Author: Keith Evans
Date: 21:18:11 07/03/03
Go up one level in this thread
On July 03, 2003 at 21:38:09, Chris Kantack wrote: >On June 30, 2003 at 23:32:37, Mike Byrne wrote: >>I'm very happy with Deep Sjeng. It's a shame they didn't send me a free >>evaluation (sigh). Cm6K -- never even caught my attention. I do like The Cm9K >>engine. I think it depends what the user interests are - engine vs engine >>matches - Deep Sjeng wins hands down vs Cm6k (meaning Cm6k is not convenient for >>engine vs engine matches). For all the goodies you like - Cm6k wins hands down. >> Just goes to show not every Chess program is for everybody. Using the word >>"sucks" is a little harsh. You seem to be tied to Excalibur machines - I think >>they suck - anybody else? > >Mike, > >To me, engine strength is so strong now that it doesn't really matter to me if >Deep Sjeng can think a little deeper or faster than CM9000. > >I look for what programs are usable. Deep Sjeng, in my humble opinion, is >written for chess geeks only. Fine. I won't review it. But Lokasoft would do >well if they enhanced the program for a wider market. > >My two cents. > >Chris You might want to review "Ultimate Brain Games" running on the Gameboy Advance SP. Right now for $130 retail you can get a Gameboy Advanced SP which has a decent color display plus lighting, and a game cartridge. This is probably the cheapest way to get a portable color chess unit assuming that you're starting with nothing. It seems targeted to an audience similar to that of the Excaliber units. My personal experience is that the Excaliber LCD Chess units are painful to use. Awful display technology and a frustrating interface. True they are cheap, but you seem to get what you pay for. It would be interesting to see how you compare these new gameboy solutions to the older stuff on your site. Remember that the SP has a rechargable battery as well. The engine used is SmarThink and the author does post to this forum. There are of course other games in this package. One advantage of the gameboy platform over PDAs besides cost (assuming a color PDA) is that the controls are actually designed to play games, so if you're into the type of games that they market for the gameboy then this is an advantage over a PDA. Anyways just a suggestion for something new to put on your site. Regarding your now infamous "sucks" comment. You may not realize just how many chess engines exist which just address the engine part of the equation. Many people here want a strong engine more than any other component. So making this kind of comment in this forum about a strong engine is like complaining to a contractor that the Hole Hawg drill isn't safe enough because you injured your hand when the bit seized up and the drill started to spin around and slammed your hand into a pipe. "Ouch, damn it your Hole Hawg sucks man!" Surely they could sell more if they designed a decent safety interlock. (Apologies to Neal Stephenson)
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