CarAlarms.com 404D User Manual

Deluxe Talking

Touch Chess

Operating Manual

Model 404D

Congratulations on your purchase of
Excalibur Electronics’ Deluxe Talking
Touch Chess! You’ve purchased both
your own personal chess trainer and a
partner who’s always ready for a game—
and who can improve as you do! Talking
and audio sounds add another dimension
to your Touch Chess computer for
increased enjoyment and play value.

Install the Batteries

With Touch Chess facedown, find the
battery door. Open it and insert two (2)
fresh, alkaline AAA batteries in the bat­tery holder. Note the arrangement of the
batteries called for by the diagram in the
holder. Make sure that the positive tip of
each battery matches up with the + sign
in the battery compartment so that polar­ity will be correct. When the batteries are
properly installed, Touch Chess automat­ically turns on and starts talking letting
you know she's ready for action. If Touch
Chess does not start talking, use a thin
pointed object and press the RESET but­ton. Replace the battery compartment
panel and remove the stylus resting in its
holder on the back of the unit. Now turn
Touch Chess over.

Play a Game Right Away

After you have installed the batteries, the
display will show ENGLISH? asking you

if you would like her to speak Engish. If
you do, press the YES key. If you want
her to speak French or German, press the
NO key until your desired language is
shown and then press the YES key. The
dot-matrix display will show

0011

CHESS

. This indicates you are at the
first move of the game and ready to play
chess. It will also show

+0.0

which is

the score and

00:00

which is the time.

The white box on the screen means it is
white to play. Unless you instruct her oth­erwise, Touch Chess gives you the White
pieces—the ones at the bottom of the
board. White always moves first. You’re
ready to play!

Making your move

Besides deciding on a good move, you
have to move the piece in a way that

2

Touch Chess will recognize what's been
played. Think of communicating your
move as a two-step process--registering
the FROM square and then registering the
TO square.

Press the stylus down gently on the cen­ter of its FROM square. Touch Chess will
say and display the coordinates of the
FROM square-for example "E2." Then
press the stylus down gently on the
square you want to move it to - for exam­ple, "E4." Touch Chess will say the TO
square, confirming that she has registered
your move.

You'll notice that Touch Chess almost
immediately displays her response to
your move. Touch Chess decides on her
own move, of course, and lets you know
what it is on the display. For example, if
you play 1. E2-E4, she may respond E7­E5. You're already playing a game! Enjoy
the contest.

Putting a game “on hold”

Any time it's your move and you wish to
stop playing for a while, just press the
ON/OFF key. Touch Chess will switch
off and go into a sleep mode. She will
remember the last position, including the
elapsed time, as long as you do not inter­rupt the power supply-for example, by
removing the batteries. To resume play,
just press the ON/OFF key.
NOTE: If she is not "thinking," Touch
Chess will automatically turn off after a
period of time, saving your game posi­tion. Use the ON/OFF key to resume the
game.

Function Keys

and Special Features

NEW GAME KEY
Use this key to start a new game.

CLEAR KEY
Use this key to exit any of the special
modes like OPTION, SETUP, and
LEVEL. This key may be used during
move entry to clear your FROM square.

YES KEY
Use this key to increase a setting or to
answer a question like “Are you SURE?”.

NO KEY
Use this key to decrease a setting or to
answer a question like “Are you SURE?”.

HINT KEY
Press this key if you want to get hints
from Touch Chess. It displays

HinT

and flashes a recommended move on the
screen.
If the hint is a book move or a replay
move,

OPEN

or

RPLAY

will be shown

instead of

HINT

.

UNDO KEY
This key lets you take back a move or
moves you’ve decided against. Press this
key repeatedly to continue taking back
moves. After you take back a move, you
can use the MOVE key to replay the
undone move or moves.

MOVE KEY
When it is your move, press this key to
switch sides (colors) with Touch Chess.
While Touch Chess is thinking, press the

After pressing a FROM square,

press the FROM square again to

select a different FROM square.

3

MOVE key to force Touch Chess to stop
thinking. Also use MOVE to replay
moves in the takeback move mode (see
"UNDO,” left).

SETUP KEY
Press this key to set up special positions
(see page 8.) You can also use this key to
promote a pawn that reaches your oppo­nent’s back rank to a piece other than a
queen. (The promotion to a queen is the
most common, so it is automatic.)

LEVEL KEY
Press this key to check the level of play .
Use the YES or the NO key to change the
level. Repeatedly press the LEVEL key
to change the level type (for more infor­mation, see “Levels of Play,” page 5).

PLAYER KEY
Press this key to switch between

2PLAYR,1PLAYR,or0PLAYR

.
While in 2 player mode the symbol “=”
will be displayed. Use 2 player mode to
play another person, or to enter a favorite
opening (see page 7). Use 0 player mode
to have Touch Chess automatically play a
game, or finish one you have started.

REPEAT KEY
If you forgot where Touch Chess moved,
use this key (before any other) to hear the
move announcement. Also this key usu­ally repeats the last phrase said.

SOUND KEY
Use this key to turn the sound off or on.
Some warning messages will however
still be heard.

HELP KEY
Use this key to turn on or off, the dis­playing of all legal moves for the chosen
FROM square piece.

OPTION KEY
Pressing the OPTION key displays the
last changed option. To select or change
an option, use the YES or the NO key. To
view a different option, repeatedly press
the OPTION or the UNDO key.

Options Befor

e the Game Starts

OPEN

: Select one of 32 book opening

lines of play (See page 6.)

TRAIN

: Select one of five training posi-

tions. (see page 7.)

Options Befor

e and During the Game

SCORE

: If you want to see the piece­score of your current position, turn this
option on. The scoring totals the follow­ing values: Pawns—1, Knights—3,
Bishops—3, Rooks—5, and Queen—9.

FLiP

: Use this option to turn the chess

board around.

INFO

: When turned on, this option will
display the score, depth of search (num­ber of moves Touch Chess is "thinking
ahead"), and best move it is considering
playing. These will be displayed while
the computer is thinking at its higher lev­els.

RATE

: View your current rating.
Turning this option on will enable your
rating to be updated if you select a tour­nament or a sudden death type level to
play against. Turn this option off, when
you want to practice on those levels.
During a rated game the ‘O’ symbol will
appear as a reminder. When the ‘O’ sym­bol is on, you will hear an “ARE YOU
SURE” warning if you try to UNDO
mistakes, add pieces in SETUP mode, ask
for a HINT, or try to start a NEW GAME

4

before the game is completed. If the score
is greater than 9.0, you can claim a victo­ry with the NEW GAME key.

CLRBR

: Use this option to clear the
chess board for easier problem setup.
Pressing the SETUP key now, will enter
setup mode with the chess board cleared
of all pieces. You must place a White king
and a Black king on the board to exit
setup mode.

VOICE

: Use this option to change the
language Touch Chess speaks. Also use it
to turn most of the speech off. Some
warnings such as Check and Are You
Sure, will still be heard however. 1 ­English, 2 - French, 3 - German, and 4 ­none.

SNDEF

: Use this option to turn the
sound effects off.

ANNC

: Use this option to turn the move

announcements off.

COACH

: Turn this option on to hear a
warning message if one of your pieces is
under attack. The threat warning ‘!’ will
be enabled when COACH option is on.

SOUND

: Use this option to turn the
sound on or off.

SLEEP

: Adjust the automatic shut off
time with this option. Setting it to ‘0’ will
disable auto shut-off altogether.

SPEED

: Adjust the dot-matrix scroll
speed with this option. Setting it to ‘0’
will disable scrolling altogether.

Special Displays

Draw Messages

During the game, Touch Chess will dis­play the word

DRAW

if a three-time rep-

etition of position occurs, or if there has

been no pawn moved and no exchanges
for 50 moves. When either of these situa­tion takes place, the rules of chess state
that a player can claim a draw. If you
wish, you can ignore the message

and

continue the game. When a stalemate

is

reached, the display will read

SSTTAALLEE

.

Game-ending Messages

Touch chess will announce mate in two
(

MATE2

) and mate in three (

MATE3

).

It will also display

+MATE

when exe­cuting a checkmate or when you check­mate Touch Chess. When you want to
claim a win, draw, or want to resign—
press the NEW GAME key.

Screen Symbols

When a ‘+’ appears on the screen, it is a
reminder that you are in check. When an
‘O’ appears on the screen, the game you
are playing can be rated. When an ‘=’
appears, it indicates you are in two
human player mode. And lastly when an
‘!’ appears on the screen, you are being
warned that one of your pieces is threat­ened with capture. (This is similar to the
friendly "en garde" warning sometimes
used by human players when they are
attacking an opponent’s queen.)

WHY ! Display

When this display is shown you are being
warned that one of your pieces is threat­ened with capture. Use the stylus to press
on the word WHY and Touch Chess will
explain why she is warning you. Touch
Chess will then show the word WHERE.