From: Hirobi Yagamuchi EUROPE COM> Date: 23 nov 2002 Subject: Under-developed software for shogi in English Hello, In private correspondence, someone suggested I send the following to this newsgroup for discussion. So, here goes: ----------------------------------------- As a newcomer to shogi, I am highly surprised at the lack of resources for playing shogi on personal computers, as well as internet play against other humans. Considering how popular shogi is, it seems highly under-developed especially when compared with other classical games like go, chess, and xiangqi (chinese chess). Consider the following comparisons: INTERNET SERVERS Go: Major servers like IGS (Internet Go Server), NNGS (No Name Go Server), and many others Chess: Major servers like ICC (Internet Chess Club), FICS (Free Internet Chess Server), USCL (US Chess Live), and Chess.Net, and many others. XiangQi: Major servers like Club Xiangqi, Movesky Xiangqi, Chess Hub, and several others. NB: The ICCS (Internet Chinese Chess Server) seems to be no longer active. Shogi: Shogi Club 24 is the only major server (JavaShogi doesn't seem to work for many users). GRAPHIC INTERFACES Go: Beautiful clients for the servers, like TanGo, PandaEgg, ViZiGo and many others. Chess: Beautiful clients for the servers, like BlitzIn, USChessLive interface, Thief, Chess.Net for Windows, and many others. XiangQi: Beautiful clients like CCCTWin and Movesky graphic interface. Shogi: No graphical interface client whatsoever, just java. YAHOO Go: http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=go - many users! Chess: http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=chess - many users! XiangQi: not on Yahoo Shogi: http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=shg - NO users! PLAYING PROGRAMS Go: Many excellent freeware programs, like Igowin, Go Game Machine, and many others. Chess: Many excellent freeware programs, like WinBoard, Arena, and many others, with many free engines. XiangQi: Several excellent freeware programs, like XieXie, Milo's Chinese Chess, Coffee Chinese Chess java, and several others. Shogi: Limited number of freeware programs, ShogiVariants and WinShogi seem to be the only decent Windows ones and even they are somewhat inferior. DATABASES/EDITORS/ANALYSIS Go: Many excellent databases/editors for viewing/storing master games, eg Yago, GoGoD95, Kombilo and others. Chess: Many excellent databases/editors for viewing/storing master games, eg Scid, ChessBaseLight and others. XiangQi: Several excellent databases/editors for viewing/storing master games, eg CChView, XB Database Browser, and others. Shogi: GNSB (GNU Shogi Database Project) is the only database, is not up-to-date, and several features do not function properly. NEWSGROUPS Go: rec.games.go - very active! Chess: rec.game.chess (and many others) - very active XiangQi: rec.games.chinese-chess - quite active Shogi: fa.shogi - not that active, basically mirrors shogi-l list. NO rec.games.shogi newsgroup! Despite it's popularity, I'm mystified why shogi is not more developed on the internet and in terms of software. Why would this be? There certainly seems to be room for developing some good shogi software, such as a good graphical interface for an internet shogi server. Or is my assessment above inaccurate, and have I missed some important sites or programs? I look forward to any thoughts/comments you may have! -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup One click access to the Top Search Engines http://www.exactsearchbar.com/mailcom