Although you wouldn't guess it from the title, Boss is a chess program. Being cassette-based, it is much cheaper than packages like the CBM Sargon, but it does require 8K of memory expansion.

When the program is run, a neatly-drawn board takes up some two thirds of the screen. The pieces, too, are well drawn and easy to identify. Playing information, including the level of play and the current depth of search, is displayed below the board.

The playing level can be set to one of ten levels, giving average response times ranging from 1 second to 4 hours. It can be altered at any stage of the game.

On either side of the level indicator are two clocks to let you compare your speed with the Vic's. You can see the current moves by each player in the bottom corners — the right hand corner actually shows the machine's alternative moves as it is thinking. Between the two move indicators is a move counter.

The program uses the usual alphabetic notation and is very easy to use. The input is well writ-ten, and all errors were trapped.

I played the program at level 0 using my standard opening, and found that it reacted identically to the Apple Sargon II up to move 9. This suggests that the Audiogenic program may use a similar algorithm to the more expensive program.