Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 11:30:43 11/20/99
Go up one level in this thread
On November 20, 1999 at 13:44:28, Ed Schröder wrote:
>On November 20, 1999 at 12:42:54, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>On November 20, 1999 at 01:39:03, Micheal Cummings wrote:
>>
>>>On November 19, 1999 at 22:51:12, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>
>>>>On November 19, 1999 at 21:36:18, Micheal Cummings wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On November 19, 1999 at 16:39:13, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On November 19, 1999 at 15:42:10, Jari Huikari wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On November 19, 1999 at 14:56:35, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>2. How many years you have used in developing Tiger?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I started to think about chess programming in 1979, but at that time I did not
>>>>>>>>manage to write a chess program for my TI-58. I wrote my first real chess
>>>>>>>>program in 1982, in assembly, on a TRS-80.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I started four and half years ago. I remember that chess program came into
>>>>>>>my mind in 1983 when I got VIC 20. But with VIC one could only consider
>>>>>>>Tic Tac Toe programs, because of the small memory. I remember anyhow I saw
>>>>>>>a chess program for VIC. It could play - crudely. It let the kings be
>>>>>>>captured and the game continued anyhow after taking them...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>But when I bought Sargon II cartridge I got a reasonable computer opponent
>>>>>>>for the first time in my life.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jari
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That's how it started for me too. When I played for the first time against
>>>>>>Sargon II on TRS-80. It was in 1979, I was in africa at that time.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I have got Sargon I only several years after! :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Christophe
>>>>>
>>>>>I had a TRS-80 Colour Computer II, used to spend days copying programs from
>>>>>magazines into this thing, only to ever get a really crappy game at the end. But
>>>>>still it was better then the 1K MC-10 computer I first got. Just getting a block
>>>>>on the screen with that things was great
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Yeah! Remember the incredible resolution of the TRS-80? It was 128x48 pixels,
>>>>and you could mix text with graphics. I'm still wondering how they were able to
>>>>draw the chess pieces, but they did!
>>>>
>>>>I think the TRS-80 color had a better resolution, but I never had it. My next
>>>>computer was a TRS-80 model III, then I got a model IV. They were compatible
>>>>with each other, which was my main motivation to stick with them.
>>>>
>>>>Then I got a Sanyo 550 which was my first IBM PC compatible. It was in 1985 or
>>>>1986, I don't even remember...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Christophe
>>>
>>>My first computer chess program was cyrus chess for the TRS-80 Colour computer
>>>II, level 1 beat me on many occasions.
>>
>>
>>IIRC, Cyrus was one of the first programs of Richard Lang. Richard began on Z80
>>(which was the heart of the TRS-80 computers), and later switched to the
>>Motorola family.
>>
>>There is also a Cyrus for PC, which was produced by David Levy's company. I
>>think it's still Richard's program, but years after. Something close to the
>>Mephisto Amsterdam.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Back then the guy at the store said it
>>>could beat 99.8% of the world. Which I though was pretty good. But years later
>>>when I started to think about it, the people in this world who actually play
>>>chess is a small percentage. And when you think of 0.2% of the worlds
>>>population, that 0.2% includes millions of people. So really it is deceptive
>>>avertising to make things look better.
>>>
>>>Thats why we used to have things priced $1.99, cause it looks better than $2.
>>>Strange thing in Aus now is that we got rid of our 1 and 2 cent coins, and still
>>>they mark items in 99 cents amounts. Looks good but the stores just round it up
>>>to the $1 anyway. Why not round down to 95 cents. We get ripped off many times.
>>>
>>>There was a nice program of the Commadore Amiga, like battle chess, but more
>>>graphic, you got to see blood and bones when the knight hacked off the queens
>>>head. Anyway this beat Cyrus quite easily. Wish I still had that Amiga program,
>>>it was cool.
>>
>>
>>I remember I had other chess programs for the TRS-80:
>>* MicroChess 1.5 (worked on a 4Kb TRS-80!)
>>* Sargon I & II
>>* Sfinks
>>* Gambit
>>* ...and mine, which was called Sparph at that time.
>
>You miss one :)
>
>Rebel since 1982 was available on a casette (loading time 12 minutes)
>sold by a small dutch shop. Sold copies 20 or so :)
>
>Ed
I have never put my hands on this one! :)
Was it assembly or Basic?
It would be funny to run it again in a TRS-80 emulator on PC. There is a site
dedicated to this. You can find Sargon for download for example.
When the Rebel-Tiger gives me a break, I'd like to try it. Well, I have also
this Linux stuff in mind... And also this new selection scheme... And this
evaluation improvement... And this little change to try in the time
management... And endgame databases to implement...
Mmh... I suppose I'll try the TRS-80 emulator in 2010... And finally I'll port
Tiger to the TRS-80. I'm dreaming about this since several years... :)
Christophe
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