GoGoD History
Here follows the long history of the "goGames on Disk" collection. As it now (2011) enters his tenth year it is a nice time to put it all here:
Information prior to the entry from Winter 2013 comes from the GoGod CD and republished with the permission of TMark Hall.
Table of contents |
Summer 2016
This new edition has 87,823 zipped sgf games - text files that work on Windows, Mac and Linux
Now includes complimentary GoLibrary database search program (Windows only) as well as New In Go html files
Winter 2013
As of late 2013, GoGod removed the Encyclopedia and program collection. John Fairbairn explained that he felt he could no longer maintain them, following the death of T Mark Hall.
Summer 2011
The total of sgf games reached 68,127 with many interesting additions.
Fujisawa Hideyuki now a milligod (i.e. we have 1,000 of his games), but this edition also includes a previously unknown even game between Go Seigen and Cho Chikun, and there are also new games for Kitani Minoru, Takagawa Kaku, Hashimoto Utaro and Sakata Eio not in their collected games (quite a few in some cases). A very large number of games by Segoe Kensaku has been added (along with a feature on him).
Also we have found Honinbo Jowa's earliest known game, likewise missing from the printed collections. Although the database count refers only to 19x19 games, we do provide games at other sizes, and these now include a previously missing 21x21 pro game. Normal additions include a swathe of New Fuseki games from Autumn 1933, a key period in this movement, and these will illuminate the period especially for those who have the latest GoGoD book from Slate & Shell: Old Fuseki vs. New Fuseki.
Winter 2010
The total of sgf games reached 65,188.
Much of the focus this time was on 1980s games, but a new Castle Game and several more Go Seigen games were highlights. A PowerPoint? presentation of The Incident Room was added, along with more of the usual third-party contributions. Outside the CD, the latest GoGoD book published by Slate & Shell, the Meijin's Retirement Games?, appeared in November 2010.
Summer 2010
The total of sgf games reached 63,141, with many added from the 1930s this time and also lots of new Kansai Ki-in games, plus a couple of rare 15x15 pro games. Our headline total excludes these but they include the likes of Go Seigen. A reminder on the features side that items such as Mirror go in New in Go are longer on the CD than in the online version. There has also been a major overhaul of the games of Honinbo Shuei, with well over 20 new games.
Winter 2009
The total of sgf games reached 60,350, with many added from the 1950s this time.
Apart from the usual updates to the Encyclopaedia, one special new item is the profusely illustrated ICOB feature on western go equipment by Theo van Ees. The "from the GoGoD archives" series of books published by Slate & Shell also continued, with "The Go Consultants" (the famous consultation game involving Go Seigen) and "Final Summit" (the matches between Go and Takagawa) having now appeared. Jochen Fassbender?'s latest index to Go World, now up to issue 119, also just crept in in time.
Summer 2009
The total of sgf games reached 57,579, with special focus recently on games of the 1980s and 1990s.
Apart from regular updating of tournament data, additions to the Encyclopaedia portion were limited updates. This was mainly because of commitments with Slate and Shell to publish material "from the GoGoD archives" in book form. This refers both to material on and (mostly) not on the CD. The first book to appear, in February 2009, was Go Companion?, about 40% of which was from the New In Go column. The second, all new, was Kamakura, a detailed account of the 1939-41 Ten Game Match between Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru.
Further books are already in the pipeline, and this is likely to affect future updating of the encyclopaedia (but not the database).
Winter 2008
The total of sgf games reached 54,623.
The check on existing games continues, with many extra or variant moves being found. The encyclopaedia continues to be updated throughout - some highlights are papers from ICOB5 (on the Features page) and a long biography of Rin Kaiho.
Summer 2008
The total of sgf games reached 52,741, though there was also a fairly thorough check of data for existing games, thanks to new sources.
Additions to the encyclopaedia included the complete Hoen Shinpo was added, a major feature on Cho Hun? and an extensive review of shogi history.
Winter 2007
The total of sgf games reached 50,080.
Many of the new games are from Japanese tournaments whose games do not normally make the internet, yearbooks or books. The encyclopaedia included a major update to Denis Feldmann's Bestiary?, our new Concepts Library, and the start of our Gateway To All Marvels project.
Summer 2007
The total of sgf games reached 46,635.
New items in the encyclopaedia included The Go Consultants book, further academic articles by Peter Shotwell and a suite of articles on computer go by Thomas Wolf of Go Tools fame.
On-line we also ran out of space for the free items we offer via New In Go, annd so we upgraded to a bigger site with the new URL www.gogod.co.uk.
Winter 2006
The sgf database reached 42,421 games.
An interesting new addition was the complete games of the Asahi Best Ten Pro-Am Matches (which gave us two new Cho Chikun games) and there new games by Shusaku, Shusai and Jowa.
Peter Shotwell's archive of features and more ICOB? articles, including Bill Spight on kos, were added.
Former insei Norman Chadwick was another new contributor, and the archive version of the new online Coffee-break Go was added.
Summer 2006
The sgf database reached the landmark of 40,228 games.
These include major updates to early Oteai games and older Korean games. Several book-length items were added: ShapeUp! and On Your Side plus other items from Charles Matthews, and Denis Feldmann's Bestiary?. The complete Igo Shukairoku is now included. Kansai Ki-in photos were added, plus a Flash program for testing yourself on who's who. MultiGo was upgraded to version 4.2 and Kogo's Joseki Dictionary to May 2006.
Plus many more updates to the regular features, of course.
Winter 2005
The sgf database reached 35,064 games by over 2,800 players. A large number of features was added, especially on historical players. Many commentaries were kindly supplied by Alexandre Dinerchtein.
Summer 2005
First fruits of the switch to a twice-yearly format.
Major additions included megafeatures on Genan Inseki and go in wartime Japan (connected with the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima atom bomb).
There was a big splurge on new tournament data and, on the games front, accent was put on mopping up many gaps in recent tournaments - though a fair number of rare or newly discovered old games have also been added. Our well received on-line column New In Go has been included on the CD, and of course this offline version benefits from having access to the database, now totalling 32,370 games.
Winter 2004
The total of games reached 30,033 and now includes the complete Castle Games and complete games of Shusaku.
Major historical articles added - plus all the usual additions. !PBase3 has been upgraded and may more problems added. Multi-go is now part of the free third-party goodies. Tournament pages now total over 800.
July 2004
Brought forward slightly for the US Congress in Rochester. The total of games reached 28,483. The many additions in other sections include the oldest go poem, detailed commentaries on Kamakura games, more Castle Game history, complete set of Genran problems, more player biographies, Liu Zhongfu?'s Go Secrets and the new Nihon Ki-in Hall of Fame.
April 2004
The total of games reached 27,811.
Commentaries were introduced and for these the program Base and its associated game directories were added. Tanggo was replaced by Go99 for 9x9 games. The Go World Index, Kogo's Joseki Dictionary, Progor and SmartGo Viewer were added as third-party items.
Our own website had a makeover. Sufficient progress was made with Quick Links to make it usable. Photos from the Nihon Ki-in were added. Names Dictionary in html format added
November 2003
The total of games was brought up to 26,200.
The additions include, in particular, games of Takagawa (now over 1100) and games of the Meiji era (end 19th century). A large amount of tournament data has been added, alongside converting existing pages to our new format almost finished!). Much has been added also on the Features and Players pages. We added a beta version of a new program, PBase.exe, to present classical go problems. Only a small amount of problems have been added so far (Guanzipu 2 is the only complete collection - the 21 others have some data but are mainly placeholders).
August 2003
A specially big 8th edition to mark the US Congress in Houston. TMark Hall was due to attend. The total of games was brought up to 24,729.
A large number of features and a large amount of tournament data were added to the Encyclopaedia. An in-line game reader was added so that games referred to in features could be viewed with the click of a button (this is written in Javascript and has been tested in various browsers, but we cannot guarantee it works across all platforms). Most of the html conversion work into the new format and the associated proofreading has been completed, and this will allow us to spend more time on several in-progress projects, not least adding all the Castle Games and features to go with them, and on the quick links and search module.
April 2003
7th edition with 22,154 games.
Main change was a revamp of the TBase pages, partly to give them a more modern feel but mainly to make the pages easier to create and update.
Some of the conversion work remains to be done but the existing data is still there and an appreciable amount of new material has been added here.
The starting point is now Home.htm. Kombilo 5 has been added, and this version allows us to offer a pre-compiled database for Kombilo. Few changes elsewhere; no bugs reported.
November 2002
6th edition with 20,330+ games
This launch was timed to coincide with the 1st GoGoD/BGA seminar at the Open University, Milton Keynes, on 1 December 2002. This was a "strong players' training day" and one of the themes was the creative uses of databases. Material from this seminar may be included in a future update. Though games were emphasised in this update, there were many additions to TBase and new directory of commented games was added in CBase. There were many additions to JBase and the Names dictionary was enhanced mainly by the addition of many older Korean names.
Among the established programs no bugs were reported but an "alias warning" was added to GoLibrary to tell you if a player being searched for may have games under alternative names. A "jukebox" (auto replay facility) was added to GoGoD95. A separate directory of mimic games (manego) was added for convenience. These last two items were for the seminar.
This edition also marked the first 10 years of the GoGoD partnership, the early years being devoted to floppy disks.
July 2002
5th edition with 17,015 games was brought forward slightly for the European Congress. The main new item was the addition of Kombilo, by kind permission of Ulrich Goetz. TBase was not only expanded, but the front page was rejigged completely to show progress in adding data. The Fans features from MSO was added and other features were converted to TBase html format.
May 2002
4th edition with 15,640+ games was slightly delayed because of travel commitments but was a much bigger update than usual.
No bugs were reported but Go Library now includes a proper cancel function. TBase has been heavily expanded. The Terms dictionary now has many more Korean and Chinese terms. The 9x9 collection has been brought up to its final total of 100 games. JBase now has 1000 examples of the nadare and almost 400 Magic Sword.
January 2002
3rd edition, with 13,840+ games, was brought forward to coincide with the London Open?.
Additions were made to 9x9 games, tournament data (TBase) and dictionaries. JBase was expanded to bring Nadare up to 925 games and Magic Sword to over 250 games. Enhancements were made to several programs, especially GoLibrary. No bugs were reported.
October 2001
2nd edition, with approx. 12,655 games.
Other additions: Screensaver; HTML tournament data begun; 34 9x9 games and Tanggo reader?; Nadare collection expanded to 896; bitmap function added to !GoGoD95; all dictionaries updated and expanded; bug fixed in GoLibrary (Position search).
August 2001
1st edition released at European Go Congress, Dublin, with approx. 11,700 games