Der Mediaplex Sampler - Die 6 von Plex/6_v_plex.zip/6_v_plex/DISK1/GAMES_11/BC4FTDOC.ZIP/BC400FT.DOC

Text File | 1993-03-08 | 28KB | 655 lines

 Battle Chess 4000 VGA Full Text Documentation:


 HARD DISK INSTALLATION:

 Battle Chess 4000 must be installed on a hard disk. Battle Chess
 4000 also requires 600k base memory and 1024k of EXPANDED
 Memory. A memory manager is also required.

 To install Battle Chess 4000 to your Hard Disk, insert the first disk
 into a floppy drive and type:
 A:Return (or B: depending on which drive you are using)
 INSTALL
 Afterwards, an installation screen will come up. Follow the on
 screen instructions to complete the installation procedure.

 LOADING THE PROGRAM

 Before loading Battle Chess 4000, if you own the Super VGA
 version, you must make sure that a VESA driver has been
 installed. If during the installation program, you will be asked what
 type of video card you have. If you do not know what type of video
 card you have? you must contact the place you bought it from and
 find out. If you know what video card you have, but the card name
 was not in listed during the installation, you must contact the
 manufacturer of your video card to find out how to get your card
 in VESA mode.

 To run Battle Chess 4000 from the DOS prompt, type:

 CD\BC4000 RETURN
 BC4000

 The title screen will appear as the game loads. Press any key to
 get past the title page. After several seconds, a copy protection
 screen will come up, asking a question from Appendix E of the
 Battle Chess 4000 manual. There are 15 different chess game
 layouts in the appendix. The game will tell you the game board
 number to look at, and will ask you a question about the game on
 that board. For example it will ask you to look at the game on
 board #9. Go into appendix E of the manual, and look at board #9.
 The game will ask "Where is the black pawn". The board will
 have the letters A - H on the bottom and 8 -1 on the left side.
 Locate the black pawn, and look at the bottom letter and the
 number to the left to find it's position. You will see that it is at F3.
 At the prompt type in "F3". The gamewill finish loading after you
 correctly type the position.

 MOVEMENT

 Keyboard: To move your chess pieces, use the arrows to
 position the cursor over the piece you want to move, then press
 Enter. Select the desired destination square by using the
 arrows and press <Enter>. You can also move a piece by using
 Chess Notation. For example, to move your Knight you would
 type B1C3 Enter. Further Explanation of Chess Notation is
 explalned later in Appendix A in the manual.

 Mouse:
 To move your chess pieces, use the mouse to position
 the arrow cursor over the piece you want to move, then press the
 left button. Select the desired destination square by using the
 mouse. then press the left button.

 MENUS

 Keyboard: Press the "F1" key to bring up the menus. Use the
 arrows between the menus and highlight an option. Press the
 "Enter" key to select it. Press the "Esc" key to exit without
 selecting.

 Mouse: To bring up the menus for Battle Chess 4000 you must
 move the pointer to the top of the screen. The following menu
 headings of FILE, View, CONTROL, and SPECIAL should then
 appear. Each one of these options has subsequent options that
 will appear once you move the cursor to the heading you want.
 The options are as follows:

 FILE: About, New Game, Load Game, Save Game, Who Are You,
 Preferences, Print Moves, Quit

 VIEW: 2-D/3-D, Sliding, Touch and Move, Fast Moves,
 Intuitive, Sound

 CONTROL: Swap Sides, Autoplay, Supervisor, Modem, Move
 Now, Replay, Rewind, Fast Forward, Take Back, Learning, Think-
 ing, Book Control

 SPECIAL: Hint, Show Info, Your Grade, My Grade, Set Time,
 Set Clocks, Set Draw, Alter, Pause

 FILE MENU

 About Chess: This displays some information about the
 program, together with the size of the hash table. A hash table
 is used to increase the playing strength of the program. The hash
 table will take advantage of available EXPANDED memory. The
 amount of memory for the hash table is exponentially used. For
 example, if a computer has One Megabyte of available memory,
 the next amount Battle Chess 4000 would use is two, then four.

 New Game: This option allows you to start a new game. You
 may wish to save your current game first as it will be lost
 when the new game begins.

 Load Game: This option allows you to load a previously saved
 game. The saved game will resume exactly where you left off.
 After selecting Load Game the Load window will then appear,
 displaying a list of your saved games. Select the game you wish
 to load by double-clicking with the mouse or using the arrow keys
 and pressing the <Enter> key if you do not have a mouse. The
 game will be loaded with its saved settings.

 Save Game: Pick this option if you want to save a game to disk
 while the game is in progress. After picking this option, type in an
 8 character name for your game. Battle Chess 4000 will automati-
 cally add the file extension .GAM to it.

 Who Are You: This allows you to enter your name instead of
 HUMAN on the board display.

 Preferences: This allows you to save certain options to your
 backup disk, so that each time you load Battle Chess 4000 these
 options will appear. You can always load in the original default
 values. The options that are saved are 2-D/3-D, Touch and Move,
 Book Control (all settings), Learning, Thinking, and Who Are You.

 Print Moves: The move list will be sent to your printer or disk
 drive. Your printer must be connected to the parallel port and be
 on-line.

 Quit: Exits the program to DOS without saving the current game.

 VIEW MENU

 2-D/3-D: This flips between a two-dimensional board and the
 three-dimensional board with the action battle chess figures.

 Touch and Move: If this option is selected, you must move the
 first piece that you select to move.

 Sound: Allows you to tome the sound either on or off.

 Sliding: Selecting this option allows you to control the way the
 pieces move. If on, the pieces move by sliding around from one
 spot to the next. If off, the pieces will move around by walking
 from one spot to their new location. Sliding turns off the anima-
 thumb

 Fast Moves: This option, when selected, allows the players'
 moves to be entered very quickly using the mouse, most with a
 single click of the mouse button. When enabled, clicking the
 mouse button in the board area will cause moves as follows:

 Click on a piece: If the piece can only make one legal move,
 the move will be made automatically. If it can make more than one
 legal move then the piece will be picked up and you should click
 on the destination square, which is like the normal method of
 move entry.

 Click on an empty square: if only one of your pieces can move
 to that square, it will do so automatically. If more than one piece
 can move to that square then the square will be highlighted as the
 destination square and Battle Chess 4000 will wait for you to click
 on the piece to be moved. If you want to change your mind just
 click somewhere that is illegal or press any key.

 - Click on an enemy piece: If only one of your pieces can
 capture the enemy the piece will do so automatically. If more than
 one can make the capture then the destination square will be
 highlighted and Battle Chess 4000 will wait for to choose the
 piece to make the capture.

 Intuitive: This is an extension of Fast Moves, described above
 and is not available unless Fast Moves has been selected.
 When a square has been highlighted because more than one
 piece can make the move, as described above, Battle Chess 4000
 will intuitively choose the most likely piece to move to that
 square, highlighting the most likely origin square. If you agree
 with the move just click again on the destination and the move
 will be executed. If you disagree, click on the desired origin piece
 and that will he the one h move to the destination square. If, after
 the first click you decide that you want to choose a different
 move, just click on the screen somewhere that is not valid, or
 press any key.

 CONTROL MENU

 Swap Sides: Selecting this option allows you to switch places
 with your opponent. Note that this option will take Battle Chess
 4000 out of Autoplay and Supervisor options.

 Autoplay: If chosen (shown with a check mark) Battle Chess
 4000 will play a game against itself until stopped by selecting
 this option again.

 Human Vs. Human: This option will allow two human players
 play against each other.

 Modem: Allows you to play Battle Chess 4000 against an
 opponent either over a serial port or over the phone line.

 Move Now: If you get impatient while waiting for Battle Chess
 4000 to make its move, you can force it to move with this option.
 This interrupts the computer's thinking process and makes it
 take the best move that it has thought of so far (this command is
 not instantaneous).

 Replay: This option can be selected after a Take Back, a Rewind,
 or a Load Game has been selected. It will step through the game
 one move at a time. You can Replay through each move made one
 at a time until you reach the last move made.

 Rewind: If you would like to see how a game progressed, this
 option allows you to play back all the way to where the game
 began.

 Fast Forward: This option allows you to replay an entire game
 without stopping until you press the ESC key or it reaches the last
 move made.

 Take Back: If you did not like your last move or your opponent's
 last move, you may you this option to back up to the previous
 move. You can take back as many moves as you like.

 Learning: Selecting this option allows Battle Chess 4000 to
 record what it considers strong moves to its opening library of
 potential moves. This learning process occurs after the result of
 the game is known. At that time, Battle Chess 4000 will ask you
 if you would like the opening added to the library. Upon confir-
 mation, the opening moves will be added to the USERBOOK.TXT
 file.

 Thinking: If chosen, Battle Chess 4000 will try to predict your
 next move and use your time to consider its response. In our
 tests, Battle Chess 4000 predicted correctly about 30% of the
 time, and thus gained substantial free thinking time.

 Book Control: This option allows control over the choices
 Battle Chess 4000 can use for its opening moves. For further
 information on this, see the Opening Library section later in this
 manual.

 SPECIAL MENU

 Hint: The Hint option will give you what Battle Chess 4000
 considers to be your best move. The squares will hi-light show-
 ing you the suggested move.

 Show Info: The information included with this option are
 tournament clocks showing the total time used in the game, a list
 of moves given in chess notation, and an indication of which side
 Battle Chess 4000 thinks is winning. In show info mode, the board
 will switch to a 2-D mode. At the bottom of the screen will show
 what move the computer is thinking about if the difficulty is set
 in the STRONGER settings.

 Your Grade: This unique feature abandons the current game
 and presents you with a series of twenty-four chess positions, for
 each of which you will need to suggest up to four candidate
 moves. On the basis of your replies Battle Chess 4000 will grade
 you on your performance. Grading is calculated at 1,000 ELO, a
 chess novice, to 2,750 ELO for World Champion Kasparov. The
 average chess player has an ELO grading of 1,400. You should
 allow about two minutes per position. For the solutions to the
 test positions, see Appendix D later in this manual.

 My Grade: Battle Chess 4000 will attempt to solve the same test
 positions, according to its currently set time allowance. How-
 ever, I warn you--Battle Chess 4000 scores well in excess of
 2,000 ELO at two minutes per move placing me in the Candidate
 Master class.

 Set Time: This option allows you to set Battle Chess 4000's
 level of play. The choice of how weak or strong the program plays
 is of your doing. A weak opponent has ten different levels of play
 ranging from 1 to 10. These are considered beginner levels with
 1 being the weakest, while 10 being the strongest.

 Playing Modes:
 For a strong opponent, Battle Chess 4000 has the following
 modes:

 *Average--will try to stick to the selected move time for every
 move.

 *Matching--will spend roughly as long thinking about its moves
 as you spend thinking about your own.

 *Infinite will give the program as long as it needs to come up
 with a desirable move. You could hurry up this choice if you use
 the Move Now Option.

 *Tournament-will be the strongest level of play. Battle Chess
 4000 will spend more time to find it's way out of difficult spots
 in this mode.

 Set Clock: Allows you the set the clocks, This option can only
 be used at the beginning of a turn.

 Set Draw: If this special option is selected Battle Chess 4000
 will play for a stalemate.

 Set Up Board: Allows you to set up the board any way you
 want. The only restrictions to this are, You may not place a King
 in check, and You must have two kings on the board.

 Pause: This option allows you to temporarily halt the timers
 without incurring a time penalty.

 SHORTCUT KEYS

 If you do not have, nor want to use the mouse to select the menus,
 certain shortcut keys are available in combination with the ALT
 key. They are as follows:

 ALT F = Fast Forward
 ALT R = Replay
 ALT W = Rewind
 ALT M = Move Now
 ALT S = Swap Sides
 ALT N = New Game
 ALT L = Load Game
 ALT P = Print Moves
 ALT Q = Quit
 ALT B = Take Back
 ALT H = Hint
 ALT I = Show Info
 ALT T = Set Time

 OPENING LIBRARY-

 An opening library is a database of opening lines (a line is a
 sequence of moves). The inclusion of an opening library allows
 the computer to play moves early in the game quickly, giving it a
 time advantage later on in the game. (An opening Library is
 known as a BOOK). The opening library in Battle Chess 4000
 contains over 300,000 moves.

 Choose Next Move By

 When the computer needs to choose between two or more moves
 from it's opening library, it can do it one of three ways.

 *Random: In this mode the decision of which line to use
 is chosen randomly.
 *Strength: The opening library contains strength infor-
 mation which is used by this setting. Using this setting will cause
 a slide bar to appear, moving it up and down causes the Strength
 to lean towards either weaker or stronger opening moves.
 *Popularity: Similar to Strength, this option causes a
 slide bar to appear in which you can make the computer select
 either more common or less common moves.

 Manual Selection

 When the computer has to make a decision between two or more
 possible moves in the opening library it will use the criteria
 above. For even greater control, and for sake of curiosity, if
 Manual selection is On, a dialogue box will appear showing all the
 moves the computer is contemplating. The move the computer is
 currently thinking about will be highlighted. If you wish to change
 this move, on the computers next turn, you will get the warning
 that the computer is no longer using the Opening Library.

 Battle Chess 4000 has a database of named opening lines, such
 as Queen's Gambit and Sicilian Defense, and these names will be
 displayed when an opening line is recognized if this option is ON.
 Please note that the database of named openings is much
 smaller than the full opening library. Name Openings defaults to
 On.

 User Book Priority

 As well as the large built-in opening library, there are two
 supplementary opening library files. One of these is an ASCII file
 which can contain opening lines of your own, created with a word
 processor in ASCII mode. The file can be up to 6000 bytes in size
 and each line must contain moves in algebraic notation, such as
 e2e4 b7b6. Each move sequence must be on its own line. Any
 spaced in the file will be ignored.

 If the learning option is selected then another supplementary file
 will be created. This will contain any opening moves the com-
 puter thinks that are good that it has learned from its own thought
 processes and from it's human opponent. This file is also in ASCII
 but should not be edited or written to, though you can use it as
 a basis for your user book file, i.e. by copying portions of it into
 the user book file then deleting it.

 Force Opening Line To Be

 The computer will normally choose an opening line from one of
 the book files, as described above. However you can force it to
 play a particular opening line by using one of these two options.
 Note that you can only select these options at the very start of the
 game, before either side has moved.

 My Line

 This allows you to enter a move sequence of up to twelve half
 moves (in algebraic notation) that will be used as the opening
 line.

 Named Line

 This displays a list of named opening lines that you may scroll
 through and choose by clicking on with the mouse. This list only
 shows named openings- the number of un-named openings in
 the main opening library is much larger.

 Once you have selected a forced opening line, the computer will
 play it as long as it makes sense; if you selected e2e4 g7g6 then
 started out with d2d4, the computer obviously can't use the
 forced opening line so it will instead use one of it's book files,
 which it will also do when your forced opening runs out.

 A forced opening will remain until cleared, by selecting My Line
 and clearing the first move, then clicking OK.

 Book Files Used

 All files concerning the opening library are in the BOOKDATA
 directory. They are as follows:

 BOOK.BOK      Main opening library file
 OPENINGS.BOK  Named openings file
 MOREBOOK.TXT  ASCII file created with the Learning Option
 USERBOOK.TXT  ASCII file of user opening lines

 Only the latter two files are human readable and only the last file
 should ever be edited.

 HOW TO PLAY CHESS

 Chess is a game for two players, one having the white pieces and
 the other having the black pieces. There are 64 alternating white
 and black squares on which you can move. The object of the
 game is to checkmate your opponent's King (see "Checkmate.")

 Only one piece can occupy a given square.

 You may only move one piece per turn, with the exception
 of castling (See "Castling.")

 * YOU must move when it is your tome.

 * No piece, except the Knight, can move through other
 pieces.

 * Any piece may capture any of the opponent's by landing
 on the same square as it. The captured piece is removed
 from the board and is out of the game.

 * You may not capture any of your own pieces in order to
 clear the way for your other pieces.

 MOVEMENT OF THE PIECES

 The King

 The King can move one square in any direction. It is generally a
 good idea to not move your King into an offensive position early
 in the game because that could leave the King vulnerable and
 once you lose your King the game is over. Under no circum-
 stance may your King move into check, that is, your King may not
 move directly into a clear line of attack from an opposing Player's

 The Queen is your most powerful offensive piece. The Queen can
 move any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diago-
 nally if path is not obstructed. The Queen becomes very effective
 in being used with a combination of other pieces rather than
 being the lone attacker in your offense.

 The Bishop

 The Bishop moves diagonally any number of squares in either
 direction if path is not obstructed. Since one Bishop starts on a
 black square and the other on a white square that would make
 each bishop confined to that color square for the entire game
 since Bishops can only move diagonally.

 The Knight

 The Knight always moves in the same- pattern--one square
 forward or backward and then two squares to either side, or one
 square to either side and then two squares forward or backward.
 The three squares form a "L" shape. The knight is the only piece
 which may jump over other pieces.

 The Rook

 The Rook can move any number of squares vertically or horizon-
 tally if path is not obstructed.

 Battle Chess 4000

 The Pawn

 The Pawn moves straight ahead (never backward), but it captures
 diagonally. The Pawn's movement is indicated below left, while
 its capture is illustrated below center. When a Pawn is in its
 starting position, it has the option to advance one or two squares
 the first time it moves. After that, it may advance only one square
 per move. If a Pawn advances all the way to the opposite end of
 the board it can be "promoted" to your choice of a Queen, Rook,
 Knight, or Bishop (below right). You can promote as many Pawns
 as possible.

 EN PASSANT

 To capture "en passant" (in passing): when your opponent
 moves a Pawn two squares on its initial move and your Pawn is
 on the fifth square on an adjoining file, you may capture your
 opponent's Pawn by moving to the square over which it has
 moved, just as if it had moved only one square on its first move.
 This option must bc exercised immediately or the option is lost.
 This is illustrated below. Note that if the black pawn moved two
 spaces on it's initial move (a), white on ~he very next tome could
 capture the Pawn diagonally on the square which was passed by
 the black Pawn (b). The black Pawn is removed from the board
 and the white Pawn is placed on the diagonal square in the next
 file (c).

 CASTLING

 Once during a game each player has the option of castling, that
 is, moving the King two squares either to the right or left, and
 placing the Rook on that side of the board on the square over
 which the King has passed. In order to castle, the pieces between
 the King and Rook must have been moved, giving a clear path-
 way, and the King must not be in check, that is, must not be under
 attack by an enemy piece, or pass through a square under attack.
 If either the King or the Rook on the castling side have previously
 moved you may not castle.

 CHECKMATE

 The object of the game is to attack the opponent's King in such
 a way that no matter where the King moves, the King will still be
 under attack. This is called "checkmate" and wins the game.
 Any move that attacks a King is called "check." If the King can
 escape, the King must be moved on the next turn, and then the
 game continues. If there is no way of getting out of check, by
 either moving away from an attacking piece or by placing a piece
 to block the check, then the King is checkmated and the game is
 over. If the only possible move on the board would place a King
 in check, then the game is not won by either player and is
 considered a stalemate because a King may not move into check.

 HELPFUL HINTS

 1. Some pieces are more powerful than others because
 they are able to control more squares on the board. The question
 of value of each piece arises every time there is a possibility of
 capturing or exchanging pieces The following table shows the
 approximate value of all the pieces except the King, because this
 piece is never captured.

 Queen.... 9 points
 Rook..... 5 points
 Bishop... 3 points
 Knight... 3 points
 Pawn..... 1 point

 2. The player who gains control of the center squares of the
 board has an advantage because their pieces have greater
 mobility. To gain control quickly, move only your center pawns
 and develop your minor pieces (Bishops and Knights) early in the
 game.

 3. Castle your King into safety at the earliest opportune
 moment. It is usually best to castle on the King's side because
 there is less area to defend on that side of the board.

 4. Capture enemy pieces and Pawns when it will strengthen
 your position on the board. Remember the value of the pieces:
 if you exchange a Knight for a Bishop it is an even trade. If you
 get a Rook for a Bishop, you will be ahead in material. The player
 with a material advantage usually wins the game.

 5. Every time your opponent moves, stop and look care-
 fully. Is your opponent plotting to capture an important piece?
 Can you defend against it? Did your opponent make a move
 which allows you to make a capture? Did your opponent put
 themselves in a position vulnerable to a checkmate?

 6. Try to think ahead a few turns. Think about using a
 combination of moves to try and expose a weakness in your
 opponent's game plan. You should also be wary that your
 opponent will probably be trying the same thing on you.

 THE OPENING GAME

 The opening game be defined as that portion of the game that
 occurs generally between the first move and the eighth to the
 fifteenth move The point of the opening game is to organize and
 co-ordinate your pieces as quickly as possible in order to take
 maximum advantage of their power. If you are a beginner, this is
 where you are going to make most of your mistakes. There are
 endless choices to decide how to set up your strategy for playing
 chess. In fact, there are 169,518,829,100,544,000,000,000,000,000
 possible combinations for the first ten moves. To avoid making
 the wrong opening moves, keep the following things in mind:

 *Your first move should be the movement of either your
 King's or Queen's Pawn. It is also a good idea not to move too
 many of your Pawns during the opening game because Pawns
 can not move backwards and often times opponents can home in
 and capture Pawns because of a hasty offensive strategy.

 *Avoid moving the same piece twice during the opening
 game, unless your opponent has made an obvious blunder.
 Remember that if the point of the opening game is to organize and
 co-ordinate your pieces as quickly as possible, then wasting
 several moves on one piece is not likely to assist this.

 *It is usually a good strategy to move out your Knights and
 Bishops before you move out the Rooks and Queen. For best
 control of the board, try to move them toward the center of the
 board because form the center, each piece will then have greater
 control of the board around it.

 *If you have castled, it is usually best to move your Rooks
 to K1 or Q1. This will allow your Rook a great range of power than
 leaving them in either comer.

 THE MIDDLE GAME

 The middle game is the part of the game that follows the initial
 movement of pieces towards the center of the board in powerful
 positions, but before the final sequence of moves to finish off
 your opponent. This phase of the game is where the attack is
 critical and it is best to be on the offensive side of the attack.

 It is advised that you concentrate on capturing pieces, to get
 ahead in points, and to gain territory on the board, so you can
 plan out your final assault.

 THE END GAME

 This is the portion of the game where, all things being equal, both
 sides will have relatively few pieces left on the board, the King
 may actually be part of an offensive strategy, and where a Pawn
 or two may even have crossed the board to become a Queen or
 some other powerful piece. Because you will have fewer pieces
 on the board, the pieces that remain will increase in importance.
 Therefore now more than ever, use every piece to its full poten-
 tial.


 Look forward to more RazorDoxs in the very near future...
                                                        -Marauder