The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants

The offline version

For those with a slow or expensive or with no Internet connection, it is possible to obtain a copy of The Chess Variant Pages, that can be viewed on a computer that is not connected to the Internet.

Two versions

There are two versions of the offline version. The first, and most extensive is the is the CD-ROM version. The Chess Variant Pages Offline CD-ROM is a CD-ROM, made by David Howe on his CD-ROM writer on his computer at home. You can receive this by (non-electronic, i.e., snail) mail. Details of both versions are below. Secondly, there is a very old version which you can download: the floppy version. This version was last updated in June 1997.

The CD-ROM version

Upon request, we can create a CD-ROM with all files of the Chess Variant Pages on them. This is more than 100 megabytes of information, pictures, etc.

We will if necessary, send CD-ROMs by air mail.

Images of the CD-ROM

How to get the CD-ROM

You can get the CD-ROM, either by

Buy it. We ask $10. You can pay us via PayPal -- use the email address:
@

Or you can click on the PayPal icon below to go directly to our PayPal order page:
Winning it in a contest. We regularly give some away in contests - e.g., chess variant design contests, or chess variant tournaments.

Version

Twice per year, a new version will be made. In contrast with this website, the CDrom is not based upon a MySQL-driven database, but instead has `standard html'-webpages. The CDrom hence contains about all files of the website, except those that were added in the last few months (at most half a year).

If your computer is able to read `home-written' CD-ROMs (very old CDrom players may not be able to do this), and has a browser installed, you do not have to install any software. If autorun works on your computer, in general, it is sufficient to put the CDrom in your CDrom player, and you can start reading about chess variants!

The floppy version

The floppy version dates June 1997. So, many files of the Chess Variant Pages are not there. Still, for some people this may be of interest. Because of the current size of this website, we cannot make newer floppy versions.

You can download six files, each fitting on one floppy.

What you need

You need a computer, able to run a webbrowser, an unzipping program, and six files:

I have splitted into six files to make it easier to copy the file onto floppies. Note that each file has a size around 1 MB - only start downloading these when you have a fast enough Internet connection!

Unzipping

Winzip. Great Windows zip/unzip program.
PKzip. Another zip/unzip program.
Zip Explorer Pro. A third unzipping program.
NetZip. Also a Windows zip/unzipping program.
Powerzip. Freeware program to unzip.
The program unzip comes standard with many Unix operating systems, e.g., versions of Linux.
There are similar programs for the Mac. A

Installation

If you didn't install an unzipping program and / or a browser like the ones mentioned above, install these first.

Make a new directory/folder and move the six zip-files to that directory. Unzip the zip-files. You will get lots and lots of files in the directory, and in some subdirectories.

Now, you can view the files, by having your browser program look at the file: index.htm in this directory. This can, amongst others, be done by giving an address to look to of a form like: file:C:/cvp/index.htm. When running most modern versions of Windows, it is - if everything is right - sufficient to doubleclick on the file index.htm.

As far as I think, that's all.

Legal stuff

The files are copyrighted. We do not object if you give a few (at most 10) copies away to friends, however.

WWW page created: August 1996. Last modified: February 17, 2003.

For author and/or inventor information on this item see: this item's information page.
Created on: August 01, 1996. Last modified on: January 17, 2007.