1REVERSI(6) Games Manual REVERSI(6)
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6 reversi - a game of dramatic reversals
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9 /usr/games/reversi [ [ -r ] file ]
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12 Reversi (also known as `friends', `Chinese friends' and `Othello') is
13 played on an 8×8 board using two-sided tokens. Each player takes his
14 turn by placing a token with his side up in an empty square. During
15 the first four turns, players may only place tokens in the four central
16 squares of the board. Subsequently, with each turn, a player must cap‐
17 ture one or more of his opponent's tokens. He does this by placing one
18 of his tokens such that it and another of his tokens embrace a solid
19 line of his opponent's horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Cap‐
20 tured tokens are flipped over and thus can be re-captured. If a player
21 cannot outflank his opponent he forfeits his turn. The play continues
22 until the board is filled or until no more outflanking is possible.
23 In this game, your tokens are asterisks and the machine's are at-signs.
25 You move by typing in the row and column at which you want to place
26 your token as two digits (1-8), optionally separated by blanks or tabs.
27 You can also type
28 c to continue the game after hitting break (this is only necessary
30 if you interrupt the machine while it is deliberating).
31 g n to start reversi playing against itself for the next n moves (or
33 until the break key is hit).
34 n to stop printing the board after each move.
36 o to start it up again.
38 p to print the board regardless.
40 q to quit (without dishonor).
42 s to print the score.
44 Reversi also recognizes several commands which are valid only at the
46 start of the game, before any moves have been made. They are
47 f to let the machine go first.
49 h n to ask for a handicap of from one to four corner squares. If
51 you're good, you can give the machine a handicap by typing a
52 negative number.
53 l n to set the amount of lookahead used by the machine in searching
55 for moves. Zero means none at all. Four is the default.
56 Greater than six means you may fall asleep waiting for the
57 machine to move.
58 t n to tell reversi that you will only need n seconds to consider
60 each move. If you fail to respond in the alloted time, you for‐
61 feit your turn.
62 If reversi is given a file name as an argument, it will checkpoint the
64 game, move by move, by dumping the board onto file. The -r option will
65 cause reversi to restart the game from file and continue logging.
66 REVERSI(6)