Tag: Windows

SmartGo: Mac $0, Windows $19

tl;dr SmartGo for Mac is now free; SmartGo for Windows reduced to $19 (was $39). All-new version of SmartGo for iOS in the works, will come to Mac later. No ETA.

Future of SmartGo Apps

The all-new version of SmartGo for iOS is taking shape. Still no ETA, but getting closer, and I’m excited for how it’s turning out. If you have an iPhone or iPad running iOS 14, and are interested in early testing, let me know.

The new iOS version will replace both SmartGo Player and SmartGo Kifu. It will be free to download, with a subscription for the GoGoD game collection and some functionality; additional problem collections will be available through in-app purchase.

SmartGo for Mac

I plan to bring that same iOS app to the Mac. Catalyst has become much more capable this year, making it easy to bring an iPad app to the Mac. Thus it’s now clear that the current Mac version (built on the old code base) is a dead end, and that it doesn’t make sense to update it any more. I’ve released what is likely the last iteration of that app. While it’s far from perfect, it can still be a useful tool for many until the new Mac app comes along, so I’ve made it a free download. Thanks to GoGoD and goproblems.com for letting me take that step while keeping their game and problem collection in the app; please support them in other ways (e.g. by buying books by John Fairbairn).

SmartGo for Windows

SmartGo for Windows has not been getting frequent updates over the last years, and that will likely not change. My focus is on the iOS and Mac versions of SmartGo. Given that reality, I’ve reduced the price from $39 to $19. The app is getting long in the tooth, but it’s still an indispensable tool for go players on Windows, with 108,000 pro games, 2,000 problems, joseki matching, and more. It may get some updates, but no promises; buy it for what it is and can do today.

Enjoy! And please stay safe until we can play go in person again.

SmartGo for Macintosh

It’s been a long road. But today you can download an early beta version of SmartGo for Macintosh.

I know a lot of you doubted this day would ever come. I’ve been promising a Mac version since practically forever, and it kept not happening. Sorry about that. Some history is in order.

Smart Go Board for the Macintosh was released in 1987, with frequent updates until I joined Microsoft in 1991, where I worked on PowerPoint until 1999. SmartGo for Windows was released in 2002; Windows Vista finally pushed me over the edge and I switched back to the Mac in 2007.

So in early 2008 I had made good progress on the Mac version, but was running into issues with the cross-platform approach I had started with (using wxWidgets). When Apple announced the iPhone SDK, it seemed like a great way to gain experience with Objective-C development before getting back to building a fully native Mac version. I knew I wanted thousands of pro games in my pocket, and figured other Go players would too; I had no clue it was going to take off as it did.

So in 2009 I added computer play, and more games, and then had some time to work on the Mac version again. And what does Apple do in 2010? They announce the iPad. SmartGo Kifu was born, available on day one. A big success, but that first iPad version demanded a lot of rethinking and refinement.

The iPad also inspired a new way to visualize annotated games: book view. That gave me this crazy idea of putting Go books on the iPad. Basically, I wanted to read “Invincible” on the iPad; I had no clue that a few years later I would end up with a new file format and 100 Go books. (And no time to work on the Mac version.)

Turned out it made sense to split off Go Books for the Mac as a separate app, and that actually shipped a few months ago. Which finally left some time to make significant progress on SmartGo for Macintosh.

So is the Mac version done yet? No. But it has gotten to the point where it’s useful to me. Getting it to a 1.0 release will take time, as there are many big and lots of small issues to work on, and I still need to keep updating the iOS versions as well as Go Books. Meanwhile, I want to give you the opportunity to use what I have so far.

As promised, the Mac version is free if you already own the Windows version. The two platforms are bundled: buy one, get both. So if you’re already using SmartGo for Windows, and now have access to a Mac, just download the Mac version and start using it. (If your email has changed, let me know.) If you’re new to SmartGo, take the 15-day free trial for a spin.

The Mac version inherits the GoGoD game collection and the problem collection from SmartGo for Windows and SmartGo Kifu. It inherits the tree view and joseki matching from SmartGo Kifu. It adds built-in access to Kogo’s Joseki Dictionary. However, there are still significant holes; for example, there’s not even a way to edit game info yet. Over time, those holes will be filled, and more of the advanced functions from the Windows version will make their way to the Mac. (Some, like playing on IGS, will remain Windows-only.)

It’s still a long road ahead. But now you can join me for the rest of the journey.

SmartGo 3 with GoGoD Game Collection

SmartGo for Windows is back. It’s in beta, but you can download and play with it, even buy it if you like: smartgo.com/windows.html

The big change is the inclusion of all 76,891 games of the GoGoD collection by John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall, the same collection used in SmartGo Kifu.

This is of course a free upgrade for current users. After several years without any changes, I’m calling this SmartGo 3 in anticipation of some more improvements down the road. However, the iOS versions and the perennially-in-progress SmartGo for the Mac are still the top priorities for now.

The current price is $39, down from $49. It will remain that way at least through the beta testing; I have not yet decided whether to restore the previous price once version 3.0 is ready.

Enjoy! And remember that it’s a beta release; please let me know if you run into any issues.

60,144 Pro Games

SmartGo Kifu 2.1 will include more than 60,000 professional games. After starting with ‘only’ 6,000 games in 2008, I’ve kept adding games whenever I could do so without slowing down the app. After continual improvements in both hardware and software (including compiler technology), performance is now at the point where I can include the full collection.

Joseki and fuseki matching is done based on all those games, and all 60k games are included directly in the app (no need for an online connection).

Statistics:

  • 60,144 games played from 1573 to 2012
  • 53,378 games with komi
  • 879 handicap games
  • 2,072 players, 14 players with more than 1000 games
  • 12.8 MB, 212 bytes/game (including game info)
  • 12,709,890 moves, 211 moves/game, 7.6 bits/move

Windows users: You can download this newest collection from http://smartgo.com/smartgo.sgd and replace the existing smartgo.sgd in your SmartGo installation with this new file. This file is about 15.8 MB due to less sophisticated compression.