![]() StartingPoints Referenced by Homepages
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MacintoshGo
The website for the British Go Association ( 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).
BenShoemaker: If you have OS X, you may want to check out:
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 (
chtito: An other option for browsing commented sgf games on OS X is Stones:
Sen:te Goban (
Scartol: IGS is endorsing a new Java-based client called gGo: (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 (
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. Bug Reports Explorer: I've quit using this program, because I realized to my dismay that it doesn't keep track of stones that are captured during play. I suppose this is just a result of its Chinese-rules-only playing style. -- Scartol Sen:te Goban: I upgraded to OSX largely because this program looked so much better than OS9's Go Servant. But I've had two wretched encounters with Goban, leading me to seek alternatives: (1) It accepted a game for me without my approval; and even more terrifying (2) It resigned a game for me. I also tried clicking on "undo" once, and the program crashed. Restarted, loaded the game again, and the same thing happened. I'll wait for a less buggy version. (Besides, it would be nice to have a stone click sound, rather than the quiet little beep.) Update: I think the problem with the resignation had to do with an IGS rule about multiple "undo" commands, rather than a Goban problem. It also seems that I may have an older version that crashed more easily. I'm giving Goban another try.. -- Scartol Jago: Java Quick Start urged me not to install this program, due to some network issue. I went ahead and installed it anyway, and I'm less than impressed. The windows are clunky, there's no sound to indicate a play has been made, and finishing up a game is very counterintuitive. I guess we'll have to wait for a superior program to appear for OSX. I'm going back to Go Servant. -- Scartol This is a copy of the living page "MacintoshGo" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |