1978 Sargon available as uci
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Hi Harvey
Happy New Year.
I have been using Bill's Sargon UCI version for quite some time now and looking forward to his next upgrade with the goal of fixing the repetition problem whilst respecting the provenance of the program, i.e. without making any changes to the core Sargon 1978 assembly code. Also I think that he is going to change the game levels a little.
Regards
Bryan
Happy New Year.
I have been using Bill's Sargon UCI version for quite some time now and looking forward to his next upgrade with the goal of fixing the repetition problem whilst respecting the provenance of the program, i.e. without making any changes to the core Sargon 1978 assembly code. Also I think that he is going to change the game levels a little.
Regards
Bryan
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
Harvey Williamson wrote:https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon/releases[/quote
How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
Hi Fern,Fernando wrote: How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
You need the one that says uci-sargon this link should work https://github.com/billforsternz/retro- ... engine.exe then just install it the same as a uci engine.
- Fernando
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
Thanks!!Harvey Williamson wrote:Hi Fern,Fernando wrote: How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
You need the one that says uci-sargon this link should work https://github.com/billforsternz/retro- ... engine.exe then just install it the same as a uci engine.
Fern
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- Harvey Williamson
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
1 i think.Harvey Williamson wrote:Hi Fern,Fernando wrote: How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
You need the one that says uci-sargon this link should work https://github.com/billforsternz/retro- ... engine.exe then just install it the same as a uci engine.
- Fernando
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
In current PC play lot better than It used to do in old times ibn a 8088 or 286. . I played it in Arena and even If i got advantage very soon, it played his game lot more OK than what I was expecting. Once again a simple proposiktion is prooved: longer anaylsis trees makes an enormous difference.Harvey Williamson wrote:1 i think.Harvey Williamson wrote:Hi Fern,Fernando wrote: How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
You need the one that says uci-sargon this link should work https://github.com/billforsternz/retro- ... engine.exe then just install it the same as a uci engine.
Fern
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- Harvey Williamson
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Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
It will be running a lot faster than it did in 78.Fernando wrote:In current PC play lot better than It used to do in old times ibn a 8088 or 286. . I played it in Arena and even If i got advantage very soon, it played his game lot more OK than what I was expecting. Once again a simple proposiktion is prooved: longer anaylsis trees makes an enormous difference.Harvey Williamson wrote:1 i think.Harvey Williamson wrote:Hi Fern,Fernando wrote: How is this thing used?
I see a lot of files, at least three that couold be the key to launch
Please, an explmation
You need the one that says uci-sargon this link should work https://github.com/billforsternz/retro- ... engine.exe then just install it the same as a uci engine.
Fern
- Bryan Whitby
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- Bryan Whitby
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Yes McLane is correct, here is what Bill Foster wrote about it.
What is this?
The book "Sargon, a computer chess program", by Dan and Kathe Spracklen published by Hayden in 1978 presents the source code to the classic early chess program Sargon in Z80 assembly language. This is a project to bring the code presented in the book back to life in the modern era.
Why would you do that?
Why not? It was a fun challenge for a start. I love chess, I love chess software in general and retro chess software in particular. Not many people these days have familiarity and facility with Z80 assembly language, and it's nice to practise those skills and remember the good old days. The final result is fun to play with, it celebrates the pioneers and adds some twists and interest I didn't expect when I started (more on that later). Plus it's a pleasure to work on some software from a time when software could be important and significant without sprawling and metastasizing beyond the means of a single person to understand it in depth in a reasonable amount of time.
What is this?
The book "Sargon, a computer chess program", by Dan and Kathe Spracklen published by Hayden in 1978 presents the source code to the classic early chess program Sargon in Z80 assembly language. This is a project to bring the code presented in the book back to life in the modern era.
Why would you do that?
Why not? It was a fun challenge for a start. I love chess, I love chess software in general and retro chess software in particular. Not many people these days have familiarity and facility with Z80 assembly language, and it's nice to practise those skills and remember the good old days. The final result is fun to play with, it celebrates the pioneers and adds some twists and interest I didn't expect when I started (more on that later). Plus it's a pleasure to work on some software from a time when software could be important and significant without sprawling and metastasizing beyond the means of a single person to understand it in depth in a reasonable amount of time.
Probably, he actually mentioned this idea to me in an e-mail-exchange back in 2016, after I wrote to him about his C implementation of Microchess:mclane wrote:I would say this is the Sargon 1 that was published by Hayden software as BOOK !!!!
Bill Forster wrote:Finally, I will mention that I have purchased a second hand book that contains a source listing of Sargon. This is another future project of mine that you might be interested. I'd love to do something similar to my microchess project with Sargon. I'd provide the standard chess engine interface (i.e. Andre Adrian's idea) around it this time.
Thank you for an interesting game.
Re: 1978 Sargon available as uci
Over at TalkChess there's a lot talking about this one.
http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtop ... =2&t=74027
Tibono wrote about Andre Adrian's little CP/M Jupiter Sargon Emulator:
http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtop ... 10#p845624
http://www.andreadrian.de/schach/
http://www.andreadrian.de/schach/Jupiter-SARGON.zip
Bill Forster later answered:
Indeed there's a castling bug in the included SARGON.COM, I finally found it and fixed it.
Andre Adrian's code:
It's a relative jump bug. Bill Forster seems to have found the bug too, converting the relative value to absolute adresses:
To fix it, just use a hex-editor and change the 2 bytes of SARGON.COM, or get the attached version.
Sargon Jupiter Regards
Michael
http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtop ... =2&t=74027
Tibono wrote about Andre Adrian's little CP/M Jupiter Sargon Emulator:
http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtop ... 10#p845624
http://www.andreadrian.de/schach/
http://www.andreadrian.de/schach/Jupiter-SARGON.zip
Bill Forster later answered:
http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtop ... 20#p845725Finally, I tried out the Jupiter emulation you linked to. I played quick a FixedDepth=4 game against Sargon with my Tarrasch GUI (below - Sargon almost demonstrates that my previous assertion that it could never beat me is wrong), then tried to reproduce with the Jupiter Emulator. Everything seems great for a while. As expected the emulator is about one order of magnitude slower than the native code (10 secs v 1 sec at level 4, approx). But sadly, the emulator (reliably/repeatedly) crashes after 14. g3, failing to produce 14... O-O-O. The provenance of the Jupiter code is the same as my code, I used Andre Adrian's transcription as one of my inputs. I might see if I can check my Git logs to see if there's a fix I made somewhere that could account for this.
Indeed there's a castling bug in the included SARGON.COM, I finally found it and fixed it.
Andre Adrian's code:
Code: Select all
CP10: BIT 1,B ; King side castle ?
JRZ .+11 ; No - jump
PRTBLK O.O,5 ; Output "O-O"
JMPR CP1C ; Jump
BIT 2,B ; Queen side castle ?
JRZ .+11 ; No - jump
;X p74
PRTBLK O.O.O,5 ; Output "O-O-O"
JMPR CP1C ; Jump
PRTBLK P.PEP,5 ; Output "PxPep" - En passant
Code: Select all
CP10: BIT 1,b ; King side castle ?
JR Z,rel020 ; No - jump
PRTBLK O_O,5 ; Output "O-O"
JR CP1C ; Jump
rel020: BIT 2,b ; Queen side castle ?
JR Z,rel021 ; No - jump
PRTBLK O_O_O,5 ; Output "O-O-O"
JR CP1C ; Jump
rel021: PRTBLK P_PEP,5 ; Output "PxPep" - En passant
To fix it, just use a hex-editor and change the 2 bytes of SARGON.COM, or get the attached version.
Code: Select all
Offset: Was: Should Be:
1CAF 09 0E
1CC1 09 0E
Sargon Jupiter Regards
Michael
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- SARGON.COM.zip
- Bug Fixed Version of Andre Adrian's SARGON.COM
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