Chess Mate

Review from Fred 76

Colin Macdonald was given Chess Mate quite a few months ago to review.  Either he forgot, or he couldn't beat the computer and didn't want everyone to know.  Both, I reckon.

Chess Mate is the first chess game for the SAM.  It's got no competition, so they could surely just bundle together any old rubbish and get the sales from the fact that it's chess.  However, on the other hand, we've got Jupiter Software behind it and they're known to put a class touch to anything they do.  So, is it to be a Super or a Drooper?  Well, let's press F9 and find out.

The intro to the game is pretty simple.  Just a load of waffle about Quazar and a bit saying press C for contrast or RETURN to start.  Jupiter is spelt wrong on the scrolly bit too.  Ho ho.

Well, after pressing C a few times, I press RETURN to enter the game.  The first thing that strikes you is the bigness and boldness of everything.  It's an incredibly simple lay-out. There's been no time spent on fancy stuff, they've just decided to keep it simple, and in my opinion this is a good idea.  When you're playing chess on a computer, there's a lot of looking at the screen and you don't want to be squinting to focus.

The movement is easy, just type in 2 sets of co-ordinates for the initial position and destination.  There's 8 difficulty levels, and if you want, you can change this level during the course of the game.  All levels are pretty good.  If you're rubbish at chess like me, then level 1 is hard enough.  Level 3 is beyond comprehension!  Computer intelligence was the thing I was expecting the game to flaw on, but this is a definite good point.

If you screw something up and fancy cheating, you can take back moves.  If you don't have a clue what to do, you can get the computer to make the move for you.

The feature I was most surprised, and pleased, to see is the one where you can force the computer to make a move.  On higher levels, the computer can take absolutely ages to move, and it's a pain waiting for it.  Pressing the key (I forget which) forces the computer to make the best move it's discovered yet.

If you've got Quazar, you are told handy things like 'Check', 'Illegal Move' and so on.  If you don't, you can always just read it off the screen.

There's not much more to say.  The only annoyance I have is that you can only have 1 player games.  Those of us with mates would love to play each other, but there's no option to do that.  I really can't think of anything else missing.  I don't see the point in 3D graphics and death animations because if you want to see that sort of exciting game, you don't play chess!

It's certainly a game I'll go back to.  I'm determined to beat that blasted computer!  Well done, Jupiter and Quazar!

Playability - 92% (Thanks to the quick option)

Lastability - 90% (But only if you like chess)

Graphics    - 80% (Not impressive, but they're easy on the eye)

Sound       - ??  (Don't own a Quazar!)

Overall     - 91% (A Gold FREDal)