Awit-2009

[Christopher Conkie]

Unfortunately, I never could track down a copy of MacHack. I couldn't even find the author. (I am absolutely terrible at actually finding people. There were lots of authors I could never find. Or got hold of and then lost as their email address stopped working, such as with Larry Atkin, who I was trying to talk into releasing the source for his micro programs. And some of the authors I did find no longer had a copy. Been thrown away or lost or the tapes wore out, etc.)

Hi !

The authors of MacHack are:
Mr.Greenblatt, Richard D.;
Mr.Eastlake, Donald E., III;
Mr.Crocker, Stephen D.

For details take a look ( and download if interested) here:
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6176

A nice photo:
http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/fu ... 614f64ea3e


Regards,
SilvianR

I know who the authors are. I just can't find an email or postal address to get hold of them.

There are, of course, binary versions of MacHack that still exist and a few emulators have been set up where you can even play it. But no source code has been found.

I gave up on this a couple years ago when I started getting so depressed, so I don't know if anything has changed since then.

Never give up.

Well, depression runs in the family on my mother's side and nothing seems to help.

I don't really have any hobbies anymore. Just can't work up the interest. Don't care about programming anymore. Rarely visit the chess prog forums anymore.

I can't even work up the energy / urge to find a decent free web host and restore my antique chess program website. (It's javascript based on 'TiddlyWiki', so not every host can handle it.)

Winters are too depressing to do anything. Summers are too hot to do anything.

I can always come up with a reason not to get interested in something. (shrug)

You made a wonderful website. A website full (jam packed full) of information. It is to date the only website I have ever downloaded in entirety because of its content.

I was very impressed and had many fine hours with its content.

[fern]

this program I recall, had the particularity of using TWO modules, one tactical, the other positional. If he did not find a murderous coup -to defend of it or to perform it- in the sequence under examination, then he went to look for better positional moves....Or perhaps was the inverse, first the positional examination, then the tactical one just im case a strike was there. I wonder if such approach is or could be useful today...

Fern

[lkaufman]

Yes, I wrote the opening book for MacHack and was also the chief tester. I gave it queen odds with fairly even results. About 20 years ago I visited Richard Greenblatt, who at that time still had an office near M.I.T. I don't know his current status, but perhaps M.I.T. could help you find him.

[Sylwy]

Also take a quick search of this forum for MacHack, and you will find a nice surprise! Perhaps the only engine which used descriptive notation in its interface.

Ian

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ht=machack

SilvianR

[Alexander Schmidt]

PS: you can use it-under Winboard- in console mode.

Sorry-under Windows ! That's because Winboard is my obsession !

SilvianR

I created a WB_config for Awit that works as WB engine under Arena. I am not sure about other GUI's.

Just extract the package in the Awit folder an use AwitWB.exe as WB engine. You have to use two different configs for black and white. Just run one of the .bat files to create a AwitWB.ini. The script asks for the depth.

Be aware, if you use the wrong config it will work for some time, maybe a few games, but you will get illegal moves or blunders.

If you want to edit the .ini files you can also rename AwitWB_black / _white.ini and set the depth here, the 5 stands for it:

Code: Select all

[Client2Server] 
xboard := ?6\n0 5 0 0\nY\n 
new := ?6\n0 5 0 0\nY\n 

WB_config: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bqpayj33 ... g.zip/file

Win32 compile: https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/%7Etony/ ... uterChess/

Info: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Awit#Chess_Program

Seems like a very interesting engine, have fun

[Jim Ablett]

PS: you can use it-under Winboard- in console mode.

Sorry-under Windows ! That's because Winboard is my obsession !

SilvianR

I created a WB_config for Awit that works as WB engine under Arena. I am not sure about other GUI's.

Just extract the package in the Awit folder an use AwitWB.exe as WB engine. You have to use two different configs for black and white. Just run one of the .bat files to create a AwitWB.ini. The script asks for the depth.

Be aware, if you use the wrong config it will work for some time, maybe a few games, but you will get illegal moves or blunders.

If you want to edit the .ini files you can also rename AwitWB_black / _white.ini and set the depth here, the 5 stands for it:

Code: Select all

[Client2Server] 
xboard := ?6\n0 5 0 0\nY\n 
new := ?6\n0 5 0 0\nY\n 

WB_config: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bqpayj33 ... g.zip/file

Win32 compile: https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/%7Etony/ ... uterChess/

Info: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Awit#Chess_Program

Seems like a very interesting engine, have fun

My old Awit compile with winboard support, fantastic!

Cheers Alex.

Jim.

[Sylwy]

Thank you all !

[Alexander Schmidt]

WB_config: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bqpayj33 ... g.zip/file
Win32 compile: https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/%7Etony/ ... uterChess/
Info: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Awit#Chess_Program

I had to update the WB config because on some systems one of the inbetween commands didn't work as intented. Additionally you can now display a GUI message about the loaded configuration.

The depth setting is not working correctly. If someone knows how to use the commands to change the time or depth, let me know.

[Alexander Schmidt]

The depth setting is not working correctly. If someone knows how to use the commands to change the time or depth, let me know.

I uploaded a new version with the posibility to set the Level in Awit format.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bqpayj33 ... g.zip/file