HELP FILE FOR JELLYFISH PLAYER 3.0

This is a short survivalguide for The shareware program JellyFish Player
3.0. When you register, you'll get the Users Manual in the mail,
together with your 'magic number'.

Throughout this help file 'clicking' means clicking with the left hand
mouse button. An expression like 'File->New->Demo' refers to the menus,
and means 'click the File menu, choose New, then choose Demo'.


DIFFERENCES PLAYER / TUTOR / ANALYZER
There are three different versions of JellyFish:
· JellyFish Player.
This version can play against you at any level according 
to normal rules of backgammon. This is the simplest of the three versions.
· JellyFish Tutor.
In addition to the Players functionality, Tutor is also able to 
evaluate all positions, suggest moves and comment 
your moves as well as your cube decisions.
· JellyFish Analyzer.
This is the most advanced version. In addition to all the above 
mentioned capacities, it can also perform four kinds of rollouts.

PRICES AND UPGRADES
Player 3.0 download costs USD 30, Tutor 3.0 costs USD 110 
and Analyzer 3.0 costs USD 250. 
When you upgrade, you get full value of your previous purchase. 
So upgrading a Player gives a discount of USD 30, 
and upgrading a Tutor gives a discount of USD 110. 
Expences for postage and packing may be added by your distributor.

STARTING A GAME OR MATCH
'File->New->Single game' or
'File->New->Match'
If you want JellyFish to log the match or game in a .mat or .gam file,
check 'Settings->Prompt For Log File' before starting the game/match. When
you start the program, it automatically starts a new game or match.

ROLLING THE DICE
Click on the righthand side of the board. If you have
'Settings->Manual Dice' checked, it will prompt you for the dice roll,
otherwise it's generated automatically. By choosing 'Settings->seed' 
you can set the input to the dice generator. This input consists 
of two numbers: seed and counter. By experimenting with this you 
can verify that it doesn't cheat with the dice, and that the roll
is completely independent of level, position and other factors.
Check 'View->Seed' to display the seed on the status bar.

MOVING CHECKERS
Click on the checkers you want to move. The dice are sorted with the
higher first, and the dice are played in that order. If you want to play
the dice in the opposite order, click the dice with the right hand
mouse button.
There is a shortcut that often works:
If you click with the righthand mouse button on a point, the
program looks for a play that maximizes the number of checkers there.
After moving the checkers, you finish the play by clicking the dice.
Until you have done this, you can take back the move by pressing the
button with a single leftpointing arrow.

DOUBLING
Click the image of the cube. When JellyFish doubles, you get a dialog
box where you can choose your response.

FINISH GAME
Clicking the 'running man button' on the tool bar makes JF
finish the game on level 5.

TAKE BACK
You can rewind the game by pressing the double leftpointing arrow.

EDITING POSITIONS
You can change the position by clicking the pencil-button. You then
remove checkers with the righthand button, and insert them with the
lefthand button. You can also move the cube level and position by 
clicking on or beside the cube. When you're done, you press the 
pencil-button again to finish editing. 

SAVING/LOADING of positions
'File->Save'
'File->Save As...'
'File->Open'

LEVELS OF PLAY
You set the level by 'Level->...'. On the highest level (7), it prompts
you for a time factor, which determines the limit to how long it may
'think' while searcing for the best move.

DEMO MODE
In demo mode the program plays a given position over and over on the
level associated with the position. To stop it, press space bar on your
keyboard.

REPLAYING A GAME OR MATCH
'File->Open...' Choose Files of type .gam or .mat. Step through the chosen
game with the double rightpointing and leftpointing arrows.

CAUTION
'Setting->Caution'
If you're backing JellyFish against a proffesional player in moneygames,
you should have this switch toggled on. It will make the program stop
doubling when the cube reaches 32. Also if the opponent doubles, and
JellyFish thinks it has the advantage, the program will stop redoubling
until contact is broken.

There does exist positions where JellyFish thinks it's the favourite,
when the opposite is true. These are extreme positions, and they are not
important for normal games. Without caution set the human expert can
seek these positions, letting lots of checkers being hit and forming a
massive backgame. Most of the time this will fail, and he will just have
lost 4 points from a doubled gammon. When it does succeed, however, he
can jack the cube up to 512 paying for all the losses. This was a big
problem with the 2.0 version, but this 3.0 version is far better at
evaluating extreme positions. Therefore the caution setting may not be
needed, but it's nice to have a safety net when playing for real money.