For fans of old chess computers

[mbabigian]

On EAG when I try to activate E1 option to display depth and score, it appears to go nuts. Is this feature not working or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks again,
Mike

[F.Huber]

On EAG when I try to activate E1 option to display depth and score, it appears to go nuts. Is this feature not working or am I doing something wrong?

OPTION E1 activates the AutoPlay mode, not the display of depth and score.
I guess you're confusing the EAG with any other Fidelity device (maybe Elite A/S), I'd suggest to download the correct manual for the EAG.

Franz

[mbabigian]

See http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/docs/Fid ... 6081US.pdf page 26. Pressing the LV key while the computer is thinking also didn't work.

The reason I am particularly interested in this ROM is that I owned an EAG until it died years ago. However it had a 65c02 processor and was officially rated 2100 USCF. (must have been a very early model).

Mike

[F.Huber]

See http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/docs/Fid ... 6081US.pdf page 26. Pressing the LV key while the computer is thinking also didn't work.

The reason I am particularly interested in this ROM is that I owned an EAG until it died years ago. However it had a 65c02 processor and was officially rated 2100 USCF. (must have been a very early model).

This model (6081) is an older version with a 6502-CPU, the modules in CB-Emu are 6117 (or 6114 for V2), have a 680x0-CPU and also the levels and options are quite different to the 6502-version.
So you should look for the correct manual for these machines.

Franz

[mbabigian]

Where would these manuals be located? I see no such thing on Alain Zanchetta's site.

Mike

[F.Huber]

Where would these manuals be located? I see no such thing on Alain Zanchetta's site.

Yes, on Alain's website only the German manual 'Elite AvantGarde (Custom)' is the correct version for these newer EAGs.
I guess you would rather like an English manual, so here's a link for the English version:
http://www100.zippyshare.com/v/izE3Q7me/file.html

Franz

[Jeroen]

Great stuff Franz, thanks a lot!

Sometimes I experience the same problem as Fernando, so let me give you an example:

Suppose black plays h7-h6 at some moment, you push the h7 square and then the h6 square, after waiting for some time. Now it happens that the pawn on h7 will not move to h6 and stays at h7. Nevertheless, repeating the process doesn't work, as now the pawn disappears. If you now execute a move for white, let's say Qd1-e2, the Q on d1 is replaced by a black pawn.

Hope this helps to reproduce and solve the problem.

[F.Huber]

Hi Jeroen!

Sometimes I experience the same problem as Fernando, so let me give you an example:

Suppose black plays h7-h6 at some moment, you push the h7 square and then the h6 square, after waiting for some time. Now it happens that the pawn on h7 will not move to h6 and stays at h7. Nevertheless, repeating the process doesn't work, as now the pawn disappears. If you now execute a move for white, let's say Qd1-e2, the Q on d1 is replaced by a black pawn.

Hope this helps to reproduce and solve the problem.

Well, I know this problem, which is in fact a timing problem for some quite slow modules, so I can't do anthing in the driver to solve it.

But there's a method to avoid these problems, let me explain it for your example above:
If black wants to play h7-h6, then the LED on h7 is ON (for some machines also the LED on h6). When you click on h7, the piece on h7 must get activated (i.e. greyed out) AND the LED on h7 must go OFF - only then your click was recognized correctly. If one of these 2 conditions don't happen (i.e. piece not marked or LED is still ON), then you can fix this situation by clicking on h7 again and/or clicking on CL /CLEAR, depending on which condition is not ok:
a) if the piece is marked but the LED is still ON, the click on CL/CLEAR and then on the piece at h7 again.
b) if it's the other way (LED OFF but piece not marked), then just click at the piece again (if now the LED goes ON again, then click once more on CL/CLEAR and you can repeat your move).

As I said, it's a hardware timing problem which usually only happens for the slower machines (mostly SC9 or the 'talking' machines), and only sometimes if you are clicking too fast or too short on a piece or square. Unfortunately I've no idea how I could fix this in the driver, but with the mentioned combination of CL/CLEAR and repeating the click on the piece you can always solve this problem.

Regards,
Franz

[Jeroen]

Hi Franz,

Thanks a lot for this solution, which indeed seems to do the trick!

Are there more oldies intended for your emulator, i.e. Novag, Saitek?

Regards, Jeroen

[F.Huber]

Thanks a lot for this solution, which indeed seems to do the trick!

Yes, but the better solution is definitely to follow my advice "Don't make too fast or too short mouse clicks!",
then such problems will not happen at all (or at least VERY seldom) - IOW, just use the program as if it would be the 'real' chess computer.

Are there more oldies intended for your emulator, i.e. Novag, Saitek?

Still more? Are 84 modules not enough?

Well, maybe there will come some new versions in the future, but this would require that someone (from the MESS developers) creates at least the basic driver for a completely new device.

I can add support for the chess board and pieces (as for these new Fidelity modules), sometimes I can even fix non-working drivers (as I did with many old Mephisto modules) or create a driver for new device which is similar to an already existing one, but I can't create a completely new driver from the scratch - I just don't have enough hardware knowledge for this.

Regards,
Franz