Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: To John Merlino, should I buy CM9000

Author: John Merlino

Date: 13:19:07 11/13/02

Go up one level in this thread


On November 13, 2002 at 15:50:08, Edwin Wigmore wrote:

>I'm sorry if this puts you on the spot John, but I'm a bit cheesed off.
>
>I had been a great fan of the Fritz series having bought every copy from 3 to 6.
>Then I became interested in Chessmaster and bought 7000 and 8000.
>
>I had intended to stay with Chessmaster and was about to buy 9000.  A big part
>of the reason for this is because if there was a problem, with you there I was
>confident it would be sorted out.
>
>Now I am in a quandry.  I don't know why they let you go, but it does definitely
>influence the way I fee about Chessmaster, largely because the program (While I
>really like it) does have more than it's fair share of bugs in the initial
>releases.
>
>So now I am swaying heavily towards Fritz 8 which, with the new board layouts
>looks absolutely superb and has very good features for analysis etc.
>
>So darn it, if I put you on the spot sorry, but.... if you were me would you buy
>CM9000 or should I look elsewhere?
>
>Cheers and all the best for the future.  Very sorry that things haven't worked
>out.
>
>Edwin

Thanks for the kind words.

As for CM9000, to put it bluntly and totally honestly, out of the box it is the
most "bug-free" version of Chessmaster since CM4000. However, there are a few
problems, depending on what you might want from the program.

First of all, the big question is, with CM8000 were you experiencing the bug in
which, no matter what personality you choose to play in a Rated Game, you always
end up playing Chessmaster? If you DO have this bug, then it is NOT fixed in
CM9000 v1.0.0 (it would have been fixed in v1.0.3). So, if you were hoping for
this fix, you will be out of luck. If you were not experiencing this bug, then
you don't have to worry about it.

Secondly, if you are interesting in the True3D boards and pieces as it sounds
like you are, then I have two big questions for you:

1) What video card do you have?
2) Does your computer have an Intel 810E chipset with the embedded video chip on
the motherboard (or anything related to this chipset)? If it DOES, then you will
likely have a significant problem switching to/from True3D to 2D boards. This is
probably the most important bug in the program, and the only verifiable crash
ever reported.

I can still answer questions from a user's standpoint, so feel free to post them
here (attn: John Merlino, so I'll notice them), and I'll try to come here often
enough so that your post won't get missed. Or, you could just e-mail me at
JVMerlino@aol.com.

I'll always try to answer questions about my program.

jm



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.