Tempest Chess

Tempest Chess is an implementation of the game of Chess for FirstClass. It consists of resources that, when added to a FirstClass settings file, let users play Chess while online on a FirstClass BBS.

What you need:

Installing Tempest Chess

If you are online log off and quit from FirstClass, then run one of the installers to add the necessary resources to the settings file(s) for the BBS(es) you will play Chess on. The installers are based on Pete Johnson's application 'Update', and, from his readme:
"Update is an application which makes it easy to install the latest icon and other resources into the FirstClass BBS application and its settings files. Update contains the latest set of resources for the BBS. To install them, just open Update and use its standard file dialog to select the FirstClass application or a settings file. That's all! When Update has finished installing resources, it will show you another standard file dialog so you can install resources in more files if you wish. When you're finished, click the Quit button."
Why are there so many installers ? First there are three different board sizes. The smallest fits on to any Mac screen, but it is the least attractive of the three Chess boards. The middle sized board doesn't quite fit onto, but is usable on, a 640 x 480 (Mac 13/14") screen, and fits comfortably onto any larger screen or a portrait screen. The largest board barely fits on to a 800 x 600 (SVGA) screen, but works fine on a larger monitor, and is the best of the three. You do not have to use the same size board as your opponent in a game.

There are two versions at each size, pi and mu. Each one contains forms for playing white or black, but the IDs of the forms are reversed in the two versions, so the white forms in one version are linked to the black forms in the other. This means a game can be played with each player seeing the board the right way up, as if the players were sitting facing each other across the board - as long as one player is using a pi version and the other is using a mu version.

If you want to change the version or size you are using you can install any version or size over any other version or size. This makes it easy to try different sizes to see which works best on your monitor(s), or change versions to play against an opponent using the same version as you. There is nothing to stop both players using the same version, but in such a game both players will see the board the same way up, i.e. one will be playing from the top of the board. You can change board size or version during a game.

Playing Chess

First decide which player will use the white pieces. This player starts the game by choosing 'Play White' from the 'New Form' sub-menu of the 'Message' menu. They then make their move on the Chess board on the form, fill in the 'To:' field with the name of their opponent, and choose 'Send' to send their move to their opponent's mailbox.

As soon as a player receives a move in their mailbox, they should use Forward to create an exact copy of the incoming message. They then make their move on this form, fill in the 'To:' field and send off the form with their move. Play continues in this manner, with moves being forwarded back and forth until one player wins or the players agree on a draw or to stop.

The Chess board is an 8 by 8 grid of pop-up menus - to place a piece on the board you select the desired piece from the pop-up menu. Because of the way these work, as you select a chess piece from the menu you see letters rather than pieces. The letters are, in the order they appear in the menu: 

  l : black king
  w : black queen
  t : black rook
  n : black bishop
  j : black knight
  o : black pawn
  +/- : no piece
  p : white pawn
  h : white knight
  b : white bishop
  r : white rook
  q : white queen
  k : white king
They appear in the above order in the menu, with lowercase letters for pieces on white squares, and uppercase letters for pieces on black squares. The letters for the black pieces place them adjacent to the white pieces on a qwerty keyboard.

The use of pop up menus makes moving a piece a two stage process: first remove the piece from it's square, by selecting + or - from the pop-up menu of that square, then replace it on it's destination square by selecting the appropriate letter from the destination square's pop-up menu. This sounds like a lot of work, but once you have got used to it you will probably find moving takes no more time than in other computer Chess implementations.

There are two obvious ways to play Chess with Tempest Chess: 'live' and 'by mail', i.e. with and without both players online at once. Playing 'live' players can keep a chat window open while playing, though the game will run perfectly well without this - in particular the 'ping' of new mail arriving in their mailbox will alert players that it is their move.

If played 'by mail' it works much like chess by postal mail, but with each player making a move when he or she is online. Players can communicate off the board using the body of the message as it is forwarded between them. Such games can take place between players on the same BBS, or different BBSes over FirstClass - FirstClass gateways, as long as both players are using Tempest Chess.

Misc Notes

This has not been extensively tested under all conditions on all Macs. In theory it should run on any Mac that runs FirstClass - it does not need colour and has a version for even the smallest Mac screen, but it's 64 pop up menus may take too long to draw on older Macs. You may also want to increase the memory requirements for FirstClass, especially if the settings file you normally use is already fairly big (i.e. contains a lot of custom resources).

Each installer installs five things into a settings files - two FirstClass forms, a colour icon, a 'sicn' that overrides the triangle normally appearing in a pop up menu in FirstClass, and the appropriately sized bitmap of a font, ChessPiece. The triangle 'sicn' is used in other pop-up menus in FirstClass, e.g. on the BBS settings form, so these will look slightly different with Tempest Chess installed. ChessPiece is a public domain font which I found on BBS in a Box. With it installed in a settings file you also can use it while logged on like any other font installed in your System, e.g. in the body of any FirstClass message.

Although they look complex the Chess boards do not take up much space on the BBS, as the resources to display the boards are stored on your HD in the settings file(s). But if you play three games in an evening the 100 or more boards you generate can take up a few hundred kilobytes on the BBS. Whether playing live or by e-mail you should dispose of unwanted boards as you play or before you log off, perhaps keeping one or two boards to can check moves that have just been made.

There are two obvious ways to save a game for posterity. Either take a screenshot of the board position - this will be a lot quicker on colour Macs if you first switch the Mac to black & white in the Monitors control panel. Or record the moves in the body of the form or a chat window as you play, then save the form/chat as a text file when you are finished. FirstClass's 'Save' function also saves the board, but it in a format that requires some work before you can view it as a Chess board.

The 'Subject:' field of the message can contain any text you want. One use for this during a game is to record each move as it is made in the subject field of the form. This makes it easier for your opponent to see what move has been made without having to refer back to their last move, and makes your mailbox a listing of moves to date, or a record of the entire game once it is finished - you can then use 'Save as...' from your mailbox as another way to archive a game.

You can post messages to conferences on Tempest Chess forms, including to gatewayed conferences as the forms will travel between FC BBSes over gateways. But remember a form posted to a public conference can only be viewed by BBSers with the same form in their settings form. Anyone else viewing the form will see only the body of the message and a warning that a special form is required: if this is a problem you can put a note in the body letting prospective readers know where thay can get the form from.

The forms are also suitable for other recreations based on a chess board, such as Chess puzzles, discussing games, Draughts and other games and puzzles that use a chess board. To facilitate some of these you can create a 'template' message for future use. E.g. you can create a message set up as at the start of a Draughts game, using pawns for the Draught pieces, then just 'forward' this message whenever you want to start a new game of Draughts.

There is no easy way to accurately time a game. There is nothing built in to the forms to check the validity of a move, or even the number of pieces on a board from move to move, and it is up to the players to keep track of these during a game.

Admins: there is no need to modify the server for users to use Tempest Chess, but you might want to create a 'Chess' conference (if one does not already exist) which will give players a place to post forms and set up games, as well as (of course) make Tempest Chess available on line. Because of the variety installation options I would not recommend admins install Tempest Chess in their standard BBS settings.

Legal Stuff & Credits

Tempest Chess is free, can be freely distributed and freely uploaded to any online service, including commercial online services, as long as there is no charge made for it or associated with downloading it over and above normal connect time charges. You can also include it onto shareware/freeware collection CDs, as long as long as I get a free copy of the finished product. If your interest in distributing it is not covered by the above please e-mail me and I'm sure we can work something out.

In any case Tempest Chess may only be distributed as a whole and unmodified, i.e. all six installers with this documentation. You can also distribute settings which have Tempest Chess installed, but this is not recommended as Tempest Chess works best if users choose the intallation that best suits their needs.

Future possible enhancements:

Thanks to:

© John Blackburne, johnb@hk.super.net, 17th March 1996

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