From: David J Bush <twixt <at> CSTONE <dot> NET>
Date: 12 jan 2003
Subject: Zillions Shogi

 "Zillions of Games" is software that plays a wide variety of games,
especially chess variants. They have a website at
http://www.zillionsofgames.com/

Zillions has a generic game engine and its own scripting language,
so users can define almost any abstract game, and play against the
computer. Net play is also possible between two users who have it.
A "flip board" feature is available, so both players on the net
can play a game and each see their pieces starting from the bottom
of the board. Shogi is included with the Zillions package, but due
to the directional nature of the pieces, the "flip board" feature
has been disabled for that game. That makes Net play awkward, since
the White player must play from the top.

I have written a modified version of the Shogi package, which
fixes this problem. I also included some handicaps (Bishop, Rook,
2-piece, 4-piece, 6-piece) and also left in 5x5 "Mini-Shogi,"
which was part of the original package. The standard directional
pieces are still used.

My Shogi package is free for download on the above website, as
are hundreds of other games, but the Zillions software is NOT
free, and you need it to use any of those packages. If you
already have Zillions, you might like to download "Shogi-Flippable"
which is listed on the main page under recent additions.

I set SPEAR against Zillions Shogi, and SPEAR won easily. I'm
not completely certain if SPEAR was running on its opponent's
time or not, but it is apparent that SPEAR is much stronger all
the same. Zillions probably wouldn't even be much of a challenge
to a 5 kyu or better player, if it were to receive six pieces.
It plays Mini Shogi fairly well, though. I may use the SPEAR board
edit feature to give Zillions a handicap, next time.

If you happen to like lots of abstract games, Zillions might be
of interest to you. It plays chess and other games rather well,
actually; but Shogi's dense move tree is a bit too much for it
to handle. Here are SOME games it plays: Chinese Chess, Korean
Chess, Hasami Shogi, Ultima, Thai chess, Burmese chess, Jungle,
Go, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and for free download: Bughouse,
Hexagonal chess, 3-D chess, Klin Zha (Klingon chess), Octi, etc.

Sorry for the detour; we now return you to your scheduled
programming.

David