CM5000 We welcome input!
Carlos Justiniano
If you have suggestions for new features or enhancements, I'd love to
hear them! You can email me directly at Mindscape via this address:
Carlos.J...@Mindscape.com
Regrettably, I'm unable to answer questions regarding CM3000 or CM4000.
If you have questions regarding CM3000 or CM4000 please contact Mindscape
technical support.
Carlos
Peter Suzman
: I'm the project manager and technical lead on the new Chessmaster 5000.
: hear them! You can email me directly at Mindscape via this address:
: Carlos.J...@Mindscape.com
I play against CM4000 a lot and it's a great program. (I even beat it once in
championship mode on a fast machine (486DX-100), so now I'm about 1-300
against it when I don't take moves back <G>).
I have a number of suggestions that would improve its use as an aid to
improving one's chess:
1. A "beep on blunder" setting, that would notify you, after your move, that
its evaluation of the move you actually made was significantly worse than
the move it had predicted you would make. You should be able to set the
threshhold - e.g. at 1.0 point if you only want to hear about blunders that
cost more than a pawn. This feature would provide a good compromise between
playing with the thinking lines shown vs. not shown. Currently, looking at
its evaluation of the position gives away much too much.
2. "Play a different move" command. Useful for practicing different
variations of an opening or for analyzing different possible lines from some
position. Currently you have to swap sides, play the different move oneself,
and then swap back again.
3. Ability to analyze some portion of moves from the middle of a game.
Currently, if you want it to analyze say moves 10-20 from a long game, you
have to wait for it to analyze all moves after 10. (Particularly bad as it
never seems to resign, no matter how hopeless the position, making games
drag on forever.)
4. Ability to set CM5000 to simulate a player with a specified rating. In
other words, let you set your opponent's rating at say 1500 or 2000. This
would require that the program take into account the platform on which it is
running.
Cosmetics:
5. Better selection of 2-d board and pieces sizes for those of us using svga
or 1020x768 resolution.
What NOT to work on:
Nobody I know uses the 3-d boards or weird pieces. Don't waste your time
making still more of them.
Longshot:
An interface for ICS?
- Peter.
--
suz...@netcom.com
William F. Hummel
WFH
OldGuard
(I think). Anyway, sorry about that, lets get it right this time....
Things we want:
Better Ascii import/Export
PGN read ability
PGN write, to include annotations.
Better Modem Connection (CM4000 is not strong in this area)
More stable Chess Engine. (CM4000 has too many load errors)
Options to load non-staunton graphics on install.
(graphics take up alot of disk space and most
chess players could care less about insect chess sets
that take 1mb of disk space)
J D Feinberg
[oh pleeeease]
--
j...@panix.com Jonathan "JD" Feinberg Sunny Brooklyn
"C'est rate, c'est rate. Quand on s'enerve on rate toujours."
-- Albert Marcoeur
dwe...@uoft02.utoledo.edu
>1. A "beep on blunder" setting, that would notify you, after your move, that
>its evaluation of the move you actually made was significantly worse than
>the move it had predicted you would make. You should be able to set the
>threshhold - e.g. at 1.0 point if you only want to hear about blunders that
>cost more than a pawn. This feature would provide a good compromise between
>playing with the thinking lines shown vs. not shown. Currently, looking at
>its evaluation of the position gives away much too much.
>
brilliant idea! i like this one too! (of course it's likely to cause
my speakers to wear out since i play so damn many bad moves!)
>2. "Play a different move" command. Useful for practicing different
>variations of an opening or for analyzing different possible lines from some
>position. Currently you have to swap sides, play the different move oneself,
>and then swap back again.
>
i agree with this one as well! how about even allowing me to force
the computer to make certain moves without having to switch colors
and make the move for the computer.
>
>What NOT to work on:
>Nobody I know uses the 3-d boards or weird pieces. Don't waste your time
>making still more of them.
>
i agree also....not one person i ever spoke to ever uses 3-d or the
weird pieces. the simple 2-d is all anybody ever uses.
don wedding
John Harbour
1. Use smaller pieces in the capture window, so that a smallish window
can show all captured pieces.
2. Align matched pieces to the left of the capture window, and unmatched
ones to the right. Example
------------------------
| QRBPPP RPP |
| qrbppp nb |
------------------------
3. Get rid of the emphasis on 24 bit colour. I have a colour Compaq Aero,
and CM's graphics on it are not as good as they could be.
4. Keep the 3D screens. I use the standard table top layout. But make
installation of the dinosaurs etc an option.
5. Get rid of the "Save settings before quitting?" question, or at least
make it optional.
6. Allow CM to be minimised whilst it is analysing (Mentor/Analyse move
list)
7. Have it resign, but with the option to play on if the human wants the
practice.
8. Have it offer draws, and be much more intelligent about accepting draw
offers. At the moment CM can be KvK+P *down* and still refuse a draw
offer.
9. Allow the maximum amount of memory it grabs to be specified. I
sometimes find myself having to quit CM on a 16Mb machine because it has
grabbed so much memory that I can't load another program.
10. When it cannot allocate enough memory whilst loading it should say so
and exit gracefully. The present version can completely hang the machine
in this situation.
11. When CM sees that an endgame position is a dead draw, it will often
play a move which gives its opponent an immediate easy draw rather than
making him (me) work for it. I like to practise endgames against CM, and
this behaviour is often frustrating. Here is an example, from Chess
Endings - Essential Knowledge by Averbach. I am playing white and trying
to catch the pawn to draw.
. . . N 1. Nf7 h3
. K . . 2. Ng5 h2
. . . . 3. Ne4+ Kd4
. . . . 4. Nf2 h1=Q
. . . p 5. Nxh1 draw
. k . . CM (impressively!) sees that the position is drawn
immediately
. . . . it starts thinking about move 1. It then plays any old
drawing
. . . . moves, rather than the moves which make it most difficult for
White.
12. On returning home after a chess match, I enter the moves into CM and
leave it analysing overnight at, say, 600 seconds a move. (It would be
nice to be able to tell it that it has until 7am, and have it work out
how long to spend on each move, but that's BTW. This is using
mentor/analyse move list - I can't stand the waffle mentor/auto-annotate
comes up with. In the morning I look through the analysis to see where I
missed tactical chances. This is all fine, but could be improved in a
number of ways:
o in balanced positions CM will often consider white to be 0.3 (say) of
a pawn up when it is white to move, and black to be .3 of a pawn up next
move.
o it would be interesting to see more than one line of analysis, eg.
Score: 0.32 O-O Qb6 exf6 Nxf6 Re1
0.44 Qd2 Ne7 O-O fxe5 Nxe5
0.45 exf6 ...
In particular it would be interesting to see where my own move ranked in
CM's opinion, and CM's evaluation of it.
o positions where CM's suggested move is much better than the move
played should be highlighted, so that it is easy to spot where
opportunities were missed. At present you have to remember CM's
evaluation of the previous move, and watch for large jumps in this.
13. I would like a mode where I could play through a game, entering the
moves for both sides, whilst at the same time having CM analyse the
current position in the Think Lines window.
14. I can see no use for the "Previous" and "Current" lines in the Think
Lines window. It would be much more interesting to see CM's second and
third choice moves, each with its own evaluation score.
That's all for the moment. Hope this is useful.
John Harbour
Carlos Justiniano
DR. ROY SCHMIDT
: Things we want:
: Better Ascii import/Export
: PGN read ability
: PGN write, to include annotations.
: Better Modem Connection (CM4000 is not strong in this area)
: More stable Chess Engine. (CM4000 has too many load errors)
: Options to load non-staunton graphics on install.
^not
: (graphics take up alot of disk space and most
: chess players could care less about insect chess sets
: that take 1mb of disk space)
Option to change the colors of the Staunton set (I don't like *red*
pieces!)
ICS mode in the human versus human setting. (that is, ability to play chess
with remote opponent through the ICS, with CM's thinking disabled)
TCP/IP support in addition to modem play.
Analysis mode, where one can make moves on both sides of the board *and*
have access to CM's thinking. (But not CM thinking in human vs. human, as
this could lead to the temptation to cheat in modem games).
--
Roy Schmidt sch...@uxmail.ust.hk
Information & Systems Management Dept, School of Business and Management
The University of Science and Technology
Clearwater Bay, Sai Kung, HONG KONG
Chris Schumacher
1) make it possible to work with Chess Assistant. Right now other
programs are supported and CM5000 should make it easy for CA to
interface to it. An easy way to do this would be to simulate the
command line output of a supported program.
2) There should be a straightforward 2D board with good, simple pieces
and colors.
3) Work with OS/2. Most all DOS programs do, just make sure yours
does too. Forget about Windoze crap -- I won't buy it. Much better
yet, consider a native OS/2 version. The 32 bit operating system adds
real performance and you won't have to do all the DOS extender junk.
Chris Schumacher \ Our "Founding Fathers" stole land from Native Americans
schu...@cs.utk.edu \ to work enslaved Africans, and only white male property
\ owners could vote. Welcome to democracy...
Harvey Reed
>1) make it possible to work with Chess Assistant. Right now other
>programs are supported and CM5000 should make it easy for CA to
>interface to it. An easy way to do this would be to simulate the
>command line output of a supported program.
And how about Chessbase for Windows? Is there a way to inteface
in the analysis part of CB?
--
++harvey
===========================================================================
internet: har...@marcam.com / h.r...@ieee.org
voice/fax: 617-965-0220 / 617-965-7599
Harvey Reed
>i agree also....not one person i ever spoke to ever uses 3-d or the
>weird pieces. the simple 2-d is all anybody ever uses.
Even the 2-D could be improved by making it simpler. The red and
beige look crappy on a monochrome laptop. How about an option
for grey scale figurine like Chessbase or Fritz?
Harvey Reed
>o it would be interesting to see more than one line of analysis, eg.
>Score: 0.32 O-O Qb6 exf6 Nxf6 Re1
> 0.44 Qd2 Ne7 O-O fxe5 Nxe5
> 0.45 exf6 ...
>In particular it would be interesting to see where my own move ranked in
>CM's opinion, and CM's evaluation of it.
In general, the analysis is one of the most useful features of the
program, because it can catch tactical goofs (which I make often!).
*Unfortunately* the analysis lacks features (as described by John
above) and is hard to use. To make matters worse, the documentation
is practically non-existent so you have to experiment a lot
to get your bearings.
Please concentrate on the analysis feature in your next release!
eq...@maple.circa.ufl.edu
Well, my suggestion would be to release a DOS version!! On certain machines
WinDoze is a bear and running a chess program thru it is laughable.
Other than that, I would agree with previous responses which requested more
attention be paid to the Analysis feature. I know thats the most common feature
I use, and wish it was easier to work with.
Ssteppe
2. Better modem dependability. (I can't get through a full game in CM4000
without losing the connection.)
3. Better "Chat" feature in modem mode. The current chat box covers up
part of my board.
Jolpat
Editor?? I can't believe there were no directions whatsoever for this
feature in the CM4000. It is impossible to understand what the codes mean
without some kind of reference. This would've been a great feature if we
could've used it.
Randell Jesup
>Carlos Justiniano (cj...@crl.com) wrote:
>: I'm the project manager and technical lead on the new Chessmaster 5000.
>: If you have suggestions for new features or enhancements, I'd love to
>: hear them! You can email me directly at Mindscape via this address:
>
>: Carlos.J...@Mindscape.com
>
>I play against CM4000 a lot and it's a great program. (I even beat it once in
>championship mode on a fast machine (486DX-100), so now I'm about 1-300
>against it when I don't take moves back <G>).
Ditto, I've beaten it once in championship mode (and I'm a 1500 or
so; as with most computers they're vulnerable to deep traps in gambits).
A good program that could be even better.
>2. "Play a different move" command. Useful for practicing different
>variations of an opening or for analyzing different possible lines from some
>position. Currently you have to swap sides, play the different move oneself,
>and then swap back again.
Yes!
>3. Ability to analyze some portion of moves from the middle of a game.
>Currently, if you want it to analyze say moves 10-20 from a long game, you
>have to wait for it to analyze all moves after 10. (Particularly bad as it
>never seems to resign, no matter how hopeless the position, making games
>drag on forever.)
You can do this by making a duplicate move at the end position (make
a new variation that ends there), then analyzing.
One thing I'd like is if the analysis would show on the screen as it's
done (leave the thinking window open & update the board).
It should NOT delete all the analysis done so far if you tell it to
stop!!! That's silly.
An option to evaluate all variations instead of just the current
one would be useful, though not required.
Please, please please fix the bug where in analysis mode it doesn't
print a '-' if the evaluation is between -0.01 and -.99.!!!!!!
The opening book editor sucks rocks (sorry). What is <LONG 1 0>?
(I can guess, but I can't see it.) The board is tiny, and I can't see the
black pieces on black squares. It would be nice if transpositions were shown
also. The Long comments should be readable (add a button) and editable
would be nice. Also the manual might want to at least mention what the
differences between the different books are.
If it's a CD-product (likely), or has a CD version (certain), you
might want to consider including MCO lines and comments, or an add-on MCO disk,
with the entire MCO (including commentary) in there. (Ok, a wild dream, but
it would be neat.) If you have a really good opening book with comments
in it, it would nice if the analysis included it, not just annotate (which I
ignore, like most real players). I'd think it'd all fit on a CDROM.
>Cosmetics:
>5. Better selection of 2-d board and pieces sizes for those of us using svga
>or 1020x768 resolution.
Yes.
>What NOT to work on:
>Nobody I know uses the 3-d boards or weird pieces. Don't waste your time
>making still more of them.
>
>Longshot:
>An interface for ICS?
Also PGN import/export!!!
--
Randell Jesup, Scala US R&D
Randel...@scala.com
Ex-Commodore-Amiga Engineer, class of '94
#include <std/disclaimer>
William Harris
: 3) Work with OS/2. Most all DOS programs do, just make sure yours
: does too. Forget about Windoze crap -- I won't buy it. Much better
: yet, consider a native OS/2 version. The 32 bit operating system adds
: real performance and you won't have to do all the DOS extender junk.
It shouldn't take much to "work with" OS/2. Use Win32s, if needed, try it
out on OS/2 computers, and fix any problems.
Another OS/2 game, Galactic Civilizations, has taken the lead on what
should be a very important topic to game designers, resolution scalability.
(I don't know if I'm using the right term.) That is, CM5000 should ship
with font/piece sets that work at almost any resolution. It gives me
heartburn to run Myst at 1024x768 - they didn't provide for a better
resolution than 640x480.
Ideally, CM5000 should work at -any- resolution; some sort of font install
program, maybe? Pessimistically, it should support at least 1024x768.
(I know, those of you with 3000x2000 displays aren't going to be happy.)
--
William Harris (Standard disclaimers)
w.ha...@genie.geis.com (wil...@carsinfo.com is work!)
will...@delphi.com
75176...@compuserve.com
EVAN1234
that?
How do I use it?
Also: make an option for DIGITAL clocks. It is so hard to read them that
I don't use that feature. I prefer analog for my real chess clock, but
for squinting at the computer I prefer to see digital.
Joshua Thaler
: Amen to the suggestion about the opening book editor! What the *&%$# is
And how about other clock settings and modes such as incraments,
countdown (x seconds per move), delayed (where it doesn't start for a
couple of seconds after your opponent has moved), hour glass, etc.
Joshua
Richard=Churchill%G...@bangate.compaq.com
p...@aber.ac.uk (Pedro Mendes) wrote:
>What about writting the program in such a way that it will run under Windows
>NT? This should be a priority if they want it to be Windows95 compatible
>anyway...
>
>It is so annoying to have bought CM4000 and then find out that it doesn't run
>under WinNT!
>
>Pedro Mendes
>work: p...@aber.ac.uk home:pe...@enzyme.demon.co.uk
I concurr whole-heartedly! I would dearly love to switch all the various systems
I use to NT, but the one item that precludes this is CM4K-T.
Additional alterations to CM4K I would like to seeare an effective, intuitive means
of editting the move list for the current game, and then to optionally print the full
game, with side-lines.
At present, using a pen-based system as my primary study tool, 'finger fehlen'
are common, and result in garbage in the move tree. This garbage cannot then
be removed.
As for printing, I find the current print format to be pretty much abominable, and
this extends beyond games printed directly, but also to games saved in ASCII
format for editting or inclusion in other documents. A default mode for both
printing and for saving in ASCII should not go beyond 80 characters, including
comments, and should intelligently handle column spacing. Some means for
specifying specific requirements (i.e. left--hand margin, no-wrap, no line-feeds
within comments, etc.) is also highly desireable.
Richard
Joe Stella
the CD in the drive. It is a nuisance to have to load the CD
if you are not going to use anything but what is already on the
hard drive.
dwy...@delphi.com
Annotations _and_ the numeric evaluation from the analysis
feature at the same time without having to run them separately?
Dylan Gross
wrote:
Absolutely! I have a notebook that I hook up to a CD ROM when at home but
when travelling (and bored in the middle o nowhere with a computer in a
hotel room) I would like to be able to play a little... Poor design
(cheap shot at copy-protection?)
Dylan Gross. | Toonces! The cat who could
<too...@primenet.com> | drive a car...
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nick davies
Belive me it can be run from the hard drive, I've done it myself! Handy for when
you want to listen to a audio cd at the same time. all you do is click on the
icon, then it moans at you...ignore this and click on the retry button then
another button apears I can't remember what it says but there is a number in
there somewhere, it's number 1. Just keep pressing the retry button and the next
button, you will find that this number increases each time you do this, when it
reaches number 5 press once more and the game WILL run ok. I am assuming you did
a full instillation at the beggining which takes about 15 megs of H/drive space.
Also you will get no spoken advice from the mentor function, but you can read
the advice from the window anyway. hope this helps!
--
In the end, winning is the only safety...
Ed Johnson
Joshua Thaler <jth...@mail2.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
What would make it most useful to me would be some of the opening database feature. I would like to
be able to set up a library of my games and know my win/loss record from a position and be able to
store a comment for that position. I would also like to be able to import libraries of games.
Ed Johnson