BATTLE CHESS II: CHINESE CHESS

 For those of you who own BATTLE CHESS and are considering an upgrade to
BATTLE CHESS II: CHINESE CHESS, beware! BCII only features the Chinese
version of the royal game. Needless to say, I was somewhat disheartened to
discover that my Queen had been replaced with Cannons and Ministers, and I
now had a river to cross before I reached the other side of the board. (This
review is based on the IBM version.)

 There are certain similarities to conventional chess, however. The objective
of the game is still to checkmate your opponent's King; Rooks play a
significant role, and the board contains 64 squares. But there are many
differences. Chinese chess is played from point to point (a point being the
corner of a square), not square to square; certain pieces can't cross the
river that bisects the board; the King and Counsellors must remain in a
five-point area known as the "Imperial Palace" and none of your five Pawns
can promote upon reaching the last rank! (If endings are your favorite part
of the game, I have a distinct feeling you may have an aversion to Chinese
chess....)

 Navigation of BCII is accomplished through a combination of pull-down menus
and macro keys. The four menus are self explanatory and include the major
functions that seem necessary to successfully operate the program: "Disk"
loads and saves games; "Move" forces and takes back moves; "Settings"
provides sound and music(!) support and "Level" adjusts the time allotted
and playing strength.

 Like BATTLE CHESS, a unique feature of BCII is the capability for use in
conjunction with a modem. Want to play a "live" game of Chinese chess with
someone? All that's required is a copy of the program and a modem.

 Probably the principal reason for purchasing BCII, though, is for the
entertainment value provided by the program's animation. All pieces resemble
their names. For example, Pawns are foot soldiers that don't just move
forward, they walk. Captures are particularly amusing, as Cannons shoot
across the board and sword fights determine the control of a point!

 However, there is a rather steep price to be paid for all the "bells and
whistles." That cost comes in terms of an often agonizingly slow response
time to commands (which may also be due to my machine -- an XT compatible.)
More significantly, BCII is the only chess program that I've had difficulty
running. Machine freeze-ups during animation became commonplace.

 Program Requirements: IBM, Tandy, and 100% compatibles. Color monitor
required; supports MCGA, CGA, EGA, and VGA. RAM: 512K for CGA/EGA and 640K
for MCGA/VGA. DOS 2.1-4.1. Mouse and joystick support. Supplied on 3.5" and
5.25" disks. Not copy protected.

 A glossy-covered, 32-page operations guide is included. It is clearly
written and adequately describes each function. The majority of the booklet
consists of instructional material and background intended for the newcomer
to Chinese chess. Technical support can be obtained by calling Interplay
Productions (who also have their own support area in the Game Publishers
Forum [GAMPUB] on CompuServe).

 Assuming my performance problems can be discounted as due to a lack of
sufficient RAM (despite having more available than the required 512K), I can
only recommend BCII to devotees of Chinese chess or those who wish to try a
new variation of the royal game. But if you buy BCII expecting to find an
upgrade of the original BATTLE CHESS, you may be disappointed.

 BATTLE CHESS II: CHINESE CHESS is published and distributed by Interplay
Productions.