Games PC BATTLE CHESS 2-CHINESE CHESS User Manual

Battle Chess II:

Interplay Pro

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Loading Instructions

Movement

Loading
Instructions

For

IBM/Tandy

and 100% Compatibles

Battle Chess II requires at
least 640K to play. Before
you begin, make a backup

of your
Chess II disks.

(Refer to your
DOS User’s
Manual for

structions on
how to make
backups.)
MAKE SURE

YOU PLAY WITH YOUR
BACKUP DISKS ONLY

1. Boot your computer

with DOS. If you have a

mouse, make sure it is con-

nected and the driver in­stalled.

2. Insert your backup of

the BCII Startup disk The

first time you play

CHINESE CHESS you
must run the setup pro­gram. Type a:setup

center >.

Follow the instructions

on screen. The setup pro­gram will configure BCII to
your system (graphics,
sound boards, input
device). If you are not sure

what you have or are

having problems, con­figure your system to:

Battle

in-

Graphics
Board

Input device

When you are finished

with configurations make

sure you save them to disk

3. If you want to play

BCII from your hard disk,
create a subdirectory (we
suggest creating one called
CHESS2) and copy all files
from all disks into it. (Refer
to your DOS user’s manual
for instructions on how to
create directories and how

to copy files.)

4. To load BCII from here,
make sure you are in the
proper directory or at the

proper drive prompt, and
type CHESS2<enter>

-

CGA, Sound

-

Internal Speaker,

-

Keyboard.

Copy Protection

During the setup pro-

gram, you will be asked to
type in a move from one of
the fictional games in Ap­pendix A of this manual.
Type in the move it re­quests and type <enter>.
For example, if asked for
Blue’s third
#5,

Morphy vs. Ching

you would type K5Fl

center>. BCII will then be
configured specifically for

your system. If you change

system configurations, you

will need to run the setup

program again.

move in game

Ti,

Movement

NOTE: Mouse and

joystick operations

are the same.

Using Keyboard - To
move your chess pieces,
use the arrows to position
the flashing square under
the piece you want to
move, then press < enter >
to select it. Select the

desired destination point
by using the arrows and
press < enter > . (You will
notice that legal moves are

solid green squares and il­legal ones are solid red.)
You can also move the

flashing square by using al-

gebraic notation. For ex-

ample, to move the Knight
you would type

Bl

<enter>

C3 <enter>.

Using Mouse - To move
your chess pieces, use the
mouse to position the flash­ing square under the piece
you want to move, then
press the left button to
select it. Select the desired
destination point by using
the mouse, then press the
left button. (You will notice
that legal moves are solid
green squares and illegal
ones are solid red.)

Battle Chess II Menus

Battle Chess II Menus

Battle Chess II

Menus

Using Keyboard - Press

the

<F1>

key to bring up

the menus. Use the arrows
to switch between the
menus and highlight an op­tion. Press the <enter >
key to select it. Press the

<ESC> key to exit

without selecting any op-

tion.

Using Mouse - Press the

right mouse button to
bring up the menus. Keep
holding the right mouse
button down as you move
the pointer over menu tit­les and the appropriate op­tions will appear. Move the
pointer down to the option
you desire and when the
option highlights, release
your hold on the right
mouse button. The four
menus contain the follow­ing options:

DISK

Load Game, Save Game,
New Game, Set Up Board,
Quit

MOVE

Force Move,
Replay, Suggest Move,
Show Layout, Help Move

Take

Back,

SETTINGS

Sound On/Off, Music
On/Off, 3-D Board, 2-D
Board Roman, 2-D Board
Chinese, Human Plays
Blue, IBM Plays Blue,
Modem Plays Blue, Human
Plays Red, IBM Plays Red,
Modem Plays Red

LEVEL

Novice, Level 1-8, Set

Time

Menu options that have a

" +”

beside them are cur­rently selected. Note that
the Boards you can change
to will show up in the Set-
tings menu, while the one
you are on does not.

Menu Options
Explained

Load Game

If you’ve saved a game

before, this option recalls

the game and picks up

where you left off. After
selecting Load Game, the
Load window will then ap­pear displaying a list of
your saved games. Select
the game you wish to load
by double-clicking with
the mouse or using the
arrow keys and pressing
the center > key if you

don’t have a mouse. The
game will be loaded with
its saved settings.

Save Game

Pick this option if you

want to save a game to

disk while the game is in

progress. After Battle

Chess II asks you to insert
your save disk, the Save
window will appear.
Choose a slot with the
mouse or arrow keys, type

a name for the game you
wish to save, and then

press the <enter> key.

New Game

This option lets you start

a new game at any time.

Set Up Board

This option lets you set
up games for testing
strategies. Set Up is per­formed on a 2-dimensional
chess board with the addi­tional chess pieces ar­ranged vertically on each
side of the board. Any of
the pieces can be selected
and moved into any posi­tion by clicking on them

with the mouse.

Keyboard users: To select
a piece on the side of the
chess board, press the

F3 > key, then using the

<

arrows choose a specific

piece, and press the

<enter > key. This will

return your chosen piece

to the chess board.

From Set Up, you have
four additional menu op­tions:

Clear Board: Removes all

pieces from the board.

Restore Board: While
remaining in Set Up, this
aborts any changes you’ve

made.

Next Move Blue, Next
Move Red: This deter-

mines who moves next.

Done: Returns you to
normal playing mode so
you can play the game
you’ve set up.

Note that once you’ve
entered Set Up Board, all
moves stored from your
current game are lost.

Quit

You’ve had enough. Exit
to the operating system.

Force Move

If you get impatient while

waiting

to make its move, you can
force it to move with this
option. This interrupts the
computer’s thinking
process and makes it take
the best move that it has
thought of so far (this com­mand is not instantaneous).

for Battle Chess II

Battle Chess II Menus

Battle Chess II Menus

Take Back

This option will take back
the last move made by
either side. You can take
back as many moves as you
want, back to the first
move you made.

Replay

Let’s say you’ve just
taken back a move, then
decided it wasn’t such a
bad move after all. Just
select Replay to put the
piece back where it was.

Suggest Move

Want a hint for your next
possible move? The

gest Move option will give
you that hint. Flashing
highlights will appear on a
point occupied by one of
your pieces and the

gested destination point

(this command is not

stantaneous).

sug-

sug-

in-

Show Layout

If this is selected, a
dow will appear showing
the 2D board and pieces.
This is advantageous when
you want to see the board
layout without pieces in
the way.

win-

Help Move

If selected, legal moves
will be solid green squares

while illegal ones are solid
red. This defaults to on.

Sound On/Off

Toggles the combat and
animation sounds on and
off.

Music On/Off

Toggles the individual

music scores for each piece

on and off.

3D Board

Shows the board in its
splendid
view with all pieces
ing.

three-dimensional

animat-

2D Roman

Shows the
sional board with Roman
lettering carved into the
pieces.

Two-dimen-

2D Chinese

Shows the two-dimen-

sional board with Chinese

lettering beautifully

engraved into each piece.

Human/IBM/
Modem Plays
Red/Blue

Use these six settings to

determine who plays
which side. For example, if
you wanted to play against
another person, set Human

Plays Blue and Human
Plays Red. If you wanted

the computer to play
against itself, set IBM Plays

Blue, IBM Plays Red. Any

combination of these is al­lowed (Exception: Modem
Plays Red, Modem Plays
Blue) as long as one side
plays Red and the other
plays Blue.

Levels

Levels Novice through 8
are available. Novice is the
easiest, and 8 is the hardest.

The longer Battle Chess II
thinks, the more carefully
planned its moves will be,
and the better game it will
play. Under the Novice
level, Battle Chess II only
does one simplistic board
evaluation. Remember, if

taking too long, you

it’s
can always override the
thinking time by using the
Force Move option.

Set Time

This lets you change Bat-

tle Chess II’s average think­ing time to any amount
you want, from 1 minute to

10,000 minutes. A window
will appear after you pick

this option. Type a number

measured in minutes and

press the <enter> key, and

Battle Chess II will take

ap-

proximately that long to
think per move.

Shortcut Keys

If vou don’t want to use
the’mouse to
select the
menus, certain

shortcut keys
are available in
combination

with the ALT

key See the box
below for the
keys.

Check

When your

King is in

icon. It will chan

the normal
the

Ring

es-

capes check

I

Playing By Modem

Playing

By Modem

Playing Battle
Chess II by Modem

You can play Battle Chess
II against a distant op­ponent if each of you has a
Hayes-compatible modem
hooked up to your IBM. If

you have only one corn
port, you cannot have a
mouse driver installed. If
your modem is properly
connected, as shown in
your modem manual, there
are 3 steps to start playing
over the modem with Bat­tle Chess II.

1. Arrange with your op­ponent who will play Red
and who will play Blue.

After you’ve agreed, both

of you should load Battle
Chess II and set your
opponent’s color with the
“Modem Plays Blue” or
“Modem Plays Red” menu

option. Hang up the phone
on both ends before con-

tinuing.

2. One player must set his
modem to auto-answer
mode. You can do this by

<F2>

pressing the
then typing ATS0=l and
pressing the <enter
(That’s a zero, not the let-

“O”.)

ter

3. The other player must

call the player whose

modem is set to auto-

key

>

key.

answer. To dial a number,

<F2>

press the
type ATD 555-1212, sub-

stituting the correct phone

number, and press the

>

center
any phone number with
the ATD command, includ­ing area codes.

the phone and dial the
number, and if all goes
well, it’ll then connect
with the modem on the

receiving end. If you get

this far, you’re set; you can

start your chess game.

When you move a piece,

that move will happen on

your opponent’s end as

well as yours. Note that

after the two players are

connected, the menu op-

tions New Game, Set Up

Game, and Load Game will
send an entire new chess

board to both sides, dis-

carding the current game.

to Modem you can send
text to your modem or op­ponent by pressing the

<F2>
up a dialogue box in which
you can enter a line of text.

The window will disap­pear when you press

center> and the line of
text will be sent. This is the
way you control your
modem in Battle Chess II,

key You can use

Your modem will pick up

When you set one player

key. This will bring

key then

using the modem’s AT com­mands, and it is also the
way you send messages to
your opponent once you
are connected. Press the

<F2>

key then type one

<

enter

line and press the
key. A window will pop up

on your opponent’s screen
with your message. After
he or she dismisses the
window, the game can con­tinue. You can receive
these messages at any time
except when a window is
open on your screen. If
you type modem com­mands in this way, the
modems will act on them.

See your modem manual

for details on AT com­mands.

There are two steps to

break the connection and
hang up the phone. First,

<F2>

press the
type + + + (three plus

signs), press center>, and
wait a moment. This will

get your modem’s atten­tion. Then press the
key and type ATH to tell
your modem to hang up.

This will close the connec-

tion between the two
players.

Battle Chess II communi-

cates at 300 baud with 8
bits and no parity.

key, then

>

<F2>

Playing Battle
Chess II With

Serial Cables

If you and an opponent
have two IBM computers,
you may play with one per-

son at each IBM. Hook up
a null modem cable be­tween the IBMs’ serial
ports. Then one person
should pick Modem Plays
Red and the other, Modem
Plays Blue. You can
proceed to play as if you

were connected by modem.

The only difference is that
you never need to type
any dialing commands.