Slots (Compute's Gazette)
Can you outsmart your computer? "Slots" is a strategy game which challenges you to out-think your machine. You and the computer take turns dropping tokens into a box with eight vertical slots. To win, you must get four of your tokens in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The other way to win is to be the first to put a token at the top position of any slot in the box. If you still haven't caught on...this game is nothing more than a larger scaled "Connect 4".
The article for this game can be found on page 51 of Compute's Gazette Issue 38 (August 1986)
Why TAS This Game?
The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 59th TAS from this series.
Never played it, back in those days. I regret not doing so, since I love puzzle games. After trying my wits at this game, I found it hard to beat it in a short few moves. Eventually, I got an 8 piece solve. This laid the ground work for me to being my TASing, via my BOT.
Game Difficulty and Ending
There are 4 levels of difficulty. I chose the hardest level of 4. The ending is basically getting 4 in a row.
Effort In TASing (BOTing)
This TAS uses my newly created "Play BOT". As you might remember, Pegs was the first to use this new BOT. Basically, it plays an input file that was externally created, by another tool. Because I was able to beat the game in 8 moves (on hardest difficulty), I generated every combination within 8 moves. This list was huge...in fact, over 2 million combinations. Thankfully, I was able to figure ways out to make this go much faster. In the end, I started noticing the game's response and was able to take over after it found a 6 piece solution. It is also worth mentioning that there is a small amount of RNG, but only among a few moves that it would randomize through. Because of my new found knowledge, and the effort of my BOT...I was able to finally figure out how to minimize my moves down to 4!
Human Comparison
Can't find one. :(
DrD2k9: Claiming for judging.
DrD2k9: Given that this is the minimum number of moves to win the game, the only way I can see this being beaten is to have someone figure out a solution that makes the computer AI take its own moves faster. Accepting.
despoa: Processing...