Chessmaster II1999

Origin The original SARGON was written by Dan and Kathleen 'Kathe' Spracklen in a Z80-based computer called Wavemate Jupiter III[1] using assembly language through TDL Macro Assembler. The name was originally written entirely in capitals because early computer operating systems such as CP/M did not support lower-case file names. Introduction SARGON was introduced at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire where it won the first computer chess tournament held strictly for microcomputers, with a score of 5-0.[2][3] This success encouraged the authors to seek financial income by selling the program directly to customers. Since magnetic media were not widely available at the time, the authors placed an advert in Byte Magazine and mailed $15 photocopied listings that would work in any Z80-based microcomputer.[1] Availability of the source code allowed porting to other machines. For example, the March–April 1979 issue of Recreational Computing describes a project that converted Sargon to an 8080 program by using macros. Later the Spracklens were contacted by Hayden Books and a book was published.[4] Commercialization through electronic media When magnetic media publishing became widely available, a Navy Petty Officer, Paul Lohnes, ported Sargon to the TRS-80, altering both graphics, input, and housekeeping routines leaving the Spracklen's chess-playing algorithm intact. Paul consulted with the Spracklens, both living in San Diego at the time, to make the TRS-80 version an instant success with the help of Hayden Book's newly established software division: Hayden Software. Paul was not involved in further refinements to the TRS-80 version due to his reassignment to sea duty shortly after signing the deal with Hayden Software. In the early 1980s SARGON CHESS was ported to several earlier microcomputers, i.e. NASCOM (by Bits & PCs, 1981), Exidy Sorcerer, Sharp MZ 80K,[5] and many others. A complete rewrite was necessary later for the Apple II port, made by Kathleen's brother Gary Shannon. Both were published by Hayden Software. Sequels The Spracklens made significant improvements on the original program[1] and released Sargon II. In 1978 it tied for third at the ninth North American Computer Chess Championship despite being seeded ninth of 12 entries. Sargon finished only behind Belle and Chess 4.7, and defeated AWIT—running on a $5 million Amdahl mainframe—amazing the audience.[6][3][1] That year they published a series of articles in BYTE on computer chess programming,[2][7] stating "we think it would be nice if not everyone had to reinvent the wheel".[6] Sargon II was ported to a variety of personal computers popular in the early 1980s.[8] The game engine featured multiple levels of lookahead to make it more accessible to beginning chess players. BYTE in 1980 estimated that Sargon II had a 1500 rating at the highest tournament-time difficulty level, and speculated that it was the best chess program on sale, including dedicated devices.[9] Sargon 2.5, sold as a ROM module for the Chafitz Modular Game System, was identical to Sargon II but incorporated pondering.[10] It received a 1641 rating at the Paul Masson tournament in June–July 1979, and 1736 at the San Jose City College Open in January 1980.[3] Sargon 3.0 finished in seventh place at the October 1979 North American Computer Chess Championship. The competition had improved, but 3.0 drew against Cray Blitz and easily defeated Mychess, its main microcomputer rival. In December 3.0 easily won the second microcomputer championship in London.[3] In 1980, the Spracklens' Reversi game finished in first place at a computer tournament at Northwestern University, and in 1981 it finished in third place at the Santa Cruz Open Othello Tournament.[11] Sargon III was a complete rewrite from scratch. Instead of an exchange evaluator, this version used a capture search algorithm. Also included was a chess opening repertoire. This third version was written originally for the 6502 assembler and was commercially published by Hayden Software in 1983. Apple contacted the Spracklens and, after a port for 68000 assembly, Sargon III was the first third-party executable software for the Macintosh.[1] After the demise of Hayden Software, later chess programs were also released under the name Sargon, including Sargon IV (Spinnaker Software), Sargon V (Activision) and a CD-i title simply named Sargon Chess. The Spracklens concurrently wrote the engines for the dedicated chess computers produced by Fidelity Electronics, which won the first four World Microcomputer Chess Championships.

As a student of Astral the wizard, you and your friends study all the usual subjects: reading, writing, and sword fighting. As your time at school draws to an end, dark events are taking place on the island of Grans. The two Jewels which seal the Door to Darkness have been stolen, allowing a creature of awesome power to be unleashed. Finding where the Jewels were taken, and why, is a task only the bravest of adventurers can undertake.

Battle Chess was developed by Interplay as their first project after severing ties with Electronic Arts. They designed it for the Amiga in 1988, and it was released on the majority of the other systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s as well. It was widely successful, and resulted in two follow-ups, many copy-cat games, and a remake for Steam on PC. The only significant criticism the game received was the weak chess AI, as it was not until the mid 1990s that chess ai began to consistently win against strong opponents.

The Chessmaster is a game where the player has the chance to play against the CPU controlled Chessmaster at a standard game of chess. To play the game the player must pick up the chess pieces with there hand cursor and place it in the desired location, within the rules a standard chess game. There are 16 different difficulty levels that includes 2 beginner levels, 13 standard levels (ranging from an average of 5 seconds to 4.5 minutes per shot depending on level), and a infinite level that will keep thinking of a shot until a perfect shot can be made or it is forced to move. There is also a teaching mode that shows the player all the possible moves with the selected piece. Two players can play each other with two controllers and there is also an option of letting the Chessmaster play itself.

Chessmaster: The Art of Learning expands the scope of chess to include broader principles of learning. Josh Waitzkin's much-anticipated book The Art of Learning (Free Press) is designed to pave the road to successful long-term growth on and off the chessboard. The eight-time National Chess Champion and two-time martial arts World Champion puts users in his shoes in some of the most riveting and formative moments of his chess career, including the legendary climactic game from the book and film Searching for Bobby Fischer. Waitzkin then turns to the classics, introducing beginners to brilliant games from some of the most important players in the history of chess. In his most revealing commentary ever, Waitzkin not only teaches the beginning chess player the fundamentals of the game, but also humanizes the road to mastery. Never has chess been so exciting.

Commanders, assemble your armies! CHECK vs. MATE calls for an interactive feather duster, chartering the successful chess game principle into the present day multimedia world. Animated fantasy figurines assemble in magical worlds and await your command! As a Commander, execute skillful maneuvers on the game board and catapult yourself directly into the battle with devastating attacks, chessman vs. chessman. After a 2012 lawsuit from Interplay Entertainment over IP infringement, "Battle Chess" against "Battle vs Chess", the game and its DLCs/Editions were renamed Check vs. Mate and released digitally in North America. Although the content is the same, the game was given a second listing on Steam for the new title, as Battle vs Chess has Steam trading cards not linked to the NA title. This also lead to their being Steam key differences across online stores for the game and its DLCs/Editions causing some problems at the time.

Star Wars Chess is a chess game where the pieces are characters from the Star Wars universe. When pieces are taken, an animated battle is shown, much like in Battle Chess.

Archon: The Light and the Dark was a game developed by Free Fall Associates which loosely modeled the game of Chess, with a number of additions to the gameplay. It was programmed by Anne Westfall, and released originally for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983. It was quickly ported to a number of different systems, and was well-received.