118 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
118 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
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BATTLE CHESS
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In the movie "Star Wars," R2D2 and Chewbacca play a game on a
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circular board of alternating black and white spaces. The playing
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pieces are actually miniature, mobile monsters. When one piece
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"takes" another one, it pummels the other into submission. I was
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reminded of this futuristic descendent of the ancient game of kings
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when I booted BATTLE CHESS, Interplay Productions' first title
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released under its own label. Designed by Jay Patel, Bruce
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Schlickbernd, Mike Quarles, and Todd Camasta, there has never been a
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game more aptly named. This review is based on the Amiga version;
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Atari ST versio notes follow.
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The chess pieces here do not simply slide around the board when you
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key in a command: They march, lumber, or sashay. Each has his or her
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own personality: Bishops pad primly along their diagonals; rooks
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metamorphose into great glaring golems; queens swing their hips
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entrancingly. All to the accompaniment of appropriate sound
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effects.
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When one piece takes another, battle is truly waged. Swords flash
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and fireballs are summoned to blast opponents to ashes. Each
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confrontation is different depending upon the two pieces involved.
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My favorites include the queens' handclapping magic, the rooks'
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flattening a hapless enemy to wafer thinness, and the bottomless pit
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that magically opens beneath a vanquished foe.
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The variations are many and entertaining, and each move is smoothly
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animated on a three-dimensional board. The digitized sound effects
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are beautifully realized. You can even play via modem with a friend
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who also owns the game.
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The documentation -- a non-obtrusive form of copy protection -- is
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necessary only if you're learning chess from scratch. The game
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mechanics are simple and intuitive, and are accessed by either
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pull-down menus, or Amiga-key shortcuts.
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If BATTLE CHESS were an original game, I would declare it an
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unqualified winner. However, chess has been with us in one form or
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another for a long, long time. And computer chess has been around
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for a while, too. This computer version of the game, however
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colorful, has its drawbacks.
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First of all, BATTLE CHESS isn't going to win any speed contests.
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You wait for it to ponder its next move. Then you wait for the
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pieces to engage each other in combat. The rooks, since they first
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have to change from towers to monsters, take an especially long
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time. Even if they have a lot of squares to travel, they take their
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own sweet time about it. As you select higher levels of play (there
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are ten), the computer's thinking time increases even more. There
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also appears to be a bug in the level settings, since Level 1's
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thinking time is supposed to be only five seconds. The time is much
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more variable. On a few occasions, I waited more than a minute. The
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higher levels also seem to take longer than the documentation says
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they should. There _is_ a two-dimensional option with normal-looking
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pieces that removes much of the animation to speed things along, but
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it isn't all that fast either.
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Is the waiting worth it? Well, BATTLE CHESS plays an acceptable
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game, but not a great game. It is particularly susceptible to
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sacrifices on the lower levels. Its opening book is less than half
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the size of CHESSMASTER 2000. This means it's stopping to examine
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opening variations far sooner, another factor that slows it down.
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The endgame on all the levels I tried is pretty weak.
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Interplay obviously has made a conscious tradeoff here. There's
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only so muc you can squeeze onto a disk, and the animation and sound
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effects take precedence over the depth of the game BATTLE CHESS
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plays.
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I think the bottom line in considering this game has to be: How
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seriously do you take your chess? If it is an occasional pastime
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that could be enlivened by clever special effects, BATTLE CHESS may
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be just what you're looking for. But if you're interested in a
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genuinely sophisticated, fast and canny chess program for your
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Amiga, then CHESSMASTER 2000 still has no peer.
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ATARI ST VERSION NOTES
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Thanks to fabulous graphics, humorous animation, simple gameplay, a
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reasonably intelligent computer opponent, modem support, and no copy
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protection, BATTLE CHESS one of the best ST programs of 1989.
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BATTLE CHESS will run on any ST, including the Mega series, as long
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as you have 512K, TOS in ROM, and a color monitor. The startup disk
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has a backup utility that will copy both the Startup and Animation
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files to two single-sided disks or one double-sided disk. Another
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alternative is to copy all the files to a hard drive. Although the
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disks are unprotected, there is a documentation check in the form of
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chess notation from famous matches.
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Games can be saved and reloaded; moves can be forced; problems can
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be set up; and, with the Set Time option, the computer can be set to
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"think" about its move from 1 to 10,000 minutes, which overrides the
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average think time of the nine play levels. You can play BATTLE
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CHESS with a friend via modem, or by way of a null modem cable.
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The animation does take time, due both to disk access and the
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routine itself. A hard drive speeds up the loading of animation and
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sound files, but the routines run at a leisurely pace that cannot be
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altered. Still, chess is chess, and BATTLE CHESS is a simulation:
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You can make your moves at whatever pace you choose. While there is
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a tradeoff between chess intelligence and animated graphics, BATTLE
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CHESS is worth owning. If you are an average chess player, it will
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provide you with fine contests that offer enough seriousness and
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humor to remind you that chess is only a game; if you are a pro
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player, you should be in tournaments with humans, not simulations.
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BATTLE CHESS is published by Interplay Productions and distributed
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by Mediagenic.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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