Retro World Find: Othello World

I picked up a few Super Famicom (AKA Super Nintendo outside Japan) games at Retro World Expo a few weeks back, and am only now getting into them.

First up is Othello World, an implementation of the well-known game of Othello, also known as Reversi.

Othello is a game played with black and white discs on a green board divided into 64 squares. After the four starting discs are set up in the middle of the board, play alternates between black and white. Each turn, the player must capture opponent pieces by placing a piece such that it forms a line with another of their pieces with only enemy pieces between them. If a player cannot place a piece, they pass their turn. The game ends with both players pass, or all 64 squares are filled. The winner is the player with the most discs at the end of the game.

It’s simple to play, but is tactically deep. I was unsure how an ancient console like the SFC/SNES would play, especially since it moves very quickly — much faster than the version of the game I developed plays.

The opening crawl says that you, the player, are an angel sent by the god of Othello World to travel to four different countries — the Land of the Free, the Land of the Sea, the Land of Heaven and the Castle in the Sky — and defeat the many enemies you will find there, so that you can meet Tamenori.

The White Rabbit drags you into Wonderland and insists upon immediately playing a round of Othello with you in order to judge your worthiness to travel the four lands on your god’s behalf. He demands you choose from Black or White, reminding you that Black goes first, and White goes second. He then asks if you would like to play under a time limit. Since the SFC player always moves instantly, this is more to place a limit on your time than theirs.

The rabbit gives little hints on how good or bad a move might be when you put the cursor over it. You can also hit the SELECT button a limited number of times per match for the game to highlight your best possible move at that time.

Since you have passed his test, he formally asks for your name, and tells you the password to skip him in the future — “Othello World”.

The White Rabbit doesn’t put up much of a fight, and he opens up the world map so that you may travel to the Land of the Free and meet your first slate of opponents.

Your opponents in the Land of the Free are Pinocchio, the Cheshire Cat, the Seven Dwarves, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. All five opponents play at the beginner level and all play the same, so it doesn’t seem to matter which three you select.

First up is the Cheshire cat. He introduces himself and says, “It’s not going to get any easier! I only need my head to win. That’s what Alice thought. I’m getting nostalgic. You remind me of her.”

The Cheshire cat complains throughout the game about how noisy you are when you’re playing, but all his griping is for nothing as he soon loses.

Cinderella and Red Riding Hood’s defeats follow close behind, and the White Rabbit congratulates us by giving us the next password, “Over the Rainbow”.

On to the Land of the Sea.

Now the Ocean Country contains the most vile and untrustworthy band of galliwags that never set foot in civilized lands. Chief among them is the leader of this band of miscreants, Long John Silver.

His story: “I run a restaurant in Bristol. It’s called John Silver’s. You may have heard that I was a really big pirate, but I’m looking for a way to go legit. I’m basically just here to have a good time, but that doesn’t mean I’m just playing around.”

What follows is me trying to beat him, and I could not do it. I couldn’t win against the kraken, I couldn’t even put up a good show against the mock turtle.

So I have not yet gotten to the Heaven’s Country or the Castle in the Sky, not until I get good. And then… I get to meet Tatemori, who Kasul thinks is probably Death himself.

How does it play?

It’s pretty clear that the game uses a table of opening moves to get things going. That only takes you so far, though. The game I implemented uses a tree search to find good moves — I had the games play each other, by the way, and it didn’t do any better in the Sea Country than I did. Which, I guess, shouldn’t be surprising.

I imagine the game uses heuristics to make its moves once the game moves past the opening. It does very well at removing my options and leaving me only with bad moves. And it does it fast. I need to learn how it does what it does before I can beat this game.

TL;DR

Othello is fun and funny and plays a serious game once you get past the beginner opponents. If Othello was more popular outside of Japan, I would have welcomed the inevitable English port. The translations I have given here have been asking Google to translate, and then using my and Kasul’s very very basic knowledge of Japanese to make some sort of sense from it all.

We weren’t able to find any fan translations online, but… going through the work to translate the stories is worth the effort. And I am over the moon at finding a game I can build my skills with.

Japanese knowledge isn’t required, either. Look it up in the emulator of your choice and tell me how the lands beyond the Ocean Country are.