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Vice Versa |
Programmed by Niall Shapero, Vice Versa is the VideoBrain equivalent of Othello (also known as Reversi). The object of Vice Versa is to change your opponents stones to your color by "flanking" them (i.e. have one of your stones on each end of the row). As was the case with Checkers, Dr. Arthur Samuel lent his skill to developing the AI used in Vice Versa and it shows. The VideoBrain plays one mean game of Othello!
The four personalities from Checkers are back, with the addition of a new player called Ernest who plays at a very high level of skill.
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Name
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Difficulty
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Style
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Abe
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Easy
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Quick and aggressive, but not too smart |
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Betty
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Medium
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Quick and sharp, but not overly difficult. Betty is probably the best player to play against unless you're a Go pro. |
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Charlie
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Hard
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Charlie is the first "real" challenge you'll meet. Expect to lose the first couple of games. |
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Dorothy
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Very Hard
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Dorothy is one of the best players on the cartridge. Dorothy plays very conservatively which makers her hard to beat. |
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Ernest
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Impossible?
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Ernest is comparable to those people who like to sit in Central Park and show off their board game playing expertise to us mere mortals. Not only is Ernest almost impossible to beat, but he takes a looooong time between moves. |
Although the game does not offer
the option to play as White (instead you can play
Black which goes first or have the computer play
Black), the text 'YOU LPAY WHITE' is in the code,
complete with typo.
Vice Versa was manufactured from 7-27-78 to 3-2-79 and had a print run of 2,449 cartridges making it fairly uncommon. Vice Versa (along with Math Tutor Wordwise 2, and APL/S) was one of the last cartridges still being produced when operations were shut down.
