Aart's Android Page

As a fun project, Aart Bik implemented three board games for Android, which are available for free at the Android Market. The games accept touch screen or trackball input and automatically adjust the board layout to the screensize of the device in either landscape or portrait orientation. Please note that the applications were developed in Aart's spare time, and as such do not have very elaborate features. Nevertheless, hopefully you will enjoy playing the games.

Information on updates of these games is posted on Aart's Blog (also see this Android App Review Source interview). Information on developing your own Android application can be found at Android Developers.

Chess for Android

Chess for Android consists of a chess engine (derived from BikJump) together with a GUI. The application accepts moves through the touch screen, the trackball, or through the keyboard (viz. e2e4 pushes the king pawn, e1g1 castles king side, etc.). An optional "move coach" highlights the last played engine move as well as all valid moves for a selected piece during user move entry. A pawn promotion prompts the user to define the desired destination piece. An undo feature can take back up to eight half-moves to correct mistakes. A draw by the fifty move rule or a simplified form of threefold repetition is recognized. The engine plays at various levels (including random, against itself in auto-play, or free-play, where the phone can be used as a "magnetic chessboard"). The user can play either side and, independently, view the board from the perspective of white or black. A game in progress is automatically saved on exit. Games can also be exported as PGN or FEN by long-pressing the notation window.

See also the Chess for Android pages at the Android Wiki and the Chess Wiki.

Checkers for Android

Checkers for Android consists of an 8x8 checkers engine (which evolved into BikMove) together with a GUI. The application accepts moves through the touch screen or trackball. Selecting a square shows all other squares that belong to valid moves involving the first. By clicking on those squares as well (changing orange colors into red) eventually a move or capture (jump) is uniquely defined. An optional "move coach" highlights the last played engine move. An undo feature can take back up to eight half-moves to correct mistakes. The engine plays at various levels (including random and free-play). By popular request, an option was added to select between mandatory captures (the official rule) or optional captures (a common home rule, but without "huffing", where the piece that should have performed the capture is forfeited; instead the game simply continues). The user can play either side and, independently, view the board from the perspective of white or black. A game in progress is automatically saved on exit.

See also the Checkers for Android page at the Android Wiki.

Reversi for Android

Reversi for Android consists of a reversi engine (verified with perft) together with a GUI. The application accepts moves through the touch screen, the trackball, or through the keyboard. An optional "move coach" shows valid moves as ghost stones and highlights the new and flipped white stones after each engine move. An undo feature can take back up to eight half-moves to correct mistakes. The engine plays at various levels (including random and free-play). The user can play either side. A game in progress is automatically saved on exit.

See also the Reversi for Android pages at the Android Wiki and the Othello Wiki.

Please note that this page is privately maintained by Aart Bik.