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1989-03-20
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BATTLE CHESS
REFERENCE CARD for IBM/Tandy & 100% compatibles
_______________________
GETTING STARTED
Battle Chess will run on an IBM/Tandy and 100% compatibles. You
need at least 512K to play. Before you begin, make a backup of your
Battle Chess disks. (Refer to your DOS User's Manual for
instructions on how to make backups.) Make sure you only play with
your backup disks. For maximum video quality, use an RGB monitor.
LOADING INSTRUCTIONS FOR FLOPPY DISK
1. Boot you computer with DOS. If you have a mouse or joystick,
make sure it is connected.
2. Insert your Battle Chess START UP DISK, and type CHESS <Enter>.
3. The game will automatically choose the best graphics mode your
system has to offer. If you are using a composite
monitor with a CGA, type Chess /COMP <Enter>. Also, if you are
using a modem, and it is connected to COM2: type Chess /COM2
<Enter>. If you have both, use Chess /COM2 /COMP.
4. The title screen will appear as the game loads. Press any key
to get past the title page. Pressing the <F1> key will bring up any
changes or revisions made to the program. After several seconds, a
window will come up, asking for a specific move from one of twenty
games listed in Appendix A of the Battle Chess manual. Find the
proper game and type in the correct move, either Black's or White's,
exactly as printed, and then press the <Enter> key. For example, If
prompted for Black's move #17 in Bird -- Morphy, London 1858, you
would type "RxBP!!" (without the quotes) and then press the <Enter>
key. The game will finish loading after you correctly type the
move.
INSTALLING BATTLE CHESS ON A HARD DISK
If your hard disk is C, type A:install C: . This will create a
directory called Chess and it will copy all the game to the hard
disk. NOTE: If your hard drive is not drive C:, then replace C:
with the correct drive letter. (i.e. A:install D:)
LOADING INSTRUCTIONS FOR HARD DISK
1. Type CD \CHESS <Enter>.
2. Type CHESS <Enter>.
3. Refer to step 3 in LOADING INSTRUCTIONS FOR FLOPPY DISK.
NOTE: Mouse and joystick operations are the same.
MOVEMENT
Using Keyboard - To move your chess pieces, use the arrows to
position the flashing square over the piece you want to move, then
press <Enter>. (You will notice that legal moves are flashing blue
squares and illegal ones are flashing green.) You can also move the
flashing square by using Chess Notation. For example, to move the
Knight you would type B1 <Enter> C3 <Enter>.
Using Mouse - Press the right mouse button to bring up the menus.
Keep holding the right mouse button down as you move the pointer
over menu titles and the appropriate options will appear. Move the
pointer down to the option you desire and when the option
highlights, release your hold on the right mouse button. The four
menus contain the following options:
DISK: Load Game, Save Game, New Game, Set Up Board, Quit
MOVE: Force Move, Take Back, Replay, Suggest Move
SETTINGS: Sound On/Off, 3-D Board, 2-D Board, Human Plays Red,
IBM Plays Red, Modem Plays Red, Human Plays Blue,
IBM Plays Blue, Modem Plays Blue
LEVEL: Novice, Level 1-9, Set Time
MENU OPTIONS EXPLAINED
LOAD GAME: If you've saved a game before, this option recalls the
game and picks up where you left off. After selection 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
don't 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 Battle Chess asks you to
insert your save disk, the Save window will appear. Choose a slot
with mouse or arrow keys, type a name for the game you wish to save,
and then press the <Enter> key.
NEW GAME: This option lets you start a new game at any time. If
the game you're playing is looking too grim, you can give up on it
and start over with this option. This is very useful if you can't
stand the thought of losing to a computer chip.
SET UP BOARD: This option lets you set up games for testing
strategies or for playing classic chess problems. Set Up is
performed on a 2-dimensional chess board. Any of the pieces can be
selected and moved into any position by clicking on them with the
mouse. Keyboard users: To select a piece on the side of the chess
board, press the <F3> key, then using the arrows choose a specific
piece, and press the <Enter> key. This will return your chosen
piece to the chess board. From Set Up, you have three additional
menu options:
CLEAR BOARD: Removes all pieces from the board.
RESTORE BOARD: While remaining in Set Up, this aborts any changes
you've made.
DONE: Returns you to normal playing mode so you can play
the game you've set up.
QUIT: You've had enough. Exit to DOS Workbench.
FORCE MOVE: If you get impatient while waiting for Battle Chess 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).
TAKE BACK: This option will take back the last move made by either
side. You can take back as many moves as you want, back to the
first move you made.
REPLAY: Let's say you've just taken back a move, then decided it
wasn't such a bad move after all. Just Replay to put the piece back
where it was.
SUGGEST MOVE: Want a hint for your next possible move? The Suggest
Move option will give you that hint. Flashing highlights will
appear on a square occupied by one of your pieces and the suggested
destination square (this command is not instantaneous).
LEVELS: Levels Novice through 9 are available. Novice is the
easiest, and 9 is the hardest.
THINKING TIME PER LEVEL
Avg. Thinking Avg. Thinking
Level Time Per Move Level Time Per Move
------- --------------- ------- ---------------
Novice Special 5 1 min, 20 sec
1 5 seconds 6 2 min, 40 sec
2 10 seconds 7 5 min, 20 sec
3 20 seconds 8 10 min, 40 sec
4 40 seconds 9 21 min, 20 sec
The Longer Battle Chess thinks, the more carefully planned its moves
will be, and the better game it will play. Under the Novice level,
Battle Chess only does one simplistic board evaluation. Remember,
if it's taking too long, you can always override the thinking time
by using the FORCE MOVE option.
ENTER LEVEL: This lets you change Battle Chess' average thinking
time to any amount you want, from 1 minute to 10,000 minutes. A
window will appear after you pick this option. Type a number
measured in minutes and press the <Enter> key, and Battle Chess will
take approximately that long to think per move.
SHORTCUT KEYS
If you don't 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 = Force Move ALT M = Suggest Move
ALT T = Take Back ALT S = Toggle Sound on/off
ALT R = Replay
CHECK
When your King is in check, the mouse pointer will change to a
"check" icon and box will pop up to alert you. It will change back
to the normal pointer when the King escapes check.
PAWN PROMOTIONS
When a pawn reaches the eighth rank, a window will appear in the
center of the screen. This window contains four pieces; you can
change the pawn into any of them. Choose the promotion by clicking
on it with the left mouse button or using the left/right arrow keys.
CASTLING
If it's legal to do so (as discussed in the manual), you may castle
by moving your King two spaces to his destination square. The rook
will know what to do on its own.
PLAYING BATTLE CHESS BY MODEM
You can play Battle Chess against a distant opponent if each has a
Hayes-compatible modem hooked up to your IBM. If your modem is
properly connected, as shown in your modem manual, there are 3 steps
to start playing over the modem with Battle Chess.
1. Arrange with your opponent who will play Red and who will play
Blue. After you've agreed, both of you should load Battle Chess and
set your opponent's color with the "Modem Plays Blue" or "Modem
Plays Red" menu option. Hang up the phone on both ends before
continuing.
2. One player must set his modem to auto-answer mode. You can do
this by pressing the <F2> key then typing ATS0=1 and pressing the
<Enter> key. (That's a zero, not the letter "O".)
3. The other player must call the player whose modem is set to
auto-answer. To dial a number press the <F2> key then type ATD
555-1212, substituting the correct phone number, and press the
<Enter> key. You can use any phone number with the ATD command,
including area codes.
Your modem will pick up the phone and dial the number, and if all
goes well, it'll then connect with the modem on the receiving end.
If you get this far, you're set; you can start your chess game.
When you move a piece, that move will happen on your opponent's end
as well as yours. Note that after the two players are connected,
the menu options NEW GAME, SET UP GAME, and LOAD GAME will send an
entire new chess board to both sides, discarding the current game.
When you set one player to Modem you can send text to your modem or
opponent by pressing the <F2> key. This will bring up a dialogue
box in which you can enter a line of text. The window will
disappear and the line of text will be sent. This is the way you
control your modem in Battle Chess, using the modem's AT commands,
and it is the way you send messages to your opponent once you are
connected. Press the <F2> key then type one line and press the
<Enter> key. A window will pop up on your opponent's screen with
your message. After he or she dismisses the window, the game can
continue. You can receive these messages at any time except when a
window is open on your screen. If you type modem commands in this
way, the modems will act on them. See your modem manual for details
on AT commands.
There are two steps to break the connection and hang up the phone.
First press the <F2> key then type +++ (three plus signs), press
Return, and wait a moment. This will get the modem's attention.
Then press the <F2> key and type ATH to tell your modem to hang up.
This will close the connection between the two players.
Battle Chess communicates at 300 baud with 8 bits and no parity.
PLAYING BATTLE CHESS WITH SERIAL CABLES
If you and an opponent have two IBM computers, you may play with one
person at each IBM. Hook up a null modem cable between the IBMs'
serial ports. Then one person should pick "Modem Plays Red" and the
other, "Modem Plays Blue". You can proceed to play as if you were
connected by modem. The only difference is that you never need to
type any dialing commands.