Video Chess - Atari 2600




Game info:

box cover Game title: Video Chess Console: Atari 2600 Author (released): Atari, Inc. (1979) Genre: Puzzle Mode: Single-player Design: Larry Wagner, Bob Whitehead Music: Game manual: manual.pdf File size: 1066 kB Download: not available (stream only) Game size: 4 kB Recommended emulator: Stella From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:    Video Chess is a video game released by Atari in 1979 for the Atari 2600, based on the rules of chess. The game was developed by Larry Wagner (AI) and Bob Whitehead. The box art of the first production run of the Atari Video Computer System (or VCS, later known as the Atari 2600) featured a chess piece, even though Atari at the time was not contemplating designing a chess game. A man from Florida supposedly sued Atari over the box art; however, in an interview, Video Chess programmer Bob Whitehead said he was not aware of such a lawsuit.    At first, the idea of chess on the Atari 2600 was considered to be impossible due to the limitations of the technology at the time. For example, Atari had to overcome sprite limitations; the Atari 2600 was only capable of displaying three sprites in a row, or six (such as in Space Invaders) with the right programming. The eight-piece-wide standard chess board exceeded this limitation. To rectify this, Bob Whitehead developed a technique known as 'Venetian blinds' where the position of each sprite changes every scan line; this allows for eight or more sprites in a row. Additionally, the concept of bank switching ROMs was invented for earlier prototypes of Video Chess that were larger than four kilobytes in size, however the released version ended up fitting the standard 4K size.    The game is played from an overhead perspective. The player uses an 'x' cursor to select and move pieces, rather than using chess notation. If an attempted move is illegal, a warning sound is made and the move is not made. If the right-most switch is set to A the computer plays as white; setting it to B lets the player play as white. With the left switch, selecting A allows the board to be set as the player pleases, whereas selecting B sets up the board for a regulation chess game.    There are eight different difficulty levels, with the computer-player taking a variable amount of time to determine its moves for each level. The approximate time length ranges between ten seconds (level 8, for beginners) to ten hours (level 7). More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org. For fans and collectors: Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com. Buy original game or Atari 2600 console on Amazon.com or eBay.com. Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.   Videogame Console: This ver­sion of Video Chess was de­sig­ned for A­ta­ri 2600, which was com­mer­ci­al­ly ve­ry suc­ces­s­ful vi­deo ga­me con­so­le of se­cond ge­ne­ra­tion pro­du­ced by A­ta­ri from 1977 to 1992. It was the first con­so­le that used re­mo­vab­le me­mory mo­du­les with ga­mes. At the time of its grea­test fa­me, mo­re than 30 mil­li­on units of this con­so­le were sold for about $ 200 a pie­ce. To da­te, the ga­me li­bra­ry for this con­so­le con­tains near­ly 1,000 o­ri­gi­nal ga­mes. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about the Atari 2600 can be found here. Recommended Game Controllers: You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller in Amazon or in some of your favorite online stores.   Available online emulators: 5 different online emulators are available for Video Chess. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Video Chess are summarized in the following table:   Emulator Technology Multiplayer USB gamepad Touchscreen Without ads Javatari 5.0 JavaScript YES YES YES YES Javatari 0.91 JavaScript YES YES NO YES NeptunJS JavaScript YES YES NO NO EmulatorJS JavaScript YES YES YES NO JStella Java applet YES NO NO YES

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