Author: Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
Date: 12:16:47 12/26/99
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As I only have Macs, I don't follow PC chess too well - but I thought that
there are other "lite" versions of chess software besides Rebel Decade -
there are Chessbase Lite and the recent Fritz demo, too - yes?
However, as you noted, a freeware version does not guarantee publicity in
magazines.
<snip>
> I do not know how hard it is to make a program play weaker,
> but I guestimate that it is not too much work.
Perhaps the simplest way is to throw an idle loop into the engine -
by slowing down the engine speed by a factor of 8 the strength should
be reduced by about 210 Elo, which is about the strength reduction advertised
for Rebel Decade vs. Rebel.
There has been a demo version of Mac HIARCS (limited to 2 ply) for some time
now.
It is an interesting question when comtemplating a freeware version - how much
to leave out of the "light" version versus the commercial version. Leave out too
much, and no-one thinks enough of it to upload it to the various sites, leave
out too little, and no-one cares to buy the full product.
I can think of three chess programs on the Mac that have demo/lite versions
and a commercial version:
1) HIARCS Demo (2ply version of HIARCS 5.0 PC engine, Save/Print disabled)
(probably cut out too much)
2) ExaChess Lite ( Database restricted to 256 game files - probably about
right - print/save enabled).
3) Sigma Chess 4.02 Lite ( Little different from commercial version -
full strength engine, the commercial version adds only high end
features like opening editor, printing multiple games at once,
databases of over 1000 games, some additional endgame tablebases
(relatively little incentive for most to upgrade to full version))
<snip>
>Maybe it is hard to get the attention of magazine editor, but we
>can break that with a couple of e-mails. I mentioned Decade and MacChess to some
>magazines, but did not get a reply.
Yes, I have also found it difficult to get the attention of magazines.
Thanks for mentioning MacChess. Another excellent freeware Mac chess program is
Sigma Chess 4.02 Lite. You might check out its home page at:
http://users.cybercity.dk/~bst10651/
Even if you don't have a Mac, the Sigma Chess web site has screenshots of the 3D
and 2D boards, and of all the menus, as well as 42-page online manual (with
illustrations and copious hyperlinks). So, hopefully it will give a good
feeling for what the program does.
Freeware Macintosh chess software in general can be downloaded from:
http://www.gambitsoft.com/mac.htm
Macintosh chess software in general is linked in my Macintosh Chess Software
Index:
http://dmoz.org/Games/Board_Games/Chess/Software/Macintosh/
Richard A. Fowell (fowell@netcom.com)
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