Webmaster's note: John Opincar is the developer of the online 42 game at www.42now.com. He has an interesting background in the game, and I invited John to share his story with the 42 community. He provided the following comments for posting. Thank you for sharing, John. - PP
Commentary by John Opincar
I learned to play 42 about 15 years ago from my friend, Rodney, and his family. Rodney comes from a native Texas family while my family's from the midwest, although I've lived in Texas since I was 5. Rodney and I used to go out to his family's fish camp on a shell island in Bastrop Bay. Often times his brother and sister-in-law or his Aunt and Uncle would be out at the camp as well. Once we got tired of fishing or gigging flounder, we would play 42 for hours and hours. Since everyone else had been playing their whole lives, I had to learn quickly. They frequently complained about how long it took me to bid (starting with my first game), or that I didn't remember this or that domino had been played. Eventually, I taught my own family to play (my wife Monica, son Alex, and daughter Lila as seen in the game). I also taught and played with several members of my extended family, including cousins in Michigan.
About 10 years ago, I developed the original version of the game as a non-web-based application. The greatest challenge was developing bidding and play algorithms that played decently without cheating but were also not overly CPU-intensive. A few years ago, I converted the game-play logic to a more modern language and developed the web front-end to create 42Now.com.
| John Opincar September 17, 2014 |
visitors since 17 Sep 2014
