Virtual Chess 64
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| Virtual Chess 64 | |
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| Developer(s) | Titus Software |
| Publisher(s) | Titus Software |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release date |  Cancelled June 10, 1998 June 10, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Strategy Board |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) |
| Media | 32.0MBit Cartridge |
| Input methods | Game controller |
Virtual Chess 64 was first released in 1997. It was one of the least successful N64 video games[citation needed]. The game was actually very difficult. There was no actual completion to the game so you could play an endless number of games.
[edit] Features
The game came with a basic text and visual tutorial written for beginners and novices about how to play chess. In the third section the tutorial continues explaining how to play using simple chess positions in which you learn from by finding the best move each time. The short fourth section is analysis of two badly played well-known games titled "Fool's Mate" and "Scholar's Checkmate". In the fifth and sixth sections these chess problems become increasingly complicated, and you are expected to by some means find the solution and understand it. The seventh section is about basic endgame checkmating approaches and patterns and just one basic endgame concept for beginners: the square of the promoting pawn. The last three sections focus on improving opening, middlegame, and endgame chess play by using example games for analysis.
This tutorial does not extend enough to teach many how to win a game against the chess-playing engine featured in this game but enough to inspire some to learn more through other sources. The only spoken part of the tutorial are the comments on the chosen correct moves listed below in order of first-to-last spoken as you answer tutorial challenges. (In few cases the comment is randomly chosen, so the order is approximate.)
"Well Done!" "Great!" "Brilliant!" "Wonderful!" "Fantastic!"
In disregard to the unrecorded completion of the tutorial you could play a full game yourself using either a 2D or 3D board. There was a "Rotate Board" option for the 2D and 3D boards, although the C-left and C-right buttons could be used to rotate the 3D board by a greater variety of angle measures. On the 3D board every time a piece was captured you would have a short cut scene depicting the capture of said piece unless this is disabled or only limited to one-time only scene play per piece capture combination via configuration. The idea was to amuse the player. There were no cut scenes on the 2D board for captures, but you could change the design of the pieces and board by pressing the C-left or C-right button and use the "flash think" and last move square lights. There were four 2D chess sets to select from: standard white and black icons, arctic and jungle animals, silver and gold pieces, and heroic and demonic characters. You could also play as either white or black pieces and you could even make situations of your own by adding or removing pieces from the board and placing them in different positions, but there is a bug removing the option to castle in games starting from positions customized through this feature. Like most board games, you had the option of 2 human players instead of 1 but also the option of seeing the chess engine play itself.
The game also had a "Level" option in which you could set the time taken for the chess engine to respond based on the complexity of the position. "Beginner #1" is the top and default setting of the list, and "Level 12" is the bottom setting. Time is the only real factor behind the quality of the engine's moves, and while the default difficulty level setting resulted in analyzation in a matter of few seconds (seldom more than 10), the "Level 12" setting resulted in waiting times greatly variant based on the position. (The longest time might be no more than 30 minutes in any reachable chess position, most such instances subject to see in replay of certain correspondence chess games.) There is a "Meditation" setting by which, if enabled, the chess engine will think on your time except usually during the opening phase of the game in which predefined moves are played. Again based on the complexity of the position, analyzation will continue for a matter of hours or days until either a forced checkmate is found or you make your move.
[edit] Criticisms
Unfortunately, this game did not sell very well. While it was quite original in terms of animations there had already been predecessors to this game, the most well known being Chessmaster for the PC. While Virtual Chess 64 provided a challenge to experienced chess players, it was simply too difficult for beginners and casual players whatever the difficulty settings. It is a relatively slow chess engine with a large book of advantageous patterns and an initially "pessimistic" judgment. Even on the lower difficulties the Al had many tricks up its sleeve to make up for mistakes difficult for many beginners to exploit. Playing only with an understanding of the knowledge covered in the tutorials was not enough to win in many games played by the engine. On the lower difficulties the Al tended to start off badly but gradually built an offensive that eventually lead to a surprise counter-attack that forced you to stop your offensive. All difficulty levels were fast at detecting checkmate patterns, but while the fastest algorithm was not always found on the "Beginner #1" setting, it was very easy for one to find that one's self in an unseen checkmate. On the lower levels the "recommended move" for many positions calculated by the engine you play on the press of a button were not for defensive human use, leading to the computer winning the game by a massive margin. The engine was also very easy to beat because sometimes a very obvious mate is presumed a forced checkmate, causing a halt in analyzation and an instant rash move giving you the game. At times the strength of play was too mechanical and a disappointment for at least moderate players. A minor amusement in the game was to play 4 player chess, which each player versing the computer on a separate board. However the sheer strength of Virtual Chess 64 nearly always had all four players losing in minutes.
[edit] Trivia
There are also winning scenes for both colors when one checkmates the other, but it does not show if the side that won was a human player. It is also possible that a winning scene can only be seen for one side or the other if both sides playing against each other are computer players.
