Fixation is a chess client for the
Internet Chess Club (ICC) and Free Internet Chess Server (FICS),
and chess.net (limited support). Fixation
requires an active TCP/IP connection to the Internet in order to use it on
these sites. Fixation only runs on Macintosh computers -- there are no plans to
port Fixation to any other platform.
Fixation is freeware and without warranty of any kind. Fixation can
only be placed on CD-ROM or DVD for backup purposes only. Modified versions of
Fixation cannot be distributed without my consent.
Fixation 2.x was derived from version 1.x, which was developed by
Adam Miller. The last version released by Adam was 1.41.
Neither Adam or myself provide any support for Fixation 1.x.
Features
- As of version 2.1, a Carbonized Fixation supports Mac OS X.
- Support for the ICC, FICS, USCL and chess.net (limited support) servers.
- Support for multiple accounts on the same server and connection shortcuts.
- Multiple simultaneous resizeable game windows for observing live/examined games.
- User configurable board colors and ten built-in piece sets. Some are best
used for observing and playing games while others are better suited for
chess diagrams.
- Saving played games from the server as local files in
PGN format.
- For the ICC, saving games from libraries,
game histories or
correspondence games to local files in PGN format.
- User customizable stylized text for denoting player and game notifications,
kibitzes, private and channel tells, whispers, shouts, sshouts (ICC), cshouts (FICS/USCL),
user commands, game challenges and new messages.
- Sounds for tells, moves, move captures, game starts, game ends, illegal moves,
player notifications and new messages. User can disable any or all of these sounds.
- Automatic logging of user's games to local files in PGN format.
- Built-in support for ICC's timestamp
and FICS timeseal protocols.
- Automatic queening or displaying of a manual promotion window.
- Full support for bughouse
and crazyhouse.
Support for all the other wild variants except Wild(5).
- Automatic following of partner's bughouse games.
- A button and piece palette for examining games. Arrows and circles are supported on the ICC.
- Seek graph where users can quickly and easily find outstanding seek ads they
are interested in. Filters can also be applied to hide unplayable, computer
or guest ads.
- Balloon help for most of the menu items and dialog windows.
- Chess engine support. Fixation can be used to run an automated computer
account on the ICC or FICS.
- Command history to access recently used commands.
- Support for Appearance Manager and Navigation Services.
- A seek window where you can enter the options for issuing a seek ad.
- Support for the ICC's 7 day free trial (Classic Mac OS only).
System requirements
- Power Macintosh. I am only building and testing native Power PC code.
If you only have a 68K Macintosh, you can still use 1.4.
- System 7.5 at a minimum although Mac OS 8.6 or higher is recommended. I use
MacOS 9.1 & 8.6 at the moment so tracking down problems that only occur
with System 7.x or Mac OS 8.0 will be hard to fix. Future versions of Fixation
will likely require Mac OS 8.1 as a minimum. The
Carbon version of Fixation
requires Mac OS 8.1 or higher and CarbonLib 1.2.5 or higher.
- Open Transport (OT). Open Transport is the Power Macintosh replacement for MacTCP.
I use OT 2.7.6 on a Power Macintosh 7300. As of Fixation 2.0b2, the networking code
does not contain MacTCP support.
- Under Mac OS X, the Carbon version of Fixation 2.1 will run as an OS X
application. If you are running version 2.0 of Fixation, you will need to have
Mac OS 9.1 or 9.2 installed to run Fixation in Classic mode.
Revised: March 24, 2011
