From: Tie Zeng <zeng <at> APPLE <dot> COM>
Date: 23 sep 1993
Subject: About mac shogi program

Hi,

Here is a brief description of my Mac Shogi program.

It requires System 7 to run. And it fits Mac Classic's screen.

I have no idea what strength the program will have. As Hitoshi-san
pointed out in his technical paper, it is a lot more difficult to
program Shogi than Chess. The first release will probably
pretty weak. Hopefully it will get much stronger by next year.

I have not been able to find any computer shogi papers in english.
I haven't read
"Computer Gamesmanship: Elements of Intelligent Game Design", by David Levy
yet. But I don't believe it is of much help to Shogi program.
If someone on this list has written papers, articles on this topic,
please let me know. I would like to get a copy.

You can let the program play both sides, or play against people,
or let people play both sides.
You can play the game over AppleTalk network with someone else.
(You can use a cable to connect two Mac, it is an AppleTalk network).
You can also play over a phone line if you are running AppleTalk Remote
Access.

You can chat with your opponent when you play over the network.
You can even send your voice over if your Mac support Mic input
(most Mac after Classic do).

You can retract the game to any move while playing.

You can save the game and play it back later.

You can also save the game into your openbook.

You can print the board and move list. And you can save the board image
to a PICT file.

The following features will probably be included also:
Save the move list to a text file.
Have serveral options of board patterns.
Pronounce the move if Speech manager is installed.

Voice command support will definitely not be in the first release.

I would like to hear what features you would like to see in the program.
But it is probably better to wait a couple of weeks. After you see the program,
you can have a much better idea and I would like to get the feedback at
that time.


Tie Zeng
AppleSoft