Bolo is a video game initially created for the BBC Micro computer by Stuart Cheshire in 1987, and was later ported by Cheshire to the Apple Macintosh. Although offered for sale for the BBC Micro, this version is now regarded as lost. It is a networked multiplayer game that simulates a tank battlefield. A Windows-only version known as WinBolo remains in operation and continues to have a small but active player base. More recently, an in-browser multiplayer version called WeBolo has been released, which is also being used to train an artificial intelligence agent.

Name

According to the Bolo Frequently Asked Questions page: "Bolo is the Hindi word for communication. Bolo is about computers communicating on the network, and more importantly about humans communicating with each other, as they argue, negotiate, form alliances, agree strategies, etc."

Another tank game with the same name was created for the Apple II in 1982. In the user manual, Cheshire wrote that this was "an unfortunate coincidence". All AppleTalk network connection types were supported, including LocalTalk, EtherTalk, TokenTalk, and AppleTalk Remote Access.

References

Further reading

  • Andrew Wilson and Stephen Intille, "Programming a Bolo Robot: Recognizing Actions By Example", MIT Media Lab Fall 1995 - this paper describes using Bolo as a system for developing a programming by example system.<!--Did this paper appear in a peer-reviewed journal, or has it been cited by other papers a significant number of times?-->
  • Silberman, S. (1995). O Bolo Mio. NetGuide Magazine, May issue. Archived from on 5 June 2020.
  • Bolo home page
  • Stuart Cheshire, the author of Bolo
  • WeBolo - Web browser based multiplayer version of the game
  • Winbolo game download page
  • Winbolo player hub website