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README.TXT
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1996-09-22
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Please feel free to distribute as many copies of this freeware version of
WindiGO to all of your friends. We are working on a new version of the
game and we would like as much feedback as possible.
**************************************************************************
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
**************************************************************************
You should have the following three files
go.exe The registered WindiGO executable
go_help.hlp The help file.
readme.txt This file
An overview, as well as all the documentation for WindiGO is available by
pressing F1 from inside the application. This invokes the help files.
**************************************************************************
Minimum Hardware Requirements
**************************************************************************
This software is intended to be run on an IBM-compatible 486 Running
Windows 95 or Windows NT. You will also need a mouse. It takes less than
1 Meg of hard disk space.
**************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
**************************************************************************
Users of WindiGO (copyright 1996 by Lemanowicz & Miranda) must accept
this disclaimer of warranty:
"WindiGO is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of
merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no
liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the
use of WindiGO."
Anyone distributing WindiGO for any kind of remuneration must first
contact Lemanowicz & Miranda for authorization.
You are encouraged to pass a copy of WindiGO along to your friends.
**************************************************************************
Why we wrote this program
**************************************************************************
We saw a program on TV once about artificial intelligence and the role of
games in its study. They mainly discussed chess because it is the big AI
game but they also mentioned this game GO. The interesting claim that
they made was that it was much more difficult to get a computer to play GO
than to play chess. Another article we read once said that GO may be the
new drosophila of AI research.
One measure of their relative complexity is the number of possible games.
We read that there are 10^40 possible games in chess, there are 10^304
possible games in GO.
So, anyway, it seems like an interesting problem. While there are chess
programs which play at the grandmaster level we understand that no GO
program plays at better than an amateur level. This program is the first
step in our evil plan for world domination through GO.
Of course this program is not capable of acting as an opponent as yet but
even in this state it is useful for allowing two human players to play
through eMail, over a LAN or in person.
We are currently working on an updated version of the game. Some possible
new features are:
. MAPI support
. Win Socket support for multi-player games
. Live chat window
. A history list of the moves
. Configurable board sizes
. Multiple Undo / Redo capabilities in practice mode
. The ability to save practice mode sessions
. Numbering the stones in practice mode
. More than two-player GO games
We would like to make the program flexible enough for those
people who are intersted in playing GO with more than
two players. This should be interesting since rules along
these lines do not currently exist.
. Reading standard GO files.
Ishi press markets a number of GO programs that store games
in a different format than WindiGO uses. Their format is
superior in that it saves the history of the game so it may
be played back. We could add the ability to read the Ishi
format files including playback.
. The ability to edit the board.
Currently you can edit the game file with a text editor
directly if you want to set the board up a certain way.
However there is no check that the board you set up will be
legal. We could add the ability to edit the board
interactively.
. COM Interface
We could add a COM interface to WindiGO to allow other
programmers to write GO playing programs that use WindiGO
as a go-between and referee. We would also provide sample
code for a very simple go playing program to show how to
interface with WindiGO.
**************************************************************************
Known bugs
**************************************************************************
The target rectangle.
There is a small rectangle that follows the cursor around showing where
the piece will be placed. Under certain conditions a copy of that
rectangle will get left behind on the board. It is a purely cosmetic bug
and does not affect play. If it bothers you, minimizing and then
maximizing the game will get rid of it.
KO situation not always caught.
To reliably detect all KO situations a GO program must save all previous
board images. WindiGO does not do that so some KO situations may slip by.
It should catch the simple KO situations which I think make up 99% of all
KO situations. Certainly it should always catch the "overlapping-diamond"
KO that is the classic example given in all GO books that I've seen.
Corrupted Game file.
When testing over a LAN there were occasions when pieces would appear on
the board that no one placed there and we were unable to duplicate the
problem. If you ever face this problem and figure out how to cause them
reliably I would be most grateful to hear about it. In the mean time, if
playing over a LAN, I strongly recommend that you use backup files that
are in a different directory that the game file directory. Preferably on
your hard drive.