HIARCS Chess Forums

Hi all early Chess Computer fans. Steve asked me to log back in to contribute to this thread about the SC9. But frankly it was back in 1982 a LONG time ago and my memory of those times is cloudy if not non existant. But there is one fact I know, which is Fidelity Electronics, LTD. went bankrupt and ...

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Ron

I stand corrected but I think that all your Excalibur chess computers never had led's around the board to indicate the moves.

Was this just to cut costs?

Bryan

Bryan,

Yes, it was a cost issue.

Ron

I had long since forgotten about the Igor I designed & programmed in 1997, so I bought one on eBay. This is what an Igor looks like inside. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1558/24270015644_e79eea91ff_c.jpg If you zoom in to the H8 chip you will see Copyright 1997 RCN, my initials. It was a very e...

During all this reviewing of the Chess Challenger past, I saw a Gambit Voice Chess Challenger Model 6095 on eBay for sale. I couldn't remember what was inside the Gambit Voice, so I bought it. Here are two photos of the inside of the Gambit Voice: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1642/23956216784_2f18...

Here is the schematic that I made in 1976 for my Chess Challenger.
Chess Challenger 1,3, & 10 used 4 Ram memory chips for 512 bytes of Ram.
CC7 used a Z80 and 2 Ram memory chips for 256 bytes of Ram.

Interesting. It does remind me of something that I thought I'd ask while you are here. What was the logic behind securing the insides of the original chess challengers by fixing the back plate with brads, not screws? It meant that the back plate had to be destroyed to get it off. I think they also ...

I am not sure if anyone is interested in what the insides of a Chess Challenger 3 looks like. But this photo was professionally taken and the picture hangs on my office wall. One can notice the great use of NEC integrated circuits, instead of Intel. NEC was just getting into the 8080 chip business a...

The Mirage was completely designed by me state side. Please do not mention Eric in the same sentence as The Mirage. When Eric White copied my CC10 ROM bit for bit and started selling CC10's in the States made in Hong Kong, I grew a dislike for him. He was stupid enough however to buy them from our ...

Hi Nick, It has been 20 years ago, so I can't remember for sure, but it was the time we were transitioning from Eric's products to our own. We were replacing Eric's Chess Express 119E with our Squire 117E. It is possible Shane had a good size order for the Small Peg style 119E and had some Squire 1...

Hi Ron, Here is a computer that I found recently that I had not seen before. Unfortunately I know little about it. Excalibur Model 119E-CS http://spacious-mind.com/forum_reports/excalibur/model119e_cs_1.gif http://spacious-mind.com/forum_reports/excalibur/model119e_cs_2.gif http://spacious-mind.com...

I bought my first Little Chester over 20 years ago, a Tandy version for $200, I sold my Canadian canoe to raise the funds. I had always considered it to be a slower version of the excellence. The playing strength was typical Spracklen, being especially good in the endgame and I'd play it on a low l...

With the new hardware information provided by Ron Nelson, I have been able to update the specs for Excalibur Einstein LCD Chess Wizard: http://spacious-mind.com/forum_reports/excalibur/einstein_lcd_chess_wizard_specs.gif http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/einstein_lcd_chess_wizard.html This nicely e...

Ron Can you remember why Excalibur never released this robot? Plus whatever happened to the prototype the university made for Excalibur? What was your personally involvement with it? Bryan http://bryanwhitbychesscomputers.yolasite.com/resources/Excalibur%20robot.jpeg Excalibur Electronics press rel...

Nick Also Portal Chess which is the Chess Station that can be seen here. http://www.todocoleccion.net/juegos-antiguos/ajedrez-portatil-perfect-chess-portal-novag-elo-1790--nuevo~x16492259 Bryan Hi Bryan, Yep, you found another one there. Regards Nick Nick When I was asked to test the Novag 2Robot I...

Hi Ron, I bet you didn't know that you also have a chess computer that was sold by Novag under their Perfect Chess brand. http://www.spacious-mind.com/assets/images/novag_touch_large.gif http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/touch.html Since about 1980, everything that Novag produced was attributed to ...