NOTE
This is the last Java 11 version of Ai Ai. Later versions are available.
12th December 2021
New Games
Fibonacci
Simple Territory Game
Pilare
Unlur
Lava
Chomp
Chess Corner
Fixes
Pemba — initial position updated.
King’s Colour — bug fix.
Offboard piece display fix – bug fix.
Makyou Shogi — missing Knight promotion added (to Side Soldier).
Tiger Chess — King’s Leap fixed, may not be used to capture.
Cannon Shosu Shogi — Cannon promotions changed, rules updated.
Futashikana Shogi — rules updated.
Shosu Shogi — rules updated.
Puppy Shogi — initial position, promotions altered.
Neko Shogi — initial position changed.
Fairy Chess pieces can now be defined so that they flip vertically when for the player on the top of the screen; this helps avoid confusion when the piece’s image is intended to schematically represent the piece’s move. This caused some unusual interactions with the ‘Flip View’ setting, but those should be fixed now.
Shogi Additions
Shinjuu Shogi — new 11×11 drops-based variant using pieces drawn from the historical large Shogi variants. The four Shinjuu, or Divine Beasts, of Tai Shogi play a central role in this game. Lots of details here: https://drericsilverman.com/2021/11/20/11×11-shogi-part-i-shinjuu-shogi/
Tengu Dai Shogi — interesting modification of 15×15 Dai Shogi, which brings in pieces from Tai Shogi and alters some promotions. This game has anti-trading rules for the Tengu which are not yet implemented, this will be rectified in a future release.
Guntai Shogi — new 11×11 drops-based variant incorporating military-themed pieces from the historical large Shogi variants.
Chess Additions
Obento Chess — new 12×12 variant designed by Eric Silverman and Jean-Louis Cazaux. Combines unusual variant Chess pieces with new pieces inspired by the large Shogi variants. Nearly every piece on the board promotes.
Maasai, Maasai (MC) — excellent 12×12 variant from Jean-Louis Cazaux, now updated and available with Marshals/Cardinals and without.
Wildebeest Chess — classic 11×10 variant from R. Wayne Schmittberger which adds Camels and Wildebeests to the Chess lineup.
RennChess, RennChess (12×12) — well-known large Chess variant which includes the unusual Duke and Cavalier pieces. Available in both 12×10 and 12×12 flavours.
Heavy Chess Series — extend the Heavy Chess/Sac Chess style of dense initial positions with compound pieces to larger boards. The larger members of this family include some unusual leaping pieces. These games are largely experimental, and serve chiefly as a showcase of some of the many leaper compound pieces available in Ai Ai.
Ecumenical Chess/Overkill Ecumenical Chess — augment the Chess army with Camels and Wildebeests. The Overkill version packs the board with powerful compounds of these pieces.
Besiege Chess — 16×8 variant where a surrounded Black army fends off a White army starting on both sides of it. Creates some very unusual and interesting positions!
BigSiege Chess — 16×16 variant that extends the Besiege concept to a larger board and army.
Besiege Ecumenical Chess — 16×8 Besiege Chess with fairy pieces.
Full Double Chess — 16×8 variant where two doubled armies face off, each with two Kings!
Atranj-II — historical 10×10 variant from India.
Baroda Chess — another 10×10 variant from India, this time with 30 pieces per side.
FrontOfHouse — highly enjoyable Crazyhouse variant, where captured pieces transform into restricted, forward-only versions of themselves.
DemiChess — Ralph Betza’s variant replacing the Chess army with weaker, short-range pieces. Reminiscent of Shatranj in some respects.
Hunterbeest/Nimrod Chess — related variants by Charles Gilman which include asymmetric sliders and unusual leaping pieces. An acquired taste perhaps, but interesting to play.
Bugfixes and Other Changes
Opening Libraries – this is an experimental feature at the moment – Ai Ai can build an opening library for a game… slowly, and not necessarily very well. Once I have this working effectively, I may start distributing library files for specific games as a separate download.
Fix for Stac (broken graphics)
Installation Instructions
If you already have java 11 or later installed, just perform these steps:
(1) Download this .zip file
(2) Unzip with folders intact
(3) Double-click on ai ai.jar
Troubleshooting
Common problems:
- Did you unzip the files first? Ai Ai will not run from inside a .zip file.
- If you are a mac or linux user, you may have to mark ai ai.jar as executable.
- On some systems, Ai Ai cannot find the folder it is running from. If you’re on linux or Mac O/S try runnning from linux.sh or mac.command (you’ll need to mark it as executable), on windows try running from win_low_mem.bat
- Do you have the right version of Java?
- Do you have an earlier version of Java installed as well? Uninstalling the earlier version has helped some windows users.
Installing Java
Not sure what version of Java you have installed? Open a command/terminal window and type:
java -version
If you see version 11 or later, you’re good to go. If not, follow the steps below to install a newer version of Java.
All Operating Systems
This is a manual install of the latest Java version (currently 17).
(1) Go to Adoptium
(2) Download the Java installer for your operating system from the list.
(3) Once the file has downloaded, run it to install Java.