The sport of Darts has a long history in Great Britain. Originally darts were used as a weapon by archers for close-in defense. It is understandable that they would want to practice their marksmanship with this critical weapon. The exact history is lost to us, but it is easy to see how this practice eventually turned to sport. The weather in England, being what it is, probably had a lot to with Darts making the move indoors. It is presumed that the iconic pattern of the dart board with its wedges and rings draws its heritage from tree stumps that were used as the first targets. Dartboards have seen a massive evolution over the years, but the current configuration seems to be the culmination of that evolution having been adopted by the Professional Dart Corporation(PDC). Darts themselves have also evolved from lead weighted wooden projectiles with feather for flights to what we have today, which are ultra-modern tungsten darts, using polycarbonate flights and graphite shafts.
The dartboard is comprised of pie shaped wedges with their corresponding score stationed along the outer edge. The center is where the bullseye is located, with the very centermost area being the double bullseye surrounded by the single bullseye. While not marked, the single bullseye is worth 25 pts. In Darts. Farther out, and segmenting the wedges at about their halfway point is the triple ring. Darts landing in this ring increase the score of the wedge by a factor of three. At the outer edge of the scoring area is the double ring. Darts landing inside the double ring score double the value of the wedge. Darts landing outside of the double ring do not count.
The most popular games in Darts, by far, are collectively known as the ‘01 (pronounced: oh-one) games. The ‘01 games start with an odd number score and can be played as either 301, 401, 501, 701 or 1001. The idea of all the ‘01 games is to subtract the value of the darts thrown from your total and finally leaving yourself a score of 0 pts. by hitting the double that corresponds to your score. Example of this might be to hit a double 20 if your score was 40, or a double 16 if your score was 32. 301 and 401 will traditionally require the the player land a dart in the double ring to begin scoring, with 401, 701 and 1001 being mainly reserved for teams of two or more. Amazingly, in a perfect game, 501 pts. can be accomplished with just 9 darts thrown. When a player’s score becomes 1 pt. or less, with no chance of "Doubling Out," their turn ends and their score reverts back to the total they had before their turn began. Most people believe that the double bull (50 pts.) is the highest scoring area of the dartboard, but in actuality it is the triple 20 (60 pts.). Triple 19, triple 18 and triple 17 are all also higher scoring regions. Given this, the highest total that can be “taken out” with a combination of three darts is 170 pts. (T20, T20 and DB). Not all scores lower than 170 are possible to be taken out with three darts however, 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159 all cannot be taken out with three darts and are thus notoriously absent from most out charts.
If you are not a human calculator, it takes some practice to be able to add and subtract large numbers, in your head, quickly. While the object of the ‘01 games is simple, hitting a double that corresponds to their score, the means of getting there can be relatively complex and definitely involves a lot of Math. Most establishments will provide an "Out Chart" as a reference for intermediate players looking for the quickest way of winning, also referred to as, "Taking the Out." Unfortunately, not all establishments do this. Even with an out chart present people with poor vision, often times, have trouble reading the small lettering from almost eight feet away. Because there are a multitude of ways in which you can arrive at a finish with three darts in your hand, most dart players do not agree with the printed out chart as being the best way either. Many a debate has been had over what is the best way to take out a 61 with two darts in hand.
Smaller “pocket” out charts are cumbersome, and it is difficult to find the number you are looking for on them. People need a handy way of finding the out they prefer. That is why I built The Dart Cipher. Conceived as a bit of a calculator, it could be extremely useful to any but the most experienced dart players. This app will have the ability to let users enter a score and find the best "out" for them. The user will be able to enter numbers higher than 170 to avoid the pitfalls of leaving a "Bad Out," or to cycle through the various possibilities for any out. Additionally it will allow them to quickly enter each dart scored to reveal an updated "Out" combination.
The Outs App consists of a keypad and display. Initially, the display will be blank, ready to accept input of the desired "out". The user will input their score, hit the "OUT" button, and the display will change to show the first in a list of possible outs. The arrow buttons below the display will activate if options exist. A minus sign(-), double(D) and a triple(T) button will activate for entering a dart’s score, in order to change and update the out combination
Try this Demo, also available in Beta, free, at the Google Play Store.
Click Here for DART CIPHER
