From: michael facer <michaelf <at> LAVA <dot> NET>
Date: 3 apr 1996
Subject: Shogi Variants

Hi,   I found an interesting program on the internet-- its a program for
playing Shogi between two people. Or you can play any of 9 Shogi variants
such as Tori Shogi or Tai Shogi. The help files contain all the rules for
each game, diagrams showing how the pieces move etc. You choose which game
you want to play  and you get a nice graphical board--pieces with Japanese
characters. To move you drag and drop. If you click on any piece, all of its
possible moves are highlighted and you can then move it or select another
piece. You can turn the highlighting feature off if you prefer but it seems
like it'd be invaluable in learning these games. For now you need a human
opponent, but apparently playing against the computer is in the planning
stages. Even if you're not interested in the Shogi variants, you might find
this a useful program. I intend to use it to save all my e-mail games--so I
don't have to reset up a board each time I receive a move.  You can also use
it to play out game scores such as those recently posted. It's a PC Windows
program. The program is called  Shogivar .  I found it at
http://www.gamesdomain.com/   from there enter Shogivar in the search box
and it'll lead to a choice of locations from which you can download the file.
  Mike