Computer chess includes both hardware and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysis, entertainment and training. Computer chess applications that play at the level of a chess grandmaster or higher are available on hardware from supercomputers to smart phones. Standalone chess-playing machines are also available. Stockfish, Leela Chess Zero, GNU Chess, Fruit, and other free open source applications are available for various platforms.
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
A computing platform, digital platform, or software platform is the infrastructure on which software is executed. While the individual components of a computing platform may be obfuscated under layers of abstraction, the summation of the required components comprise the computing platform.
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system, on different computing systems via a local area network, or via a wide area network, most commonly the Internet. Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.
A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Alternative names for the browser game genre reference their software platform used, with common examples being Flash games, and HTML5 games.
Bejeweled is a 2000 match-three video game developed and published by PopCap Games. Bejeweled involves lining up three or more multi-colored gems to clear them from the game board. The game was inspired by a similar browser game, titled Colors Game. Originally titled Diamond Mine and released in 2000 as a browser game on the team's official website, Bejeweled was licensed to be hosted on MSN Games under its current name. PopCap released a retail version titled Bejeweled Deluxe in May 2001.
Fritz is a German chess program originally developed for Chessbase by Frans Morsch based on his Quest program, ported to DOS, and then Windows by Mathias Feist. With version 13, Morsch retired, and his engine was first replaced by Gyula Horvath's Pandix, and then with Fritz 15, Vasik Rajlich's Rybka.
An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Since the 2010s, a common trend among online games has been to operate them as games as a service, using monetization schemes such as loot boxes and battle passes as purchasable items atop freely-offered games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.
A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone, tablet, PDA to handheld game console, portable media player or graphing calculator, with and without network availability. The earliest known game on a mobile phone was a Tetris variant on the Hagenuk MT-2000 device from 1994.
Chessmaster is a chess video game series, currently owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess video game series, with more than five million units sold as of 2002. The same cover art image featuring Will Hare was used from Chessmaster 2000 to Chessmaster 9000.
The World Chess Network (WCN) was a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess that launched in 1997 and closed ten years later in 2007 when it was bought by Internet Chess Club and merged with Chess Live to form World Chess Live. As a typical chess server, the network provided basic services such as the conduction of live chess games over the Internet between two human players. Chess tournaments were occasionally conducted by the service, including a select few matches between known chess Grandmasters where spectators could watch the game in real-time. During its heyday, the network was frequented by professional chess players including notable Grandmasters like Elena Donaldson, Susan Polgar, Larry Christiansen and Larry Evans.
Guitar Hero Mobile is a series of rhythm video games in the Guitar Hero series, adapting the normal console-based gameplay which uses a guitar-shaped controller to match notes of popular rock music songs to work with the face buttons on advanced mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices and those supporting the Windows Mobile platform. The first three games in the series—Guitar Hero III Mobile, Guitar Hero Backstage Pass, and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile—were developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC and published by Hands-On Mobile, while a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 was developed by Glu Mobile. The series has proven to be popular; the Guitar Hero III Mobile game has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and over 250,000 songs are played each day across the series.
Galcon is a series of real-time strategy video games for Android, iPhone, webOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Flash, which were developed by Phil Hassey. It is set in space and involves maneuvering fleets of ships to capture enemy planets.
Ka-Glom! is a puzzle video game created and published by mobile developer Magmic. Originally developed for BlackBerry in 2006, it has since been ported to Java, Windows Mobile, and iOS devices. It is similar to Puyo Puyo which was originally released in 1991 by Compile for the MSX2.
Magmic Inc. is an Ottawa-based developer and publisher of mobile entertainment and lifestyle software. Founded in 2002, they produce original and licensed apps for a variety of mobile platforms, including Java ME, BREW, Sidekick, Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
The Texas Hold’em King franchise is a series of games for mobile devices based on the popular version of poker, Texas Hold 'em. Developed by Ottawa-based Magmic Games, the titles have been ported to a number of devices all leading to the latest version with varied features taking one version a step up from the last.
Nikita Online is a Russian publisher and developer of online games. Founded in 1991 and originally named NIKITA, it became the first Russian game company.
Vainglory is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game, developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp for iOS, Android and PC. As many games in its genre, Vainglory's gameplay focuses on player versus player battles, with players split into two teams of three or five with the ultimate goal of destroying the opposing team's base. The game was released for iOS on November 16, 2014, after being soft-launched for over half a year, with the Android version being released on July 2, 2015. A Mac and Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in July 2018. Through cross-platform play, players on all four platforms can play together simultaneously.
Virtua Chess is a 1995 chess video game developed and published by Titus France SA for the MS-DOS. It was later ported to Windows. Two sequels were released: Virtual Chess 2 for the Windows in 1997 and Virtual Chess 64 for the Nintendo 64 in 1998.
