HIARCS Chess Forums

Harvey Williamson · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:35 am Post subject: Junior is Back

At last the return of Junior http://www.worldchesslive.com/bj/index.html

I should have some more details soon. I am in Tel Aviv and meeting the author, Amir Ban, for Lunch today.
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Dark Horse · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:21 pm Post subject:

Monsieur Plastique · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:44 pm Post subject:

Bobby Junior sounds more like a major league Baseball player or NASCAR driver than a chess program Surprised

Fernando · Admiral Joined: 31 Jul 2007 Posts: 452

As far as I have seen in the page of that junior baby ,it does not seems much attractive. Gui and the rest is just usual stuff these days. No special beauty, not original functions. I guess this is as way of giving some weight to a new Junior that is not what we could expect after so much time.
If they could give us a really lot stronger engine, they would have not bothered themselves with that old fashioned extra hoopla.

Fern, the punisher
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Monsieur Plastique · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:59 pm Post subject:

Reading through the website and watching the videos, I get the impression they are trying to tap into the traditional Chessmaster market. They also state the product is aimed more at recreational players. Perhaps I am inaccurate, but my feeling is that there has never been a significant and consistent overlap between the Chessmaster sort of market versus the hardcore PC-only Chessbase / Rybka / HIARCS / Chess Genius sort of markets.

My personal feeling is that this type of product is probably better aimed at the console market than hardcore PC users. Had it been released for a xBox 360 or Nintendo Wii, I would not have batted an eyelid.

It just seems odd to me personally in this day and age to release a product like Bobby Junior for the PC when it just has "console" written all over it in terms of look and feel.

Incidentally, typing Bobby Junior into Google brings up a whole host of interesting reading material - most of it unrelated to chess!

Highendman · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2009 Posts: 155

Hope you had a good lunch with Amir. Looking forward to the details Smile

It's cool getting another Junior release. I hope you'll have some juicy details for us on what he believes the strength of his new Junior to be.

Harvey Williamson · Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:42 am Post subject:

tomgdrums · Member Joined: 01 Jun 2009 Posts: 32

I have always wanted a version of Junior to play against (and for some analysis as well) and I don't like chessbase products so I am pretty excited about Bobby Junior (goofy name).

I purchased the preview version and I think the GUI is going to be an excellent playing atmosphere once it is complete. Plus it was nice to put the Deep Junior engine UCI into Shredder GUI so that I can really use it for analysis.

So I am already a happy customer as long as they come thru with the updates to the GUI!

Werner · Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:

Hi Harvey,
and pse: what did you hear about this new version?
Is it a new engine or the (old) Junior 10 UCI ??

best wishes
Werner

Carl Bicknell · Member Joined: 04 May 2009 Posts: 21

Werner · Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 5:48 pm Post subject:

Harvey Williamson · Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject:

Going out again tonight to Yoezer Bar yain in Jaffa - some say it is the best in israel Smile

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jfrendek · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject: Bobby Junior Sign Up

I signed up for there $29 deal and they billed my credit card $49. I have requested a partial refund for the difference. Perhaps I missed one of the terms of the deal?

Anyway the basic interface is decent but I'm not the right person to ask about the playing strength. I just love playing with new chess software.

I'm afraid I can not recommend it because you must activate online through WCL of course and you only get 3 activations. I do not plan on staying subscribed to WCL and I like to copy my UCI engines to a USB key with Arena and play around on any computer I'm near so I want a real activation key like you get with HIARCS. I'm not into software theft but I am into flexibility and like to feel I own what I bought for as long as the operating system I chose supports it.

-Jim
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tomgdrums · Member Joined: 01 Jun 2009 Posts: 32

[q and I like to copy my UCI engines to a USB key with Arena and play around on any computer I'm near so I want a real activation key like you get with HIARCS. I'm not into software theft but I am into flexibility and like to feel I own what I bought for as long as the operating system I chose supports it.

-Jim[/quote]

Once you activate it can't you take it with you on USB? I just assumed you could.

jfrendek · Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:36 pm Post subject: Bobby Junior Activation

To answer your question about using Bobby Junior on any computer once activated...

To be honest I have not tried too yet, but I know I have had to re-activate HIARCS to get it to function on another machine. I believe the way most activations work is by writing some sort of coded or obscure registry keys that the engine checks. Therefore if you move it to another Windows machine you must re-activate to get the proper Keys installed in that particular registry.

Now that would mean you would have to be able to logon to WCL and you would only have 3 shots. Naturally the machine would need internet access and the firewall/proxy would have to allow you to go to WCL which is a game site and probably blocked at many institutions. Also you might need the whole Bobby Junior package. I'm not sure without the GUI if you can even activate just the engine and who wants to install the GUI just to use the engine.

This is only how I suspect that it works. If you find out different please let me know. Usually I find software protection to be less than nice to the user.

-Jim R.
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