic look, where the game is displayed.
• On the top right, a menu to control the game.
• On the bottom right a panel displaying, for both players, various information about the state of the game:
  • thinking time,
  • disc number,
  • available move number.
• On the very bottom right , a banner displays information about the game advancement: last played move or final score.
• Occasionnally, on the right center, a button indicates that a player must pass its turn. Click on it to keep playing.

Menu

The menu offers the following choices:

• Game.
  
  • New Game. Start a new game.
  • Undo. Undo your last move.
  • Hint. Ask Ajax the move it is expecting from you.
• Level.
  
  • Dummy. The computer plays randomly.
  • Beginnner. The computer plays at a weak level.
  • Amateur. The computer plays at an intermediate level.
  • Expert. The computer plays at a strong level.
  • Master. The computer plays at a very strong level.
  • Blitz. The computer plays the whole game in 5 minutes.
  • Tournament. The computer plays the whole game in 25 minutes.
• Player.
  
  • Swap colors. Play with Black or White.
• Display.
  
  • Legal moves. Show where the player can move.
  • Animation. Show the discs flipping.
  • Temporization. Blink played discs and wait a few seconds between moves.

Ajax version 1.3 (05/09/2001 00:00)
Copyright © 2000 Richard Delorme
All right reserved.
Othello ® is a registered trademark of Tsukuda-Original, licensed by Anjar and distributed in France (and some other countries) by Mattel.