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

Sargon Sargon may refer to: Mesopotamian kings * Sargon of Akkad ( 2334–2279 BC), founder of the Akkadian Empire * Sargon I ( 1920–1881 BC), king of the Old Assyrian city-state * Sargon II ( BC), king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire Modern people Giv ...

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

Development

The Spracklens, developers of ''

'', made significant improvements and released ''Sargon II''. In 1978 ''Sargon II'' 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 o ...

despite being seeded ninth of 12 entries. It 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 (1919–2010), American lawyer and judge from Minnesota * Gene Amdahl (1922–2015), fo ...

mainframe—amazing the audience. That year the Spracklens 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 environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

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 * Apache Flex, formerly Adobe Flex, technologies for developing rich internet applications * Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay * FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorol ...

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 has 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, is identical to ''Sargon II'' but adds

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 are ...

. It received a 1641 rating at the

Paul Masson Paul Masson (February 14, 1859 – October 22, 1940) was a French-born American winemaker. He is considered an early pioneer of California viticulture known for his brand of Californian sparkling wine. Biography Masson was born as the seco ...

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 (1980). 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". John Martarello in ''BYTE'' that year stated "buy it. Sargon II is everything Sargon I should have been ... Nearly every deficiency of Sargon has been corrected". While vulnerable to the

fried liver attack The Fried Liver Attack, also called the Fegatello Attack (named after an Italian dish), is a chess opening variation of the Two Knights Defense in which White sacrifices a knight for an attack on Black's king. The opening begins with the moves: ...

and other human strategies, and unable to recognize a two-king

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn most commonly refer to: * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Draw (tie), in a competition, where competitors achieve equal outcomes * Draw ...

, ''Sargon II'' was the first computer program that he found able to trap the opponent. Martarello concluded that the game "is about all we computer chess players could wish for". He also favorably reviewed the Sargon 2.5 for the Chafitz Modular Gaming System, stating that its faster performance and addition of pondering resulted in "small yet definite" chess improvement. Martarello nonetheless advised Sargon II owners to "wait for Sargon 3" because of the cost of the Chafitz system. ''

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

'' 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 ...

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". Ian Chadwick for '' Moves'' issue #56 said that "If you want to see what the fuss is all about, and try your hand at a game which must be considered state-of-the-art in computer programming, then ''Sargon II'' is the programme to get."

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 (magazine), 73'', founded ''80 Microcom ...

''
Review
in ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', is 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. ...

''
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 t ...

''
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 ju ...

''
Review
in ''

ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' was an American computer magazine devoted to Atari 8-bit computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANALOG'' printed multiple programs in each issue for users to type in. Almo ...

''
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 computer 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