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What do you think of Apple Chess?

  • needs a facelift

    Votes: 38 82.6%
  • it still looks fine

    Votes: 8 17.4%

  • Total voters
    46

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
I wish it had an interface like the one attached. Nice and simple, nothing fancy. Well...maybe a few choices with colour....

I completely agree--crisp, clean, and intuitive. Something like your example would be perfect. Where did that come from, by the way?
 

dakwar

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2010
322
17
I just noticed that the white knights aren't even facing the right direction.:rolleyes:

It just looks that way. Bad rendering. Its actually the ears of the horse, not its snout. This becomes clear if you move the board around. But yeah, still no good.
 

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
It just looks that way. Bad rendering. Its actually the ears of the horse, not its snout. This becomes clear if you move the board around. But yeah, still no good.

I see that now. Still, this wouldn't even matter if it had a nice clean 2D interface.
 

coder12

macrumors 6502a
Jun 28, 2010
512
3
I kinda prefer good old Battle Chess.

Dang, I remember playing that as a kid! It took a long time for the AI to move, if I remember correctly. Sometimes as much as like a minute or two on our old IBM machine.

I want my childhood back :(
 

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
There haven't been any exciting chess offerings on the Mac App Store lately. I check periodically, but the demand must not be there. There are dozens of chess apps on the iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch app store. Can none of these companies port their chess app to the mac?
 

Winni

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,207
1,196
Germany.
It's okay for a very basic game, and there are so many chess games out there that I doubt if Apple are all that concerned over a built in game. .

No, for OS X there are NOT that many alternatives available. Shredder Chess is the only serious chess software for OS X, and even that one comes with a rather ugly Java interface.

If you want to play against some nicely made chess software, you have to use Windows. Fritz with the Shredder engine, for example.
 

Rychy

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2007
377
42
I think they said during the keynote that Chess will be Game Center enabled.
 

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
Ive Chess?

In light of the recent shakeup of Apple's leadership responsibilities that has brought the ascendance of Jony Ive a position in charge of all human interface, I'm curious if this much-forgotten part of OSX will be updated or done away with entirely. Chess according to Ive could be an exciting possibility. If he's too busy to get to it, he might just have it cut out like a cancer.

Thoughts?
 

Nam Pla

macrumors regular
Jun 7, 2009
105
5
Thailand
I deleted Apple's chess game from my system, was pretty lame looking. I had Big Bang Chess from an older OS (Tiger I believe) that I copied over to my new Macbook (Lion) and it works okay with that OS, though I don't often use it.

Nothing spectacular but better than the one that came with Lion. Try searching Big Bang Chess and see if you can download.
 

rien333

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2010
167
0
The Netherlands
Might be a nice project for me as a beginning developer, but I think I'm going to hit a big road block when designing the computer AI, because I'm pretty bad at chess myself.
 

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
Might be a nice project for me as a beginning developer, but I think I'm going to hit a big road block when designing the computer AI, because I'm pretty bad at chess myself.

I'm not sure you'd need to be a grand master to design an adequate UI.

I'm just looking for something:
clean
simple
minimalist

not something:
skeuomorphic
"look at me"
cheesy
trying too hard

I think you should try it if you're up for a challenge. You don't even need to develop the chess engine; you can link the interface to remote engines.
 

jb3od

macrumors newbie
Apr 21, 2013
2
0
mac chess CHEATS

okay playing a game of chess on the mac chess hardest difficulty and am setting myself up to win . i believe that mac knew it was about to lose and wouldn't let me take my move although it was 100.0% legit i try for 5 min and nothing happens i then ask for a hint in which it tell me to take one of its pieces but in doing so it would take my piece and this was the only move i was allowed to make
 

bjm2660

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
332
0
Virginia
I could't help but notice that Chess has once again been passed over for a design update amid the Mavericks and iOS7 launches.
 

ecrispy

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2013
187
29
It's one of the few apps left with the skeuomorphic design Apple has now moved away from. Maybe they will update it but honestly I think it is very low priority for them.
 

johnhackworth

macrumors regular
Aug 5, 2011
114
115
UK
Thread reanimated....

I just found EG Chess on the Mac App store for £0.99 - it offers a simple 2 local player 2D option. Just what I was looking for.
 

Schranke

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2010
974
1,072
Copenhagen, Denmark
Thread reanimated....
Thanks, had quite a laugh reading this.
Love how we are in 2018 and have a thread dating back to 2011 discussing how Chess looked dated back then. Well 6-7 years after and nothing have changed, they could at least have tied the voice command to Siri so that it would be like playing against her.
Hope that we could see apple make an updated app, improving the design, voice commands and such things. or just scrap it from the next version of MacOS
 
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