CP/M chess programs

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BenRedic
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Post by BenRedic »

BenRedic wrote:But I have managed to get the emulator and the chess games from the Nascom site you linked to working, so I'll be fine. The german programs look like they may be based on Sargon? The original sargon was released as full source code in a book, and there were plenty of ports, versions and Sargon-based offspring running around.
Tested this one; Seems I was right. Tried to reproduce an earlier game from Sargon level 1 on NAS Chess level 1. The game was identical, so NAS Chess=Sargon.
Thank you for an interesting game.
Volodymyr
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Post by Volodymyr »

Well, there are many clones, I think shahm_mx.i80 it's a clone.
I was not seriously interested. Very little information.
I was looking chess programs for Soviet computers today,
unfortunately did not find any more.
I know there is a version Chess 2 for Vector06C,but I did not find.
Author Orlov S.V and Smirnov V.N of chess for Vector warns possible errors.
I also have a bad start SHAHMAT.I80 (SpecialistMX),but I once launched and made a screenshot.
Here is a link to the entire collection of games for these computers.

http://files.dp.ua/file?source=18022123591388294150
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BenRedic
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Post by BenRedic »

Volodymyr wrote:Well, there are many clones, I think shahm_mx.i80 it's a clone.
I was not seriously interested. Very little information.
I was looking chess programs for Soviet computers today,
unfortunately did not find any more.
I know there is a version Chess 2 for Vector06C,but I did not find.
Author Orlov S.V and Smirnov V.N of chess for Vector warns possible errors.
I also have a bad start SHAHMAT.I80 (SpecialistMX),but I once launched and made a screenshot.
Here is a link to the entire collection of games for these computers.

http://files.dp.ua/file?source=18022123591388294150
Found a couple of other collections laying around. A couple had a game called Chess Master, but I couldn't get it to start the game. The program loaded, but I only got some intro with a scrolling text which I am not able to read, and whatever I pressed I couldn't get past it. Also found some games for the Specialist (not MX), including one which looks like a b/w version of the MX program I tested, and one which identified itself as Mike's Chess, which is one of the CP/M programs I had in my original post.
Thank you for an interesting game.
Volodymyr
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Post by Volodymyr »

http://files.dp.ua/file?source=18022211233923218634

Orlov and Smirnov (1989,1992)
chess11.zip

Volkov and Peresadov 1992
chess-volkov.zip

unknow
NICKCHES.ROM

TORNADO center «Computer», Makrinsky/YUMAK'COM
chesmast.zip

Here all board games for Vector6C.The ability to play online.
http://sensi.org/scalar/categories/25/
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BenRedic
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Post by BenRedic »

BenRedic wrote: - BASIC programs: I found a couple of these. One of them I got running in MBASIC under CP/M. The program can be found at http://altairclone.com/downloads/basic/ ... /chess.bas. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful actually playing against it. There's no documentation, but from the source code I worked out that the moves are entered using an octal representation similiar to early Microchess and the aforementioned Ron Nelson program, but using reversed values for X and Y. However, as soon as I enter a valid move, the program thinks for a second but then breaks with an error:

Code: Select all

         **** CHESS ****
DO YOU WANT TO BE WHITE OR BLACK? w
 4  2  3  5  6  3  2  4 
 1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 
 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 
 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 
 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 
 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 
-4 -2 -3 -5 -6 -3 -2 -4 
YOUR MOVE? 57,47
YOU CAN'T DO THAT.
YOUR MOVE? 57,56
ACCEPTED.


NUMBER OF POSSIBLE MOVES FOR COMPUTER 20 

FROM TO  BOARD VALUE
FOR Without NEXT in 1800
- I found another BASIC program here http://www.z80.eu/downloads/chess1bas.zip. Couldn't get it running in CP/M. But I did recognize some of the text in the print statements, and remembered that I had played with this program before under MS-DOS. The program I found here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/chess-1q2. It plays weak, and makes illegal moves, but hey, it's chess in BASIC.
Revisiting this, I got the BASIC programs up and running. I also found some more info about them.

1) The first is a program written by Randy Miller in 1976 for the Altair. With a few minor modifications, I got this running perfectly in GWBASIC under MS-DOS. It only sees one ply, so it plays like a dog, but at least it makes valid moves and makes sure the player does the same. It understands castling and underpromotion, but not en passant.

The program:
http://altairclone.com/downloads/basic/ ... /chess.bas

To make it run in GWBASIC, change line 1800 from this

Code: Select all

1800 FOR X=3 TO 6:FOR Y=3 TO 6:EV=EV+TM(X,Y)/3:NEXTY:NEXTX
to this

Code: Select all

1800 FOR X=3 TO 6:FOR Y=3 TO 6:EV=EV+TM(X,Y)/3:NEXT Y:NEXT X
Apparently, the author was awarded a prize for this program during the MITS Computer Convention in march 1976:
http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/re/1 ... l-Pg40.pdf

Page 15 in this newsletter includes a scathing takedown of this program:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/proj ... 031.sm.pdf

2) Chess C.4 by Michael Rakaska was published as source code by Creative Computing in December 1981:
https://archive.org/stream/creativecomp ... 1/mode/2up
The program was written for TRS-80, and later adapted for PC by S.W. Huggins. Plenty of different versions of this program is floating around, both as source and compiled EXEs. I came over at least 5 just searching through a PC-SIG library CD-ROM. One of the BASIC versions I found does not seem to have the bug with illegal king moves that I reported earlier, but apart from that the behaviour is the same. 24 different levels; Level 24 plays like a dead drunk dog, level 1 plays more or less like the Plankalkül chess program from 1948.
Thank you for an interesting game.
AmicablyUnleaded
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Re: CP/M chess programs

Post by AmicablyUnleaded »

BenRedic wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:23 pm Merry belated christmas everybody! I have a small present for you guys. I have not seen much on these pages about chess for CP/M based computers, so I started digging a bit around. I'll go into details further down in this post, but first we go straight for the good stuff, here's a small package with six different chess programs (Microchess, Sargon x2, MyChess x2 plus one unknown program):

https://nofile.io/f/TFhDv9HazSa/CPMCHESS.7z
...
Hey there! I just came across this post while looking for Chess software to run on my Altair. Do you happen to still have that CPMCHESS.7z file? That nofile website seems to have died a couple years back. Would love to get those programs! :)

Cheers,
AU
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BenRedic
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Re: CP/M chess programs

Post by BenRedic »

AmicablyUnleaded wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 12:25 am Hey there! I just came across this post while looking for Chess software to run on my Altair. Do you happen to still have that CPMCHESS.7z file? That nofile website seems to have died a couple years back. Would love to get those programs! :)
I do. Try https://mega.nz/file/0IdQwTyL#tbj8dQukQ ... 3_zz09X1mI.
Thank you for an interesting game.
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BenRedic
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Re: CP/M chess programs

Post by BenRedic »

AmicablyUnleaded wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 12:25 am [...] to run on my Altair. [...]
Also, you may be interested in this one:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160102234 ... altair.zip
(original site is down, but still exists at archive.org)

I don't have an actual Altair myself, but this package includes an Altair emulator for DOS and a bunch of nsi images, including one (two actually) running Dynacomp Chess Master. Don't know what it would take to get this over to an actual Altair, but you probably know more than I do. What I do know is that I have successfully been able to use it under two layers of emulation (DOS -> Altair). The program plays pretty weak, but that should probably be expected.

Manual for the chess program at http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/altair/d/chess.pdf
Thank you for an interesting game.
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mclane
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Re: CP/M chess programs

Post by mclane »

Anyone more chess engines for

TI99 4/A

MSX Computer

Acorn PISC PC other then cyber chess

I have so many old homecomputers and would like to get more chess engines but not always sargon, cyrus or the well known.

I found e.g. PSI chess very interesting for spectrum.

Whittingtons super chess is interesting but has IMO no permanent brain. Only clock chess89 has permanent brain.

How is whittingtons CP/M version ??
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