git @ Cat's Eye Technologies Flip / 0fb24c4
Convert CRLFs -> LFs in README. catseye 10 years ago
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0 Flip
1 ====
2
3 This is Cat's Eye Technologies' distribution of the game of _Flip_.
4
5 Flip is a very simple computer game by John S. James which first appeared
6 in the March/April 1977 edition of _Creative Computing_.
7
8 In the game, the computer flips a virtual coin 50 times, and the object is
9 for you to guess whether the coin will come up heads or tails each time.
10
11 What makes it interesting is that the coin is not fair. The computer tries
12 to find patterns in your guesses, and exploit them by biasing the coin toss
13 away from what it thinks you are likely to guess next.
14
15 This is interesting because humans are actually not all that good at moving
16 randomly; we tend to and fall into patterns. So a pigeon, not thinking
17 about the game and pecking haphazardly at "heads" and "tails" buttons, might
18 actually be a better Flip player than you or me.
19
20 You can think of the program as creating a Markov chain to model your
21 guesses, and updating it each time you make a guess, based on your last few
22 guesses. Although, it's not quite that straightforward -- there is some
23 randomness thrown in, too.
24
25 This version of the game is written in Erlang, based largely on the version
26 written in BASIC by Steve North appearing in _More BASIC Computer Games_,
27 Ed. David H. Ahl (ISBN 0-89480-137-6). Note that in this implementation,
28 heads and tails are called `Y` and `N`.
29
30 Running
31 -------
32
33 To build the `flip` module, run the script `make.sh` from the root
34 directory of the distribution.
35
36 After the module has been built, the game can be played by running the
37 script `flip` in the `bin` directory. This script can be run from anywhere;
38 it knows to locate the module in the distribution directory.
39
40 Playing the Game
41 ----------------
42
43 Each time the computer prompts you with a question mark, type 'Y' to
44 guess that the flip was heads, or 'N' to guess that the flip was tails.
45 A correct guess will be signalled by an asterisk printed before the
46 next question mark. At the end of the run (by default 50 flips,) your
47 score will be printed.
48
49 License
50 -------
51
52 This work is in the public domain. See the file `UNLICENSE` for more
53 information.
0 Flip
1 ====
2
3 This is Cat's Eye Technologies' distribution of the game of _Flip_.
4
5 Flip is a very simple computer game by John S. James which first appeared
6 in the March/April 1977 edition of _Creative Computing_.
7
8 In the game, the computer flips a virtual coin 50 times, and the object is
9 for you to guess whether the coin will come up heads or tails each time.
10
11 What makes it interesting is that the coin is not fair. The computer tries
12 to find patterns in your guesses, and exploit them by biasing the coin toss
13 away from what it thinks you are likely to guess next.
14
15 This is interesting because humans are actually not all that good at moving
16 randomly; we tend to and fall into patterns. So a pigeon, not thinking
17 about the game and pecking haphazardly at "heads" and "tails" buttons, might
18 actually be a better Flip player than you or me.
19
20 You can think of the program as creating a Markov chain to model your
21 guesses, and updating it each time you make a guess, based on your last few
22 guesses. Although, it's not quite that straightforward -- there is some
23 randomness thrown in, too.
24
25 This version of the game is written in Erlang, based largely on the version
26 written in BASIC by Steve North appearing in _More BASIC Computer Games_,
27 Ed. David H. Ahl (ISBN 0-89480-137-6). Note that in this implementation,
28 heads and tails are called `Y` and `N`.
29
30 Running
31 -------
32
33 To build the `flip` module, run the script `make.sh` from the root
34 directory of the distribution.
35
36 After the module has been built, the game can be played by running the
37 script `flip` in the `bin` directory. This script can be run from anywhere;
38 it knows to locate the module in the distribution directory.
39
40 Playing the Game
41 ----------------
42
43 Each time the computer prompts you with a question mark, type 'Y' to
44 guess that the flip was heads, or 'N' to guess that the flip was tails.
45 A correct guess will be signalled by an asterisk printed before the
46 next question mark. At the end of the run (by default 50 flips,) your
47 score will be printed.
48
49 License
50 -------
51
52 This work is in the public domain. See the file `UNLICENSE` for more
53 information.