Computer Gamesmanship: The Complete Guide to Creating and Structuring Intelligent Games Programs

by David N.L. Levy

Book by Levy, David N. L

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[David]

Minimax, alpha/beta pruning, probabilistic reasoning, and static evaluation function examples for many abstract games, and all of this in 1983. While cutting edge at the time, it's now the worthy retro coding book that most retro coders don't seem to know about.

[Erik Ferragut]

I read the Ishi Press version (published 2009). This is a very clear book describing min-max searches for finding best moves and relating evaluation functions to game-playing strategies. It contains chapters on general methods (e.g., minimax searches, game trees, alpha-beta windows) and on specific games (e.g., chess, poker, dominos). The strength of the book is this combination of these theoretical and practical parts. This book is only a starting point for most of these topics, but as a starting point it is a very useful book if you are interested in the topic.