Aly-USB
2005 is installed in a tiny Usb Flash drive (also called USB Key, USB
Stick), for instance Kingston 1 GB DataTraveler.
1. Contents of Aly-USB
2005
-Alybadix Demo 2004
-AP 2005 (non-fairy and fairy solving program)
-APwin v2007 (Windows front for Alybadix)
-AlyBase 2007 (chess problem database
program)
-Alybase FAS 6 (chess problem database)
-GSview 2.4 & 3.4 (Windows)
-Graphic Workshop 1.1 (Windows)
-EditPad Classic 3.5.3 (Windows)
-Scacchi Painter 1.3.7 (Windows)
2. Aly-USB 2005 prices
Aly-USB 2005:.............................
170 EUR
Update prices
Aly-CD 2005 to Aly-USB
2005:.............. 40 EUR
Aly-CD 2000-2004 to
Aly-USB 2005:......... 60 EUR
Aly-Diskette 1980-2000
to Aly-USB 2005:... 120 EUR
3. Aly-USB 2005 instructions
a) Using Aly-USB under Windows
You
can use Aly-USB in the same way as Aly-CD. Thus you can install the included
programs to hard disk
or even run Alybadix solving engine (ap.exe) direct from
the flash drive. Unlike Aly-CD, it is possible to save files
(as
Alybadix solution files) to the USB flash drive. See Aly-CD instructions
for closer details!
b) DOS-boot
1. Insert the Aly-USB key in one of the computer's
USB port.
2. Switch power On.
3. Go into the BIOS settings by hitting the proper
key.
Due to the computer and BIOS model, this may be F1,
F2, F10, Del etc.
4. In BIOS, go to the BOOT options and set the
USB stick as the first boot device.
Try
all available USB variants, as USB-KEY, USB-STICK, USB-HD, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, etc.
5. Save the new BIOS settings and reboot.
6. When succeeded, after a few seconds you will
see Aly-USB menu.
7. With the help of the menu instructions you
can easily change the keyboard settings to a proper
language,
run
Alybadix solving engine (ap.exe) or AlyBase (ab.exe).
Under DOS Alybadix is able to utilize
computer's memory up to 2 GB (2048 MB) for the position tree (hash
table)
and the solving power is better than
under Windows (Windows XP with 2 GB memory allows about max 1200-1300 MB
for Alybadix).
c) Windows Vista
Unfortunately
Vista does not support DOS fullscreen mode. Therefore the chess board
and chess figurines are corrupted.
Hint: Use letters instead of figurines (hit F1-key
in Alybadix).
Vista allows about 30 MB only for Alybadix position tree (hash).
This
is a Vista bug, which hopefully will be fixed in future Vista updates.
Therefore
I recommend now DOS boot from Aly-USB stick,
if Vista machine!
d) AlyBase 2005/2007
AlyBase
is programmed under Borland C (DOS version). The default character set of
Borland C does not
support
all modern display cards (especially laptops). Therefore the numbers and
special characters were
not
displayed correctly by the old AlyBase 2005, although the letters
and chessboard+pieces are good.
The
new AlyBase 2007 includes an extra font set, which
should be compatible with all display cards!
-----
After successful boot to DOS from Aly-USB
flash drive the following
menu is seen:
|
ALYBADIX-USB
BOOT MENU (for
DOS only) ====================== Keyboard
configuration for a specific language: KEYB xx where
xx is the language code as follows: be=Belgium,
br=Brazil, cz=Czech, dk=Denmark, su=Finland, fr=France, gr=Germany, hu=Hungary,
it=Italy, la=Latin America, nl=Netherlands, no=Norway, pl=Poland, po=Portugal,
sp=Spain, sv=Sweden, uk=England, us=USA, yu=Yugoslavia QUICK
COMMANDS: 1 = Load and run Alybadix solving program (AP.EXE) from
USB-Drive, folder ALY. 2 = Load and run AlyBase program (AB.EXE) from USB-Drive,
folder ALY. 3 = Load and run AlyBase FAS program (AB.EXE) from USB-Drive,
folder FIDE. dir /p = Show the files and folders of the USB-Drive. keyb xx
= Keyboard configuration (see above). menu =
This menu If your
system hard disk(s) are FAT16/FAT32 formatted (not NTFS), you can run any proper
DOS program using DOS commands, for instance run AlyBase
FAS (AB.EXE) on the hard disk D, folder FIDE: d: cd fide (or cd d:\fide) |
For instance, hit ’1’ to load and run the Alybadix solving engine
ap.exe from the Aly-USB drive. Now you can
enter chess problem
positions,
solve them and save the solutions on the flash disk.
Hint: In Disk menu hit ’8’ (=Change directory)
and select some example directory
from
the available Ex1, Ex2,..., Ex10 folders to see several example problem
solutions!