Author: Mike S.
Date: 22:25:41 08/16/02
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On August 16, 2002 at 18:15:36, John Merlino wrote: >(...) >>>It is not acceptable (IMO) for a chess engine itself to ask for a CD; that is >>>the job of the GUI. Why isn't that acceptable? For example, Shredder (the "classic" engines) does it like that when you run the engine in another GUI, and it is *very user friendly*. No OPK trouble, insert the CD once in a while... easy. The GUI/engine concept actually *requires* IMO, that the engine can operate independant from it's original GUI it comes with - even on another computer where that GUI isn't even installed (!), if the user desires it. And it should be possible to do it without any additional custom tools and without having to be an in-depth configuration expert. Maybe the CD request could be done by an "external" CM dll, which the engine just would need to call on start (not neccessarily to ask for the CD always, but just to see if the authorization is ok). This is one of these topics, where the Chessmaster developers missed to take a closer look on how other manufacturers do it. Most often it's better to copy a good idea, than to create something new which is not as good... You know I'm a big admirer of Chessmaster (and of The King, too) - but believe me, the OPK copy protection is *by far* the worst idea for that purpose I've seen for a long time. (Personally I'm not too much affected, because I like to use the CM GUI anyway, i.e. doing matches with WB engines there etc... But OTOH I understand the demand, mainly to be able match The King against the strong engines available in other GUIs only, but also for analysis, more easily. Btw. that complicated King in Fritz stuff didn't work on my computer when I tried it.) I remember an old 8bit computer game (I think it was called "Alpha Centauri"), where you had to twinkle through a plastic lens which came with the software, to be able to read a hidden code from the game's starting screen, and enter that... That is no suggestion! :o)) Regards, Mike Scheidl
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