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<title><![CDATA[Chinese Chess Soul comments:]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/</link>
<description><![CDATA[free licensed software daily]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[By: resurch]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382629</link>
<description><![CDATA[Re: comment #3 which said "Maker claims to have award from Softpedia but software isn’t listed on their site."

See: http://games.softpedia.com/get/Shareware-Games/Chinese-Chess-Soul.shtml

That's an earlier version but it's valid nonetheless, for the record.


WR, I happened across a forum posting from some days back (I'm not a member), if you could mention or paste this in the forum thread I'd appreciate it. I post this late in the day so as not to distract from the giveaway.

re: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/15375

ortrtr wrote: "I am currently traveling outside the country and have limited bandwidth. It was only after downloading the whopping 200 MB ZIP file of the software offered 2 days ago did I find out from the Readme.txt file that licensing required providing personal details to the developer. How can I access the licensing instructions or better yet the ReadMe.txt file prior to downloading the entire software? Can it not also be provided outside the ZIP file?"

I'd suggest LoadScout ( loadscout.com ), it's trustworthy freeware that lets you instantly browse inside zips and rars without downloading them, selectively viewing or downloading individual files. I've used it for years and not long ago I was poking around inside some 500 MB files looking for info. A great tool says I. It's clunky but great to have in the toolbox for those odd times it comes in handy, just to see archive contents or read a readme without having to download a giant file (like with GOTD). You can also use it to preview the meta data from mp3s and to select whatever portion of the timeline you wish to download for a preview (such as the first 30 seconds or some arbitrary 10 minute portion from the middle of a three hour clip).


..............................Moderator comment................................

Thank you for your feedback.  much appreciated.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:52:28 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382629</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[resurch]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Joe Hurdle]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382609</link>
<description><![CDATA[Works fine on XP but not on Vista or Windows 7. However, I have a lot of the exact same errors with Microsoft Office as with trying to run Chinese Chess on Vista / 7 such as app hangs, exception errors and fatal execution errors. That's why I'm in the process of switching over to Linux, however I will keep one dual booter for XP/Linux so I can still get great games when they come along. Windows Vista and 7 is garbage (Google: "Windows Rot") and Windows 8 is spyware with a built-in kill switch (which some jerk will hack sooner or later).

Linux is always virus-free and hasn't any back doors so it would be nice if there were more giveaways with a Linux option!


..............................Moderator comment..............................


I couldn't disagree more w.r.t. Win 7 being garbage.  I think Win 7   has been the best OS so far  from Microsoft.  ]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:06:09 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382609</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joe Hurdle]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Becca Ward]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382538</link>
<description><![CDATA[And i also took the space out at the end of the code, stills comes back invalid.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:44:42 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382538</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Becca Ward]]></dc:creator>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Becca Ward]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382536</link>
<description><![CDATA[The registration code keeps telling me its invalid code, i copied and pasted it, several times, and even tried and put it in myself. But it comes back invalid code. please let me know what the code is since its not working.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:42:33 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382536</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Becca Ward]]></dc:creator>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: kathy]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382503</link>
<description><![CDATA[installed but won't launch in win 7 64-bit. they have a 7 version on their website, but dont offer it here. If they have answers, they can email me. thanx, kinda wanted to learn it. best kathy  ps I even re ran install and hit repair, didn't do anything different. even tried run as admin. no luck.


................................Moderator Comment..............................

Check the FAQ's section.  Watcher mentions that turning off DEP works.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:34:53 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382503</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[kathy]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: watcher13]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382472</link>
<description><![CDATA[Rereading your comment, let me clarify. You can integrate this with the above post, if you'd like. I still would appreciate you composing the alternatives lists for every giveaway, I just think you should post that list specifically as a forum thread and link to it, rather than just posting a link to the general games thread. Much like the "alternatives to today's giveaway" sticky thread, but as a specific giveaway by giveaway thread of it's own. I seem to remember you've done that before.


.............................Moderator comment.........................

I did  start to do  that  several months ago, but  sort of lost my way.  you could be right about spooking  some developers, so may  just follow your advice.  :)
]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 17:35:50 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382472</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[watcher13]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: watcher13]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382467</link>
<description><![CDATA[I would vote for the link to the forum option for the alternative lists. I really appreciate it myself and I even more appreciate the amount of effort you put into it. I would hate to see you stop. Partly that comment is more addressed to the poster over on the GOTD who gives extensive lists of free alternatives for practically every giveaway. I don't find what you do to be comparable. Yours is on the order of "if you like this game, you'll like these, too". I've always understood that. His is more of the naive type of post that practically says, "here's a big list of reasons why you shouldn't download today's software". And often he says almost literally that. It's more of the idea that I would be remiss if I mentioned one without mentioning the other, and I sometimes worry that even your otherwise harmless approach may spook some developers.


.................................Moderator comment..............................

Thanks watcher.  ;-)
]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 17:27:50 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382467</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[watcher13]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Kevin]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382452</link>
<description><![CDATA[Hang on a minute or two, this says it is chess but without downloading and installing, it looks more like the Chinese version of `Nine Mens Morris`. Chees is Chess, you know Rookes, knights, bishops, pawns etc Maybe it is but going by the screen shots it seems a lot of chinese charactors on the pieces. So which piece is which?



...............................Moderator comment...............................

If you read my review at comment #1  I've posted an image showing you  what each piece is called and then described each piece and its relatonship to  Western chess pieces.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 17:01:21 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382452</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: watcher13]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382407</link>
<description><![CDATA[Installed on Win7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit. Wouldn't launch. Required me to create DEP exception, which is okay. Whiterabbit, have you upgraded your 7s to SP1? If not, might explain why DEP exception required for me. In any case, those not getting a launch on 7 SP1 should try creating DEP exception. Won't provide a link, because the directions in Windows Help are sufficient.

Can't recommend. Really don't want to turn thumbs down, but must. I think there's a tendency to put up with this programs lack of documentation because it covers a unique subject. That's what I thought, anyway. Certainly a sophisticated gamer might want to play around with this thing over and over until they mastered it. And by that, I don't mean Chinese Chess but the program settings itself. Maybe as someone said above, this was meant for the Chinese market, although I don't see any links to a Chinese page on their website. In any case, people would be inclined to put up with this because of uniqueness.

But:

With a simple search I discovered this isn't even remotely true. One of the most respected software sites, Gizmo's Freeware, has a review page for Chinese Chess which favorably reviews 6 programs, mentions 5 others, and 4 online flash versions. Again, all free. I generally don't believe in specifically mentioning competing softwares on the GOTD sites unless you do a direct feature comparison. I apologize, Whiterabbit, you know I have the highest respect for you, but I don't think it's fair to the developer. This is their day, so to speak. However, I'm compelled to break my rule in this case. I haven't played any of the ones on Gizmo's site, but, having intimate knowledge of how good that site is, I can't believe there aren't a lot of better alternatives to learning Chinese Chess than from this software. I won't post the link, but, unless you're completely search impared, you can easily find it.
When you couple the lack of documentation on using the features - such as what's the difference between autoplay and autofight, especially since the website recommends arena mode, anyway - with occassional runtime errors and other glitches; and general sloppiness like the incorrect word balloon I found, and links in the program which don't work, and a website explanation on how to set the AI to it's hardest level that I believe is technically incorrect; there's just no reason to fool with this thing.
Others also may have noticed that it's discounted on the website now 50% until Nov. 3rd. In any case, $17.48 is too much and without even remotely adequate documentation $34.95 is insane with at least 11 free alternatives available. Remember too, this is not new software. 2007. In 5 years, they haven't adequately worked out the bugs for the English market. Although, there is occassional live support on the website though, I wonder if the tech can understand or explain things adequately in English.

If it was the only one of it's kind, I wouldn't slam it. But it isn't, and it isn't ready for primetime. After 5 years!


..............................Moderator comment...........................

Thank you for your excellent feedback Watcher.

I have  considered  stopping   the  alternative games section of my reviews.  I did at one point  just direct  community members to the game discussion forums, where most of what I post can be found, but  found it hard to  stop.  I always though it a good idea to give  the community alternatives; especially those who didn't particularily like the game of the day.  I do agree  to a certain extent   that it's unfair as  it is  supposed to be the developers day; but   that said, I sill think  that many of the excellent bargains would be missed by  some if I didn't post details.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 15:33:03 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382407</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[watcher13]]></dc:creator>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Anu]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382368</link>
<description><![CDATA[Uuuh - I have to pass on this - that's to intensive for my brain but thank you anyway and looking forward to next weekend.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 14:07:40 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/chinese-chess-soul/#comment-382368</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anu]]></dc:creator>
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