Conference hydra::amiga_v1

	Another vote for Battle Chess.  I picked it up this weekend
	at a local software store (along with WB 1.3).  What a great
	toy !  I spent most of Sunay morning just letting it play by
	itself so I could watch the pieces beat on each other.  Adds
	a whole new dimension to the game.

	It comes with a PROGRAM (not a command proc) that will install
	Battle Chess on a hard disk, but it will only put it in the
	root directory of DH0 -- nowhere else.  I installed it there
	and then moved it by hand to another partition, however, and
	nothing bad happened.  (They have to use a special program to
	move the files off the floppy because they're storing all the
	graphics in a non-DOS/non-file format on the floppy; the program
	converts it into standard file format on the hard disk. INFO's
	done on the floppy show that it is apparently empty, even tho
	there's about 800k of graphics out there...)

	Battle Chess IS copy-protected; there are a bunch of chess
	games listed in the back of the user's manual, and when the
	program is first fired up, it asks you to enter a specific
	move from a specic game -- a variation on the "look up a
	word in the manual" trick.  Could be worse.

	On a scale of 1 to 10, this probably about a 9.

	-Art

<   If that wasn't enough, when you attact an opponents piece, the two actually
<   battle it out in a clashing of swords, magic and pure brute strength! What
<   a RIOT!  

Question is, when they battle it out, who wins? I would hope it's allways the 
attacker. ;^)

Dave

Move mine to another partition also - no ill effects. I didn't notice
the different file format...

> Question is, when they battle it out, who wins? I would hope it's allways the 
> attacker. ;^)

Funny, that was my first question! It's the attacker, although the opponent
puts up a an honerable battle...

    re: .3
    
    so close... why couldn't they add a joystick option to let you fight
    the battle?  Sort of like a 3D Archon.  Hmmm.... This just has the
    traditional chess characters, right?  No banshees, earth elementals,
    etc.  I wonder if Electronic Arts would be interested in updating
    Archon....
    
    -dave

The queen does turn into some kind of winged creature upon her
demise, and some can use magic...

Joystick would be NEAT!

John

    I spotted this one in the latest INFO and thought that this might be first
    Amiga program to purchase after 5 months or so of living off the
    public domain.  A couple of questions, although:
    
    Can the program be backed-up on a floppy(?)... or does the Amiga
    Backup command fail to copy the format... I realize that one level of copy 
    protection exists in the 'read line xxxx out of the manual and type 
    this in' scheme.  I would be kind of nice to be able to back it
    up.
     
    Also what is the minumum memory required (1 meg??)?
                                    

	You CAN do a DISKCOPY with no problems, because it's duplicates the
	the source track-by-track.  You CANNOT do a COPY DF0: TO DF1: ALL
	because the copy command is file-oriented.  I also suspect that the
	unpacked files will be too big to  put back onto a floppy ('cause of
	file-system overhead).  So, yeah, you can make backups of the disk.

	They claim on the package that 512k is enough to run the
	beast.

	-Art

Yup, they recommend using a backup and NOT the original.

512K works fine - if you unplug your second floppy.

John

    
    I tried this at the Bit Bucket in Sudbury, MA a few days ago, and
    loved it !!  EXCEPT, I hate to wait for the program to load the
    animations.  Is there anyway to copy the animation data to RAM:??
    I heard that if you use the "install to harddisk" program, that
    the animation files are in DOS format.  Is there anyway to fool
    the system in to use RAM:/VD0:/RAD: as the location for the animation
    files??  I like the game but it just take too long to load the
    animation from floppy.
    
    _Mike
    

>    the animation files are in DOS format.  Is there anyway to fool
>    the system in to use RAM:/VD0:/RAD: as the location for the animation
>    files??  I like the game but it just take too long to load the
>    animation from floppy.
    

	Sure, just copy BattleChess and ChessStuff (sp?) from the
	hard disk to a RAM directory; when you start the game from
	WorkBench, it assumes that the dir where BattleChess lives
	is also the one where ChessStuff (the animation data) lives.

	It may also be possible to set up a 'logical' pointing
	BattleChess: to RAM:, and only move the graphics file, but
	I haven't tried it.

	-Art

    
    RE: .10
    
    	Yes, but I don't have a hard disk (DH0).  Where do I go from
    here??  I have an Amiga 500 - 1 meg / 2 floppies.
    
    _mike
    

    You might try assigning DH0: to RAM: and then running your hard
    disk install program.
    
    Disclaimer:                                         
    	This is just a guess.
    	I don't have this game, I haven't even seen it. 
                             
    Chris

    What makes this game so fun if the attacker always win?
    
                                   Matt
    

    I have an Amiga 1200 bd modem.  I can't seem to get the program
    to dial my modem.  I've tried typing the ATDT command several different
    ways but nothing happens.  Is there a trick to it???
    
    -Todd