strong dedicate computers

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mclane
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Post by mclane »

It seems I had to learn that these "dedicated" guy are at least as intolerant and without any sense of humor as I am!
tolerance is no one-way-street.
What seems like a fairy tale today may be reality tomorrow.
Here we have a fairy tale of the day after tomorrow....
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Mark Uniacke
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Post by Mark Uniacke »

mclane wrote:without dedicated chess computer, without H+G, Fidelity, Novag or Saitek,
without nitsche+henne, spracklen, levy, ed schroeder, frans morsch, ...

we would have NO computerchess software for PCs.

dedicated chess computers were and still are the roots of computerchess.
so this is ON topic forever IMO.
I agree 100%, all us chess programmers stand on the shoulders of those that came before us, that may be why we can reach higher! :shock:

We should not lose sight of where it all came from. Anyway, I think there is still something we all might learn from the older programs, Mephisto 3 for example! :shock:

Also, dedicated chess computers, particularly the older ones IMHO give a certain pleasure you cannot get from a PC and software.

Best wishes,
Mark
Beryllo
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Post by Beryllo »

Sometimes I even let my old Mephisto playing against a program and of course it often goes down, but nevertheless interesting. Lately upgraded the Mephisto with a Senator Module as I really like to play computerchess without a monitor to watch at. Have this at my job at least 8 hours a day and like to avoid it for the rest. Unfortunately a DCT driver is not yet available for Mac. Of course then I would favour playing HIARCS on board!
Kind regards, Frank
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Steve B
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Post by Steve B »

Beryllo wrote:Sometimes I even let my old Mephisto playing against a program and of course it often goes down, but nevertheless interesting. Lately upgraded the Mephisto with a Senator Module as I really like to play computerchess without a monitor to watch at. Have this at my job at least 8 hours a day and like to avoid it for the rest. Unfortunately a DCT driver is not yet available for Mac. Of course then I would favour playing HIARCS on board!
a very fine computer the Exclusive Senator Frank

i can see from these introductory posts that many lovers of PC Engines today got their start with the old dedicated computers of yesteryear

i have been collecting from the beginning in 1977 but i never made the jump to the Pc Engine

i guess by the mid 1990's when the PC over took the dedicated computer i was already to deep into my collecting to switch ..
who knows perhaps now that this forum has been created i will one day have a look to see what all of the commotion is about

:wink:

Luddite Regards
Steve
pgeorges
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Post by pgeorges »

mclane wrote:the problem is that the dedicated companies are either bancrott or sold or have no money anymore.

this is the reason the sell trash.

fidelity bancrott.
excalibur selling not so strong machines.
H+G bought by saitek.
saitek sold.
novag down.

the future looks no good. the only guy who is alive is phoenix chess
with his high end machines on palm level.
Given Phoenix price, I had for a long time the idea to build my own system. And I think I am close to the solution : use of a Novag Citrine connected with a PDA via bluetooth (serial to bluetooth adapter costs 100-150 €) and make my own program for the Pocket PC. It seems highly feasible and the work is in progress, except I can't buy a Citrine in France ! (sold out).

Pascal
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Alain
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Post by Alain »

Hi Pascal,
pgeorges wrote:Given Phoenix price, I had for a long time the idea to build my own system. And I think I am close to the solution : use of a Novag Citrine connected with a PDA via bluetooth (serial to bluetooth adapter costs 100-150 €) and make my own program for the Pocket PC. It seems highly feasible and the work is in progress, except I can't buy a Citrine in France ! (sold out).
if you want to connect to a PDA... then you'd better buy a DGT board than a Citrine :
It is larger, hundred times more beautiful, and the Citrine does not handle correctly moves coming from two places (board and serial link).

The Citrine is a fine computer if you want to play against it.

Best regards,
Alain
pgeorges
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Post by pgeorges »

Alain wrote:Hi Pascal,

if you want to connect to a PDA... then you'd better buy a DGT board than a Citrine :
It is larger, hundred times more beautiful, and the Citrine does not handle correctly moves coming from two places (board and serial link).

The Citrine is a fine computer if you want to play against it.

Best regards,
Alain
Argh, I was afraid of this : do you mean Citrine pieces set are not so nice ? (this is an important criteria for me)
The problem with the DGT board is that :
- it is a bit too big;
- a bit expensive;
- has no move indication on board (you have to look at the screen to see opponent's move).

But, please, I have another question : how do you connect the DGT board to the PDA : via bluetooth with an adapter (I have a Dell Axim x51v) ?

Pascal (aged 0x28)
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Alain
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Post by Alain »

Hi Pascal,
pgeorges wrote:Argh, I was afraid of this : do you mean Citrine pieces set are not so nice ? (this is an important criteria for me)
The problem with the DGT board is that :
- it is a bit too big;
- a bit expensive;
- has no move indication on board (you have to look at the screen to see opponent's move).

But, please, I have another question : how do you connect the DGT board to the PDA : via bluetooth with an adapter (I have a Dell Axim x51v) ?

Pascal (aged 0x28)
yes, the DGT is more expensive than the citrine but I think it deserves this difference, and you can get from time to time cheap ones on ebay, even in France (see for example http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0132019392)

To connect the DGT to the PDA, there are several solutions depending on the DGT and the PDA :wink:
Just to talk about a program I know quite well, CEBoard, it has successfully been connected to a DGT in the following ways :
1) Serial DGT / X50v or X51v with a serial compact flash card
2) Serial DGT / Bluetooth PPC with BT/Serial adapter
3) USB DGT / Unknown PPC with an "Host usb compact flash card" (I can find the mail from the user who described me this configuration)

The PPC can be used to display the moves or you can also use a DGT XL Clock. Unfortunately, my DGT Board is too old and cannot drive the clock (I don't know if an USB Board is required or if recent serial boards are OK).

Hope this helps,
best regards,
Alain

PS : where in France are you located ? if coming to Essonne is OK for you, then I could show you one day these two boards.
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