68 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
68 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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CHECKMATE
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There are quite a few PC owners who believe that the primary reason computers
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have been invented and developed over the years is to give chess players an
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opponent when no human is available. CHECKMATE is made for them. It is quite
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possibly the most serious, in-your-face chess program ever developed for the
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home computer market. If Accolade's claims can be believed, it is smarter than
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CHESSMASTER 2000 or 2100, smarter than PSION, and smarter than SARGON. I know
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it's smarter than me. (This review is based on the Amiga version.)
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With so many chess programs available, the criteria for making the choice boil
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down to: (a) what's available for my machine; and (b) how badly do I want to get
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beaten? The rest is icing on the cake. If you want a fun and not-too-difficult
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game of chess, buy BATTLE CHESS. If you want an opponent who has the ability to
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learn from its errors, and become more intelligent, more perceptive, and
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basically more _human_ each time you play, go with CHECKMATE. I played 25 games
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against the computer and won only once: We're talking serious chess here.
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The Amiga version of CHECKMATE requires at least 512K of RAM, and performs
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better with additional memory. In essence, additional RAM allows the program to
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think further ahead. This makes it unique, as one of the few games where the
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average computer owner might wish he had _less_ memory available. The disk is
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easily copyable and installed on a hard drive, and the program uses manual-based
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copy protection.
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Anyone _not_ familiar with the rules and object of chess? I thought not.
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CHECKMATE has both two- and three-dimensional board views. It allows you to
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change perspective (or even change sides in mid-game), and has four types of
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chess sets to choose from -- although two are designed with children in mind,
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and one futuristic set I found rather ugly (when it comes to chess, I'm a bit of
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a purist). You can move your pieces in a variety of fashions -- sliding,
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point-and-shoot, and even "intuitive," in which you click on a square and the
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computer decides which piece (among those legally moveable to that spot) you
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want to move there. In the 2-D setup, you can type in your moves with the
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keyboard; otherwise you have to use the mouse. You can play CHECKMATE against
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either the computer or a human opponent, in which case the computer acts only as
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a referee, letting you know when you've made an illegal move. You can also set
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the computer to play itself, if you're kinky that way.
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CHECKMATE starts off with a library of 300,000 opening lines of moves
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(compressed somehow into 150K of disk space). When it loses a game, it can
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review the moves, recognize its errors, and adjust itself to compensate for that
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mistake. This is a remarkable function. Accolade rates the game's chess-playing
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ability at around 2175 ELO, or just below master level. On the other hand, the
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poor beleaguered human opponent is not likely to be a master player. However,
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you can ask the program for suggestions or recommended moves, offer it a draw,
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or shorten the time the computer is allowed to mull over its possible
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strategems. You also have the ultimate power -- that of turning off the
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computer. In the process, if you keep an open mind and pay strict attention, you
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can learn from experience, as well. CHECKMATE can be played at a variety of
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levels of computer-opponent ability, from bonehead beginner to seasoned master.
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Whatever you want from a chess program is likely to be here. You can save
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games, print them out, analyze what would've happened had you made another move,
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and be graded in terms of your chess savvy in solving problems. Amiga players
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who also own DELUXE PAINT III can even design their own chess sets. But
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CHECKMATE is not really intended to be a Construction Set: It exists solely to
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disabuse you of the belief that you can beat any old computer at chess, hands
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down.
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CHECKMATE is published by Interplay Productions and distributed by Mediagenic.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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