ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF CCHESS.ZIP (OR CHICHESS.SDN) BY ROLEIGH MARTIN CIS 71510,1042 5511 Malibu Drive Edina MN 55436 1-18-94 I am the packager of this ZIP file, CCHESS.ZIP (OR CHICHESS.SDN), and am also known on the thousands of Fidonet BBSs that carry SDN files as the editor of ShareDebate International (more about that in the separate file, ABOUT_SI.TXT). I put this package together to introduce others to the incredible fun of Chinese Chess which is my favorite game. My wife of 17 years is Chinese and I spend about a month a year in Hong Kong where I picked up the game. There are two public domain/freeware versions of Chinese Chess included in this file, CCHESS and XQ. CCHESS works fine for PC's and the HP 100 (a palmtop MS DOS MCGA computer) but if you can spend $39 (not to me but to the author of the game), the Xian for DOS game is far superior. XQ works fine on a color PC (as does CCHESS) but XQ doesn't look good at all on the HP100 -- no matter what screen shading/inversions I did. This ZIP file can introduce you to the game but if you begin to like it, I super recommend you getting Xian for DOS for your HP100 and it works great on your desktop too (it detects MCGA, CGA, EGA, VGA and acts accordingly). If you like Windows-games, there is a Xian for MS Windows too. Xian for DOS costs $39 and is available from Leong Jacobs Inc. (see next paragraph for address -- no phone orders.) Xian for Windows can be ordered by phone and it is $39.95 from Mr. Sega at Tsoft, #9 Brittany Ln., Odessa TX 79761, ph: 915-366- 2168. I think Tsoft accepts credit card orders -- but they do not sell Xian for DOS. The same programmer did both programs but exclusively assigned selling rights of his window's based program to Tsoft. FILES INCLUDED The two BMP files are captured screen images of the game pieces from Xian for MS Windows, software (not the game pieces which are in the public domain) copyrighted by Leong Jacobs Inc., 2729 Lury Lane Annapolis, MD 21401. Use the free MS Windows program, Paint Brush (see the Accessories window for the icon) to open these BMP files. There are two text files explaining the rules of Chinese Chess found on Compuserve, one of which accompanies the XQ and another one which is a stand- alone text file by Kevin Wang [73047,1651] originally named XIANQI.TXT (from the CHESSFORUM on Compuserve), but I renamed it CCHESS.RUL in this ZIP file. The XQ files (XQ.RUL documentation and XQ.EXE freeware game) is by Peter Donnelly. You can use these two ".RUL" files to learn the rules of Chinese Chess. There are two ".SRC" files for additional resources on Chinese Chess and its nearly identical game, Korean Chess (same board/pieces -- different rules). In this latest packaging of CCHESS.ZIP, I've added two other files: HALFBDCC.TXT which provides the rules on using a Chinese Chess set to play a simpler game which the writer calls "Half Board Chinese Chess" and another file, CHICHESS.HLP which reproduces relevant question and answer message threads that have been posted about the original CCHESS.ZIP upload on Compuserve. ABOUT THE REAL CHINESE CHESS SET PIECES This file documents the actual Chinese pieces, as they really look in person -- see the file WXIAN_T.BMP ("_T" for traditional), along with the way these pieces look in the Americanized version of Xian for Windows by Leong Jacobs Inc. (see the file WXIAN_A.BMP -- "_A" for Americanized). Chinese Chess is said in Chinese (using English spelling) as Xiangqi, pronounced Shiang-Chi with a longer name emphasizing the word "Chinese" with the pronunciation Chunguo Shiang-Chi. I'll detail the names of the pieces below in both Mandarin (official Chinese of Red China and Taiwan) and Cantonese (as in Hong Kong). The Cantonese is from a Hong Kong book, "Let's Play Chinese Chess" by B. Constantino, pub. by Book Marketing Ltd., HK, 1988. The Pinyin is how you would write Mandarin in English. The Cantonese is shown in the typical English spelling of the Cantonese word. The English name is from the convention adopted by the International Chinese Chess Association as documented in Sloan's Chinese Chess for Beginners book. (See CHICHESS.SRC for ordering information.) Note: the translation of the word "Xiang" is Elephant -- hence the showing of a elephant for the bishop piece. Also, on real Chinese Chess boards, the colors are red and black -- not red and blue (as in the BMP file). COORDINATES COLOR ENGLISH PINYIN CANTONESE A0,I0,A9,I9 both Rook Ju Kui B0,H0,B9,H9 both Knight Ma Ma C0,G0 Red Bishop Xiang Sheung C9,G9 Blue Bishop Xiang Cheung D0,F0,D9,F9 both Guard Shi See E0 Red King Jiang Sui E9 Blue King Shuai Cheung B2,H2,B7,H7 both Cannon Pao Pow A3,C3,E3,G3,I3 Red Pawn Zu Ping A6,C6,E6,G6,I6 Blue Pawn Bing Tsut Sometimes you'll hear Chinese Chess players translate the chess pieces to different English names -- the ones above are the "official" English names -- the ones below are others you might hear and they are presented here for you to maintain understanding in real life play: OFFICIAL ENGLISH ALTERNATE ENGLISH NAMES GIVEN THESE PIECES Rook Car Chariot Tank Knight Horse Bishop Prime Minister Elephant Guard Counsellor Advisor King General Emperor Cannon Catapult Pawn Soldier Foot Soldier TRANSLATION TIDBITS The Arabic name for "Chariot" is pronounced "Rook." The Chinese symbol for Chariot is now used for the symbol for a car. In the traditional Chinese Character for the Knight, the "Ma" -- which means "horse, you'll note the four depicted legs in the character -- these are the horse's legs. The historical reason the pieces are depicted differently for both sides (although modern sets use the same depiction for the Rook, Knight and sometimes the Cannon), is that players could tell whose piece was whose even if the colors wore out. For instance, Red has as it's bishop the Chinese Character for Prime Minister, while Green (or Black) has as it's bishop the Chinese Character for Elephant. They both have identical powers however. HP 100 SETUP The only files needed on the HP 100, from this ZIP file, are the files: CCBLUE.DTA, CCHAR.MAP, CCHGC.CHN, CCIBM.CHN, CCRED.DTA, CCHESS.EXE. They only take up 77 KB disk space and only requires 128kb RAM at run time to execute. In the "More Applications" program, add a new record with these settings -- we'll assume you install these files in C:\GAMES (a new directory you can make by typing MD \GAMES): Name: Chinese Chess Path: c:\games\cchess.exe|128 Comments: 128kb ram needed Icon: C:>_ I also adjusted the screen contrast by entering the HP 100 program, setup, choosing "options" menu, then "system" submenu, then adjusting the Contrast setting until I could see the pieces optimally -- it will take adjustments to suit your tastes. On your PC, you can run both the game, CCHESS or the game XQ. Just unzip all these files in one directory, such as \CCHESS, by typing: MD \CCHESS CD \CCHESS PKUNZIP CCHESS A free to copy shareware file-reader is included, called SEE.EXE. To read any of the files, type SEE, highlight a file and press ENTER. A freeware print program is included, called PR.EXE, which is documented in PR.TXT. (The author of SEE.EXE requires that AMAZE. TXT is included, which it is, when one includes SEE.EXE in someone else's freeware/shareware.) If you install the Xian for DOS software on your HP 100 (the $39 commercial software that is really super), in the "More Applications" program, add a new record with these settings -- we'll assume you install these files in C:\GAMES (a new directory you can make by typing MD \GAMES): Name: Xian Chess Path: c:\games\xian.exe|212 Comments: 212kb ram needed Icon: C:>_ Actually, I installed Xian on a ram card, drive A:, the file space required is 70KB -- I used PKLITE to shrink the XIAN.EXE before installing it on the HP 100. Xian adds a lot of nice features to Chinese Chess: * take back move * 10 levels of difficulty * save game (all moves) * save position (to restore to last position later) * full online help * switch sides * cursor controlled movement * great speed in contrast to XQ * authentic chinese characters (although simplified Mandarin characters are used which is the Red Chinese style and not the traditional Hong Kong/Taiwan style) WRAP UP Wrapping up, there is a animated version of Chinese Chess, called Battle Chess II by Interplay that is on sale on many clearance racks for as low as $10 (originally about $50). It is great but slow and I find it fun for amusement only -- for frequent play, I prefer the Xian programs (both the DOS or Windows version). It is also a memory hog and can't run under Windows and can't run on any palmtop. It also requires answering a stupid question from the manual every time you run the game but NEVERLOCK (the shareware version) does strip that nuisance out of the code. In ending, I received a post card (my name must have gotten on a mailing list after ordering the Xian software) about the only periodical published in English in America on Chinese Chess, called XiangQi Review, which is a 20 page issue, published 6 times a year for only $10 US and Canada. Write Dave Woo, Chinese Chess Institute, PO Box 5305, Hercules, CA 94547-5305. I've received one issue and it looks good for Chinese Chess enthusiasts. [END OF FILE]