March 12, 2004

By: Ali Moholan
Website: http://www.1st-in-games.com

Bridge Baron Trumps Competition; Generates Great Game Products

Great Game Products, Inc., of Bethesda, Md., reached a milestone in fiscal year 2000, with sales of its lead product--Bridge Baron, a computer software program that strategically bids and plays bridge--totaling more than $1.58 million over the past three years.

In 1990, Tom Throop, the original developer of the Bridge Baron and founder of Great Game Products, partnered with the University of Maryland to improve the Bridge Baron so that it could mimic the way a human would play bridge.

Over the next seven years, university researchers Dana Nau, a computer science professor, and Stephen Smith, then a graduate student, worked on developing an artificial intelligence for the Bridge Baron. Classical game tree techniques are often used in developing computer games such as chess and checkers. But because of the time constraints for decision-making and the seemingly endless possible combinations of bridge hands, this technique was not feasible for bridge games.

Nau's and Smith's approach, which posed common bridge strategies as a set of Hierarchical Task Network constructs that the Bridge Baron could manipulate, reduced the 6 x 1044 possible sequences the program would have had to analyze to just 300,000. This resulted in an improved Bridge Baron that is faster and has more possible ways to beat its opponent.

In 1998, the university's Office of Technology Commercialization exclusively licensed the improved version of the Bridge Baron to Great Game Products. Since then, Great Game Products has sold more than 41,500 copies of the Bridge Baron, which is top-ranked by the American Contract Bridge League and is a five-time winner of the World Computer Bridge Championship.

Also see: fun family board games.

About The Author:

Ali Moholan is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-games.com.  Great games for the entire family for hours of fun or competition. We feature all your favorites.