Computer Chess

Name:	Computer Chess
Company:	Atari
Model #:	N/A
Programmers:	Bob Whitehead and Larry Wagner
Year:	1978
Released?	No
Notes:	The only known prototype that has a production end label.

Computer Chess is a bit of an oddity among prototypes.  Once thought to simply be an early name for Video Chess, it turns out that Computer Chess is actually a slightly different game.  While its not a large difference (Chess is Chess), its different enough to take notice. 

The first (and most obvious) difference is that the coordinates for the chess board is displayed at the bottom of screen.  When a piece is selected, a picture of the piece and the coordinates of the move (in Chess notation of course) are displayed on screen.  This was probably removed from the final version (Video Chess) because most players aren't familiar with Chess notation and would be confused by all the numbers and letters all over the screen. 

Another difference in Computer Chess is that it's played using the right joystick.  I can't offer any explanation for this except that it might be a programming bug.  Computer Chess also displays the difficulty level in the bottom left corner as C# (# being the difficulty level), Video Chess simply displays a large number at the top of the screen.  Computer Chess also makes some psychedelic sounds to go along with the flashing colors is shows when its thinking.  These were wisely taken out of Video Chess.

Did you ever notice how the chess pieces are made up of lines?  This is because of a special trick created by Bob Whitehead to display more than six sprites per line (which wouldn't have been enough for Chess).  This trick called "Venetian Blinds" allowed the 2600 to display up to eight sprites per row (instead of the normal six) by alternating them between two sets of scanlines (four on one set of scanlines, and four on the other).  It was the development of this trick that made a chess program on the 2600 possible.

It's a good thing that Atari was able to figure this out, as they were currently being sued for lack of a Chess cartridge!  You see Atari had never planned to do a chess program.  Everyone thought that Chess was well beyond the capabilities of the poor old 2600 so it was never planned.  However someone forgot to tell marketing this, and they stuck a big ol' Chess piece on the system box.  Apparently some man in Florida had bought the 2600 assuming that it would have a Chess program available (after all they advertised it right on the box!).  After realizing that Atari planned no such thing, he sued for false advertising.  So Atari could either cough up a Chess cartridge or pay out alot of money in lawsuits, and thus Computer Chess (later renamed Video Chess) was born.

After much research it has been concluded that Computer Chess is an early version of the program that eventually become Video Chess.  Computer Chess was the first 2600 game to break the 4K barrier, weighing in at a hefty 6K!  Rather than go through the expense of releasing Computer Chess as a bankwitched cart, Atari decided to strip it down (removing some of the graphical extras) so it could fit into a regular 4K cart.  Still, the production end label found on the prototype cart makes me wonder just how close Computer Chess was to being released in its 6K form..

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