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Subject: Re: Do hideous DOS-based progs bother anyone else?

Author: Lawrence S. Tamarkin

Date: 04:45:47 11/24/98

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The Rebel 10 board isn't too bad. It would be nice if the black square's could
be 'hatched', like with Fritz5 for example.

Also the program itself, while anoying that it is Dos based and hogs the
computer completely, (sometimes terminating for no apparent reason on my 200MzH,
32 ram, Acer machine), does offer more information on screen then any of the
other programs out there.  It's very customizable & has with its 'Anti GM', and
EOC, at least 2 features no other program offers.  Other important training
features (For 5 year old future World Champions?), is a Blindfold feature that
can be all pieces, or just Black or White, and a 'shuffle opening', feature that
takes you right past the opening moves, into the middlegame positions arising
from them - very challanging! And also, a 4-board feature, wherin you can play
for instance the same (or different openings), variation of the Ruy Lopez on
each board, trying out different off-shoots as you go along.

Also, anyone who has the current Rebel 10, can later download the future, Beta
Windows version which is likely to offer a much better look & feel.

Good to see you posting here Mig, I hope you'll stick around past your review!

mrslug - the inkompetent chess addict!


On November 24, 1998 at 00:35:54, Mig wrote:

>While trying out different programs to get an overview for an article on
>computer chess for a newspaper I found several popular programs are still using
>DOS and still look as ugly as they did 15 years ago.
>
>In particular I was appalled by Rebel 10, one of the top programs out there by
>general consent. After using ChessBase 7.0 and relatives for so long I couldn't
>believe my eyes. The board and pieces in Rebel 10 look worse than some of the
>klugy Java boards used for on-line viewing! (Maybe the guy's settings were
>wrong? He didn't think so.)
>
>I'm no fan of fancy 3-D boards or medieval pieces, etc., but really, I'm sure
>they could do better than that. Unless the program in question is dramatically
>stronger than the competition to compensate (it's not) I can't imagine using
>something that ugly regularly. (Not that I would anyway due to the lack of
>multi-tasking.)
>
>How big of a factor is this considered to be in the marketplace? Beauty is only
>skin deep, but there should be a minimum!
>
>Mig



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