[stella] Chess RAM usage

[Glenn Saunders <cybpunks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:45 AM 6/21/2000 +1000, you wrote:
> Why do you say (assume?) that Video Chess uses 64 bytes for board position?

Because the programmer indicated that's what he did.  We should probably 
disassemble it with DiStella and see whether his recollections were correct 
or not.

Also bear in mind that he developed this in Fortran on a minicomputer or 
mainframe and then ported the algorithms to the VCS, so he may not have 
been thinking about sub-byte manipulations, and if he found out that he 
didn't have to do it in the end, then he probably didn't bother.

> I could do it with 32 by simply having one byte for each PIECE, and

Theoretically for a VCS chess program, but not Video Chess.

There can be a maximum of 64 pieces in the game because the board setup 
allows you to put any piece you want on any square, no restrictions.  That 
means you can have greater than 16 white or black pieces, and more than 32 
pieces per board.

It would be an interesting challenge to see a new Chess kernel that is 
designed as an improvement in look as well as in efficiency over Video Chess.


Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc


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