PC-SIG: World of Games/PC-SIG World of Games (CDRM1080710) (1993).iso/1434/SPRINGER.DOC

Text File | 1989-01-09 | 24KB | 529 lines

                                     SPRINGER

                      A Chess Playing Program for the IBM PC


                                    Version 1.0
                              Released 9 January 1989



                         (C) Copyright 1989 by Ken Goodman







         INTRODUCTION
         ------------

         Springer is a chess program for the IBM PC which offers several
         levels of varying playing strength to challenge the vast majority
         of human players, as well as an excellent on-screen display of
         the chess position.  The playing strength of this program is,
         quite frankly, not quite as good as that of the best commercial
         programs, though most human players should find it more than
         adequate in this respect.  In several ways (including playing
         strength) I believe this program is far superior to all others I
         have seen released as shareware products or in the public domain.

         You should have no trouble using the program if you already know
         how to play chess.  Springer starts out in its normal playing
         mode, with the board shown on-screen in the format of a standard
         chess diagram.  Moves are entered by using the "arrow" keys to
         move an indicator around the chess board and the Enter key to
         select the piece you want to move and the square you want to move
         it to.  If you press an invalid key, a help screen/menu will
         appear, providing brief instructions and allowing single-key
         access to special functions such as saving/recalling games in
         disk files.

         This document provides some detailed information about Springer
         and how to use the program, but assumes that you already know the
         rules of chess.  Novices should be aware that Springer knows and
         makes use of the special moves of Castling and En Passant
         capture.  Please refer to a suitable chess book or primer for
         details of these special moves or other rules of chess.


















         The major features offered by Springer are:

           * 10 levels of play to suit almost any user's playing strength
           * Excellent display of chess board with Color Graphics Adapter
           * Good display of board on a monochrome or text-only system
           * Diagram of chess position on Epson or compatible printer
           * Printout of complete game record in Algebraic chess notation
           * Ability to save and recall complete games on disk
           * Easy entry of moves using arrow keys and on-screen cursor
           * Referee mode to supervise games between two players
           * Autoplay mode:  any level against any other level
           * Step backward/forward to review game move-by-move


         NORMAL PLAY
         -----------

         Springer starts by displaying a banner to identify the program
         and version, then after a short delay enters its NORMAL playing
         mode.  The starting position is displayed, and the game begins
         with the user playing the White pieces against the computer
         opponent "Springer  Lev1".  The message area to the right of the
         chess board shows that it is "Your move."  Please note that the
         players are identified by names printed at the top and bottom of
         the board.  As in standard chess diagrams, White starts from the
         bottom of the diagram, and Black from the top.  Also note that
         NORMAL playing mode is indicated in the upper right corner of the
         screen.

         Press a key and the square containing your King is highlighted,
         and the message area asks "Piece?"  To begin a game, make a move
         by selecting a piece to move, then a square to move it to.  Use
         the cursor keys (up, down, left and right arrows, and Home, PgUp,
         End and PgDn for diagonal directions) to move the highlighted
         square (the cursor) around on the board.  After moving the cursor
         to highlight the piece you wish to move, press the Enter key,
         then move the cursor to the square you wish to move to in answer
         to the "Destination?" prompt.  Springer will then show the move
         being made on the board, then choose and make a move of its own.
         If you try to make an illegal move, Springer will tell you so,
         and the move entry process will be repeated.

         Special moves:  Castling is entered by moving your King two
         squares left or right;  the Rook's movement will automatically be
         shown on the board to complete the move.  En Passant captures are
         entered just as the normal pawn capture would be entered:  by
         selecting the starting and ending squares of the capturing pawn.

         Want to use Springer's commands to change playing level, swap
         sides, etc?  Press the ESC key at your turn and a menu and brief
         instructions will be displayed.  If you know the simple key
         sequences for the commands you want to use, you can bypass the
         menu by pressing the * key instead of ESC, then the primary
         command key.  Bypassing the menu in this way keeps the board
         display on the screen for commands that don't require additional

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         input.  Springer also accepts commands typed on the command line
         used to run the program.  In this case, * is used to begin a
         command, and / substitutes for the Enter key required by some
         commands.

         Some examples:  To play Black against the computer, use the
         Swap-sides command at the beginning of the game (using the S
         option from the menu, or by pressing the keys * S).  To change to
         playing level 5, the command sequence * (or ESC for the menu) O
         (for Options) L (for Level) 5 / is required.  Starting Springer
         from DOS with the command line "SPRINGER *OL5/*S" will start a
         game with the user playing Black against "Springer  Lev5".

         If you have a suitable graphics adapter, Springer automatically
         shows the board using CGA 320x200 graphics and 4 colors, while if
         your computer has a text-only display adapter, the board is shown
         using text and special characters to represent the pieces.  If
         you have a graphics adapter attached to a monochrome monitor, you
         may wish to force Springer to use text mode to display the board,
         since light and dark squares may be hard to distinguish.  You can
         use the Options command to enable or disable graphics, as well as
         sounds normally produced by the program.

         Is Springer taking too long to make a move?  Press ESC to force
         the program to quit thinking and make a move.  Of course this
         will have some effect on the quality of Springer's move.  Also,
         the program's thinking time is relatively constant throughout the
         game, and is up to the user through the choice of playing level,
         as shown by the APPROXIMATE time chart below:

           Level       0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
           ---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---
           Min Time    0    5   10   15   20   25   30   35   40   45
           Max Time    5   25   45   65   85  105  125  145  165  185

          (Times are in seconds, and Max Time depends slightly on CPU.)

         AUTOPLAY AND REFEREE MODES
         --------------------------

         If you wish, you can make Springer play against itself by
         changing to AUTOPLAY mode using the A key from the command menu.
         You will be prompted for playing levels for White and Black, and
         you can choose to pit any level against any other level.  It
         might be entertaining, for instance, to watch "Springer  Lev5"
         play a game against "Springer  Lev1".  To get out of AUTOPLAY
         mode, you can wait for either side to make a move, then press the
         ESC key to go to the command menu, from which you can switch to
         NORMAL or REFEREE mode, quit and start a new game, exit to DOS,
         etc.  To get out of AUTOPLAY immediately, you can press ESC
         twice:  the first ESC forces Springer to quit thinking about its
         move, and the second ESC calls up the menu.

         In REFEREE mode, two people can play a game against each other,
         with Springer keeping track of the game and checking each move

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         for legality.  REFEREE mode is also used to step backwards and
         forwards through a game to review it one move at a time.  I use
         REFEREE mode to store and review my own tournament or casual
         chess games, and to review them and print game scores to share
         with friends.  In order to keep track of such games, you can use
         the Title command to enter a heading for the game (printed as
         part of the game record) as well as a name for each player
         involved.  If you intend to use REFEREE mode this way, you should
         know that changing between REFEREE, AUTOPLAY and NORMAL modes
         alters the player names, so the best way is to enter REFEREE
         mode, enter the heading and names, play through the game, and
         then save it to an appropriately named disk file.  In addition to
         the Title option, the Draw and Resign options are available (in
         REFEREE mode only) to correctly enter results of games recorded
         this way.

         You can switch between the different modes of play at any time,
         and Springer automatically changes its mode when certain commands
         are executed.  For example, when a game is recalled from a disk
         file, or when the takeback or replay commands are used, Springer
         automatically enters REFEREE mode.  You can change modes
         afterward, of course, and when you change from REFEREE to NORMAL
         mode you will be assigned the side whose turn it is to move.


         REVIEWING GAMES
         ---------------

         Games played with Springer can be reviewed one move at a time
         using the takeback and replay (- and +) commands.  This works out
         nicely using the key sequences * - and * + with the chess board
         always displayed.  The rewind and fast-forward commands (using
         the [ and ] keys) can be used to rapidly back up all the way to
         the beginning of a game (or as far as desired) and watch the game
         being replayed from start to finish (or stopping at any point in
         between).

         The rewind command ([) takes back moves one after another until
         the beginning of the game is reached or a key is pressed,
         redrawing the board between moves.  If all you want to do is back
         up as quickly as possible to the start of a game, you should do
         this either using the menu or in text mode, but if you want to
         watch the position closely while backing up, use graphics mode.
         Fast-forward replays the game one move after another until a key
         is pressed or the end is reached, showing each move clearly on
         the board.  I tend to use these commands to find the part of a
         game I'm interested in, then use takeback and replay to study
         that part of the game in detail.  To me, this is one of the nice
         things about Springer: it's so much easier to play through games
         this way than with a real chess board and pieces -- and much
         easier to set up for a new game!

         Notice that whenever you use any of the above commands, Springer
         automatically switches to REFEREE mode.  You can use the takeback
         command to give yourself a second chance if you enter the wrong

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         move, taking back the computer's reply, then your original move,
         then switching back to NORMAL mode to enter your new move.  If
         you make a bad move and need to take it back this way, go right
         ahead -- but don't forget to chalk one up to Springer!


         PRINTING GAMES/POSITIONS
         ------------------------

         You can use the Printer commands to print a record of the current
         game or a diagram of the current position.  Printed output goes
         to the LPT1 device.

         Game records are printed as numbered lists of moves in two
         columns (for White and Black) using standard Algebraic chess
         notation, which is the same notation used to indicate the last
         move in Springer's on-screen display.  If you are unfamiliar with
         this notation, it shouldn't be too hard to learn by paying
         attention to the way Springer displays moves during the course of
         a game.  The basis of this system of notation is the unique name
         given to each square on the board:  each file (vertical column of
         squares on the diagram) is called by a letter a-h, while each
         rank (horizontal row) is numbered 1-8, always starting with a1 in
         the lower left corner of the diagram (White's Queen's Rook
         square).  A typical move is described by indicating the type of
         piece moved and the ending square (Nf3 means Knight to f3), or
         just the ending square for pawn moves (e.g. e5 for Pawn to e5).
         Captures are indicated by an x, as in Nxf6.  If another piece of
         the same type could have moved to the same square, both starting
         and ending squares are given (Nb1d2 means Knight from b1 to d2).
         King- and Queen-side castling are indicated by O-O and O-O-O,
         respectively.

         Diagrams of the current position are printed using dot-matrix
         graphics, and thus require a printer compatible with Epson
         graphics commands.  They are printed in a very legible format,
         with a board size of approximately 2.5" square.  Together with a
         printed list of moves, these diagrams provide a nice hardcopy
         record of the game.


         SAVED GAMES AND DISK FILES
         --------------------------

         The Memory commands provide a way to store and retrieve complete
         games on disk.  For each game you wish to Save or Recall, you
         must provide a complete DOS filename for a disk file to be either
         read or written by Springer.  You can specify any disk or
         directory path as part of the filename.  A List command is also
         provided to show games that have already been saved on the
         current disk directory.  Each game file will take up 1024 bytes
         of disk space, regardless of the length of the game.  When a game
         is Recalled from a file, the last position of the game is
         reconstructed, and play resumes from this point.  These disk
         functions are the only feature of Springer requiring a version of

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         DOS more recent than 1.0.

         There is plenty of room on a 360k DOS-formatted diskette for many
         of your own saved game files, in addition to a copy of the
         program file SPRINGER.COM.  The distribution disk contains a
         batch file CHESS.BAT which can be used to start Springer with
         non-standard option settings.  You can edit this batch file,
         which contains a single command line, so that typing the command
         "CHESS" will start a game with the display, level, and other
         options set the way you like them, and then carry around your own
         Springer setup and games on a single floppy disk.

         Included on the distribution disk are a few example games you may
         wish to look at, as well as a file containing this document.  See
         the file "READ.ME" for a list of the distribution files.


         BACKGROUND
         ----------

         This section gives the history of Springer, and is included for
         user interest as well as for my own personal gratification.

         Springer began in 1983 as one of several half-hearted projects of
         the small electronics company I worked for at the time.  After
         devoting a minimum of time and effort (mine) to this project, the
         company decided it would never result in a marketable product and
         ceased work on the project entirely, and has thereafter abandoned
         all such activities in favor of purely industrial markets.

         Since leaving this company in 1988 I have resurrected Springer
         and made many substantial improvements to the program, in playing
         strength as well as features such as ease of use,
         saving/recalling games on disk, printing positions and game
         scores, etc.  It is my intention to continue improving this
         program, and I anticipate a dramatic increase in playing strength
         in the near future.

         Springer was written entirely in 8086 assembly language, for two
         reasons: (1)  Speed performance was critical.  (2) No good
         compiler language was available to me at the beginning of this
         project (Anyone remember IBM's FORTRAN and Pascal versions 1.0?
         At least MASM 1.0 WORKED!).   Certain portions of such a program
         are best written in assembly language for maximum performance,
         but less demanding features such as disk and printer I/O,
         handling player input, etc.  could have been dealt with much
         easier using a good Pascal compiler, for instance.

         This program was begun when I was new to the 8086 architecture
         and instruction set, and it contains a mixture of well-written
         and not-so-well written sections of code.  As always, I like to
         think that a rewrite at this time would produce much slicker,
         more polished source code.  The philosophy behind choosing the
         computer's move also underwent some radical changes during the
         course of development, and the most major change in this respect

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         was just beginning when the original project was scrapped.  I
         have completed this change, which affects playing strength, as
         well as completing the user interface features, and I believe
         Springer is now a product worthy of your attention.

         It turns out to be relatively easy for me to add or rearrange
         major feature of the program now, despite the vast bulk of its
         source code, and I intend to continue working on the program as
         time and money permit, improving playing strength and adding or
         improving peripheral features.  I sincerely hope that you and
         your friends will enjoy using Springer, and I welcome any
         comments or suggestions you may have.


         RIGHTS AND DISTRIBUTION
         -----------------------

         Springer is protected by copyright laws, though you are
         encouraged to copy and share the unmodified program (Version 1.0)
         and this documentation.  If you find this program useful or
         enjoyable, please help me continue to improve it, both by paying
         the modest price of the latest available version, and by offering
         your comments and suggestions.

         About bugs: In the context of a program like this, what is a bug?
         A programming error that makes your computer lock up, displays
         gibberish on the screen, etc.  obviously qualifies.  If Springer
         makes an illegal move, fails to correctly recall a game you
         saved, etc.  something is definitely wrong.  An error that
         results in silly or even stupid moves by the computer is much
         more subtle, and much more difficult to diagnose as a true
         programming error.  After all, it may reflect a flaw in the
         philosophy behind Springer's design, and not an error in
         implementation.  In any case, if you think you've found a bug in
         Springer and are willing to take the trouble to report it, please
         be specific regarding what you are doing when the bug shows
         itself, as well as about exactly what happens afterward.



















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         An updated version of Springer is available directly from the
         author, along with a collection of 60 of Bobby Fischer's best
         games on the same 5.25" diskette.  To receive the latest version
         available, send $12 to

               Ken Goodman
               218 N. 29th St.
               Opelika, AL 36801

         Please do not distribute unauthorized copies of this game
         collection, or of versions of Springer other than version 1.0.
         Complete source code for Springer (version 1.0 only) is also
         available for the extremely curious.  It is available on a single
         5.25" diskette in the form of 8086 assembly language for $80.
         The source code can be used or modified for the personal benefit
         of the purchaser, but is not to be distributed, nor is it to be
         used for any commercial purpose, without the prior written
         permission of the author.

         If you have specific errors to report, or specific changes to
         suggest, please include them with your order.  If possible, I
         will include any error corrections or useful changes to the
         program in the version I send you.  If this is not practical,
         then I will send you an updated version containing any useful
         changes you suggest as soon as it becomes available, in addition
         to prompt shipment of the latest release available when you
         order.

         Alabama residents:  please add 4% sales tax.
         For foreign orders, add appropriate postage for international
         mail delivery.

         DISCLAIMER:  No warranty of any kind is claimed for this software
         product, and the author specifically disclaims any implied
         warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose,
         as well as any responsibility for incidental or consequential
         damages.  Media conveying this software and purchased directly
         from the author, if found to be physically defective in materials
         or workmanship, will be replaced if returned within 10 days of
         receipt.
















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