Author: John Merlino
Date: 12:49:34 08/16/02
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On August 16, 2002 at 15:34:05, Stuzzi Kadent wrote: >On August 16, 2002 at 14:18:56, John Merlino wrote: > > >>At its highest setting (which could take forever to make a move), I would say >>that the original Gameboy version played no better than 1750. At a more >>reasonable time control, it was probably less than 1600. >> >>The Gameboy Advance version was done by Ubi Soft programmers in Romania. I >>honestly do not know if they used the same engine that was in the Gameboy >>version, or if they used something else. We did send them our PC code and >>artwork for them to use (as a guide, if nothing else), but I don't know how >>much, if any, was applicable to their program. >> >>jm > >I am puzzled by what could be a callous attitude to the franchise. Programming a >specific machine's hardware is one thing, but I wonder why they do not ask the >original Chessmaster programmers to do their best to scale down their chess >engine size to ensure the basis remains as good as possible. Such as pruning it >to 32K or whatever, and then let conversion programmers implement that. Rather >than employ hardware specific programmers with no particular record in Chess >programs to make all the decisions. Why Romania for instance? Because it is >cheap? What is wrong with America? >I don't know, I just wish I got the feelings companies cared. The companies cared enough to make a new Gameboy version, which is more than the last three owners of Chessmaster bothered to do. And the programmers in Romania have done several Gameboy products, so they know what they're doing. Sure, they are probably cheaper than having it done in America (as is every other country, I expect), but they are also good. Ubi Soft is a French company, not an American one. They are based in Paris and they have development houses around the world. They assign products based on the appropriate available development team. Cost is, of course, an issue, but I'm glad that THEY did it rather than the Windows team, who collectively have zero experience with anything other than Windows (well, a little bit of Mac, but that's going back several years). jm
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