Chessmaster 86------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------Thomas Williamson, Biobytes Soft. I decided that the 86 needed a chess game with AI, so I made one. I've been working on this one off and on for a month and a half or so, and I estimate I've put about 30-40 hours into making it. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ FEATURES \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ * next to options NOT in TI-chess for the 89 - Good greyscale chess gfx, with * 3 different chess sets to choose from, your preference. - Better than beginner AI. Not the best AI in the world, but it gives me a whack or two before I beat it. Besides, the ENTIRE engine is * 842 bytes!!!! If you are a super master at chess, and don't find playing my AI fun, see the next feature.... - 75 puzzles (that look mysteriously like the puzzles in TI-CHESS for the 89....) to help you improve your game, whether you're an amatuer or a grandmaster! Thanx to Thomas Nussbaumer for HAVING the puzzles (I didn't get around to asking permission, mainly because HE copied them from a book anyway!) - ALL illegal moves detected except En Passant! That includes jumping over pieces and putting your king in check, as well a castling! - Partial pawn promotion. You always get a queen, but %99.9 of the time that's what you need anyway! - Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate detection! - Bugless after a 8 day testing period! - 3 player modes. 1 player, 2 player, or * watch the AI play itself (which could be rather entertaining.. ;) - * AI tweaking. Make it play more defensive, offensive, or nuetral. - Change AI sides. It can be black or white. - * Show AI thinking. Just a fun option to see. - Great title picture ripped from Chessmaster 5500. - Autosave feature. Leave a game at any time and pick it right back up agian! - * All in UNDER 7k!!! (TI-CHESS is more than 58k, but it is written in C for a much more memory consuming processor....) You could, however, look at my puzzles (1970 bytes) and then his (like 10k) and get an idea. And my 7k thing INCLUDES the puzzles! \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ INSTALLATION \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ In order to play the game, you must send 'Cmaster.86p' to your calc. If you want autosave enabled, you need to send 'CMsave.86s' as well. If you want the 75 puzzles, send the other one, too. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ HOW TO PLAY /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ The game is laid out very basically. You start it, gaze at the title screen, then set your options and play. When you press [EXIT], Chessmaster 86 will autosave your game, and you can start up agian by going to 'Let's Play' instead of 'New Game' in the options. If you want to change options in mid game, just press [EXIT] and restart the program, and change the options to how you would like, and go to 'Let's Play.' Keep in mind that the program will always go to the previously played game when you select that. Now, if you make a mistake, and want to go back to when you last exited and autosaved it, just press [ALPHA] to exit without saving, and go to 'Let's Play' to return to the game when you last saved it. This is useful when trying to solve puzzles. In the game, playing is very simple. Press 2nd to pick up a piece, and then 2nd agian to put it down. To cancel picking a piece up, just place it to where it would be an illegal move, or reselect the tile where the piece is standing. To castle, make sure your king and castle are in the right position. Then just simply select your king, and then 'place' it on the castle you want it to castle with. The game checks for MOST illegal castling positions. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ OPTIONS /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Difficulty How hard the AI is. Beginner 1 move total depth, 3 move max depth Amatuer 2 move total depth, 4 move max depth Players Setup of who plays 1 pl. One player agianst the AI 2 pl. Two players playing head on! 2 CPU Watch the AI play a stupid game CPU Color Which side the AI plays from Black The darker color on the top side of the board White The lighter color on the bottom side CPU Priority Tweaking how the AI plays Neutral Default mode Offensive Plays more offensively minded Defensive yada yada yada.... Chess Set Which chess piece gfx you use in the game Staunton The classic pieces, just nice to play with, because they're what you're used to Figurine Easier to see set that resembles newspaper pieces Alphabet For the geezers who need their pieces indicated by letters Show Thinking On This is easy enough to figure out.... Off Let's Play Play from previously autosaved game New Game Set up board for a new game! \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ PUZZLES /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ To use the puzzles, send puzzles.86p to your calc. Their information is all included in this separate program, as well as how to install them. Run 'puzzles' (in a shell, preferably) and select the puzzle you want to play. The number of moves you can make in order to solve it are displayed. When you've decided press [ENTER] to 'install' one into Chessmaster 86's save file. Then just run Cmaster and select the 'Let's Play' option. Using [APLHA] to restart a puzzle in the game is a very smart idea, since you don't have to reload it. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ THE SIDE BAR/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ If you STILL can't see the pieces even with alphabet on, you'll notice that on the side bar, the piece's name that your selector is over is displayed to the right of the current color in play. Directly underneath the current color in play is the space where check, checkmate, and stalemate are announces. Under those is the White and Black Score. What's this you ask? It's a standard scoring system (sortof) that relies on the pieces you've taken: Queen - 9 points Rook - 5 points Knight - 3 points Bishop - 3 points Pawn - 1 point Refering to the score to tell yourself how you're doing in the game, but don't rely on it to determine if you've lost or not. Remember, the AI doesn't check for checkmates from you, it only chases pieces! (It used to check for checkmates, but it was rather ssslllloooowwww....) Just below that is the number of moves so far in the game, and the number of nodes (possible moves) the AI has searched through in his last (or current) move. A lot of nodes means a well-developed game! (for both of ya!) Goodbye! I hope you LOVE this game! SPECIAL THANKS Thomas Nussbaumer for 'lending' his puzzles and supplying the puzzle data in one file I could easily rip from in QBasic! Me for designing an engine from scratch! That's right. I had no help! But....if you want give me some of your remarks on the engine and how I could make it better, I'd be glad to hear from you! Questions? Comments?? EMAIL me at jedivsith@yahoo.com!