Author: D Ridge
Date: 06:31:38 05/22/99
I've been around computer chess for almost 25 years and I wish I had a dollar for every dubious claim a chess computer manufacturer made about playing strength. I'm afraid I have to agree with comments made by someone earlier...there isn't much that programming can do to get around processor speed limitations. I think an interesting comparison and insight to how well the Gameboy might play is to look at the Novag Opal Plus portable. It has an 8mhz processor and so does the colour game boy, as I understand. I have an Opal Plus in my stable of dedicated chess computers. The USCF claims it plays over 1800. This is nonsense. I would estimate it at around 1400-1500. Now, I also have a Palm Pilot with Pocket Chess which runs at 16mhz and it humiliated the Opal plus in an active match. Point made! So I don't feel you can expect ChessMaster for gameboy to play any better that the Opal Plus due to the hardware limitations. But my point is that's OK! 1500 is certainly amusing enough for a quickie on the train, plane or at the park. One thing I am already very dissappointed about with Chessmaster for Gameboy colour-I was hoping it would solve one of my pet peeves of Chess computer manufacturers consistantly ignoring international standards for board colors-green and buff being most common at tournaments. I was hoping the graphics would be great with lots of versatility on board colour settings but I just seen a large colour shot of the screen and it looks just awful!! Graphics look very crude by comparison to Pocket Chess for Palm Pilot. Later..Dave
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.