Games

The original Magicwand Software games site

Background

Once I had decided to put the Checkers game on the internet in 2000, the next stage was to make a website. The domain magicwandsoft.com was available so I registered it and have kept it ever since.

Efforts to make money from the site came to nothing. Too few visitors to be of interest to advertisers. It never mattered, I just wanted people to play the game.

Checkers game

AI minimax algorithm written in C++. Graphics and sound used the Allegro games library, hacked to support DirectX 3.

Checkers itself is a narrow, deep game. There's an average of 8 possible moves per turn, so to play well the computer must look far ahead. That means

  • Fast evaluation function
  • Efficient code
  • Piece exchanges are forced, so make them and carry on searching

Website

Originally developed using Microsoft Frontpage, it has been rewritten in MVC and C#.

No attempt has been made to make the website look modern or responsive.
This is what websites looked like 20 years ago.
A retro website for a retro game.

Games site