AlienBoard: android app for chess variants

[Daniel Shawul]

Hi
My app is available in the play store now. It can play many chess variants (may be upto 50). AlienBoard. What you can do:

a) Observe / Play on FICS chess server. You can connect to other servers with similar protocol by installing it as an 'ICS' engine, with ip and port.

b) Play against Scorpio, NebiyuXs (chess, go , reversi, checkers, amazons, and alien).

c) Match winboard engines with each other

d) Broadcast games from your phone

Earilier I had a java GUI that does all those things so I decided to port it to android. Except for (a) the features are not tested well on the android platform, so there are bugs. Also this is my first app so please let me know how I can improve the user experience. I expect people from this board to figure out stuff by themselves but can't say anything about the 'general user'. I have not made a lot of effort in that regard.

I need a logo of size (512x512) very badly. The current one looks bad and I appreciate it if anyone here can make one for me. The theme could be anything that mixes "Alien" with "Chess"

Tips:
1) FICS: type in g & enter to login as a guest. The observe any game by typing 'o 47' for example
2) For non-FICS activities, you need to load a referee engine (NebiyuChess) to get a board display (Engines->Referee).
Then select the variant you want by again doing (Engines->Referee Options).

Thanks
Daniel

[Adam Hair]

Hi Daniel,

When I go to Engines>Referee Options after loading NebiyuChess as a referee, AlienBoard crashes.
Phone: HTC EVO 4G with Android 2.3.5

I will try other options later today.

Adam

[Daniel Shawul]

Hi Adam
Thanks for trying. I renamed my package to make it more professional (com.danile.alienboard) right before release, but forgot to update things inside some script. That broke some activities from being launched properly viz a viz (Preferences , and Engine->Engine Options). The engine options menu is kind of unique because it displays options of the engine itself in a menu (i.e right from feature=option of winboard, not something made up by me). I have already fixed that and published it but google play takes some hours to bring it up online. You will get the update when it is uploaded. For now playing in FICS or against engines work with default preferences. Let me know if you have other troubles. I know it is probably the most unfriendly app out there, but it gets the job done. Feature requests are welcome.
cheers
Daniel

[shiv]

Just tried the app. I want to play against Scorpio and am not interested in chess variants or FICS. I tried to start a new game. I see the time counters working but I see a big grey block instead of a board and pieces. The clock is currently counting down though.

[Daniel Shawul]

That is expected if you don't select Referee engine. Ok here is what you do. You have to do some work to get a board display. I know it is easier to display a board right away but there is a reason to what I do and explaining it would be pointless.

a) Click on the Engines tab and touch 'freechess.org' to remove it from the Active particpants list, and then click on 'Scorpio' from the installed engine's list to add it to the active list. So after that you should have 'user' and 'Scorpio' on the active list.

b) Pick a referee engine to draw the board. That would be NebiyuChess.
Engines->Referee->NebiyuChess.

c) Start match

You should see a board and make a move by touching two squares.
Daniel

[Daniel Shawul]

By popular request (1 person) , I have added an option to replace the debug view with a PGN view. Engine->Views->Debug view off. It is not uploaded yet.

You can review the moves by touching on them. Swiping to undo and redo a move is in progress. I haven't seen a zoom capability on chess board on smartphones. Would it be any use to add that ?

Tip of the day : You can watch multiple games at the same time. Important for bughouse.

[shiv]

That is expected if you don't select Referee engine. Ok here is what you do. You have to do some work to get a board display. I know it is easier to display a board right away but there is a reason to what I do and explaining it would be pointless.

a) Click on the Engines tab and touch 'freechess.org' to remove it from the Active particpants list, and then click on 'Scorpio' from the installed engine's list to add it to the active list. So after that you should have 'user' and 'Scorpio' on the active list.

b) Pick a referee engine to draw the board. That would be NebiyuChess.
Engines->Referee->NebiyuChess.

c) Start match

You should see a board and make a move by touching two squares.
Daniel

Great, that works. I guessed that step a was necessary and did it prior to me posting a message, but not step b.You should consider making step b optional at some point and default to NebiyuChess with an option to override the referee perhaps.

So far, so good! Probably opening book support is something you will add later. I like the ability to play Scorpio.

[Daniel Shawul]

That is expected if you don't select Referee engine. Ok here is what you do. You have to do some work to get a board display. I know it is easier to display a board right away but there is a reason to what I do and explaining it would be pointless.

a) Click on the Engines tab and touch 'freechess.org' to remove it from the Active particpants list, and then click on 'Scorpio' from the installed engine's list to add it to the active list. So after that you should have 'user' and 'Scorpio' on the active list.

b) Pick a referee engine to draw the board. That would be NebiyuChess.
Engines->Referee->NebiyuChess.

c) Start match

You should see a board and make a move by touching two squares.
Daniel

Great, that works. I guessed that step a was necessary and did it prior to me posting a message, but not step b.You should consider making step b optional at some point and default to NebiyuChess with an option to override the referee perhaps.

So far, so good! Probably opening book support is something you will add later. I like the ability to play Scorpio.

Hope this is not a subtle way of telling me you don't care about Nebiyu sorry Scorpio is there by accident, well almost anyway. It is the only one which probes egbbs and it would be unfair not to include it. GUI is hugely improved now with game list view that allows to replay moves, and the ability to view multiple games for crazy house. Also FICS seek, observe and match are simplified by providing a list of seeks,games and players ,so user don't have to type anything.
I will implement your request that the steps be easy for most. I will provide a menu at start up to choose from
* play on FICS
* play a chess game against an engine
* play checkers etc..
* play alien (avoid at all costs for you)
So you will not see things you don't want to see.

cheers

[shiv]

That is expected if you don't select Referee engine. Ok here is what you do. You have to do some work to get a board display. I know it is easier to display a board right away but there is a reason to what I do and explaining it would be pointless.

a) Click on the Engines tab and touch 'freechess.org' to remove it from the Active particpants list, and then click on 'Scorpio' from the installed engine's list to add it to the active list. So after that you should have 'user' and 'Scorpio' on the active list.

b) Pick a referee engine to draw the board. That would be NebiyuChess.
Engines->Referee->NebiyuChess.

c) Start match

You should see a board and make a move by touching two squares.
Daniel

Great, that works. I guessed that step a was necessary and did it prior to me posting a message, but not step b.You should consider making step b optional at some point and default to NebiyuChess with an option to override the referee perhaps.

So far, so good! Probably opening book support is something you will add later. I like the ability to play Scorpio.

Hope this is not a subtle way of telling me you don't care about Nebiyu sorry Scorpio is there by accident, well almost anyway. It is the only one which probes egbbs and it would be unfair not to include it. GUI is hugely improved now with game list view that allows to replay moves, and the ability to view multiple games for crazy house. Also FICS seek, observe and match are simplified by providing a list of seeks,games and players ,so user don't have to type anything.
I will implement your request that the steps be easy for most. I will provide a menu at start up to choose from
* play on FICS
* play a chess game against an engine
* play checkers etc..
* play alien (avoid at all costs for you)
So you will not see things you don't want to see.

cheers

I did not mean to downplay Nebiyu at all. I just re-read what it is from your website. If it is weaker than Scorpio but more general purpose, thats sounds interesting but I prefer more engine chess strength However, I will give Nebiyu a shot and see how strong it is (I will consider it if it is still strong for me).

Thanks for considering the request. A simple menu will make it easier for most. I will probably mainly use it for use case #2: Play a chess game against an engine.

I tested out FICS mode and it worked fine as well. An interesting feature to implement for FICS is pre-move. Most non windows GUIs dont support pre-move on FICS.

[Daniel Shawul]

Updates:
I couldn't find a smarthpone app that shows holdings in crazy house but mine does And how about the highlight ?