Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/220.lha/chessdoc

Text File | 1996-02-14 | 13KB | 250 lines

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LateNight Chess Documentation
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     LateNight Chess was written for JUMPDISK in September/October 1988 by
Chris Halsall of LateNight Developments Corporation. JUMPDISK Magazine has
exclusive distribution rights until February 1989; no copies may be made of
this program until after that time without its written permission.
     As of February 1989, this program will become freely redistributable
and may be copied and given away providing that no fee is charged, other
than a reasonable disk copying charge. LateNight Developments Corporation
retains all rights to this program.

     LateNight Chess is a player vs. player chess program; there is no
computer vs. player mode. On the other hand, players may use this program to
play games of chess over the telephone lines, assuming that both players
have modems attached to the serial ports of their Amigas. In order to use
this program in the two-player over the modem mode, you must also have the
file "serial.device" in your devs: directory.
     This program uses the (freely redistributable) AmigaDOS Replacement
Project (ARP) library (published in the September 1988 JUMPDISK) to perform
its file request operations. In other words, if you wish to LOAD or SAVE
games, you must have the file "arp.library" in your "libs:" directory.
Arp.library is also available on several of the commercial BBS systems (BIX,
CompuServe, PLink, etc.), most local BBS systems, and probably also from
your local Amiga dealer.
     Note that LateNight Chess will operate fully without arp.library, with
the exception of the Load Game and Save Game options.
     An explanation of the menu item options follows, in order of appearance
on the screen.

GAME OPTIONS:

Game->New
     This sets up the board in the default configuration and, if in two-
player over the modem mode, will bring up a requester to ask what color you
would like to play. It then checks with the other player for agreement. If
the other player agrees, play begins. If not, you are told so and given the
color selection requester again.
     Note: If both players happen to select New (or Play->Start at the same
time, LateNight Chess will get a little confused for a while. It will soon,
however, realize what has happened, tell both players, and then ask them to
retry.

Game->Load
     This lets you load a stored game of Chess. You must have Arp.library in
your libs: directory for this operation to work.

Game->Save
     This lets you save a game of Chess to disk. Again, you must have
Arp.library in your libs: directory for this operation to work.

Game->Info
     Just some information about how great we are, where to send truckloads
of money to, and that kind of stuff.

Game->Quit
     Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

BOARD OPTIONS:

Board->Rotate 180°
     This option is primarily intended for two-player over the modem mode,
to allow the person playing Black to see the board with the Black pieces on
the bottom of the screen, as it should be for that player.

Board->Edit
     Puts LateNight Chess into the board edit mode. This is usable at any
point, including over the modem play, but causes the loss of chess history.

Take Back Move
     In edit mode, pieces can be selected from the menu and dropped on the
board, moved from one place on the board to another, or picked up off the
board and dropped off the edge.
     Once it is selected, the Board->Edit menu item becomes ghosted, and the
following items become active....

Board->Play
     The opposite of Edit. Puts the program back into play mode. LateNight
Chess will ask whose turn it is next and then continue as usual.

Board->Clear
     Clears the board when you want to start over.

Board->Initial
     Sets the board to the initial chess state (Rook-Knight-Bishop-Queen-
King-Bishop-Knight-Rook with a row of Pawns, for each color.)

Board->Black Pieces
     Lets you select black pieces to put down on the board. Selectable by
keyboard shortcut, using Right Amiga-Shift-1 for a King, Right Amiga-Shift-2
for a Queen, etc.

Board->White Pieces
     Lets you select white pieces to put down on the board. Selectable by
keyboard shortcut, using Right Amiga-1 for a King, Right Amiga-2 for a
Queen, etc.

PLAY OPTIONS:

Play->Resign
     This is primarily for use in Over the Modem mode, where it stops the
clocks and lets your opponent know that you have resigned the game. In
local mode, this simply stops the clocks.

Play->Start
     Basically the opposite of Resign. Used if you made a mistake in
selecting Resign, or if you used Resign as a form of pause.

Play->Take Back Move
     This, we are afraid, only works in local mode. This is used to take
back one or more moves in a game. You can, in fact, Take Back Moves all the
way to the beginning of the game.

OPPONENT OPTIONS:

Opponent->Local
     This is the default setting. If in remote (modem) mode this will hang
up the phone and release the serial line.

Opponent->Remote
     When selected, LateNight Chess will try to allocate the serial port and
prepare for a game of chess over the phone line. After selecting this, you
should set your baud rate and, if you are dialling, select

Modem->Dial
or if you are answering, select
Modem->Answer

MODEM OPTIONS:

Modem->Messages
     This is used to send messages back and forth between yourself and your
opponent. It may be used at any time. A messaging window will pop up, with
two lines of text displayed for each of your opponent and yourself, and a
text gadget at the bottom to allow you to type in text.
     Please note the text is not sent until you press Return, so you can
make as many editing changes as you like to your line of text without your
opponent seeing what you are doing, or even abort it if you wish. Also, you
may select the Close gadget of the window at any time without losing what
you are typing. When you reopen the window the text will still be waiting
there for you to finish editing or abort.
     You may play chess with the messaging window either open or closed.
When a message comes in from your opponent the window will automatically pop
up on your screen, so you won't miss any messages.

Modem->Dial
     This pops up a dial requester. If you are using a modem which follows
the Hayes "AT" standard, all you have to do is type in the number of your
friend who you will be playing against, select either Touch Tone or Pulse,
depending on your phone line dialling type, and then press Dial. If you find
you have made a mistake, select the Hang Up gadget and try again. Otherwise,
wait for the the modems to connect, and then press Start. You should then be
able to play the game.
     If you are using a modem that does not follow the "AT" standard, click
on the Number gadget. This will switch you into String mode, which means
what you type into the phone number string gadget gets sent out directly,
rather than having "ATDT" or "ATDP" (depending on Touch Tone or Pulse mode,
respectively) being sent out ahead of the string.
     You should then type in whatever command your modem expects to precede
a dial request, and then select Dial. Proceed as above after the connection
is made.

Modem->Answer
     Again, this brings up a requester. The default string here is "ATZ
S0=1", which tells the modem to reset, and then set auto answer to one ring.
If you find this does not work for your modem, you might try the string
"ATA" WHEN THE PHONE IS RINGING. If this doesn't work, consult your modem
manual, or ask your local modem guru.

Modem->Hang Up
     This hangs up the modem. It first sends out the "+++" escape sequence,
then sends out the command "ATH", and then drops and picks up the DTR line.

Modem->Baud Rate
     Here you have the choice of selecting the baud rate at which you will
be talking to your modem, and your opponent. The options are 300, 1200, 2400
and 9600 baud. It is advisable to decide with your opponent what baud rate
you are going to be using before you actually start dialling, as switching
baud rates after connection is always a very confusing and unrewarding
practice.

NOTES
     When dialling or answering the phone, after connection click the Start
gadget. This lets the program know the connection was successful, and so
will start passing handshaking information back and forth. If you simply
click on the Close Window gadget, the requester will abort and the
connection attempt will be considered unsuccessful.
     If by mistake you click on the Close Window gadget, reselect Dial or
Answer (it doesn't matter which), and then click on Start.
     Also, if you are playing LateNight Chess with two Amigas over a
null-modem cable, you will have to use either of the modem requesters and
click on Start. Don't dial, just use them to let the program know there is
someone at the other end.
     Once connection is established, you should notice another mouse pointer
moving around on your screen. This is your opponent's mouse pointer, so you
can watch what he does while the game progresses. This pointer will work
correctly even if you or your opponent have rotated your board 180°, though
to allow this, we have had to limit motion of the opponent pointer to be
within the board boundaries.
     If, during a game, you get a requester popping up saying Handshaking
Error, Trouble with Remote. Retry or Cancel, this means your opponent's
computer is not responding to repeated attempts to pass it the "Play Token."
This could be because he has dropped the line on you (although usually you
would be told), or that he has popped up a requester of some form, but has
taken a very long time to acknowledge it.
     If you know the opponent is there, click Retry. LateNight Chess will
continue to try to reestablish handshaking, popping up the same requester
periodically to let you know what is happening. You may, after clicking
Retry or Cancel, save the game as it stands, so it may be continued if
handshaking cannot be reestablished.
     Castling, En Passant and Pawn promotion are all supported by LateNight
Chess, as well as King in Check checking. We have not, however, installed
Checkmate searching, as it would have taken a fair amount more code.
Therefore, it is up to the player to realize if he is in Checkmate or not.
This shouldn't be too difficult, as you can simply try to move the King into
a position that you think may get you out of check. LateNight Chess will not
allow anyone to move into check, and so there is no way for someone to make
an illegal move because of this lack of a feature.
     To castle, a clear path must exist between the King and the Rook which
you wish to castle. The King and the Rook must not have been moved
previously, and the King cannot be in check, move into check, nor pass
through check. If all of these conditions are met, move the King two spaces
toward the Rook involved, and that Rook will automatically be moved into the
correct location. Technically, when Castling the Rook should move first, but
this way was much easier to implement.
     To make an En Passant move, move your pawn diagonally into the position
behind your opponent's pawn which has just moved two squares on its initial
move. This move is only valid immediately after the pawn's initial move.
This means you may not wait a turn before enacting en passant.
     To promote a pawn, you must move one of your pawns entirely across the
board into your opponent's home territory. Once you manage this, a requester
will pop up asking you what you would like the pawn to become. Your options
are Rook, Knight, Bishop and Queen. Although Queen is the usual choice, any
of the others are valid. Your Pawn may NOT remain a Pawn.
     We have tried to make this program as bug-proof as possible, and we are
almost entirely sure that it is not possible to crash it. However, if you
manage to prove us wrong, or find what Leo Schwab calls "undesirable
features," please let us know; we want to know about them!
     A copy of the source code for LateNight Chess may be obtained from
LateNight Developments for a fee of $15.
      As stated in the Info section of the program, our address is:
LateNight Developments Corporation, #202 - 306 Burnside Road West, Victoria,
BC, Canada, V8Z 1M1. Phone: [phone]
      We have had a lot of fun writing this program, and we hope it is of
some entertainment value to you.
      Sincerely, The entire LND Crew: Chris "Thumper" Halsall, Kim "Xor"
Lewall, Paul "Sting" Gerber, and Steven "DeSade" Dean.