Author: J. C. Boco
Date: 09:20:57 09/22/01
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On September 19, 2001 at 13:48:50, J. C. Boco wrote: >REBEL CENTURY for DOS, the loss of one of our only two positional chess programs >in the future? > >When I started down the path of PC computer chess, I used a Macintosh using the >only real chess program available, HIARCS. This was (and is) a great program, >and was pleased that it had a more Human-like playing style. > >Fast forward a few years and I now have a Gateway. A tough decision had to be >made, HIARCS or REBEL? I wanted a Human-like style and these were the only >choices. I chose REBEL because Ed was working on this program to be the >strongest against Human players, even though he had to forgo the glory of having >this program play computers for the SSDF ratings. As a sweetener, REBEL came >with a database which I could use as an opening book. REBEL was no. 1, HIARCS a >somewhat close second. > >I’m thinking of upgrading my REBEL CENTURY to the latest version, but some news >has given me pause. I understand that if there is going to be a REBEL CENTURY >four, it will most likely be in DOS. Century three is in DOS now, of course. >That’s fine with me, the benefits outweigh DOS. But I’m concerned about the >newest operating system for Windows coming out soon, which will soon become the >canonical operating system for most computers. > >Will the newest operating system continue to run REBEL CENTURY under DOS? I >have heard on this forum that the newest operating system will only Emulate DOS? > Is this true? When I had Macintoshes, I had a PowerPC running a then-new >HIARCS program which had to emulate the 680XX code, and the result was my 100MHz >PowerPC chip (then quite fast) ran HIARCS slower than my 20MHz 680XX chip. >Thankfully, later there was a PowerPC version of HIARCS. It was ported to the >new chip, and I bought it. > >I’m scared that if there is DOS emulation the slowdown of REBEL CENTURY will be >too much. If so, this program will surely die. > >I don’t understand why 100% effort isn’t dedicated to porting Century to >windows. As I understand it, this positional REBEL program was what made the >Rebel company what it is today, successful. Is this program not selling as well >as the newer Tiger and Gandolf programs? If so, then I can understand why there >are no resources to spend on Century (but I will assert that if this is the >case, the only reason the newer programs are more lucrative is because Century >is still in DOS, and that Century would make more money if it were modernized). > >Anyway, I hope someone can shed some much needed light into whether the newest >operating system for windows will only “emulate” DOS, or actually run DOS well. >Like I said, if it is an emulation, Century will be lost from the hard drives of >the future. > >If this comes to pass, what to do? The only program left that has a Human-like >playing ability is HIARCS. If there are others please let me know.
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