The Last Spracklen Creation...

[Fernando]

As all you know, the Spracklen were hired by an European company that wanted to compete with Lang Genius delivered by Mephisto. The Spracklen worked hard, but in the tournament where they faced Lang, this one was the winner. So the Spracklen were fired and there ended his careers. Nevertheless, The module they produced with the most advanced hardware of the age still exist, though surely in very little amount, almost as an Smithsonian piece. Now, gentlemen, what a great thing would be if Mr Hubner could take that piece of hardware and deliver it in his next emu software!

Is that possible?

Last wish of a man near the grave regards
Fern

[Larry]

As all you know, the Spracklen were hired by an European company that wanted to compete with Lang Genius delivered by Mephisto. The Spracklen worked hard, but in the tournament where they faced Lang, this one was the winner. So the Spracklen were fired and there ended his careers. Nevertheless, The module they produced with the most advanced hardware of the age still exist, though surely in very little amount, almost as an Smithsonian piece. Now, gentlemen, what a great thing would be if Mr Hubner could take that piece of hardware and deliver it in his next emu software!

Is that possible?

Last wish of a man near the grave regards
Fern

Does the nodule have a name?
L

[mclane]

I guess he talks about the sparc module by Saitek.

The problem is that the spracklens made almost NO progress since 1983 budapest.

The Glasgow and mobile versions were tactical stronger but played positionally lousy.

Then they transferred the engine to 68000 hardware, but that did not change the major problem that it played lousy.

This did not change when they transferred it from 68000 Motorola to Sparc hardware.


You hunt a ghost.



The Sparc is a strong hardware. If you want to emulate it your machine must be tough.

[hap]

Yeah, it's the SPARC module. Saitek Leonardo/Renaissance emulation would need to be finished first, and then the modules.

Unfortunately, "Mr. Hubner" won't be able to deliver it in his emulation package, unless someone else writes the low level emulation first.

See for example:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/ma ... uchess.cpp
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/ma ... tchess.cpp
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/ma ... savant.cpp
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/ma ... el_cc1.cpp
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/ma ... odular.cpp

..and dozens more. These files are integrated in CB-Emu. If you look closely, you won't see Franz in any of them as copyright holder.

As one of the MAME programmers, I can tell you, there are a couple of roadblocks. Chessboard emulation is not finished: the 6301 CPU emulation is missing some features. I also don't know how the board<->module communication works exactly. On top of that, the SPARC CPU emulation is also not finished yet.

[Liston]

As far as I know...
"Mr. Hubner" (actually Mr. Huber - Hubner was a German GM) never claimed he did it...

[bataais]

Spracklen's Saitek Sparc is now emulated in MAME and CB-EMU!

Sparkling regards
Michael

[Bryan Whitby]

Not quite yet, still unfortunately having problems.

[Tibono2]

Hi Bryan,
OK I did not play a full game yet, but I installed the new CB-Emu version; and my check of the Saitek SPARK (rev.518) is fine so far...
Beware it needs some CPU power. I had to set the Frameskip option to '10' (max value) as the 'Auto' setting uses more CPU (in order to adjust continuously).
Any specific issue to point out?
Best,
Eric

[Bryan Whitby]

Hi Eric

Thanks for the tip.

I was just referring to Hap & Franz posts to one another. I will download and test later and am looking forward to playing it as I have never owned the SPARC module.

I believe it is a very attacking engine let down by its endgame knowledge (so I have read).

Regards
Bryan

[Fernando]

Cannot display almost any program in EMU. It comes a screen with some squares in black and white and that's all

[Tibono2]

some squares in black and white and that's all

Well Fern, that is what we call a chessboard

Okay, joke mode off, such result is usually what you might get when some expected resources are lacking (such as artwork pieces) or mixed from previous version and new version.
But if you unzip (install from scratch) the full package from the CB-Emu file provided by Franz, you get a consistent, complete installation without lacking resources.
You can choose a brand new place (directory) to unzip the new version while keeping the previous one "as is" and not loose anything you would like to keep from the previous version.
You can even open the zip file and, before extracting its content, rename the home CB-Emu directory to something else - such as CB-Emu_new, to enable extracting it to your usual programs directory, aside the previous version. Now you can extract CB-Emu_new without any risk to erase your previous version, if you want to keep it.
Whatever the location you extract to, and whatever the name of the home directory of the emulator (usually "CB-Emu", as provided in the zip file), everything should work from such a full installation.

Then you can enter this home directory, and either:
- run CB-Emu.exe to select then launch the emulated computer you want to play with, this way you will need to handle the computer all by yourself (level selection, input of moves...) and you need to pay attention to the response of the computer - I mean not the computed move, but the acknowledgment of each pressed square or key, simulated with your mouse-click that must last roughly the same time as your finger would press on the real-life computer.
- or use your file explorer to reach down to the MessChess directory and launch the MessChess.exe program. I would advise you to use this method, Fern. Why: you will find the same list of chess computers to play with, but Winboard will be launched as master program, and the emulated chess computer as slave. All the handling of the computer will be managed for you (thru the so-called "plugin" scripts), you only need to use the Winboard window, and either watch the computer react, or even hide the chess computer window as there is no need for it. In the Winboard menu, just use Engine: Engine #1 Settings to set the level (unless you want to use the default one); then use Mode: machine white or machine black to start the game accordingly. In the same MessChess directory there is a help file Levels.txt showing how to input the level as a string. Most usually, it is trivial (enter 2 for level 2, enter 15 for 15 seconds...). You need the help file only for more sophisticated levels (tournament...).

Hope this helps,
Eric

[Fernando]

Thanks for your reply, but in fact, I erased the previous Emu version before making use of the new one. It looks like my very old computer, with a CPU of 2009, etc, has not the right video card or something. On fact, I can not run ANY simulated computer BEFORE changing display properties to "auto" and with that, some of those emuls work fine, BUT many do not answer to that fix.
Fern

[Fernando]

..and by the way, the other path you mention does not include Saitek stuff, but just some Mephisto....

[Bryan Whitby]

Download the latest version from here and you will have no problem with the ROMS.

https://c.gmx.net/@317206859884790529/D ... YIcnAxWuFg

Unfortunately the Sparc ROM is supposed to start within the Leonardo but Hap today has advised Franz that isn't happening and the standard Leonardo engine is loading instead. Franz thinks he knows the problem and maybe later or tomorrow we might see an update to the problem.

[Tibono2]

..and by the way, the other path you mention does not include Saitek stuff, but just some Mephisto....

Just to make sure we are on the same page: you get a window with title: MessChess - MESSUI32 0.220 (Nov 1 2021) but displaying only Mephisto computers in the "Machine" column?
If so: just under "File" menu (leftmost, just under the window title) you have small graphic icons, the rightmost one being a yellow question mark.
Click the leftmost one to make sure a list of folders is displayed, as first column, before the "Machine" column.
Then use the folder you want, such as either "Chess_Saitek" to find the Sparc more quickly, or "All Systems" on top of the list of folders.
Should "All Systems" not be displayed within the list of folders, right-click within the folders column, expand Show Folders, and check "All Systems".

My laptop is a 2010 one (running Windows 7) with only a very basic video chipset (no dedicated video card), but the emulator is not much demanding. I don't trust the video would cause any issue.
Chers,
Eric