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Chessmaster 5500

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Chessmaster 5500
Chessmaster 5500 cover
Developers
Mindscape
Release dates
Windows October 1997
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Genres Chess
Series Chessmaster
Chessmaster 5500 guide on StrategyWiki
Chessmaster 5500 on MobyGames
The Chessmaster 2000 1986
The Fidelity Chessmaster 2100 1989
Chessmaster 3000 1991
Chessmaster 4000 Turbo 1993
Chessmaster 4000 1995
Chessmaster 5000 1996
Chessmaster 5500 1997
Chessmaster 6000 1998
Chessmaster 7000 1999
Chessmaster 8000 2000
Chessmaster 9000 2002
Chessmaster 10th Edition 2004
Chessmaster Challenge 2005
Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition 2007

Key points

Sounds and voice don't work correctly on modern versions of Windows (see Crashes constantly for the necessary fixes).
Chessmaster Live online multiplayer service has been shut down.[1]

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Disc check.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

  • The latest official patch is v1.1.

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename CmMovie.exe[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Delete or rename CmMovie.exe.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\*.ini[Note 1]
cm.ini contains general game settings.
cmsound.ini contains sound settings.
Other *.ini files do not need to be edited.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\*.CMG[Note 1]
Saves can be saved anywhere (the default is the installation folder).

Video

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Native Windows cursor.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Shared-screen.
LAN play
2
Online play
Chessmaster Live servers have been shut down.[1]

Issues unresolved

SmartBoard Error at launch

Chessmaster 5500 relies on a VXD driver that is not compatible with Windows XP and later. This error appears even if SmartBoard is disabled in the settings.

Issues fixed

Crashes constantly

Chessmaster 5500 crashes constantly on Windows XP and later because of a sound incompatibility; the changes below prevent these crashes.
Disable unsupported features[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Delete the sounds folder.
  3. Edit cmsound.ini.
  4. Change sounds=voice to sounds=simplified OR sounds=none
  5. Change InfoVoice=1 to InfoVoice=0
  6. Change IVAVoice=1 to IVAVoice=0
  7. Change NLAVoice=1 to NLAVoice=0
  8. Change TutorialVoice=1 to TutorialVoice=0
  9. Save your changes.

Interface is offset

Set Windows 95 compatibility mode[citation needed]
  1. Right-click Cm5500.exe or one of its shortcuts.
  2. Choose Properties.
  3. Go to the Compatibility tab.
  4. Enable Compatibility mode and choose Windows 95.
  5. Click OK.

Other information

API

Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) P-90 IBM PC or compatible
System memory (RAM) 16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 13 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA 640x480 256 colors


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References