Microchess

Royalties

Peter Jennings postponed collecting royalties from Personal Software's booming sales of Microchess, in effect loaning the company the money it needed to cross-compile its next product on a time-share system. This application was VisiCalc, the first home computer spreadsheet (and "killer app"); selling over a million copies at hundreds of (1980s) dollars a pop, Jennings got a good return on his investment.

Electronic board version

BYTE Magazine volume 4 number 9 (September 1979) featured an article, including modified source code, to build a version of the game that could be played using a physical chess board with an electronic circuit hooked up to a KIM-1 computer. The AI's moves are indicated by LED lights integrated into the physical board.