From: Jeff Boscole <aesop <at> MILTON <dot> U <dot> WASHINGTON <dot> EDU>
Date: 22 may 1990
Subject: Chinese Chess, but not yet Shogi ?

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>From conn <at> crabcake <dot> cs <dot> jhu <dot> edu Tue May 22 07:46:19 1990
>From: conn <at> crabcake <dot> cs <dot> jhu <dot> edu (Harold E Conn <conn <at> crabcake <dot> cs <dot> jhu <dot> edu>)
Subject: shogi
 
Hi,
 
	I'm also interested in Shogi. If you get any info. on software
for Shogi, I'd like to hear about it.
 
	On a related note, there is some commercial software for
Chinese Chess that runs on the Commodore Amiga. I think it's from
Eagle Tree Software (it's at home - I can check this later if you
want.) One of their programs, called Distant Armies, plays 10
different chess variants, including Chinese Chess but not Shogi. It's
a nice program - very well done user interface, nice graphics, etc.
although I suspect the level of play is not so good. It's hard for me
to evaluate the level of play since the only variant I had played
before is Chinese Chess - I've played probably about 20-30 games against
human opponents. The same company later released a program that plays
only Chinese Chess and I think the level of play has been improved and
is quite good (at least for someone who is just learning.)
 
	Chinese Chess is a nice game, definitely worth learning,
although I don't like it as well as Shogi. Naturally, it has a
"flavor" all its own. The arrangement of pieces on the board is less
"dense" than in Shogi or chess, and thus rooks and cannons have
freedom of movement early in the game. The king is constrained to a
small subset of the board - that takes some getting used to.
 
	I highly recommend these two programs to anyone interested in
chess variants who has access to an Amiga. I have no connection to the
producers of the software.
 
 
 
	Harold Conn
	conn <at> crabcake <dot> cs <dot> jhu <dot> edu