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Technical Issues
- What
are the minimum system requirements?
- Those seem like awfully high system requirements for a chess
program... how come?
- I have an older system. Can I optimize ChessRally to run
faster?
- The sound coming from ChessRally doesn't sound quite right.
Sometimes there are "pops" in the sounds where they
shouldn't be, and sometimes it seems a new sound plays a piece of a
previously played sound. How can I fix this?
.
Program Issues
.
- Why did you change the name of I-Chess to
ChessRally?
- When I downloaded ChessRally 2, I was expecting "Freeware", but it doesn't
seem to be. What Gives?
- What on earth are these "Finish Turn" and "Restart Turn" about?
Why can't I just move my pieces and be done with it, like other chess programs?
- How come I can't grab my pieces to move them?
- Why didn't ChessRally detect my Check/Checkmate/Stalemate?
- Why doesn't ChessRally apply the Theme I selected To All The
Windows?
- How do I get rid of those annoying mini-dialogs that explain every little feature?
.
Email Games
.
- For an email game, does my opponent need to already have ChessRally?
- Do I have to use a MAPI client, such as Outlook or Exchange to play email games with
ChessRally? Or can I use any email client? What about web email?
- I'm worried about sending and receiving attachments. Can ChessRally move emails contain viruses?
- I'm trying to email my move to my opponent... why can't ChessRally email my move?
- I couldn't email my move, and cancelled the dialog... now the screen says "Turn Over"...
how do I email my move to my opponent now?
.
Direct Network Games
.
- When playing against an opponent on the Internet / LAN, after I make my move, why can't my opponent
make his/her move?
- When I'm trying to Host a Direct Connection Game on the Internet or my LAN, why can't my opponent
connect to my computer, even though he/she's entered my IP address when trying to Join my game?
- Is there support for direct modem-to-modem game play?
.
Online
Rally Rooms
.
- What are the "Online Rally Rooms"?
- Sounds great! I see at the Rally Rooms screen, that you can select a
"Private Server" to log on to... what's that about? Can
I run a Private Server?
- OK... Can I also operate a Public Server?
.
Single Player Games
.
- The Single Player Games are pretty challenging... how did you get them that difficult?
.
Miscellaneous
.
- How do I perform a "Castling" maneuver
in ChessRally?
Gold Edition Upgrade
FAQ
- Is the cost of $19.99 to get the Gold Edition upgrade really a one-time fee? Or are there any "hidden" costs, like monthly or yearly membership fees?
- What happens if I need to reformat my hard drive or if I buy a new computer?
Do I have to spend the $19.99 all over again?
- When you release an update to ChessRally 2, (for example, upgrading from version 2.4 to 2.5), will I be charged for the update if I've already purchased ChessRally 2 Gold Edition?
- Can I use my Gold Edition License Key on more than one computer?
- Can I purchase a Gold Edition License Key for a friend or family member as a gift?
- I don't like using my credit card online. How safe is your ordering site?
- I simply refuse to use my credit card online.
Can I purchase through mail-order instead?
- How big is the Gold Edition download?
- What is a Site License, and do I need one?
- Many software companies now charge for Technical Support.
How much does your Technical Support cost?
Back to Top
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- What
are the minimum system requirements?
Minimum Requirements:
- Windows 7, Vista, XP, or
2000. (x86 and x64 versions both supported)
- Pentium-class processor
at 200 Mhz.
- 512 MB memory for
Windows Vista & 7.
- 256 MB memory for Windows 2000
& XP.
- 40 MB of available Hard
Disk space.
- No graphics accelerator is
required.
- No sound card is
required.
- A 33.6kbps Internet connection
(or better) is required for Internet
related games.
- 30MB of free hard disk space must
be available during installation.
We very highly recommend:
- Windows XP. (This
allows the most robust sound for this game, though Vista and 7
are supported.)
- Intel Pentium IV or compatible processor operating at
1 Ghz (or
higher).
- 1 GB (or higher) system
memory for Windows Vista & 7.
- 512 MB (or higher) system
memory for Windows 2000 & XP.
- 50 MB (or higher) of
available Hard Disk space (to allow room for downloadable
themes).
- Graphics accelerator.
- DirectX compatible Sound
card, with DirectX 8.0 installed (If you don't have DirectX
installed, you will still get audio through Windows MM... it
just won't be as nice, and it won't support audio mixing of
sound events.)
- 56kpbs Internet
connection. (Cable, DSL, and T1 lines are not necessary,
but can provide smoother operation, particularly if the
Online Rally Rooms get very busy.)
NOTE: Memory differences between
different versions of Windows is due to the inherent differences
between the size and features of the particular versions of Windows. ChessRally
can occupy between 32MB and 256MB of memory when run, depending on
total memory available (higher amounts of memory assure smoother and
faster operation). Combining the possible memory use of
ChessRally with the memory used by the particular version of Windows (later
versions of Windows use more memory) changes the requirement
accordingly.
Back to Top
- Those seem like awfully
high system requirements for a chess program... how come?
Most people
aren't aware of this, but chess is the most frequently played game on
the planet. With very few exceptions, every other chess program
or online service on the market today uses outdated technology: old
graphics, old sound engines, clunky interfaces, etc. For being
the most frequently played game in the world, the game has long been
deserving of being brought into the new millennium with the best user
experience possible by having an elegant, easy to use interface, all
while using the latest in graphics and sound technology. That's
where ChessRally comes in. ChessRally uses a beautifully
rendered, completely "hand-crafted" user interface that's
designed to make your chess experience as fun as possible.
ChessRally was designed explicitly to take advantage of the latest in
video technology, with real-time alpha blending and
antialiasing. (Notice how the pieces aren't simply
"slapped" onto the board, but are actually rendered onto the
board, complete with antialiasing and shadow effects? (We knew
you'd enjoy that :)) ChessRally will also take advantage of
DirectX's sound functionality for audio mixing, if version 7.0 or
higher is available on your system... which is nearly everyone... so
your in game sounds will never interrupt other sounds, or simply not
be played; which means you'll never miss an audio event, such as an
opponent move, or a new player at your table, and you will always get
the best audio experience possible.
Back to
Top
- I have an older system. Can I optimize ChessRally to run
faster?
Primarily, the three best ways
to optimize ChessRally's performance are:
Running The Display At A Lower Color Resolution:
A Most video cards today easily support
32-bit graphics, which looks really nice, but it means there are 4
entire bytes per pixel, which at 800x600 is 1.8 MB per screen full of
info. That's a lot of data to move around when drawing onto the
screen. If you run your display with 16-bit graphics, that's
half the amount of data (0.9 MB), which moves much, much faster, and
will increase the speed of ChessRally significantly.
Installing More Memory:
For minimum performance, ChessRally should be run with 16 MB of
physical memory "to spare". That means 16 MB of memory
more than the amount of memory required/recommended by the
operating system. This will vary between Windows 95 (8 MB),
Windows 98 (16-32 MB), Windows ME (32-64 MB), Windows NT4 (64-128 MB),
Windows 2000 (128 MB), and Windows XP (128-256 MB). Generally
speaking, the more memory you have installed, the faster Windows will
run. This isn't because more memory intrinsically improves the
speed of your computer, but it does allow Windows to run applications
in memory without having to "swap" them out to the hard disk
as needed, which allows your computer to run more efficiently... hence
the perceived "speed boost". Keep in mind that if you wish to
run a lot of other programs at the same time as ChessRally, even more
memory is a good idea. Further, ChessRally can use up to 128 MB
of memory if allowed to (if 1/2 of your available memory is 128MB or
more) This increases ChessRally's performance dramatically... so
again, more memory is always better.
Installing A Faster Processor:
Naturally, a faster processor will improve the speed of everything on
your computer, except a few "static" items, such as disk
access times, etc. For best performance, ChessRally should be
run on a 350 Mhz processor or better. (This is due to the heavy
amount of graphics in the interface, and the way they are
manipulated.)
Back to
Top
- The sound coming from ChessRally doesn't sound quite right. Sometimes there are "pops" in the sounds where they shouldn't be, and sometimes it seems a new sound plays a piece of a previously played
sound, or the sound seems to play twice in a row. How can I fix this?
If you're using
DirectX for sound with ChessRally, on some systems, especially older
systems with outdated sound cards and/or drivers, you may
experience "audio artifacts" (odd audio behaviors, like
popping or crackling sounds, or a piece of a previously played sound
being heard when it shouldn't be) when you use hardware acceleration
for audio. It doesn't happen for all wave files (sounds), and it
doesn't happen on all systems.
On the technical side, what's happening is that the software used to
create the wave file isn't creating a wave file that's 100% compatible
with some older sound card drivers, even if the sound card driver is
certified for DirectX, or otherwise compatible with DirectX.
Often the wave file contains "extra chucks" such as
description strings, and it also may be improperly block aligned or
only block aligned to the minimum requirement block size for wave
files, and the sound card driver is expected it to either be a
"classically formatted" wave file, and/or be aligned by a
different block size. Unfortunately it's one of those things
where the wave file is technically correct, that is, it does
conform with the wave file format... and the sound card driver is technically
correct in that it plays the wave files as it sees them, according to
the wave format specification. Generally, it's the driver's
responsibility to accept variations in the usage of the wave file
format, and some driver manufacturer's simply didn't do it.
There are several things to try
to fix this issue:
a. Contact the Theme developer to fix the issue. The
ChessRally 2 Theme Creator's Kit includes a "wave file
fixer" for this purpose. If for some reason, that doesn't
solve your problem, try "b", below...
b. Update your sound card's drivers to the
latest available version. Unfortunately, it is the case with
quite a few sound card manufacturers that they stop supporting their
cards after just a couple of years, which means they don't (and
won't... they'd rather have you to buy a new machine) update their
drivers for the latest in technology, such as DirectX. (For
example, I have a 6 year old "store brand" Pentium 200 Mhz
computer (I won't mention the manufacturer) as a "kick
around" machine, and the latest sound card driver for it is dated
1997... that's over 4 years old!!) So, in some cases, the
"latest" driver for your sound card may in fact be rather
outdated... even drivers that are "certified" for DirectX
may become outdated quickly as new versions of DirectX are released,
and in spite of the driver being certified for DirectX (which
version of DirectX is the real question) it may not work 100% as
expected under more recent versions of DirectX. So, if that doesn't fix it, try
"c", below...
c. Update DirectX to the latest available
version. At the time this FAQ was written the latest DirectX
version was 8.1. (Of course, the game only requires DirectX 7.0, since most
people already have at least that installed, and therefore you
wouldn't have to be pestered with another download, but it works great
with DirectX 8.1 as well.) If that doesn't fix it, try
"d", below...
d. Here, you have a choice: Disable sound hardware acceleration for
DirectX (Go to your "Control Panel", open the
"Multimedia" item, select the "Audio" tab [may
already be selected], click on the "Advanced Properties"
button for Playback, and on the subsequent screen, select the
"Performance" tab, and slide the "Hardware
Acceleration" slider to the "None" position.)
...or... Disable/uncheck the "Use DirectX for Sound" option in the
ChessRally Options screen. Disabling hardware
acceleration using the Control Panel seems to always fix the issue, but the
downside is that sound is played a lot slower by DirectX... on older
systems, you may not want to take the performance hit. With
newer systems, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Try it and
see if you like it. Disabling "Use DirectX for Sound" in the
ChessRally "Options" screen will always work because it
won't use DirectX at all. The downside for this is that you will
not get mixed sounds... since audio mixing is not possible in
ChessRally without DirectX, a sound may interrupt
another if two are needed at the same time, depending on which takes
priority. There is of course a 3rd
option to mute sound entirely in the game from the
"Options" drop-down menu. Whichever option you choose,
this should fix the problem. If you really don't like any of
these options, try "e", below...
e. This is really a last resort, but buying a new, better sound card
can enrich all of your multimedia experiences in Windows, from games
to web surfing... and may solve your problem with DirectX applications
such as ChessRally as well, so it might be worth checking out.
Back to
Top
- Why did you change the
name of I-Chess to ChessRally?
It turned out the someone was already using that name, in the form of
"iChess", and had been using it for a couple more years than
we were. (Although they never registered the name as a
trademark.) Still, we didn't want there to be any confusion, so
we decided to come up with a different name... a better name... hence
"ChessRally". Besides, the name "ChessRally"
speaks better to the nature of the new features (Online Rally Rooms,
etc.) than the name "I-Chess" ever could have.
Back to Top
- When I downloaded
ChessRally 2, I was expecting "Freeware", but it doesn't
seem to be. What Gives?
We expected this might confuse some people, but it's really quite
simple. ChessRally 2 Free Edition is in fact, in
every way, FREE, and is therefore in every way considered
"Freeware". (Albeit "promotional"
freeware.) You may use ChessRally 2 Free Edition
for as long as you like, without restrictions. Nothing is
crippled. You can play email games, load, save, print, etc., no problem.
However, some things have been added to the installation that are not
"natively" part of the Free Edition experience... namely, the
trial of the Gold Edition features. Unlike the Free Edition of
ChessRally 2, the Gold Edition is NOT free. It is a commercial program that sells for only
$19.99 US. The relationship between the two is like the
relationship between any other "Full Version" and "Lite
Version" software combos... generally, the "Lite
Version" is the "promotional" version to expose you
to the full commercial product. That's the way that scenario
has been handled throughout the software industry for over a
decade... and it is exactly the same scenario with ChessRally 2.
However, things might get a little confusing about this issue for
two reasons:
- The Free Edition comes
with a time trial (21 days) of all Gold Edition features, which
seems "shareware-ish" in nature, not "freeware-ish".
This is somewhat of a fine line in Full/Lite situations.
The fact is, ChessRally 2 Free Edition is a full-featured email
chess client... nothing more... but since we wanted
to expose you to the benefits of the Gold Edition (Direct
Network games, Online Rally Rooms, Single Player games vs. PC,
etc.),
we added the Gold Edition features for you to try for 21 days,
and put it all in one package so you only need to download one
file... If you like the Gold Edition features, upgrade! If
not, continue using the Free Edition to play email chess for as long as you
want, without restriction.
- With both the Free
Edition and the Gold Edition coming in the same download file,
that's bound to cause some confusion. In order to give you
those Gold Edition features to try, and not make you download an
entirely different file when you chose to upgrade, ChessRally 2
"self patches" when it upgrades. It just made
sense from the user experience perspective to do it that way...
not to mention freeing up
our web server to offer you a better experience with us
online. (We don't do advertisements in our software, or on
the web, so there's no reason to artificially generate lots of
website traffic... we'd rather free up our server resources to
better serve you.)
Back to
Top
- What on earth are these
"Finish Turn" and "Restart Turn" about?
Why can't I just move my pieces and be done with it, like other
chess programs?
A couple of things about this:
(a) You can "just move
your pieces" if you prefer to. There's an option in the
ChessRally Options screen for "Single Step Turn
Completion", which will cause ChessRally to behave like
"legacy" chess programs when it comes to piece movement...
but we don't recommend playing that way because of...
(b), which is... having
"Finish Turn" and "Restart Turn" buttons serve
several useful purposes: (1) Have you ever made a move, where, as soon as
you dropped the piece, you realized it was a mistake? (I
certainly have!) Having "Finish Turn" and
"Restart Turn" buttons allow you catch such errors before
they've been "committed" to the game. (2) For those
of you into tournament chess, it's more like hitting a chess clock
for tournament games, creating a more realistic tournament
experience. (3) Now this one's important... before you press
the "Finish Turn" button, you have several options: you
can finish your turn, restart your turn, use the Risk Indicator
feature to reveal any attacks to your pieces after you've made the
move, or you can move another piece (even your opponent's) and by
doing so, enter "Experimenting Mode", which will allow you
experiment with all of the pieces around the board, to help you
strategize and plan ahead. In Experimenting Mode, the
"Finish Turn" button is not available, so press
"Restart Turn" to reset the board to where it was at the
beginning of your move, then proceed with the game as usual.
Back to Top
- How
come I can't grab my pieces to move them?
A couple of possibilities... (a) if you're game is over, or your
turn in an email game has been emailed, no pieces can be moved until
a new game (or previously saved game) has been loaded. (b)
Make sure you're trying to move the correct pieces. Try the
other color. (c) Well, there really is no "c", but
if you have further difficulty moving your pieces, contact Ingenuware
Technical Support and notify them of the difficulty.
Back to Top
- Why
didn't ChessRally detect my Check/Checkmate/Stalemate?
The cause for this is because a player has forgotten about the
"Finish Turn" button, and keeps moving pieces
in "Experimenting Mode", thinking that they're playing the
game. When you're satisfied with your move, press the
"Finish Turn" button at the top of the game board.
If the "Finish Turn" button is disabled, then you must
press the "Restart Turn" button right next to it... make
your move... and then press the "Finish Turn" button.
If you really prefer not to have to press a "Finish Turn"
button, go to the ChessRally Options screen, and check the
"Single Step Turn Completion" box.
If you're following the procedure for making moves, and you've still
seen the game not detect (or incorrectly detect) a move or move
result, then please save the game and email the saved game to support@ingenuware.com
for analysis.
Back to Top
- Why doesn't ChessRally apply the Theme I selected To All The Windows?
Only the main ChessRally
Game Screen is affected by Themes. (This is the inner area
of the main window, where the chessboard is.) To
"skin" every window with special graphics would require
Theme download files be much, much larger, ranging from 5 MB to 8
MB!! Although the windows in ChessRally are in fact dynamically
"skinned", making user-skinning for the entire game
technically feasible, there are other graphics used (for example, the
"Locate Player" graphic on the Locate Player dialog.)
which may not "match" a Theme's graphics, which would
require that the Theme include substitute graphics, which is the
biggest reason why the Theme would be enormously large if we went that
way. Perhaps in a future version, when everyone has a 1mbps or
better connection to the Internet, we will support full application
skinning. But for now, Themes will just affect the main ChessRally
Game Screen, where it is most important to have it.
Back to Top
- How do I get rid of those annoying
mini-dialogs that explain every little feature?
Simply put, as the dialogs come up, just uncheck the check boxes that
say "Show this... next time", and they will never re-appear
unless you want them to. (You can also turn them on or off from
the "Options" screen.)
Back to Top
- For
an email game, does my opponent need to already have ChessRally?
No! Your opponent does not need to already have ChessRally for
you to send them your first move. When you email your first
move to your opponent, the email contains instructions on where and
how to download the Free Edition of the game and install it. This way, you can
email your first move to anyone you know!
Back to Top
- Do I have to use a MAPI
client, such as Outlook or Exchange to play email games with ChessRally?
Or can I use any email client? What about web email?
You'll be happy to know that ChessRally will work with virtually any
email client, include web email! Your email program or website
must, however, support MIME attachments. Generally speaking
though, that covers all of them... I haven't heard of any email
clients that don't support MIME attachments, so you should be good
to go!
One thing to note, however, is that ChessRally has its own built-in email
client for the purpose of sending your move emails... that means you
must configure it like any other email client software such as
Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, IncrediMail, etc., telling it the name (or IP)
of your SMTP server (outgoing email server), your username and
password. If you don't have access to an SMTP server, ask your
ISP about it; I'm sure they'll tell you that you do, even if you didn't
realize it. Or, if you prefer, you
can sign up for a ChessRally.com Email Account for use with ChessRally
Email Games, or private correspondence to your ChessRally
friends!! To learn more about ChessRally.com Email Accounts,
please visit http://www.chessrally.com/email.htm.
Back to
Top
- I'm worried about sending
and receiving attachments. Can ChessRally move emails contain
viruses?
Absolutely Not! The attachments sent in a ChessRally move are
just data files containing a detailed description of your game for
ChessRally, and do not contain and under no circumstances can
contain computer code of any kind, scripted or binary, including
viruses.
That being said, especially in light of recent virus/worm activity
via email, it's always a good idea to verify that the move
email is genuine. The attachment extension for a ChessRally
game is .chs alone... not .chs.pif, or .chs.exe, or .chs.scr,
etc. Just .chs. If you get an email that doesn't
conform to this, scrap it immediately, it's not a genuine move
email.
Back to Top
- I'm
trying to email my move to my opponent... why can't ChessRally email my
move?
ChessRally needs to be able to establish a connection with your
outgoing email server (SMTP). Be sure (a) you're connected to
the Internet, (b) you've entered all the correct settings in the
email screen of ChessRally for connecting with your server.
Common mistakes are: entering your email address as your user name,
not entering the name of the SMTP server, but the domain of the
ISP. (Sometimes they're the same thing, sometimes not.
Ask your ISP if you're not sure.)
Lastly, (c) be sure your outgoing email server isn't
"down". Give your ISP or system administrator a call
to verify that the system is in normal operating order.
Back to Top
- I
couldn't email my move, and cancelled the dialog... now the screen
says "Turn Over"... how do I email my move to my opponent
now?
You'll have to remake your move. If you're responding to a
move email from your opponent, close ChessRally, re-open the email, and re-launch the
attachment. If you're starting a new game, just start over,
make your move, and email it.
Back to Top
- When
playing against an opponent on the Internet / LAN, after I make my
move, why can't my opponent make his/her move?
As discussed in the previous question, you must each press the
"Finish Turn" button when you're done making your move,
unless you've enabled the "Single Step Turn Completion"
feature.
Back to Top
- When I'm
trying to Host a Direct Connection Game on the Internet or my LAN, why can't my
opponent connect to my computer, even though he/she's entered my IP
address when trying to Join my game?
Generally, the reason why you can't make a connection is because
your opponent's computer can't "see" your computer.
The first thing to check is that both of you are properly connected
to the Internet. A good way to check, is for both of you to independently
visit a website whose pages don't cache, like the TV
Guide listings for your area. (www.tvguide.com)
If you look at your local listings, they're made fresh every half
hour, so your browser should load the new pages automatically.
If each you and your opponent can do this successfully, you will
have confirmed that you are both connected to the Internet...
The second thing to check is that you're both using the same port
number. You can verify the port number at the new game screen
by navigating to the Direct Network Game options, then pressing the
button labeled "TCP/IP Port".
The third thing to check is that you've selected the correct IP
address to host with. Many computers (even home computers)
exist on a local area network (LAN), and their LAN network adapters
also have an IP address. Make sure that the IP address you've
selected to host with is your Internet connection, and not your
local network adapter's IP address. (Local IP addresses are
not visible to the rest of the Internet, but only to your LAN.)
To find out what this address is, press your Windows
"Start" button, select "Run", then enter "winipcfg.exe"
in the box, and press OK. That utility program will list all
of your IP addresses, and will identify what they are. If you
connect to the Internet through a dial-up modem, it will be the item
called "PPP Adapter".
The last thing to check is to make sure that you're not trying to
host a game behind an Internet proxy server (WinProxy, MS Proxy
Server, Internet Connection Sharing, etc.) or Firewall. This
ties somewhat into the "third thing to check",
above. When you're accessing the Internet through another
computer, such as with a home network, your PC's IP address is only
visible to your LAN, and not to the rest of the Internet. Even
if you are sitting at the proxy server or computer with the
firewall, in most cases, that computer's Internet activity is routed
through the proxy server and/or firewall software, making general
Internet activity on that computer a "client" of the proxy
or firewall... also preventing you from hosting a game. You
will NOT be able to host a game from behind a proxy server or
firewall.
If all else fails, play an email game, or just join us in the Online
Rally Rooms!
Back to Top
- Is
there support for direct modem-to-modem game play?
No. We thought about putting it in the game this version, but
there simply wasn't enough demand for it. If you really
want the feature, let us know... a new version with direct
modem-to-modem support is a possibility!
Back to Top
- What are the "Online Rally Rooms"?
The Online Rally Rooms
are basically "lobby"-style chat rooms with game tables to play and
chat at.
When you enter a Rally Room, you can chat in the main "lobby", choose
a table to host, choose a table to join, or observe a table as a spectator. Each table is essentially, it's own room, complete with
table-private chat. When you're the first to sit at a table, it's
"yours" until you leave, or "stand" and become a
spectator. As the table host, you can change the game settings/rules,
start new games at the table, kick people off of your table, invite people to
your table, etc.
Each Rally Room is run by a "Rally Room Server", a special piece of
software that we wrote to work in conjunction with ChessRally 2.
Back to
Top
- Sounds great! I see at the Rally Rooms screen, that you
can select a "Private Server" to log on to... what's that
about? Can I run a Private Server?
Yes! The "Private
Server" option is for users who wish to host or join a room that's run outside of
our network of public rooms. Anyone (including you!) can
download the ChessRally 2 Rally Room Server program from www.chessrally.com,
and host their own room. If you do, in order to get people to your room,
you must tell them what your name/IP is, as well as the port you plan to run the
server on. They can then enter that information into the "Private
Server" screen, and connect to your own private room. However, you
MAY NOT AT ANY TIME come into any of our public rooms to recruit
players for your private server. To do so would violate the
ChessRally 2 End User License Agreement, and could result in revocation
of your license. (Note: This is
ideal for corporate and organizational intranets; you can have your
own room setup on your own LAN. That will keep things nice and
fast, and would not require outside Internet access.)
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Top
- OK... Can I also Operate A Public Server?
Sorry, not any
longer. We had originally planned to only host our own Public
Servers for as long as it took for the software to become popular, and
for the service to grow. Then, we were going to gradually
replace our servers with privately ran Public Room Servers that were
linked by our Public List Server. This was intended to be
modeled after First-Person Shooter (FPS) games that utilize
user-donated server and bandwidth for the gaming communities'
enjoyment. Many FPS (and other competitive games) use interfaces
like GameSpy to list available servers, etc. It was our intent
for ChessRally to become yet another game client that would connect to
such networks. However, due to player needs and demands for
better security, we have maintained our own Public Rally Room network,
the servers of which are under our control. We will continue
this tradition for the safety of our users as long as it is needed.
We MAY however, begin soliciting ChessRally 2 fans to host their own
Public Room Servers when the next product in the ChessRally family
comes out... ChessRally 3. At that time, we will then consider
offloading responsibility of maintaining the Public Rally Rooms to
dedicated fans of ChessRally 2. As of writing this, ChessRally 3
isn't even on the drawing board... but releasing the Public Rally
Rooms network for Public Control is still an option we'll consider at
that time. (For the best security, concerned users could simply
get the new ChessRally product and use that instead.)
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- The Single Player Games are pretty challenging... how did you get them
that difficult?
In a word... we
didn't! The single player move decisions and move suggestions come from an
existing computer chess AI engine that we modified with permission for use with
ChessRally 2. It was originally called "Crafty", by Dr. Robert
Hyatt, a man widely recognized for his genius. Crafty is based on Dr.
Hyatt's earlier work on the World Computer Champion chess program (1983-1989),
"Cray Blitz", and this is one of the reasons Crafty has such a strong
game. Our port and modification of the original Crafty console program was
to a Win32 DLL component for an an easy "plug-in" style computer
opponent. Future plans for ChessRally include other chess AI engines, all
as "components" which you can choose from. If you want to use
our modified version of the Crafty engine to play single player games for free,
we have supplied a small console-like program called "CRCraftyConsole.exe"
for free in the same directory as ChessRally.exe. Dr. Hyatt's Crafty
commands documentation exists in the same directory as crafty_doc.txt.
Also, in accordance with the GNU public license, our port and modifications of
the Crafty engine is available for free with complete source code at www.chessrally.com.
Dr. Hyatt's original Crafty code can be found at ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/
or at http://www.cis.uab.edu/info/faculty/hyatt/hyatt.html.
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- How Do I Perform a "Castling"
maneuver in ChessRally?
You can perform a
long/queen-side castle or short/king-side castle with ChessRally by
moving the king two spaces towards the rook which he will perform
the castle maneuver with. When you drop the king on that
square (two squares away from the original position), the king and
rook will automatically perform the maneuver. Please note that
you can only perform this maneuver when it is legal to castle.
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- Is the cost of $19.99 to get the Gold Edition upgrade really a one-time fee?
Or are there any "hidden" costs, like monthly or yearly membership fees?
The $19.99 for the Gold Edition upgrade is a ONE-time fee. There are no hidden costs, no hidden charges, no membership fees of any kind. For the price of going to see a movie (plus popcorn & a drink, of course!), you can have a lifetime of chess enjoyment with ChessRally 2 Gold Edition. Pay Once, Play Forever! That's our motto!
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- What happens if I need to reformat my hard drive or if I buy a new computer?
Do I have to spend the $19.99 all over again?
Absolutely not! :-) When you purchase your license to ChessRally 2 Gold Edition, you are assigned a permanent Gold Edition License Key. That license key is yours to use on any single computer you choose. If you need to reformat your hard drive, or transfer the license to a new computer, no problem!
(Just use the "Moving to a New Computer?" option in the Help
menu.) If for some reason, you lose your License Key, just contact us and we can resend a copy of your License Key to you.
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- When you release an update to ChessRally 2, (for example, upgrading from version 2.4 to 2.5), will I be charged for the update if I've already purchased ChessRally 2 Gold Edition?
Again, absolutely not! :-) When you purchase your license to ChessRally 2 Gold Edition, your permanent Gold Edition License Key is good forever, on all versions of ChessRally 2. There is nothing more to buy, ever. It's that simple.
(Note: In the event that we need to change license keys between
versions of ChessRally 2, you will be issued a free replacement key
that is compatible with the new version.)
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- Can I use my Gold Edition License Key on more than one computer?
No. Each Gold Edition License Key can only be used on one computer at a time. If you need to transfer the License Key to a new computer, that's no problem... but you
remove your License Key from the old computer first. (See the
"Moving to a New Computer?" option in ChessRally's
"Help" menu for details.) If you need multiple License Keys for multiple computers (many of our customers have a desktop and a laptop, for example), you can buy multiple License Keys at the same time (there is an option to select multiple Licenses when you purchase), and you will receive a nice discount for purchasing more than one license at a time. Currently, the cost of two licenses is just $35.98, which saves you $4.
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- Can I purchase a Gold Edition License Key for a friend or family member as a gift?
Yes, you can. However, you need to ask us first, emailing us with the Full Name, Mailing Address, Email Address, and Telephone Number of the person who will be receiving the gift. This is required so we can transfer ownership of the license key to the person that will actually be using it. Other than that, you may not transfer ownership to
one else. (We do reserve the right to refuse such a transfer,
but we almost always allow it... the only current exception where we
don't allow it is when someone wants to buy a Key for someone else
that we know has been illegally distributing Keys they receive.)
There are two reasons why we need to do a transfer of the License Key
using the recipient's contact information. (1) Our customer
service database is set up so every License Key issued must be
assigned to a real person, and (2) We want to be able to contact the
recipient if someone using their computer misbehaves in the Online
Rally Rooms, etc. We prefer to solve the problem, rather than
just "ban away".
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- I don't like using my credit card online.
How safe is your ordering site?
We understand your concerns over this issue. In order to alleviate all risk and concern, our ordering site is secured by 128-bit SSL encryption, which is extremely safe and secure. Further, we NEVER store your credit card number on our
web servers under any conditions. Your card number is only used by you at the moment you make your purchase, and then our
web server forgets the number entirely.
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- I simply refuse to use my credit card online.
Can I purchase through mail-order instead?
Yes, you can! When you get to the secure ordering site to purchase your license to ChessRally 2 Gold Edition, there is a link at the bottom of that page to a printable mail-in order form. There is also a printable mail-in order form in the ChessRally 2 User's Guide (help menu). For mail-in orders, we can accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover/Novus), personal checks
from the USA Only, or Bank Cheques and Money Orders from any country. For all checks and money orders, payment must be made out in US Dollars,
since our bank charges us a $25 conversion fee, which is more than the
cost of the product itself! (Please allow for a couple of weeks for processing mail-in
orders. We process them on the same day they are received, but
sometimes the mail to us, particularly from outside of the USA, can be
slow.)
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- How big is the Gold Edition download?
We have good news for you! THERE IS NO GOLD EDITION DOWNLOAD! There is just one download for ChessRally 2, and it includes both the Free Edition (Trial) and the Gold Edition in one tidy package. Again, there is just the one download,
which will give you everything you need for Gold Edition access. It's just that simple. When you purchase, you only need to enter the license key that we issue you, and ChessRally 2 will instantly and automatically upgrade itself to the Gold Edition.
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- What is a Site License, and do I need one?
A Site License is licensing assigned to an individual or organization for one physical location. A physical location is any location with the same
physical postal address. For example, this could be a school, church, or single company location, such as an office building, etc. Site Licensees are issued a special Site License Key that can be used on ANY NUMBER of computers, as long as all the computers in question are permanently located at the physical location of the Site License. This is a great way for any company or organization to save a lot of money while legally using our
software on all of their computers!
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- Many software companies now charge for Technical Support.
How much does your Technical Support cost?
Absolutely nothing. Ingenuware Technical Support is absolutely free. We want you to be able to use our software, and to be so happy with us, that you recommend our software to all of your friends and family. Truth be told, we also buy software, and we can't stand pay-for-support, so we don't charge anything for it. Once again, Pay Once, Play Forever!
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