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Cart #mate123v1-0 | 2025-01-24 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Mate in 1-2-3 vol.1

each level is a mate in 1, a mate in 2, and a mate in 3.
50 levels for a total of 150 puzzles.

progress saves with each puzzle.

about the puzzles and the code


These puzzles were collected from the lichess api. This is easier than manually pulling them from books, but unfortunately lichess only provides the pgn, not the fen. So there is still a tedious step. But I should be able to make more chess puzzlers a lot faster than before. @toadofsky had talked about getting live lichess puzzle updates and playing in real time. I'm not sure if that is possible, and I see my carts as useful to people with handhelds and no internet. However, the lichess api idea was a good one and so I'm grateful for his suggestion.

The only problem is that lichess rates it's puzzles by the ratings of people that play. So if a strong player screws up on a puzzle, it's rating goes up... It makes sense but the puzzle strengths don't seem consistent. I called 10 puzzles for each of the five difficulty settings, easiest to hardest. But honestly they all seem too easy. That is the good thing about getting puzzles from books, because those are designed to be tricky and are explicitly puzzles instead of real games.

I finally have move generation and so I think the interface is much more pleasant than any of my previous mate in 2 games. But I still really want some kind of animation when the pieces move.

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Hi. I am probably not the target audience for this cart, but I thought I'd give it a go. Note: I am not very good at chess, but do know how the pieces move. I also am not familiar with chess puzzles, so some of my criticisms might be invalid.

I was initially confused by the piece shapes and thought that the Queen was the King! Once I'd got over that, the first few levels got a lot easier :)

What I didn't like was the way that as soon as the level ended, the cart went straight onto the next level. I would have preferred to look at the board and move on at my own pace. perhaps prompting the user to press a key to continue?

Was there a reason that the levels switch between black and white? Wouldn't it help if the player was always white or black?

I found I could brute force the levels. This is a real shame. I'd rather be allowed to make my 3 moves and see if I could get a mate. Also, is there a point to the score?

This all sounds a bit negative, but I did really enjoy playing the cart! The presentation of the pieces and movement was good but most of all it made me think about the pieces and the consequences of moving a particular piece. Looking at your profile I see that you've made many chess carts for Pico-8. I'll definitely check them out and it may be that I start to get into chess!
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hi @phil, thanks a lot for the feedback. I appreciate all comments and know they arent mean spirited. Some of the things you suggest are actually in my previous carts. Like only white to play, being able to stay on a puzzle after completion and much better navigation. These puzzles come from lichess.org so it's random white or black to play, which I kind of thought was better... but maybe you're right. I describe some of this if you click 'show' under 'about the puzzles and the code' in the post description.

Some things are just because of my lack of coding skills. I am a pure hobbyist. I have experimented a lot with each cart and getting better but it is a lot of work! Once everything is awesome I can just plug in puzzles for lots of different volumes. Then get back to upgrading the engine in my Freestyle Chess cart (which is my main goal and I want it to be a winner one day). The biggest improvement in this cart is that it has move generation (so it only allows legal moves and shows the dots) and also the cursor is a lot cooler in this cart than the previous ones.

What I'm really struggling with is mastering animations, like making the pieces move instead of just appearing where you click. I feel like I don't have good structure to the code and I always create monsters as soon as I try to have timers and delays and stuff. Not to mention diagonal movement.

glad you asked about the score. There is no point whatsoever lol. Just for fun and not very well thought out. Also, if you finish the game, it'll just error out. I didn't even bother to add an end screen, because usually no one plays these, let alone finishes them.

I'll add back a modal to let the player stay on the same puzzle in my next cart because you said you want it, so stay tuned. Beware though, because next is going to be only mate in 2s of the hardest puzzles I can find!
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I have gone back and played some of your other carts and they are really good. I haven't looked at the code in the carts but I would never guess that you have a "lack of coding skills". You've managed to finish and release a load of carts and that is something to be really proud of.

Keep releasing carts and I'll keep playing them. I'm sure many others are too, even if they don't comment.

You've also managed to convert me into a Puzzle Chess addict! Some of the more difficult levels are downright fiendish!



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