The Chessmaster (NES)

The Chessmaster

Platform: NES Year: 1989 Developer: The Software Toolworks, Inc. Buy: Amazon

The Chessmaster is the first in the Chessmaster series. The game is nothing more than a game of chess, which tests your skill and mind. The player takes on fifteen different levels of difficulty, and only after they beat the highest difficulty, can they claim themselves the Chessmaster. The game was pretty revolutionary for its time, as it contained many features that weren't available in many other chess games at the time. There are lots of different ways to play the game. You can play with your pieces at the top or at the bottom, play black and white, play different AI difficulty levels. The game got pretty good reviews.

Screenshots

The title screen. The board.

This page needs more screenshots.

Music

There isn't much music in this game. There are only a few fanfares and one short piece of music that don't even last 20 seconds. The title theme is an arrangement of the jazz classic Take Five. While the game and its manual lack credits, Peter Stone has verified on his website for composing the music to this and the SNES version. The music was composed on Dr. T's KCS for the Atari ST as MIDI files, then converted to a sound engine programmed by Mike Riedel.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Programmer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Take Five	Paul Desmond	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:13		Download
02	White Moves	Peter Stone	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:01		Download
03	Black Moves	Peter Stone	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:01		Download
04	Piece Captured	Peter Stone	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:02		Download
05	Check	Peter Stone	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:01		Download
06	Checkmate	Frédéric Chopin	Peter Stone	Mike Riedel	0:05		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Unknown
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Peter Stone
  • Not Credited Composer: Paul Desmond
  • Not Credited Programmer: Mike Riedel
  • Not Credited Composer: Frédéric Chopin

(Source: [1], sound engine comparison; game lacks credits.)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Releases

USA Title: The Chessmaster Platform: NES Released: 1990-01-?? Publisher: Hi-Tech Expressions     EU Title: The Chessmaster Platform: NES Released: 1992-03-26 Publisher: Nintendo, Co., Ltd.