textfiles/apple/DOCUMENTATION/btl.chess

Factus Presents...

                             Battle Chess 2e

    Kracked By : The Mechanic      ---      Thanks To : The Kid
    Docs By    : The Mechanic      ---                  and Senkrad


                             REFERENCE CARD



GETTING STARTED

Before you begin, make a backup copy of your BATTLE CHESS disk.  To make a
backup of your disk, select option (1) at the first screen that appears after
loading Side A (label facing up) of your Battle Chess disk.  You will need to
copy both sides of the disk.  To make your backup copy, simply follow the
instruction displayed on screen.



LOADING INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Insert Battle Chess disk Side A (label facing up) into the disk drive.
2.  Turn on your computer and the program will load automatically.



TITLE SCREEN OPTIONS

After several seconds a screen will appear allowing you to make a backup copy
of Battle Chess or to Play Battle Chess.  (This screen will not appear when
loading from your backup copy.)  Press the '1' key will allow you to make a
backup copy of Battle Chess, while pressing the '2' key will continue loading
the game.  If option '2' is selected or if played from your backup, the color
title screen will appear as the game loads.  Press the <Space Bar> to get past
the title screen or press the <ESC> key to bring up the game credits and any
changes or revisions made to the program (if any).



HOW TO ENTER THE CODE

After several seconds, a window will come up, asking for a specific move from
one of the twenty games listed in the Appendix A of the Battle Chess manual.
Find the proper game and type in the correct move.
Mech Note: If you're wrong, it doesn't matter, it will think you're right.


MOVEMENT

You can play Battle Chess from either the keyboard or joystick.  The 'Z' key
puts you in joystick mode and the 'X' key puts you in the keyboard mode.


Using Keyboard:

I = up
J = left
K = down
L = right

Or use the proper arrow keys to position the flashing square under the piece
you want to move, then press <Return> to select it.  (The piece will be
surrounded by a solid black border.)  Select the desired destination square by
using the keyboard or arrow keys and press <Return>.  (You will notice that
legal moves are flashing black squares and illegal ones are flashing red).


Using Joystick:

To move your chess pieces, use the joystick to position the flashing squares
under the piece you want to move, then press the joystick button to select it.
(The piece will be surrounded by a solid black border.)  Use the joystick to
move the flashing square to the location you want the piece to move to and
press the joystick button.  (You will notice that legal moves are flashing
black squares and illegal ones are flashing red.)



BATTLE CHESS MENUS

Using Keyboard:

Press the <ESC> key or move the flashing square off the top or bottom of the
board so that the menu bar appears and press the <Return> key to pull down the
menu.  Use the keyboard or the arrow keys to switch between the menus and
highlight an option.  Press the <Return> key to select it.  Select the "Return"
option at the bottom of any menu to exit without selecting.

Using Joystick:

Move the flashing square off the top or bottom of the board so that the menu
bar appears and press the joystick button.  Move the joystick left or right to
change menus, and then up or down intil the desired menu option is highlights.
Press the joystick button to the select it.  Select "Return" at the bottom of
any menu to exit without selecting.

The four menus contain the following options:

DISK: Load Game, Save Game, New Game, Setup Board, Quit
MOVE: Force Move, Take Back, Replay, Suggest Move
SETTINGS: Sound On/Off, Walk On/Off, Combat On/Off, 3-D Board, 2-D Board,
          Human Plays Red, Apple Plays Red, Modem Plays Red, Human Plays Blue,
          Apple Plays Blue, Modem Plays Blue.
LEVEL: Novice, Level 1-6

An asterisk (*) to the left of an option denotes that option as currently
unselectable.

A plus (+) to the left of an option denotes that option as currently selected.



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 selecting Load Game, the Load window will
appear, displaying a list of your saved games numbered 1 through 7.  Select the
game you wish to load by pressing the joystick button when the highlighted bar
is over the game you wish to load or using the keyboard or arrow keys and
pressing the <Return> key if you don't have a joystick.  Select the "Return"
option at the bottom of the menu to exit without loading.

SAVE GAME:  You can save games to your backup disk only.  Pick this option if
you want to save a game to disk while the game is in progress.  Choose the game
number (1 through 7) you wish to save to (erasing the old game at that number)
with your joystick or the keyboard or arrow keys and press the button or
<Return>.  Select the "Return" option at the bottom of the menu to exit without
saving.

NEW GAME:  This option lets you start a new game at any time.

SET UP BOARD:  This option lets yo set up games for testing strategies or for
playing classic chess problems.  Set Up is performed on a 2-dimensional chess
board with the additional chess pieces arranged vertically on each side of the
board.  Any of the pieces can be selected and moved into any position by
selecting them with the joystick or keyboard.  To select a piece on the side of
the chess board, use the joystick or keyboard or arrow keys to move off the
board and choose a specific piece, and press the button or <Return> key.  This
will pick up your chosen piece for you to place.  From Set Up, you have three
additional menu options.

  CLEAR BOARD: Removes all pieces from the board.
  RESTORE BORD: While remaining in Set Up, this aborts any changes you've made.
  DONE: Returns to normal playing mode so you can play the game you've set-up.

QUIT:  You've had enough.  Reboot the disk.

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 moes that it has thought of so far.

TAKE BACK:  This option will take back the last move made by either side.  You
can take back about fives moves from both sides.

REPLAY:  If you've just taken back a move, then decided it wasn't such a bad
move after all, you can select Replay to put the piece back where it was before
the Take Back.

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.

WALK ON/OFF:  Turning this off will move the pieces in 3-D without animating
them.

COMBAT ON/OFF:  Turning this off will skip the combat animation.  (The above
two options are useful for those who want a quicker game on the 3-D board.)

LEVELS:  Levels Novice through 6 are available.  Novice is the easiest, and 6
is the hardest.  Under the Novice level, Battle Chess does only one simplistic
board evalution and occasionally makes poor moves.  At each higher level,
Battle Chess will look ahead further in the game, thus playing a better game of
chess.  Remember, if it's taking too long, you can always override the thinking
time by using the FORCE MOVE option.



SHORTCUT KEYS

Certain shortcut keys are available during a game as follows:

F = Force Move
T = Take Back
R = Replay
S = Suggest Move
V = Toggle Sound On/Off
W = Toggle Walk On/Off
C = Toggel Combat On/Off



CHECK

When your King is in check, a "check" cursor will appear in the upper left
corner of the screen to warn you.  It will go away when your kind escapes
check.



PAWN PROMOTION

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 pressing the joystick button when the piece you
want to promote to us underscored or by using the keyboard or arrow keys and
<Return>.



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 far away opponent if each of you has a
Hayes-compatible modem hooked up to your computer with BATTLE CHESS.  Your
modem must be hooked up to an Apple Super Serial Card with interrupts turned
on, or an Apple //c.  If your modem is properly connected, as shwon in your
modem manual, there are 3 steps to start playing over the modem with B.CHESS.

1.  Arrange with your opponent 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. (But say "Bye, Bye!")

2.  One player must set his modem to auto-answer mode.  You can do this by
bringing up the text window with the <TAB> key and typing ATS0=1.  And press
the <Return> key.

3.  The other player must call the player whose modem is set to auto-answer.
To dial a number, bring up the text window with the <TAB> key and type
ATD 555-1212, substituting the correct phone number, and press the <Return>
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 Board, and Load Game
will send an entirely new chess board to both sides, discarding the current
game.

When you set one player to modem, you can send a text message to your modem or
opponent by pressing the <TAB> key and typing your message or command and
hitting <Return>.  After hitting <Return> at the end of your message, the
window will disappear and the line of tex will be sent.  (This is also the way
you control your modem in BATTLE CHESS).  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 send commands to your modem in this way,
your modem will act on them.  See your modem manual for details on AT commands.

There are two set ups to break the connection and hang up the phone.  First,
type +++ (three plus signs), press <Return>, and wait a moment.  THis will get
your modem's attention.  Then 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 computers, you may play with one person at each
computer.  Hook up a null modem cable between the computers' serial ports.
Then one person show 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.
____________________


                      Official Listing of [Factus] Boards

The LookOut ......... [403] 457 - 0114   Private Storage ..... [215] 745 - 0495
Apple Tree Midwest II [816] 826 - 4158   Brave New World ..... [707] 938 - 2997

                         And Some Other [Great] Boards!

Castle GS ........... (514) 276 - 4047   Lexicon of the Cabal. (714) 879 - 6857
Distar's Swap Shop .. (816) 524 - 3044   University of Piracy. (415) 991 - 4832


End of File.