DMiddleton%pco@BCO-MULTICS.ARPA (08/25/87)
I am extremely pleased to see that HOTSHOT has "finally" gotten to info-atari16 intact. It seems that getting across ARPA and what-not is a lot tougher than I had originally thought. The question about HOTSHOT "cheating" is fair. I am not a real checkers expert but given that HOTSHOT uses CADENZA game logic (corrected), I had to assume the way the game played was legal. It used to cheat at the end of game and if it found no move to its liking it would let the player try another move (ouch ouch). Not any more. HOTSHOT now knows how to resign gracefully. I am happy to hear that people are getting and using the program. If there are things you think would help the program improve then please PLEASE send me mail. I have been thinking about an option for letting HOTSHOT increase its depth of search near the end-game when the likelihood of memory exhaustion is greatly reduced. It might result in an unbeatable program, so I am not too sure whether it is a good move (no pun intended). Keep those comments coming! DMiddleton%pco -at BCO-Multics.ARPA P.S.: I reply to all mail. If you don't get a reply, then let me know. The net has been known to eat my mail.