"Checkers II"
By John Collins
ARCADIAN 2, no. 2 (Dec. 22, 1979): 10, 12
"Best of Arcadian - 1980" tape


This is an updated version of the previous game by John Collins. 1 Player. All the moves of the board game, including double jumps. Use the Keypad to indicate the row and column that you wish to move FROM, and then the row and column you wish to move TO. Press GO after each figure. When the computer is up, it will go through five calculations in deciding where to move, and you will see the figures 1-5 as it does so. Every so often it will redraw the playing board.

Notes from "Arcadian" about original version of "Checkers:"

There is an amazing amount of activity in this game, that is comparable to the $75 "Checker Challenger."  Before the machine makes a move, it goes through 
some steps, and numbers appear to tell you where it is.  The code for the steps 
is:

1.  The computer has found that it can jump one of your men.
2.  Checking to see it you can jump it.
3.  Is a corner open?
4.  Is there an open move?
5 and 6.  Have the computer's men moving either to get kinged or toward and player's man left
7. Any move an unkinged computer's piece can make
8. Any move

To indicate a doube jump, enter the two numbers (of the square you go through and the landing square) as if it were a single jump only.


Checkers II (1979)(John Collins)(300 baud)(PD)[a].zip - archived from tape in Bob Fabris collection.  The tape had a hand-written note on the label to add lines 3 and 5. I incorporated these changes, and the resulting program is close, but not identical, to Checkers II as published in The Arcadian. It's not clear whether John Collins or someone else made this modification.

Checkers II (mod) (19xx)(John Collins and unknown author)(300 baud).zip,

Checkers II (mod) (19xx)(John Collins and unknown author)(300 baud)[a].zip - archived from tape in Brett Bilbrey's collection.

Checkers II (mod) (no comments) (19xx)(John Collins and Klaus Doerge)(300 baud).wav
Checkers II (mod) (with comments) (19xx)(John Collins and Klaus Doerge)(300 baud).wav
     Here is the "Checkers" game digitally processed. Paul went ahead and made a version with the comments deleted to save memory, as the program instructs. He must have just deleted them manually when testing it before. One advantage of digital processing is easy comparison of the .txt files of the code. He now sees that the mod is much closer to Checkers II than to the original version of Checkers, thus it is now called "Checker II (mod)" and not "Checker (mod)."
