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Shanghai Palace Chess 
. Download these files to play this blend of Chinese, Japanese and Western Chess with Zillions of Games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have downloaded the ZRF and I observed a game Zillions Vs. Zillions. My impression was that Zillions doesn´t understand well what´s going on, the program plays this game quite bad, almost as a crazy player in some moments, although the game play itself is, surprisingly, very interesting. I´ll need some practice to be familiarized with this game and take a better idea, but at first view, I think that Gary´s game is not a monster, it seems to be a very playable game!.
First, a special thanks to L. Lynn Smith for creating the ZRF for S.P.C. Note that Mr. Smith added a second setup option to the ZRF (but you can read about that on the updated S.P.C. page). The primary weakness of the ZRF seems to be its failure to understand Cannons. It seems that it will exchange these in a heartbeat. Not a good idea. In S.P.C. Cannons are very powerful. They can threaten mate, threaten to win a Shogi piece for a deadly drop, etc. I am hoping that a way will be found to improve the Cannon situation. On the bright side: (1) the ZRF seems to abide by all the rules (2) the ZRF shows that the blend of Western, Chinese, and Japanese chess into one unified game does work, and works quite well (3) the ZRF enables players to gain understanding of the game (4) when and if there is a world S.P.C. champion, he or she is likely to be human, not computer.
Zillions is a great game engine. It suffers from the fact that it is basically a general program, and therefor often fails to correctly evaluate specific conditions. This can be solved by creating DLLs for specific games. But such can entail time, testing, a compiler and a decent coder. Yet, even with the strongest program, certain games will often fail to be quantified. This should actually be consider a positive, demonstrating that human thought processes are not merely mechanical and linear. The primary aim of the basic implementation might be to enforce the rules of the particular game. The Zillions Computer opponent could merely be considered a good teaching aid. It is through human competition that games can be truly experienced. That is the reason for Net Play.
despite the cannon thing, this game is brilliant!!! so much fun he he, i love it, looks good too.
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