Zillions of Games

From Abstract Games magazine:

"While Jeff Mallett had initially focused his efforts on chess programs, his inclination was always to take things to the meta-level and to develop a more general game-playing engine that could play a wide variety of abstract board games. Some years ago, Jeff began adapting one of his Macintosh computer chess programs to play other games as well, such as checkers and cylindrical chess. Jeff was satisfied with the experiment and the project was shelved for a time.

Eventually Jeff, with the help of a friend, Randall De Weerd, spent a spring rewriting the grammar of the language of his Macintosh program to make it more adaptable to different types of games. This involved analysis of board games from scores of books (and a lot of trips to used books stores).

Jeff had known Mark Lefler for a long time from computer-chess tournaments. Mark was impressed by Jeff's Macintosh program and together they decided to develop the program as a commercial package for the Windows platform. As the development progress, Marked joined in the programming and from that point the project became a team effort."

 The software hasn't been sold for over 15 years, but it is available for free from zillions-of-games.com.  (Excuse the website which hasn't changed much in 20 years.)

With a universal game player, my partner and I were easily able to recompile Zillions into apps that only played specific board games. We did this and licensed individual games, which were published in collections including:

“When shopping for computer versions of board games, why choose one game, when you can have...a zillion?”

Wired

“I believe Zillions to be the most important new gaming concept since Dungeons and Dragons.”
Abstract Games Magazine, January 2000, Kerry Handscomb (Editor)

“The engine...contains various generic routines for calculation that enable it, once given the rules, to play most board games — and play them frighteningly well.”

The Observer, December 26, 1999, GM Jon Speelman (former British chess champion and World Championship semi-finalist)

“If you like classic board games, this is Zen.”

Games Weekly Magazine. January 2000

“Imagine a software opponent ready to play you any game you teach it...and beat you. Zillions Development Corporation, a company founded by professional chess programmers, has created just such an opponent...”

PC Game World

“Don’t call us for the next couple of years please. We are glued to our PCs....We have just acquired Zillions of Games. If you’re into chess variants, and we are, this is the nearest you’re going to get to paradise....Wow!”
CHESS Magazine, Addict’s Corner, April 1999 (Mike Fox)

“I thought that the variety of games was wonderful. The games were very colorful and eye appealing, and there is definitely something for everybody on this CD....I would certainly buy and recommend this software to anyone. It provides hours of fun and challenges!”
Kids Domain, April 1999 (Rose Barbour)

“As if the fun you’ll have playing over 300 games that don’t crash your computer and don’t empty your wallet isn’t enough, Zillions is also educational, with a brief history and background of every game, not to mention exercising and pumping up your brain through the use of logic, strategy, clarity of thought and memory.”

CompuNotes #146, March 26, 1999 (Bruce Darken)

“This software seems to be the ultimate answer to our wishes. This sounds like a dream, but it actually works. ...the achievement of this “universal gaming engine", as the authors call it, is undoubtedly a much closer step towards artificial intelligence than the widely publicized Deep Blue win against the world chess champion.”
Variant Chess, Spring 1999, Vol. 4, Issue 31 (Fabrice Liardet)

 Moby Games: Credits