DragonDraughts

Click here for DragonDraughts-0.0.tgz (1 Mb, 12 Jun 1996)

The distribution includes all 3 man and some 4 man endgame databases, 500 tactical patterns, a small opening book, a manual (sort of), all source code and a patched version of the GNU xboard program.

Linux-elf binaries are provided, but it should compile on any Linux box. 

You can also try a newer version that I rediscovered in 2001. This update (532 Kb, dated 25 Oct 1996) contains newer source code, but I have no clue if this is stable.


Release notes

- Dragon currenly runs only on LINUX! (or BSD) This is due to problems with little/big endian conversion. The databases generation and xboard do run on other unix systems.
- Version 0.0 and 0.2 are the only releases, program devellopment stopped in 1996.

For anyone interrested; 4v2 kings requires a 128 Mb machine (bare minimum) and about a week CPU time (on p200). It is also possible to compute the 4v2 and 3v3 man-only endgames partially (without using the neccessary sub-endgames) with about the same resources. (Mail for more info). 

KNOWN BUGS/PROBLEMS WITH DRAGON

- It loses sometimes :-)
- the time mechanism doesn't like takebacks. (text-based version)
- the installation procedure must be improved.
- be more flexible with opening books etc.

KNOWN BUGS/PROBLEMS WITH XBOARD.DRAUGHTS

- Only small pieces are supported
- It is unable to read games.
- Unable to read/write positions
- show thinking not supported
- hint/book not supported
- ics not supported (Anyone in for writing/running a draughts server?)
- ambigious moves can not be resolved; edit the position if this happens (typically once in every hundred games)

Free cookies/other to:
Computer draughts & checkers page