Talk:Battle Chess

{{WikiProjectBannerShell|1= {{refideas
 * 1={{cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41h2lx_t89g|title=Matt Chat 89: Bard's Tale and Wizardry with Brian Fargo|last=Barton|first=Matt|date=15 January 2011|work=Youtube|publisher=Google|accessdate=}}|2=https://archive.org/details/video-games-computer-entertainment-issue-01-december-1988/page/n83/mode/2up}}

Atari Jaguar
I've seen bits and pieces that say Battlechess was being ported to that Atari Jaguar. Might be something to research and confirm. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.81.94.75 (talk) 23:39, 4 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Someone did, I see. Is it actually that notable? Does it really need that number of references?? "Never before in the field of WP has something so trivial been given so many references.." Lovingboth (talk) 07:58, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

FutureWorld
I noted that the reference to FutureWorld lead to the disambiguation page. Since this is a link to a well known meaning of FutureWorld, it may point to the right page. Moreover pointing to the disambiguation page gives no information to the reader.

Unfortunately I don't know to what FutureWorld we are referring here, so I cannot change the link. Moreover, I recently watched the FutureWorld movie, and I cannot remember any chess battle (but this does not absolutely mean that there are not chess battles! :-)) -213.140.22.78 13:45, 17 February 2007 (UTC) Alfredo


 * I have corrected the spelling of Futureworld so it points properly to the 1976 movie, which is indeed part of the inspiration for the game Battle Chess, and does contain an "animated" sequence (actually live action). -Two-Tonic Knight 07:02, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Inspiration
A semi non-sequitur, but "inspired by star wars IV"? somehow I do not think that that is true —Preceding unsigned comment added by Je007 (talk • contribs) 04:11, 15 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It was in part inspired by the specific 3D chess sequence in the original Star Wars between R2-D2 and Chewbacca ("Let the Wookie win!"), not by the rest of the movie. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 07:37, 1 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Which may have been inspired by Futureworld (1976), which came out a year before Star Wars (1977). Regardless, until a reliable source is found detailing the inspiration of either film chess sequence or Battle Chess, it's all speculation. &mdash;Eekerz (t) 04:23, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

A reliable source is available (me, one of the principle creators of the game), we just need a reliable third party to interview me and document it somewhere since I can't be used as a primary source internal to Wikipedia. Until then, I won't change the "may" in "may have been influenced" even though there is no "may" about it. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 07:28, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Harry Potter
Was Battle Chess an inspiration for Harry Potter's "Wizard Chess"? 124.158.32.200 (talk) 13:51, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Darkcat1: It seems entirely posible. When I first read about it in the books I instanly remembered Battle Chess. The only way to know for sure is to ask J.K. Rowling...and no one has asked about it in any interviews I've seen... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Darkcat1 (talk • contribs) 18:28, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Chess pieces coming to life goes back at least to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, so unless Rowling says what her inspiration was, or just an original thought by her, it is speculation at best that Battle Chess was an inspiration for Wizard's Chess. Interestingly, though, one developer that was in discussions to make a computer version of Wizard's Chess contacted one of the two original Battle Chess animators to do the animations. The project fell through, though, and nothing came of it. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 05:08, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows version
A windows version of this was released in 1991. I've added it to the Windows games category. 2fort5r (talk) 11:31, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

The duck
The term "duck" in software engineering jargon originated with Battle Chess. Does anyone else think that's worth mentioning? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.75.114.108 (talk) 19:39, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Since I've never heard of the term before, I'd say no. Half  Shadow  19:41, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Do ducks feature in the game? 2fort5r (talk) 04:44, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

It is an interesting story, and I think it's worth to be mentioned here, because today we had a bet on it. The story was like "The programmer put a duck into the game, that walked along with the King, in order to make the manager complain about the duck, and not about anything else". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.196.223.115 (talk) 11:27, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Ahhhhh, the duck! The true story about the duck: It originated at Interplay before Battle Chess. It was a running joke that our Electronic Arts producer - who was fond of meddling while simultaneously being clueless about game design - needed to have his ego stroked by being channeled into harmless changes that made him feel empowered. There was no actual duck originally - that was just a metaphor for anything that could be used as a red herring to keep him distracted. Battle Chess never needed a duck since we jettisoned EA specifically because of the aforementioned (but not named) producer unintentionally convincing Interplay to go independent of EA (there were no outside influences to that needed subtle manipulation). But the duck lore had started and it remained something we constantly joked about and eventually began sneaking into the games. Why a duck? Hey, if it was good enough for Groucho and Chico...Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 18:32, 28 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Before which version of Battle Chess? I have an original copy of Battle Chess for the Amiga, with a copyright date of 1988 and clearly naming both Interplay and Electronic Arts in the manual. It is possible Electronic Arts handled the distribution in the UK (where my copy was purchased) or Europe, but not elsewhere. 86.183.213.186 (talk) 19:06, 1 March 2015 (UTC)
 * According to the Hall of Light game database Electronic Arts was the publisher in Europe. http://hol.abime.net/60 86.183.213.186 (talk) 19:11, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

World of Warcraft Pays Homage to Battle Chess?
I am wondering if anyone knows WoW's Karazhan Chess event is a homage to Battle Chess: http://www.wowwiki.com/Chess_event Misosoup7 (talk) 13:45, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Number of battle animations
Surely there should only have been 6×5=30, since the game ends before the king can be captured? (Or double that to 60 if you consider wRxbN to be different from bRxwN and so on.) Double sharp (talk) 11:07, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Oh, I see. The TV Tropes page linked at the bottom indicates that king-capturing animations are played when the king is checkmated. Since the checkmating piece cannot be another king, this does indeed imply that there are 35 animations, so the article is correct. Double sharp (talk) 12:34, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Actually, if my memory is correct, there was a king on king animation, at least in the PC version. Using the mode where you can set pieces anywhere before play, my brother and I were able to construct a scenario where a king takes a king. It wasn't easy, and I doubt I could do it again, but I do remember seeing the animation. Of course, people also remember seeing Bugs Bunny at DisneyLand and Ed McMahan hosting Publishers' Clearing House sweepstakes, I'd like to see if other people were able to make it work. Tidle Tidle Tilde — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.189.157.13 (talk) 07:07, 29 January 2020 (UTC)


 * This YouTube video disagrees : "No King vs. King - any situation where the only moves a player can do put him in check automatically ends the game as a stalemate in this version of chess." Equinox ◑ 06:09, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Playing strength
My memory is that the AI opponent was poor. Did the developers write their own chess engine or buy one in? Lovingboth (talk) 08:00, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

"Release" section
I removed this section for two reasons: Firstly, it was massively over-referenced. Twelve references to support "a version was supposed to be be released in 1995" is the worst citation overkill I've seen. Secondly, it was misleading. "Release" sections on most software articles discuss the release history for all versions and platforms. This was a one-sentence section about a release that never happened for only one platform. Vaporware is, and has long been, an unavoidable factor in software and is only notable if the vaporware nature of the announcements gets coverage. Development of Duke Nukem Forever is a notable example. The announcements of software never released are run of the mill for software and not notable in themselves, even if there is coverage in reliable sources. The article lede also already specified the platforms that did support the software so there's no reason to have an entire section devoted to one platform that never supported it. It is very WP:UNDUE emphasis on the unsupported platform. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 18:01, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Also a variant of real chess?
Merriam-Webster's dictionary definition describes a real (non-computer) chess variant, where players can secretly arrange their pieces as they wish before play begins. I can't find much on this elsewhere. Equinox ◑ 06:07, 20 August 2023 (UTC)