You may have seen this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300922177532 ... 1438.l2649
about twice the price you would expect. Notice the original box is
missing, just the original carry bag.
Larry
Novag Star Diamond goes for big bucks
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Yeah Larry, I saw that and I couldn't believe it !!!!
It ended up selling for NINE HUNDRED AND THREE DOLLARS !!!!!
$903 for a small plastic touch sensor 16 X-Y LED board?
Made me think about putting mine up for sale . .
The seller had a reserve on the item, and when the price was something like $600,
and the reserve hadn't been met, I actually asked a question to the seller: Are you nuts? When you re-list it, lower the reserve!
Turns out I was wrong and the seller knew something I didn't..
9R
It ended up selling for NINE HUNDRED AND THREE DOLLARS !!!!!
$903 for a small plastic touch sensor 16 X-Y LED board?
Made me think about putting mine up for sale . .
The seller had a reserve on the item, and when the price was something like $600,
and the reserve hadn't been met, I actually asked a question to the seller: Are you nuts? When you re-list it, lower the reserve!
Turns out I was wrong and the seller knew something I didn't..
9R
-
Monsieur Plastique
- Senior Member
- Posts: 1014
- Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:53 am
- Location: On top of a hill in eastern Australia
Nice comment Monsieur Plastique...funny
Btw my Star Diamond was purchased on eBay a few years ago for a deal..
Something like $110? The seller had damaged the board, and then tried to glue it together.
So I got it 'as is' figuring that all these touch sensor boards are the same, basically..
. . and that I could replace it with maybe a larger one, or something nicer like a new case?
This last auction has told that there are people who REALLY want the Star Diamond; It might be time to put this one out there!
ASAP!?
I get how people want a really strong elo in their machines,
but isn't having a game written by a different programmer as important?
Say you have two machines of the same elo and programmer, they're the same.. clones almost.
Whereas if they're the same elo and different programmers= night and day?
STAR DIAMOND THINKING,
9R
Btw my Star Diamond was purchased on eBay a few years ago for a deal..
Something like $110? The seller had damaged the board, and then tried to glue it together.
So I got it 'as is' figuring that all these touch sensor boards are the same, basically..
. . and that I could replace it with maybe a larger one, or something nicer like a new case?
This last auction has told that there are people who REALLY want the Star Diamond; It might be time to put this one out there!
ASAP!?
I get how people want a really strong elo in their machines,
but isn't having a game written by a different programmer as important?
Say you have two machines of the same elo and programmer, they're the same.. clones almost.
Whereas if they're the same elo and different programmers= night and day?
STAR DIAMOND THINKING,
9R
-
Monsieur Plastique
- Senior Member
- Posts: 1014
- Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:53 am
- Location: On top of a hill in eastern Australia
You would actually find that many collectors and players will indeed try to get as wide a mix of authors / brands / models as possible, because the differing playing styles and relative strengths and weaknesses are at least as interesting - if not more - than having a machine that has outright playing strength.
If you haven't read the Computer Chess Reports (magazines issued in the 80s and 90s that covered dedicated computer releases and available online in PDF format), these give an excellent insight into the characteristics of the different models and brands.
I have a number of machines in my collection all around the high 1400 to mid 1600s playing strength (so only low club strength) and most of them have very distinctive playing styles, bar the few exceptions where the differences are mainly due to processor speeds, debugging / improvements and openings book changes over the older model.
My favourite machines tend to be the ones made by the Scisys / Saitek people (i.e Julio Kaplan / Craig Barnes) as well as the Novag machines - to me the Saiteks tend to be relatively solid and consistent whereas the Novags tend to be more human-like, creative, speculative and like to complicate matters.
Indeed, given that these days you can literally get solid IM strength on a mobile phone and high GM strength (at the very least) on a modern PC, there shouldn't really be such a dire need to get the maximum playing strength possible on a dedicated unit simply for the sake of having a very strong opponent.
Most of the interest then in the very high strength dedicated machines is an appreciation of the particular breed that is a wholly dedicated chess computer, as opposed to the intangible, emotionless piece of software that one merely inserts into a drive or downloads from the internet - something that simply does not stir the soul in the way a lovingly crafted dedicated machine might.
There is also the rarity factor and the historical significance factor - these are some of the reasons why you find the top-of-the-line Fidelities, Mephistos and Novags commanding extremely high prices today in some cases. Add wood rather than plastic to the equation and you really do have something highly desirable, especially considering that the vast majority of chess players will still get a very challenging game even from the midrange machines these companies made in the 90s.
Personally, being a fairly weak player, I get great games from machines made in the 80s, but interests also branch out to console chess games (i.e Nintendo) since although these machines use decent portable processors, the games tend to be so handicapped for various reasons they haven't so far played any better than your average Mephisto Expert Travel, so again for someone like me, the playing strength is easily good enough to blow me away.
If you haven't read the Computer Chess Reports (magazines issued in the 80s and 90s that covered dedicated computer releases and available online in PDF format), these give an excellent insight into the characteristics of the different models and brands.
I have a number of machines in my collection all around the high 1400 to mid 1600s playing strength (so only low club strength) and most of them have very distinctive playing styles, bar the few exceptions where the differences are mainly due to processor speeds, debugging / improvements and openings book changes over the older model.
My favourite machines tend to be the ones made by the Scisys / Saitek people (i.e Julio Kaplan / Craig Barnes) as well as the Novag machines - to me the Saiteks tend to be relatively solid and consistent whereas the Novags tend to be more human-like, creative, speculative and like to complicate matters.
Indeed, given that these days you can literally get solid IM strength on a mobile phone and high GM strength (at the very least) on a modern PC, there shouldn't really be such a dire need to get the maximum playing strength possible on a dedicated unit simply for the sake of having a very strong opponent.
Most of the interest then in the very high strength dedicated machines is an appreciation of the particular breed that is a wholly dedicated chess computer, as opposed to the intangible, emotionless piece of software that one merely inserts into a drive or downloads from the internet - something that simply does not stir the soul in the way a lovingly crafted dedicated machine might.
There is also the rarity factor and the historical significance factor - these are some of the reasons why you find the top-of-the-line Fidelities, Mephistos and Novags commanding extremely high prices today in some cases. Add wood rather than plastic to the equation and you really do have something highly desirable, especially considering that the vast majority of chess players will still get a very challenging game even from the midrange machines these companies made in the 90s.
Personally, being a fairly weak player, I get great games from machines made in the 80s, but interests also branch out to console chess games (i.e Nintendo) since although these machines use decent portable processors, the games tend to be so handicapped for various reasons they haven't so far played any better than your average Mephisto Expert Travel, so again for someone like me, the playing strength is easily good enough to blow me away.
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
Subject: Dave Kittinger programmed Novag Diamonds.
I own all three Diamonds and they all play amazingly like human beings!
All 3 play great positional chess.
But they all do not play the same.
I've noticed that the Diamond II plays more like a human than the other two.
I'm stunned every time I watch DII play against other computers.
It loves to attack enemy kings that are already castled.
Its always posting its knights in enemy territory.
DII's queen usually becomes very active soon after his opponent has committed his king to castling.
Its pawn formations are always solid and never jagged.
Other people have noticed this about Diamond II also, I'm not the only one.
But try to find one for sale?
You can't!
I have never seen a Diamond II for sale on EBAY in the last 2 years.
Kittinger was a genius when it came to programming dedicated chess computers.
Its too bad he is no longer in the programming business.
LWSteve
I own all three Diamonds and they all play amazingly like human beings!
All 3 play great positional chess.
But they all do not play the same.
I've noticed that the Diamond II plays more like a human than the other two.
I'm stunned every time I watch DII play against other computers.
It loves to attack enemy kings that are already castled.
Its always posting its knights in enemy territory.
DII's queen usually becomes very active soon after his opponent has committed his king to castling.
Its pawn formations are always solid and never jagged.
Other people have noticed this about Diamond II also, I'm not the only one.
But try to find one for sale?
You can't!
I have never seen a Diamond II for sale on EBAY in the last 2 years.
Kittinger was a genius when it came to programming dedicated chess computers.
Its too bad he is no longer in the programming business.
LWSteve