From: Pieter Stouten <STOUTEN <at> EMBL <dot> BITNET>
Date: 15 jun 1990
Subject: Re: Computer Program for Korean Chess

On Wed, 6 Jun 90 13:41:57 -0700 Jeff Boscole <aesop <at> MILTON <dot> U <dot> WASHINGTON <dot> EDU>
forwarded a mail from Mike Pickard Fishman
<MXFCU%CUNYVM <at> UWAVM <dot> ACS <dot> WASHINGTON <dot> EDU>, who wrote:
 
>If so, I'd be interested in any replies that you get or any info that
>you have about Chinese chess software. I'd be interested to know about
>Korean chess as well, esp. if you can recommend a book (or 2) in
>English.
 
With respect to books, I can recommend the following (although neither of the
two describes Korean Chess explicitly):
 * The Book of Games, editor P. Arnold, 1985.
   Newnes Books, 84-88 The Centre, Feltham, Middlesex, England.
   ISBN 0-600-35151-3.
 * Board and Table Games (From Many Civilizations), R.C. Bell, 1979.
   Revised edition, two volumes bound as one.
   Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A..
   ISBN 0-486-23855-5.
 
The first book has lots of beautiful pictures, describes the games in great
detail (including sample games) and I still have to find the first mistake
where rules are concerned. Fewer games are described than in Bell's book;
among them: Chess, Chinese Chess, Go, Shogi.
 
Board and Table Games deals with many more games, but is more historically
oriented and the rules of play are not always clear. Games are described
in a very compact way. Contains many references. Chess-like games covered:
Chess, Burmese Chess, Shogi, Siamese Chess, Shaturanga, Courier Chess,
Chinese Chess, etc. No Korean Chess, but they mention a form of Shogi called
Korean Shogi or Hasami (=scissors) Shogi, which is sort of a cat and mouse
game (probably not what you are looking for).
 
 
As to Chinese Chess software, the following from comp.sys.mac (slightly
edited) might be of interest to you:
 
>There is a commercial Chinese Chess program for the Mac available
>for $25 from Holley Corp. 2051 S. 50 East, Orem, Utah  84058.  It's
>a weak player, but the graphics are great (understatement) and
>you can use it to play by modem or over appletalk.  It supports
>color monitors, the board and pieces are done in 3-D and move
>around on a life-like battlefield terain, the pieces are images of
>their real life counterparts, the river in the middle of the board
>flows and sometimes fish jump out, and there's online help.
>Considering that the author is about 17 years old, this is an
>incredible implementation of Chinese Chess.
>I have no interest in Holley Corp. or it's products.
 
Of course, you must have a Macintosh for this program. I don't know about
programs for other computers, but that is no problem for me, being a
Macintosh-addict.
 
      Pieter Stouten
      bitnet: stouten@embl