Playing Chess on MacIntosh Emulators

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spacious_mind
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Playing Chess on MacIntosh Emulators

Post by spacious_mind »

It took me a while but I managed to get Basilisk II MAC Emulator running and overall I think it was worth the effort. Some programs are still a bit buggy and some won't work but I did get a few working.

Anyway here is the pic:

Basilisk II Mac Emulator for Windows:

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Running MAC O/S 8.1 and Processor 68040. Overall emulator speed is unknown. Basilisk II is an emulator that emulates Classic MAC computers. Classing Mac computers are the ones that were created to run on Motorola 68,000 - 68,040 processors. I am emulating with Motorola 68,040 speed.

And here are some chess programs:


Grandmaster Chess

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Written by Mark Leffler in 1994

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Pity, this one is a bit buggy as it freezes on me when I start playing, but graphically and menus etc are all very nice as you would expect from Grandmaster Chess.

If I remember the DOS version is written by John Stanbach so the Mac version is likely to play differently to the DOS version.

So anyway will have to fiddle around some more as I would love to see it working properly.


Hiarcs Chess Version 1.0

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Well we know it is Mark Uniacke who wrote the chess program. It is Hiarcs version 4 program. Assisting were David Hatchett who designed and developed the original Hiarcs User Interface which has the foundation for the Macintosh UI. Also Cive Thompson who was a co-founding member with Mark Uniacke at Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. Clive did the original PC port of the Hiarcs engine and was responsible for the Macintosh port.

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Graphically also beautiful on the Mac. But unfortunately I only have the demo version so Hiarcs only plays 2 ply deep. Which of course limits its strength. Well, I will have to look and see if I can find a full version someday.


Mac Gnu Chess

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Mac Gnu Chess is based on PC Gnu Chess version 4.0 ported by Dan Oettling with apparently extensive modifications according to the Mac Author.


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It plays smoothly so its response is fast so I do expect it to be competitive in my tournaments.


Mac R.D. Chess Version 2.2.2

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Looks like this is a program written by someone in New Zealand called R. D. Purves. The guy seems to have a bit of sense of humor.

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Don't now how good the chess is, but it seems to be very responsive so will give it a go.


Mac Sargon V

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Surprisingly I got Dan & Kathe Spracklen's Sargon V working on the Macintosh emulator. The main person who created the interface is someone named John Ardussi.

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Graphically it is nice and judging by its slight sluggishness it probably plays at around the same speed as a 486-66 DOS PC. Reaches a search depth of 7 ply at 30 seconds average per move level.


Mac - Mac Chess version 2.5

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Written by another Dutchman W. R. van Beusekom in 1995.

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This one plays smoothly playing around 96,000 nodes per second. My gut feeling is that this one is pretty strong and will for sure provide some competition when I include it in Division 2 of my Swiss Tournament. It searches about 9 deep in 30 seconds per move.

The interface, graphics and options are nice. I was pleasantly surprised playing it. The Dutch seem to have knack and passion for chess programming. Must be all that rain they get, keeps them at home! :)


Mac - Sigma Chess version 4.02

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Now this one is another pleasant surprise a program written by Kaare Danielsen and Ole Kjer Christiansen. Two Danes. It is nice to be able to play another Kaare Danielsen chess program!

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On the emulator it searches about 70,000 nodes per second. It play beautifully and I expect it to be quite strong. So it too will play for sure in my Swiss tournament.

It has loads and loads of options and graphically just looks great as you can see from the pic. Although it is supposed to be a light version, the program itself is full strength. There a just a few of the many other options not related to the chess program itself that are switched off.

Anyway that is all for now. I have also tried to get Chessmaster 2100, 3000 and 4000 working on MAC emulators but without success so far :)

But I think that the above that did get working have made the effort very worthwhile so far !!

Best regards
Nick
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BenRedic
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Re: Playing Chess on MacIntosh Emulators

Post by BenRedic »

spacious_mind wrote:It took me a while but I managed to get Basilisk II MAC Emulator running and overall I think it was worth the effort. Some programs are still a bit buggy and some won't work but I did get a few working.
Nice job! I have looked a bit at Mac emulation myself, though not with that much luck. I have Mini vMAC working, which runs some older stuff off floppy images. Mainly Psion, Sargon III, Chessmaster 2000. I have also tried to set up Basilisk with System 7.5, but apart from the stuff I already have going on Mini V-MAC I have not had much luck with it.

Ah well, most of those programs are already available on other systems anyway, and I never used Macs back in the day. It would have been interesting to play with the Kaare Danielsen program, though. I used to have a CXG Super Enterprise when I was a kid, so it would be like playing with an old friend. But there's alway TurboChess :-)
Thank you for an interesting game.
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spacious_mind
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Re: Playing Chess on MacIntosh Emulators

Post by spacious_mind »

BenRedic wrote:
spacious_mind wrote:It took me a while but I managed to get Basilisk II MAC Emulator running and overall I think it was worth the effort. Some programs are still a bit buggy and some won't work but I did get a few working.
Nice job! I have looked a bit at Mac emulation myself, though not with that much luck. I have Mini vMAC working, which runs some older stuff off floppy images. Mainly Psion, Sargon III, Chessmaster 2000. I have also tried to set up Basilisk with System 7.5, but apart from the stuff I already have going on Mini V-MAC I have not had much luck with it.

Ah well, most of those programs are already available on other systems anyway, and I never used Macs back in the day. It would have been interesting to play with the Kaare Danielsen program, though. I used to have a CXG Super Enterprise when I was a kid, so it would be like playing with an old friend. But there's alway TurboChess :-)
For VMac try to load the Classic Mac configuration. I find even though it has this tiny demo nag floating across the screen, that it searches quite a bit faster than the vmac that you download straight from the site. Functionaity wise the little demo nag does nothing other than maybe irritate you as all the functions remain the same.

Regards
Nick
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mclane
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Post by mclane »

I do let my dos programs on on my android devices via magic dos box.

Works marvelous.
What seems like a fairy tale today may be reality tomorrow.
Here we have a fairy tale of the day after tomorrow....
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

mclane wrote:I do let my dos programs on on my android devices via magic dos box.

Works marvelous.
That sounds interesting.
Nick
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

What a very strange variety of graphical Knights!!
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Post by spacious_mind »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:What a very strange variety of graphical Knights!!
Yep the Macchess figures keep reminding me of Genius.
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spacious_mind
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Re: Playing Chess on MacIntosh Emulators

Post by spacious_mind »

BenRedic wrote:
Nice job! I have looked a bit at Mac emulation myself, though not with that much luck. I have Mini vMAC working, which runs some older stuff off floppy images. Mainly Psion, Sargon III, Chessmaster 2000. I have also tried to set up Basilisk with System 7.5, but apart from the stuff I already have going on Mini V-MAC I have not had much luck with it.

Ah well, most of those programs are already available on other systems anyway, and I never used Macs back in the day. It would have been interesting to play with the Kaare Danielsen program, though. I used to have a CXG Super Enterprise when I was a kid, so it would be like playing with an old friend. But there's alway TurboChess :-)
You might want to see if you can get SheepShaver working of MAC. Kaare Danielsen's program works on it as well. Below you can see I set up SheepShaver to work with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. On my I7 i can open both at the same time and play one computer without any loss of speed.

Below is a picture of Macchess playing simultaneously on my I7 with same speed. Speed remains the same even if I have the program open once.

Sheepshaver once configured properly behaves smoother than Basilisk II.

SheepShaver playing MacChess on Mac OS 8 and 9

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Left is OS 9 and Right is OS 9.

Ok so now I have 3 Mac emulators working!

Regards
Nick
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Post by spacious_mind »

Sorry typo.

Right is OS 8.
Nick
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