About the FIBS Bots Page
Welcome to the FIBS bots page. I wrote it to answer the frequent
questions about computer players on the newsgroup rec.games.backgammon as well as for
my own interest.
The two essentials to know before going
any further are:
- FIBS: the First Internet
Backgammon Server (see the FIBS homepage)
- bots: computer programs that play on FIBS
FIBS is a telnet server, and its input/output is easily understood. (I
call it an open server.) Due to
its openness, anyone with the determination and programming skills can
write a FIBS bot.
There are currently a little over 10 bots active on FIBS, out of a total
player population of around 10,000. While this is a tiny minority, the
bots occupy many of the highest ratings (see the FIBS Ratings
Lists) and are the inspiration behind much of the chatter on rec.games.backgammon.
Different people mean different things by 'bot' including:
- A computer program that can play by itself on FIBS (e.g. yabot)
- A standalone computer program that you play off-line (e.g. Jellyfish)
- A human playing on FIBS using a computer program (e.g. DatJellyFish)
- A computer program on FIBS that does things other than play
backgammon (e.g. BigBrother)
The sorted bot lists on this site are all FIBS-based backgammon-playing
programs. I've also tried to provide some details of the other types of
bot.
As far as I know, these pages reference every bot on FIBS. If you know
of any that are missing here, please mail me.
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