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Watching Aquarius Play Chess


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Funny story: when I was testing the SuperCart cartridge board used in the Aquaricart, I wanted to put it through a long "burn-in test", and one of the things I did was to boot up Aquarius Chess on an intermediate level (I don't remember which one) and leave it to play itself.  I think it ran for about three days before the game ended in a draw.

 

Yes, you can turn off the TV without affecting the computer.  The program will continue to run.

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9 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said:

Oh wow. Someone described that to me recently as only being 1-channel.

 

But I'm hearing chords at minimum

Yes, the Aquarius has one built-in sound channel, and the PSG chip in the Mini Expander adds three more.  (Yes, the Mini Expander box says two, but it's actually three.)  When you hear chords, that's the PSG.  If you remember the IBM PC and compatibles before the availability of sound cards, and the primitive speaker beeps and sound effects that were heard so often in very old DOS games, that's comparable to the Aquarius's sound capabilities without the Mini Expander.  Unfortunately, Chess doesn't make use of the Mini Expander at all, either for sound or for hand controller input.

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(And yes, it is very startling to hear Chess suddenly beep to indicate a move after minutes—or hours!—of absolute silence.  At least they were kind enough to add the blinking "THINKING" indicator to let you know that the computer is actually doing something!)

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Huh. I'll have to listen again. This is fascinating. 

 

My first video game experiences were on the MS DOS os. On an IBM compatible .286

 

But I could have sworn what I'm hearing in Chess when someone captures a piece is polyphonic.

 

EDIT: and later XTREE Gold

 

EDIT 2: Or maybe I just like the sound of that chip.

Edited by Intelligentleman
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55 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said:

Huh. I'll have to listen again. This is fascinating.

But I could have sworn what I'm hearing in Chess when someone captures a piece is polyphonic.

I believe that sound effect is just a tone with the pitch rapidly falling from high to low, creating a "zapping" sound as the piece is captured.  When a game ends with a checkmate, you'll hear what the Chess instruction manual calls a "much more impressive" sound effect: a simple "hooting" and "whistling" sound, approximating the "crowd noises" that Mattel often used in their Intellivision sports games.  Still just one voice!  It actually is possible to make some pretty impressive sounds even with the built-in sound channel, provided you can modulate it fast enough.

 

Quote

My first video game experiences were on the MS DOS os. On an IBM compatible .286

EDIT: and later XTREE Gold

The very first PC that I built with my own money was a 286 also.  I bought the parts for it in the same secondhand computer store where I encountered the Aquarius for the first time, around 1989 or 1990.

 

I remember XTree Gold very well.  This is a slight aside, but years after it was discontinued, a previous employer of mine was still using it for remote technical support.  This was in the dial-up days, when they were still using pcAnywhere to remotely control on-site servers through analog modems.  It was such a slow connection that GUI-based file managers were too cumbersome to use, so they wanted a character-based, keyboard-driven file manager for uploading and installing patches and fixes.  They'd been using XTree Gold for this purpose since the DOS days, and they kept it around well after Windows 2000 had been released.

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8 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

I believe that sound effect is just a tone with the pitch rapidly falling from high to low, creating a "zapping" sound as the piece is captured.  When a game ends with a checkmate, you'll hear what the Chess instruction manual calls a "much more impressive" sound effect: a simple "hooting" and "whistling" sound, approximating the "crowd noises" that Mattel often used in their Intellivision sports games.  Still just one voice!  It actually is possible to make some pretty impressive sounds even with the built-in sound channel, provided you can modulate it fast enough.

 

The very first PC that I built with my own money was a 286 also.  I bought the parts for it in the same secondhand computer store where I encountered the Aquarius for the first time, around 1989 or 1990.

 

I remember XTree Gold very well.  This is a slight aside, but years after it was discontinued, a previous employer of mine was still using it for remote technical support.  This was in the dial-up days, when they were still using pcAnywhere to remotely control on-site servers through analog modems.  It was such a slow connection that GUI-based file managers were too cumbersome to use, so they wanted a character-based, keyboard-driven file manager for uploading and installing patches and fixes.  They'd been using XTree Gold for this purpose since the DOS days, and they kept it around well after Windows 2000 had been released.

That is just incredible! 

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25 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said:

We have a draw!

... after only one night, too!  I must have picked a higher level for my burn-in test.

 

A detail that I had forgotten, from the instruction manual:

 

"If you have chosen a high skill level, this 'thinking' may go on for some time (several hours at level 8!).  To force the computer to make an early move, press any key while the word THINKING is flashing.  This will make the computer take the best move it has found so far."

 

(For anyone who is into chess, it's worth it to look over the Aquarius Chess manual.  The game has a respectable number of features and niceties, and from my limited experience, it seems to play a decent game of chess.  It's a pity that original copies of the game are nearly impossible to come by.)

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21 hours ago, Intelligentleman said:

Was the Aquarius version of Chess based on the intellivision game?

The chess engines used in both games were licensed from the same developers; Mattel didn't have the expertise in-house to implement a chess game entirely from scratch.  Here is a snippet from the Aquarius Chess trivia file in the Aquaricart:

 

"Like the Intellivision's USCF Chess, Aquarius Chess features a computer opponent which was not programmed at Mattel, but was implemented using a chess engine licensed from an outside company.

 

Heuristic Software Corporation was founded by chess player Julio Kaplan, International Master and winner of the 1967 World Junior Chess Championship.  At his previous company, Teletape Productions, Kaplan recruited programmer (and fellow chess expert) Craig Barnes in 1980, and together they developed the chess engines which were used in Mattel's Computer Chess handheld and in USCF Chess for the Intellivision.  After completing these projects for Mattel, Kaplan left Teletape Productions to start Heuristic Software in 1982, and Barnes joined him as Senior Programmer.

 

Heuristic Software developed the chess engine for Aquarius Chess, along with many other intelligent strategy games and other consumer products (checkers, chess, bridge, calculators, combination games, etc.), before closing its doors in 1995."

 

(The user interface for both games was designed and programmed at Mattel, on the Intellivision by Russ Ludwick and on the Aquarius by Stan Summay.)

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13 hours ago, Intelligentleman said:

Hey, I should check out the trivia installed on my Aquaricart!

Certainly!  Just about every title in the collection has some sort of trivia; just highlight the title in the menu, and then press "3" on the keyboard or hand controller to view the trivia file.

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