''Sargon II'' is a sequel to ''

Sargon Sargon (Akkadian: ''Šar-ru-gi'', later ''Šarru-kīn'', meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the name of three kings in ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes adopted in modern times as both a given name and a surname. Mesopotamian ...

''. Both are computer chess programs for home computers.

Development

The Spracklens made significant improvements on the original program and released ''Sargon II''. In 1978 it tied for third at the ninth

North American Computer Chess Championship The North American Computer Chess Championship was a computer chess championship held from 1970 to 1994. It was organised by the Association for Computing Machinery and by Monty Newborn, Professor of Computer Science at McGill University. It was one ...

despite being seeded ninth of 12 entries. ''Sargon'' finished only behind Belle and

Chess 4.7 Chess was a pioneering chess program from the 1970s, written by Larry Atkin, David Slate and Keith Gorlen at Northwestern University. Chess ran on Control Data Corporation's line of supercomputers. Work on the program began in 1968 while the auth ...

, and defeated AWIT—running on a $5 million

Amdahl Amdahl may refer to: People * Einar Amdahl (1888-1974), Norwegian theologist * Bjarne Amdahl (1903-1968), Norwegian pianist and composer * Douglas K. Amdahl Douglas K. Amdahl (January 23, 1919 – August 24, 2010) was an American lawyer and j ...

mainframe—amazing the audience. That year they published a series of articles in ''BYTE'' on computer chess programming, stating "we think it would be nice if not everyone had to reinvent the wheel". ''Sargon II'' was

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a Computing platform, computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) ...

to a variety of personal computers popular in the early 1980s.It was even ported to the 6809 variety of the

FLEX Flex or FLEX may refer to: Computing * Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay * FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorola 6800 * FlexOS, an operating system developed by Digital Research * FLEX (protocol), a ...

operating system by Brian N. Baily and Charles B. Blish in August 1981, and that port may still be found within thi
6809 FLEX emulation
/ref> The game engine featured multiple levels of lookahead to make it more accessible to beginning chess players. ''BYTE'' in 1980 estimated that ''Sargon II'' had a 1500 rating at the highest tournament-time difficulty level, and speculated that it was the best chess program for sale, including dedicated devices. ''Sargon 2.5'', sold as a ROM module for the Chafitz Modular Game System, was identical to ''Sargon II'' but incorporated

pondering In turn-based games, permanent brain (also called pondering) is the act of thinking during the opponent's turn. Chess engines that continue calculating even when it is not their turn to play end up choosing moves that are stronger than if they ...

. It received a 1641 rating at the

Paul Masson Paul Masson (1859 – October 22, 1940) was an early pioneer of California viticulture known for his brand of Californian sparkling wine. Biography Masson emigrated from the Burgundy region of France in 1878 (at the age of 19) to Californi ...

tournament in June–July 1979, and 1736 at the San Jose City College Open in January 1980.

Reception

J. Mishcon reviewed The Software Exchange's ''Sargon II'' for the TRS-80 and Apple II in ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' No. 32. Mishcon commented that "This effort stands strongly in the small group of programs that set industry standards. It is a competent computer opponent in the incredibly complex world of chess. Highly recommended for everyone short of the chess master." ''BYTE'' in 1980 stated "buy it. Sargon II is everything Sargon I should have been ... Nearly every deficiency of Sargon has been corrected." The magazine concluded that the game "is about all we computer chess players could wish for". It also favorably reviewed the ROM-cartridge Sargon 2.5, but advised Sargon II owners to "wait for Sargon 3". ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 1 ...

'' in 1984 stated that the VIC-20 version of ''Sargon II''s "chess-playing capability is excellent" and a bargain compared to dedicated chess computers, and gave a similarly favorable review of the Commodore 64 version. ''The

Addison-Wesley Addison-Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles throug ...

Book of Atari Software 1984'' gave the game an overall A− rating, stating that only '' Chess 7.0'' was superior on a microcomputer and concluding that it "is a very worthy opponent for any chess enthusiast". Tim Harding in 1985 called ''Sargon II'' the first "halfway competent chess program" for home computers. He stated that "in early 1984 the VIC/Sargon II combination was still among the strongest home computer chess programs" despite its age, with "many features superior to today's weaker amateur programs".

Reviews

*'' Moves'' #56, p29

References

External links

Four games played by Sargon IIReview
in ''

80 Micro ''80 Micro'' was a computer magazine, published between 1980 and 1988, that featured program listings, products and reviews for the TRS-80. History Wayne Green, the creator of many magazines such as '' 73'', founded ''80 Microcomputing'' as a ...

''
Review
in ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

''
Review
in ''

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...

''
Review
in ''

Commodore Microcomputers ''Commodore Power/Play'' was one of a pair of computer magazines published by Commodore Business Machines in the United States in support of their 8-bit home computer lines of the 1980s. The other was called ''Commodore Interface'', changed to jus ...

''
Review
in ''

ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' (an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANAL ...

''
Review
in ''

InCider Wayne Sanger Green II (September 3, 1922 – September 13, 2013) was an American publisher, writer, and consultant. Green was editor of '' CQ'' magazine before he went on to found '' 73'', ''80 Micro'', ''Byte'', ''CD Review'', ''Cold Fusion'', ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sargon 02 1979 video games Apple II games Assembly language software Atari 8-bit family games Chess software Commodore 64 games CP/M games Hayden Software games Sargon (chess) TRS-80 games VIC-20 games Video games developed in the United States