6 /10 1 Votes
Engine Shotest Developer Rubicon Development | 6/10 GameSpot Initial release date 10 September 2008 Genre Board game | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Designer(s) AI Factory / Rubicon Development Platforms Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows Publishers Rubicon Development, AI Factory Modes Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Similar Board games, Other games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shotest Shogi is a shogi AI engine made by Jeff Rollason made into a video game for the PC and Xbox Live Arcade developed by AI Factory and Rubicon Development. It provides a 3D environment designed to recreate a traditional Japanese room. The Xbox version will include a tutorial system, and all versions include a 'Western style' piece set option for players who are unfamiliar with Japanese characters.
The AI engine has been competing in the Computer Shogi Championships since 1997, and has achieved the highest ranking of any Western entry in all championships. It has competed in 12 World Championships, 2 Invitation ISF tournaments (Tokyo) and 3 Olympiads, winning one of the latter. In all it has beaten 3 different world champions (Gekisashi, IS-Shogi and YSS) on 5 occasions in the year they were world champion. A game running Shotest was released on July 23, 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade in Japan. It was released in the United States on September 10, 2008. Although the game is playable entirely in English, Chinese, Korean and EMEA languages, there is currently no announced release date for other territories, but this will be in the fall period.
The Japanese unannounced release on 28 July 2008 has seen Shotest Shogi immediately top of the current Japanese Xbox live chart, and still there (as of 08 Aug 2008 - see "Xbox Live Japan" below).
Two PC versions are already on release, one in Japan and one in the UK (see "Shotest Shogi Official Website" below). These do not include the advanced teaching system used by the Xbox version.