Backgammon

1986, the green glow of a CGA monitor, cursor blinking, and you're rifling through a stack of disks looking for something playable at eleven in the evening—nothing too demanding. Backgammon from Green Valley Publishing was exactly that kind of quiet companion.

The "platformer" label in this review's header is a mistake—we're talking about a digital adaptation of backgammon, one of the oldest board games in the world. Two players, fifteen pieces each, a board with twenty-four points, dice. The goal: get all your pieces off the board before your opponent does. Nothing more, nothing less. Green Valley Publishing brought this to PC in 1986 and sold it as part of their lineup of simple computer adaptations of the classics.

It plays exactly as you'd expect. Roll the dice, make your move, the computer responds. The AI is no grandmaster—anyone who knows backgammon a little will soon spot where the opponent plays suboptimally. But in 1986, nobody was too fussed about that. The pace is solid, the game doesn't drag with pointless animations, and mouse or keyboard control works smoothly. The rule guide included in the menu was appreciated by anyone unsure about the difference between bearing off and hitting—backgammon looks simple on the surface, but there's a respectable layer of theory and probabilistic thinking underneath.

What this version lacks a bit is variety. Backgammon has several variants—acey-deucey, nard, gioul—and basic DOS adaptations usually stick to standard rules. I won't claim to know if this particular title went further. What works well even today is the game itself: backgammon is among those rare abstract games that balance luck and strategy in a way that never gets old. A 1986 computer won't crush you, but it'll teach you the basics. Then you find a real opponent and understand what it's really about.

These days you can run this in DOSBox in two minutes. The appeal is mostly nostalgic—or a quick refresher on the rules before you break out an actual board. If you've never played backgammon and want to see if it grabs you, this version does the job. Don't expect the depth of modern online clients, just a clean, functional implementation from the heyday of text menus and beeps instead of sound cards.