Joe Joyce wrote on Thu, May 24, 2007 05:31 PM UTC:
I can see two - make that 3 - reasons for not making a rules-checking preset. The first is so the players can easily substitute pieces without changing presets. The second is that the author is not computer/internet literate enough to do it. The third is the time factor; it may not be worth it to spend the time to do it - for me, this would inevitably be the case, as all 3 reasons apply to me. I have no desire to spend days trying to cobble together a preset that may or may not work. I've done it once with Zillions. The result was workable, but grotesque and unsatisfying. I learned nothing from it. It merely showed that sometimes poking something can get it running. For most reasonably simple games, I find it perfectly obvious what are and are not legal moves. And almost every game on this site is reasonably simple. Why go to a lot of trouble for something that isn't necessary?
Different people find different things easy or hard.