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TARTAN Chess Game (English) v1.7 PD (c) 1990-94 by Christoph Zwerschke
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TYPE: PROG
NAME: TARTAN.PRG
DOKU: Tartan v1.7
Kleines Schachprogramm
BEZUG: Christoph Zwerschke
Am Steinfeld 4
D-59379 Selm-Cappenberg
SYS: Atari mit TOS-BS
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Game translation to English by John Garone August, 2003
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Notes:
--- Tested only on a Falcon
--- Portions of some German words used shared characters
(I assume to reduce file size) which hampered some translations
but most results will be understandable.
--- Schwierigkeitsstufe = Level of Difficulty
--- Board Editor Mode (after clicking on "Play"):
Whr zeiht = Whose first"
Wht(b) = White
rsiBlck = Black
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Extraction and reinsertion of text made possible by:
eed v1.0
Copyright (c) 2001-2003 RGF Software
http://www.rgfsoft.com
TARTAN Chess Game (English) v1.7 PD (c) 1990-94 by Christoph Zwerschke
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TARTAN v1.7 PD (c) 1990-94 by Christoph Zwerschke
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TARTAN is a chess program for Atari computers. Compared to the other chess
programs Tartan has the advantage of being "Public Domain", very small and
is easy to use. Negative points are the rather spartanic features and the
intelligence level of play is still somewhat weak.
Another disadvantage of Tartan is that it blocks all parallel running apps
in memory, mainly because it hasn't got a GEM GUI. These days when more and
more people are using GEM-based multi-tasking OS's this is a very nasty
side effect. However Tartan does run perfect under these OS's because it's
a cleanly written program,
Tartan has a unique way of playing chess, in the opening moves which even
for experienced players can be mind-dazzling, Tartan will at given times
amaze you with genial moves, but sometimes it will screw up enormously
(sometimes that's good for the human player). Tartan plays noticeablely
weaker then most other chess programs. It's written in Pure C (to be
precise with Turbo-C and later on Pure-C). Writing Tartan in assembler
should make it play faster and in addition improve its intelligence level.
For the time being however Tartan will remain a C-program, because by using
this language it's easier to port and develop it further.
A word of caution: Tartan doesn't have an "undo" feature. Since the
program doesn't take moves back either, this only seems fair, and
justifies the lacking feature. Or to put differently: like any chessplayer
says: "you've touched the piece, play the piece".
Tartan is played with the mouse and can be completely controlled with
this gizmo. To make a move: point the mouse arrow over the piece you want
to move, press and hold left mouse button, move to desired spot, release
the mouse button.
In addition Tartan also has a small chessboard editor. With this you can
build or edit the most difficult chess moves and let the computer figure
it out. New pieces are available in the little "muppet cupboard" on the
right. The pieces can be positioned freely on the chessboard. When both
the SHIFT keys are pressed down the piece is copied. A piece taken from
the "cupboard" is set by default as "not moved". Because of this you are
able to indicate if "Castleing" should take place. If a pawn should hit
"en-passant" can also be indicated in the editor, during the game itself
Tartan knows all this of course and make these moves automatically.
Caution! When the editor is used, Tartan forgets all about the running
game. When you return to the actual game Tartan has a blank memory and in
a manner of speaking has to "re-think" the game, and because of this the
first initial moves mey be weaker then normal. In addition Tartan won't use
the library with opening moves either when returning from the editor into a
game.
The game is logged in real time. You can at all times read and check the
latest moves made by Tartan and the human player. When Tartan refuses to
make a move, don't blame the program but check the following:
- can the piece really be moved the way you indicated
- is "castleing" or "en-passant" allowed in the actual situation
- if when moving the piece the player puts himself in "check" position
- if the game actually is finished.
Levels of play:
Unfortunately it's not possible in Tartan to select a level of play with a
preset calculation time. Tartan however offers 5 different levels of play,
the difficulty of the levels is based upon the number of moves Tartan
looks foreward in the game. A higher level means more possible moves and
thus naturally more calculation time.
A more or less correct indication of the time needed to make the necessary
move when playing Tartan on a 68000/8Mhz computer is:
Level 1 1 sec
Level 2 10 sec
Level 3 1 minute
Level 4 10 minutes
Level 5 1 hour
Future development of Tartan:
Priority will be given to this three-some:
First, Tartan needs a GUI with proper windows and a menu. Then the program
will be able to run parallel with other applications, as it it now, it
blocks all other running applications.
Secondly, features like "Undo" and "load/save" game are high on my
priority list. In addition the chessboard needs to be redesigned and the
chess pieces need a little more colour.
Last but not least, the level of play and calculation time need to be
improved. Implementing all of the above means lots of time, time which I
unfortunately don't have. There's a big question mark about if and when
these things will be implemented.... please keep in mind that Tartan is
"only" a "Public Domain" program.
Tartan may be copied and distributed in a non commercial framework. If you
have constructive ideas for the future development of Tartan or have any
interesting information about "chess programming" please contact me at:
Christoph Zwersche
Am Steinfeld 4
59379 Selm-Cappenberg
Germany
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