Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!cmcl2!yale!husc6!necntc!ci-dandelion!ulowell!DAN09697
From: DAN09697@NUACC.BITNET (Daniel G. Rabe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: ChessMaster 2000
Message-ID: <821@ulowell.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Dec-86 11:45:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ulowell.821
Posted: Fri Dec  5 11:45:29 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Dec-86 21:23:49 EST
Sender: page@ulowell.UUCP
Lines: 29

I've been greatly impressed with ChessMaster 2000's chess-playing ability.
I have been terribly disappointed with its tendency to crash, and with what
I feel is an inferior user interface.

I don't have any specifics on the crashes; sometimes it's a Guru, sometimes
the machine just freezes.

My gripes on the user interface:
 -- When analyzing a game (letting CM2000 play back all the moves), there
    is no pause mechanism.  Thus, the game is played back so fast that it
    is impossible to follow what's going on.
 -- If you hit the mouse button when it's not your turn to move, CM2000
    puts up a big window saying "It's not your turn".  This window does
    not go away until CM2000 moves, obstructing your view of part of the
    board.
 -- Menus are poorly designed.  If you're moving the mouse down a menu,
    chances are you'll evoke a sub-menu; if you keep moving the mouse down,
    you'll traverse the sub-menu options, but entirely skip over a couple
    of primary menu choices.  Aligning the left boundaries of the sub-
    menus would fix this.  (I haven't programmed my Amiga very much, so
    I don't know how difficult this would be).

In summary, the only reason ChessMaster 2000 can be on the market is the
fact that it plays good chess -- and this is presumably the primary
criterion for purchasing a chess game.  (In other words, it plays good
chess, but you've got to put up with a few hassles along the way).

Daniel Rabe
BITNET: DAN09697@NUACC