Help and Documentation for JustGammon | Backgammon Game
Help Contents
Introduction
JustGammon is a game for Android, designed to be playable by both visually and visually impaired users.
It is programmed by Emanuel Boboiu (Manu) in Java for Android.
The design was created by Iulian Duma.
The manager
In the Manager you can prepare how you want to play a game.
At this moment, only the offline playing is available, but in next version also on-line mode will be implemented.
There are three offline options.
First option in the "Manager" is "Local", it means "play with a Partner on the same device".
The board turns automatically for black color and white color. This way you can play Backgammon anywhere with your friends without buying a physical board which is more expensive than this Backgammon game.
The second option is "Play with Computer".
In the current version there are two difficulty levels: "Easy" and "Hard".
The third option is "Two Bots".
You can watch a game played between two bots. This option is just for fun.
JustGammon in Other Languages
Currently JustGammon is available in German, English, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Vietnamese.
JustGammon is translatable in other languages.
If you want to translate into your native language, download the strings_en.xml file and ask if it is not already in work by another person for that language.
To ask things about a translation or if you do a complete translation of a new language, please use the E-mail address contact@justgammon.com and we will include it in next version of JustGammon, or we can give you a test APK file to test the translation before uploading a new release in Google Play Store.
The translator name will be mentioned in Credits section on the site and also in the About section in the application.
Strings Files
In the list below there are all XML string files, ordered alphabetically by language:.
- English Strings, translated by Emanuel Boboiu (Manu)
- German Strings, translated by Emanuel Boboiu (Manu), assisted by Chat GPT
- Romanian Strings, while programming by Emanuel Boboiu (Manu)
- Russian Strings, translated by Alexander Kozlovskiy
- Serbian Strings, translated by Nikola Jovic
- Turkish Strings, translated by Saltik Sinan
- Vietnamese Strings, translated by Dao Duc Trung (ddt.one)
Registration Process and the Registration Manager
You can buy the Premium Version of this game in Google Play Store for about 7 dollars or euros.
The Premium Version removes the Google Ads and gives you a better experience with this game.
If you decide to pay the Premium Version, just go in the Main Menu of the game and choose Premium item. The system will guide you to payment process.
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The purchased version remains valid for subsequent installations of the game.
Game Rules
Backgammon playing pieces are known variously as checkers, draughts, stones, men, counters, pawns, or chips.
The objective is to remove (bear off) all of one's own checkers from the board before one's opponent can do the same. The checkers are scattered at first and may be blocked or hit by the opponent. As the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points.
Setup
Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. The points are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. Players begin with two checkers on their 24-point, three checkers on their 8-point, and five checkers each on their 13-point and their 6-point. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1-point.
Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the mid point.
Movement
The players alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.
After rolling the dice players must, if possible, move their checkers according to the number of pips shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (notated as "6-3"), that player must move one checker six points forward, and another or the same checker three points forward. The same checker may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5-5 that player may move up to four separate checkers forward five spaces each. For any roll, if a player can move both dice, that player is compelled to do so. If players cannot move either die in a roll, given the position of their checkers then that turn is over and the turn passes to the opponent.
In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker, or "blot". In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously.
Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home board. A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.
When all of a player's checkers are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them; this is called bearing off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a checker from the 1-point, a 2 from the 2-point, and so on. A die may not be used to bear off checkers from a lower-numbered point unless there are no checkers on any higher points.[2][3] For example if a player rolls a 6 and a 5, but has no checkers on the 6-point, though 2 checkers remain on the 5-point, then the 6 and the 5 must be used to bear off the 2 checkers from the 5-point. When bearing off, a player may also move a lower die roll before the higher even if that means 'the full value of the higher die' is not fully utilized. For example, if a player has exactly 1 checker remaining on the 6-point, and rolls a 6 and a 1, the player may move the 6-point checker 1 place to the 5-point with the lower die roll of 1, and then bear that checker off the 5-point using the die roll of 6; this is sometimes useful tactically.
If one player has not borne off any checkers by the time that player's opponent has borne off all fifteen, then the player has lost a gammon, which counts for double a normal loss. If the losing player has not borne off any checkers and still has checkers on the bar or in the opponent's home board, then the player has lost a backgammon, which counts for triple a normal loss.
Credits
We wish to thank the following people for their respective contributions:
- Design: Iulian Duma
- Translations:
- Alexander Kozlovskiy - Russian
- Dao Duc Trung - Vietnamese
- Saltik Sinan - Turkish
- Nikola Jovic - Serbian
- Chat GPT - German
- Emanuel Boboiu - English and Romanian while programming
- Beta testers: Iulian Duma, Grigore Frișan, Ioțo Hăinală, Kovács Krisztián, Alexander Kozlovskiy, Andrei Negoiță, Cornel Todericiu, Ioan Țichir.