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MacintoshGo
   

The website for the British Go Association ([ext] http://www.britgo.org) makes it clear that Explorer is the hands-down favorite among Macintosh Go programs (all games referenced by myself are available on the BGA site).

There can be little doubt that Explorer is the most skilled (with the possible exception of Goliath -- I'm too poor to buy it), but as a diehard aesthete, I really loathe Explorer's look. It's so pre-Mac LC.

Lumpy seems to do the best job of presenting a pleasing arena while keeping the file size under 600MB (Goliath's demo alone is 2MB, and while the arena is gorgeous, play mechanics are awkward and the music is atrocious). The problem is that Lumpy's play is .. well, lumpy. I beat it consistently within a month of learning the rules of Go.

What we need (and I think this applies to Go in general on the computer) is a well-made Go arena with modular AI. Does anyone know if such a thing is in the works? If not, why not?

For a while I was baffled at how Explorer doesn't count all territory around dead stones; this is explained in AncientChineseRulesAndPhilosophy. Some of my other beefs with Explorer include preferences that seem to reset automatically, awkward placement of numbers (leaving tiny trails), and a temperamental relationship to the Applications Menu (it may be my particular setup).

Scartol

BenShoemaker: If you have OS X, you may want to check out: [ext] http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/

rmsp: I second that. Goban (uses GnuGo) is good - despite a few bugs - and it is really helpful if you want a stress-free way to be punished for your tactical mistakes. Jago ([ext] http://www.rene-grothmann.de/jago/) is also good on OS X, and is the best thing I've found so far for playing through commented sgf games.

(The above comments apply to "freeware" Mac Go programs. The following are commercial programs.)

Go Intellect by Ken Chen is a strong program for the Macintosh which used to place at computer go competitions. It appears to be still available from Yutopian ( [ext] http://www.yutopian.com/go/soft/EAC19.html).

Goliath by Mark Boon has a Mac version. (He has a free version which only plays 9x9 and 13x13).

Nemesis by Bruce Wilcox apparently has a Mac version, but it is very old.



This is a copy of the living page "MacintoshGo" at Sensei's Library.
(C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.