Kakinoki Shogi Cheats - 3DO

Rules
Shogi is basically the Japanese version of chess, and the modern form was developed in the sixteenth century. It is played on a 9x9 square board, and each player starts with 20 pieces: 1 King, 2 Gold Generals, 2 Silver Generals, 2 Horses (Knights), 2 Incense Chariots, 1 Diagonal Mover (Bishop), 1 Flying Chariot (Rook), and 9 Foot Soldiers (Pawns). The pieces look like flattened obelisks pointing toward the enemy, with their names written on them in Japanese characters. Many pieces' moves are somewhat similar to chess, but there are several differences. Golds move like a King, but not diagonally backward. Silvers move into one of the forward three squares or two diagonally backward ones. Incense Chariots move like Rooks, but only straight forward. Knights move as in chess, but only to one of the two possible forward squares. Pawns move and capture one square directly ahead.

There are two additional rules not found in chess. The first is promotion, which is indicated by flipping a piece over. Pawns, Incense Chariots, Knights, and Silvers can be promoted to Golds any time they enter, move in, or leave enemy territory (the back three ranks). Bishops and Rooks can also be promoted, and gain the ability to move one square in the directions they normally can not (orthagonally for Bishops, diagonally for Rooks). The other rule is that you own the enemy pieces that you capture and can put them back in the game to fight for you. Instead of making a normal move, you can drop a captured piece on the board. Pieces drop unpromoted. Pawns, Knights, and Incense Chariots cannot be dropped toward the back of the board where they could not make any further moves. Also, you cannot drop a Pawn on a file that has another of your unpromoted Pawns on it, and you cannot drop a Pawn to give checkmate.

ASCII's Kakinoki Shogi is a good 3DO implementation of the game (Kakinoki is the last name of the game's director). You can play against another human, against an adjustable AI, or watch two AI's. There are several game options, including spoken comments, displaying what moves the AI is considering, and time-limited play. You can save your game to resume later and display the moves backward and forward. Computer hints are available, and you can set up the board any way you want, or solve checkmating problems. The graphics are simple, but effective, including three nice woodgrain boards.

Kakinoki Shogi needs 16% of your SRAM (~5K) to save configuration and game information. If you do not have enough free upon first loading the game, you will have an opportunity to use the built-in (Japanese) memory manager. If you ever want or need to delete the file, its name is ASCII_KAKINOKIJ.

Menu/Command Translation:
Left, [Right], [Up], [Down]: move cursor
[RS]: Changes sides/promotion (Edit Mode)
[A]: Select, put
[B]: Cancel, back up
[C]: In-play Menu <PRE> MAIN MENU Play | New Game | [Plyr 1 Human/AI level] | [C]=In-play Menu: | | [Plyr 2 Human/AI level] | Cancel game (Save Y/N) | | [Handicap] | Cancel move | | Continue | Hint | | | Quit (Y/N), (Save Y/N) | | | Flip board upside-down | | | Change players | | | Edit Mode (Save Y/N) +-----------+-------------------------+----------------------- | Old Game | Load Y/N | [C]=In-play Menu +-----------+-------------------------+------------------------ | Challenge | [Human time limit] | Quit (Y/N) | | [AI level] | | | [Time warning] | | | Continue | ----------+-----------+-------------------------+------------------------- Solve | Edit Mode | [C]=Edit Menu: Tsumeshogi| | Quit | | Starting setup | | Tsumeshogi setup | | All pieces to box | | Change players | | Changes whose turn | | Find # moves to mate (if previously on Main Menu) | | Resume play (if previously on In-play Menu) ----------+-----------+-------------------------+------------------------- Review | Load Y/N | Control Pad Right=fwd | [C]=Main menu Y/N Game | | Control Pad Left=back | ----------+-----------+-------------------------+ Options | Play | [AI Jouseki = an offense & defense pattern] | Options | [AI Random (No/Jouseki/Random/Jouseki & Random)] | | [Allow Cancel Move] | | [Level of hint told] | | [Allow illegal moves] | | [AI time limit (None/Short/Medium/Long)] | | Continue +-----------+--------------------------------------------------- | Display | [Mark last-moved piece] | Options | [Show possible piece moves] | | [Show AI's thoughts] | | [1=Show promoted piece names in red, 2=Don't] | | [Board graphics 1-3] | | Continue +-----------+--------------------------------------------------- | Sound | [Sound on/off] | Options | [Move voice on/off] | | [Message voice on/off] | | [Background Music on/off] | | Continue ----------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------- Quit | Eject CD, or press B to return to Main Menu, | or press Stop to replay intro (haltingly) ----------+--------------------------------------------------------------- </PRE>