Neural Nets: Jellyfish vs Snowie

• JELLYFISH 3.5 by Fredrik Dahl
• SNOWIE by Snowiegroup

The best backgammon playing programs are all neural nets. A neural net is a program that developed its playing strategy by playing a long series of games (usually more than a million) against itself, adjusting its evaluation of positions through a complex learning strategy. The best neural nets play on a level comparable to the best human players. Only two are commercially available -- Jellyfish, which appeared in 1995, and Snowie, which hit the market in 1998. The Gammon Press carries both programs.

Which one should you buy? Both play an excellent game when set to their highest level, called level-7 in Jellyfish and 3-ply in Snowie. So the answer depends somewhat on your budget, how much you want to improve your backgammon, and the power of your machine. Here are some guidelines:

If you want to do rollouts, but don’t want to pay top dollar: Choose Jellyfish Analyzer, which can do full rollouts but which is almost half the price of Snowie Pro.

If your budget is limited or you just want a “sparring partner” with few or no analysis features: Your choice is Jellyfish Player ($30) or the Jellyfish Tutor ($100). Player is a no-frills version that still plays a strong game, while the Tutor offers advice but has no rollout capability.

If you have an older Windows machine (non-Pentium chip, or slow hard drive, or no CD-ROM drive): Your choice is Jellyfish. Both the Player and Tutor come on a floppy disk and neither requires a super-fast chip or a lot of disk access to run acceptably well (Level-7 is quite playable on a 486 chip). Both can run under Windows 95/98/ME/XP.

If you want the state-of-the-art interface and database system: You want Snowie Pro, which has superior features for recording, analyzing, and storing matches, plus the capability of doing rollouts. (Snowie Pro requires Windows XP.)

No floppy drive? Both Snowie and Jellyfish come on a CD-ROM.

Copy Protection: Snowie and Jellyfish are both seriously copy-protected packages.

JELLYFISH 3.5 by Fredrik Dahl
(Intel/Windows only)

Jellyfish 3.5 Analyzer $220
Jellyfish 3.5 Tutor $100
Jellyfish 3.5 Player $ 30

Plus shipping (any version): US First Class/$5 Canada/$8
All others/$12

The latest version of Jellyfish, the top-rated neural network program, is now in release. In its advanced versions, it offers powerful features for analysis and instruction to aid the aspiring player in improving his game.

Improvements in version 3.5 include the following:

• Faster execution time
• Three-dimensional board
• New statistics function which allows you to track your rating
  and results against Jellyfish
• Ability to adjust board colors to any of 16 million colors
• Improved user interface, including the ability to drag and drop checkers
• Improved print function
• Facility for incorporating your own random number generator
• Enhanced on-line help
  

The previous version of Jellyfish, playing on its highest level, was able to break even against two top human players in a money match in Dallas in 1997.

Jellyfish comes in three versions:

Analyzer: The top-of-the-line version, it includes all the features of the Tutor and the Player, plus the ability to set up positions and have Jellyfish roll them out any number of times to determine their true values. This rollout method gives the best understanding of the correct moves in a position, and is relied upon by all the top players.

Tutor: Contains all the features of the Player, plus the ability to suggest improvements in your play, when your move differs from what Jellyfish would have played. You can also set up cube and checker problems and inquire what Jellyfish would do.

Player: The least expensive version, which plays with you on any of 7 different playing levels, and includes match or money play. It has no tutorial capability.

The versions are available in the following media:

Player --- Floppy disk only
Tutor --- Floppy disk or CD-ROM (please specify)
Analyzer --- CD-ROM only

Prices for upgrades from previous versions are as follows:

Player 2.0/3.0 --> Player 3.5 $ 20
Player 2.0/3.0 --> Tutor 3.5 $ 85
Player 2.0/3.0 --> Analyzer 3.5 $ 205
Tutor 2.0/3.0 --> Tutor 3.5 $ 25
Tutor 2.0/3.0 --> Analyzer 3.5 $ 140
Analyzer 2.0/3.0 --> Analyzer 3.5 $ 50

Please note: No upgrades from version 1.0 are permitted. ALL UPGRADE ORDERS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY THE SERIAL NUMBER ON THE FRONT OF YOUR OLD DISKETTE. NO EXCEPTIONS.

SNOWIE by Snowiegroup

Snowie 4.0 Pro $380
Snowie 4.0 Student $100
Upgrade 1.0/2.0/3.0 Pro -> 4.0 Pro $190
Upgrade 2.0/3.0 Student -> 4.0 Student $ 50

Plus shipping (any version): US First Class/$5 Canada/$8
Air Europe/$12 Air Pacific/$14

The Snowie package has now been upgraded with the release of Snowie 4.0, available in two different versions: Pro and Student. Snowie 4.0 contains a major upgrade of the playing engine. It now has a vastly increased capability of playing back games, which has improved its evaluation of all positions, including some rethinking of opening moves.

The Pro Edition contains all other editions, and allows the user to perform batch analyses of matches and games, and get statistics on error rates after the analysis is concluded.

The Student Edition allows the user to play against Snowie, and to set up positions and query Snowie as to the correct play.

SNOWIE MATCHES

The following matches are available in Snowie format, already analyzed at the 3-ply level. Just load them into your Snowie directory and play them back, with full Snowie commentary on moves and cube decisions.

Players/Year/Number of Games:
#007: Magriel-Correa/1979/19 $8
#008: Robinson-Magriel/1979/24 $8
#010: Magriel-Gillman/1979/13 $3
#011: Magriel-Anderson/1979/15 $5
#018: Eisenberg-Magriel/1979/17 $8
#029: Magliozzo-Senkiewicz/1980/18 $3
#062: Low-Zolotow/1982/15 $5
#067: Horan-Kazmarczyk/1982/17 $10
#073: Ballard-Senkiewicz/1986/15 $10
#074: Ballard-Markowitz/1986/19 $10
#090: Robertie-Davis/1988/22 $10
#095: Robertie-Lester/1990/18 $8
#113: Snellings-Heinrich/1992/14 $8
#127: Robertie/Snellings/1996/23 $10
#128: Magriel-Robertie/1996/25 $10
#130: Ring-Levermann/1998/41 $15
#131: Robertie-Haase/1997/12 $5
#132: Grandell-Banjout/1997/24 $10
#133: Grandell-Ballard/1999/17 $10
#134: Grandell-Senkiewicz/1999/21 $10
#135: Robertie-Meyburg/1999/5 $5
#136: Robertie-Sax/2000/11 $5

Shipping: $1/match

COMPLETE SET: 22 matches, $100 with plus shipping (US/$10   All others/$14)