Today I ran a chess game between the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST, both playing Battle Chess. According to the rules that I have made for myself the C64 played at level 1, as in has lost one game. The Atari played at a novice level, as it was it’s first game. The current ELO rating for the C64 is 1516, and for Atari’s first game, I entered it at 1500. The winner is the C64, the game record is below the the specs, followed by a Video of the game play.
Here are the specs of the systems:
| C64 | Name | 520ST / 1040ST |
| Commodore | Manufacture | Atari |
| Home Computer | Type | Home Computer |
| USA | Origin | USA |
| 1982 | Year | 1986 |
| 1993 | End of Production | |
| Basic | Built in Language / OS | TOS + GEM |
| Full-stroke 66 keys with 4 fuction keys | Keyboard | Full stroke keyboard with numeric keypad, editing keypad and 10 function keys |
| 6510 | CPU | Motorola MC 68000 |
| .985 MHz (PAL / 1.023 MHz (NTSC) | Speed | 8MHz |
| VIC II (video), SID (sound) | Co-Processor | |
| 64 kb | RAM | 512 kb – 4MB |
| 20 kb | ROM | 32 KB with TOS on disk / 192 KB with TOS on ROM |
| 40 col X 25 lines | Text Modes | 40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics) |
| several, most used 320 X 200 | Graphics mode | 16 colors among 512 (320 x 200) / 4 colors among 512 (640 x 200) / monochrome (640 x 400) this last mode needs a special monitor. |
| 16 + 16 border | Colors | Max 512 |
| 3 voices / 9 octives, 4 waveforms (sound output through TV) | Sound | 3 voices + 1 noise channel, 8 octaves (Yamaha YM-2149) |
| video output (composite, chroma/luma and sound in/out), 2 x Joystick plugs, Cardridge slot, Tape interfarce (300 bps), Serial, User Port, TV RF output | I / O Ports | Cartridge, Midi (in, out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy disk, RGB, Joystick, mouse |
| Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25” floppy disc unit (1541) | Media | 3.5” disk-drive |
| $595 US | Price |
Battle Chess was developed in 1989 by Interplay Productions. Here is the game that was played.
