[ Retro Scan ] The Hayden Sargon Hamburger
July 6th, 2017 by Benj Edwards
Starving for Software? Eat a tapeburger
For some reason, I find few things less appetizing than a black and white hamburger. (Maybe one with a computer tape on top of it.)
But we’re not here to eat this advertisement for Hayden Book Company’s 1979 computer tape offerings. We’re here to look at it.
I know very little about Hayden itself other than that it originated as a New Jersey-based book publisher and later transitioned into selling software on disk and tape as well (as “Hayden Software”). That stands in contrast to what I think was the firm’s first approach to publishing software — in paper books full of source code.
It’s worth noting that this might be the first-ever advertisement for what was originally called “Sargon: A Computer Chess Program“, a pioneering chess game and engine for personal computers that debuted at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire. I recall my brother playing Sargon II for the Atari 800 and Sargon III on the IBM PC, and I had a copy of Sargon II for the Apple II. It was a stalwart, well-respected chess series for many years.
Discussion Topic: What’s the best computer chess game you’ve ever played?
July 6th, 2017 at 9:17 pm
Being a novice chess player it might be difficult to say. For me it’s usually the one that’s easy to use and handy. For Android there are so many but thanks to the F-Droid repository you have something like “Chess” by Jeroen Carolus which has everything most players would need and none of the ads or other restrictions (not to mention strange permissions requirements). On Windows I’ve tried quite a few but settled on Lucas Chess as it’s Free with a GPL license, super simple, lightweight and friendly and has so many great training tools & puzzles (like the daily test). Strong community with online features via FICS. So that would be my recommendation for most casual players.
July 7th, 2017 at 3:37 am
I’ve only played two computer chess programs.
One was TI’s Video Chess.
The other was… yes, of course it was Battle Chess. Windows 3.1 version. I wonder where that CD wound up…
July 7th, 2017 at 4:01 pm
I really enjoyed playing Battle Chess on the Commodore 64, back in the day. However, Sargon II on the Commodore VIC-20 was the first computer chess program that I’ve ever played.
July 8th, 2017 at 10:08 am
Not technically on the computer, but I bought one of those “phantom force” chess sets several years ago. It may be a bit loud at times, but is fun and cool to see the real-life pieces move by themselves when you play against the computer.
July 8th, 2017 at 10:31 am
Chessmaster 4000. Before that it was Battlechess, and Jistuce I still my Battlechess CD 🙂
July 10th, 2017 at 6:45 am
“Welcome to Chessmaster”