Ron Nelson Ever Copied, Used , Cloned the Spracklen?

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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

spacious_mind wrote:
Image

Based on your invaluable information we did find a spec sheet for the 6805 and have been able to fill in the hardware gaps. However as a couple of the 6805 in your list state 4K I am still not sure if the ROM should be 4 KB in size. It would be great if you could recall and confirm this.
Well perhaps perseverance does pay off. We have found another spec sheet:

MC68HC05 4K ROM 176 Bytes RAM 4 MHz with internal operating frequency of 2.1 MHz.

Hardware features
• Fully static design featuring the industry standard M68HC05 family CPU core
• 2.1 MHz internal operating frequency at 5V; 1.0 MHz at 3V
• 176 bytes of RAM

Best regards
Nick
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Re: Ron Nelson

Post by mjlef »

ChessChallenger wrote:Thanks for your interest in me and my products.
I would not have normally engaged discussions on a forum, but I could not let anyone think I had used the Fidelity Spracklen program,
or that I had not personally programmed and designed every chess computer Excalibur manufactured in China.

I do want to get back into computer chess, I am comfortably retired enjoying life with my wife, traveling (European River cruises are fantastic),
my grand children and dancing. I am not a fan of Facebook, but I recently joined so I can record my life events,
and go backwards on the timeline to memorialize my life. I do not accept friends I do not personally know.

I do not pretend to think I am in the same league as the Spracklens, Kittinger, Lang, Morsch or Shroeder.
They are all brilliant people that, to my knowledge, worked 24/7 on their high end chess programs.
I on the other hand designed and programmed many consumer products and games. I enjoyed working at
the low end and the challenges small memory and low cost processors presented. I was proud of my
single chip 8049 2K bytes 128 byte ram chess engine. My 4-bit processor chess engine was also another
great accomplishment for me since it used sophisticated PRV and Killer Move search techniques.
Ron,

It is great having you here on the forum. One thing I have always wanted to do was write a history of computer chess. The intellectual battle of ideas as they vastly improved over the years. So I thank you for sharing here.

Fitting PVS and killer moves it such a small (memory) processor is outstanding. I think trying to program a 4 bit microprocessor would cause brain damage in me.

Mark Lefler
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Post by ChessChallenger »

spacious_mind wrote:Hi Ron,

Many thanks for returning to us and a belated Merry Christmas to you. Many of us are trying to correct our Webpages as a result of all the information that you have provided, and I am sure that we will have to rewrite a lot more as a result of all the new information that you are giving us.

In addition to correcting the computers with your Authorship, I have been trying to also correct the hardware where possible as well based on the information you provided in your computer listing. Hopefully you can recall some hardware details to help us correct any mistakes we might be making.

1997 Excalibur Chess 6805 4K Chess 7/23/1997
1997 Sabre 6805 4K Chess 7/23/1997
1997 Squire 6805 4K Chess 7/23/1997
1997 Kingmaster II 6805 Chess & Checkers 7/23/1997
1997 Travel Kingmaster II 6805 Chess & Checkers 7/23/1997
1997 Crusader 6805 Chess & Checkers 7/23/1997

In the above list I can follow all the computers except for Sabre as it seems to be a computer from pre 1995. Sabre II I think came out in 06/95 based on a time sticker on the computer (which may also be a meaningless sticker). You do have Saber III missing on your list however that should fit nicely into your timeline above, especially since its design is similar to Crusader that matches your timeline. Is it possible that Saber III Model 901-E3 is meant under Sabre?

Image

Based on your invaluable information we did find a spec sheet for the 6805 and have been able to fill in the hardware gaps. However as a couple of the 6805 in your list state 4K I am still not sure if the ROM should be 4 KB in size. It would be great if you could recall and confirm this.

Image

With Alexandra we are still unsure about its speed the spec shows 5 MHz but we don't know if perhaps you used at 10 MHz or 12 MHz quartz as well.

Lastly with Chess Station:

Image

Are we correct in assuming 6 MHz?

Very many of your designed computers have the above 3 ROM's therefore in getting it right on the above three computers, it will help us a lot in figuring out most of the other Excalibur computers.

Many thanks and despite our all our heated debates from passionate people that we all are, we do all have one thing in common which is that we all do love your posts and we are all honored that you are here sharing with us your past.

Many thanks and best regards
Nick,
There have been a lot of questions thrown at me and it is very overwhelming.
The Fidelity days were days of paper files, schematics in PCAD format with no PDF universal file read available. I had a large file cabinet with all of my design histories. But with Fidelity being sold, Excalibur going bankrupt, and me downsizing and retiring to Central Florida, I threw away most of it.

Excalibur on the other hand is different. At Excalibur's time things are starting to go electronic. So I have little paper documents but a lot of computer archived information.
I didn't archive it with any system of retrieval, so it is very helter skelter. So it would take time and a desire to do it, to answer all Excalibur questions.
I have an interest to use online computer chess timelines to try to make my own about Fidelity. I used the name Mach IV in a post, I can't believe I remembered that.

Someone questioned if I was responsible for the Einstein Computer Chess games, and that it seemed I stopped working in 2006 at Excalibur. I wrote the spread sheet in 2006, I wrote in a post I did not complete it, and I certainly didn't go back and update it.
Maybe I should work on my Excalibur Chronology first, since it can be perfectly accurate. mmmm...

I teach Line Dance in the afternoon and the evenings on Tuesdays, today.
Yesterday I went to a Line Dance class in Orlando and danced for 3 hours.
I have more interest in writing an AI Choreographer than another chess program.
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Post by Mike Watters »

ChessChallenger wrote:I have an interest to use online computer chess timelines to try to make my own about Fidelity.
Ron

There is a Timeline on my website which may be of use to you in attaching dates to events and machines. It is as comprehensive as I can make it with 680+ chess computers recorded so far, including all Fidelitys and Excaliburs I know about - http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/timeline.html

Mike
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mclane
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Re: Ron Nelson

Post by mclane »

Hi Ron,

I let Igor play at tournament time control 40/120
In a little tournament against other dedicated chess computers to see how it plays and how strong it plays.

Look yourself how good the h8 machine played:

Code: Select all

Motor Punkte ChMiFiMiStChCXFiSpChGaMeDeMeMeNoNiMeMeMeMeEmMiIgDeDePsCoSuGlSiMeSuExRuChMaCoKiElKaTiKrCXReMeMeScNoStExRaScCa S-B
01: Chessmachine512 The King2.54 {Brettcomputer} 29,0/31 · 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 = 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 446,00
02: Millennium Chess Genius {Brettcomputer} 24,5/30 0 · 1 1 0 = 1 1 1 1 0 = = = = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 300,25
03: Fidelity Avantgarde V9 {Brettcomputer} 23,0/29 0 0 · 0 = 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 317,50
04: MilanoPro {Brettcomputer} 23,0/33 0 0 1 · 0 = 1 = = 0 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 0 = 1 1 1 = = = 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 311,75
05: Star Diamond {Brettcomputer} 22,5/33 0 1 = 1 · 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 = 1 = 1 1 0 1 0 1 = = 0 1 1 1 1 1 327,00
06: Chess Explorer Pro 32mhz {Brettcomputer} 22,5/31 0 = 0 = 1 · = 1 1 0 1 1 1 = 1 0 = 1 = = 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 309,75
07: CXG Dominator {Brettcomputer} 22,0/32 0 1 = · 0 ? 0 1 = 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 = = 0 1 1 1 1 1 266,75
08: Fidelity Designer 2325 25 mhz {Brettcomputer} 22,0/29 0 0 0 1 · 1 = 1 1 = = 1 1 = = 1 1 = 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 261,00
09: Sparc {Brettcomputer} 22,0/30 0 0 0 = 0 ? · 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 257,75
10: Challenger 24mhz {Brettcomputer} 21,5/33 0 0 = = 0 0 1 · 1 0 1 = 0 1 1 1 = 1 1 = 1 = 1 1 = 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 299,00
11: Gavon Faile 1.4 {Brettcomputer} 20,0/29 0 0 1 0 0 1 = 0 0 · 1 = 0 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 246,75
12: Mephisto College {Brettcomputer} 20,0/30 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 · 1 0 = 1 1 1 1 0 = 1 = 1 = = 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 233,25
13: Designer2265 Master {Brettcomputer} 19,5/31 0 1 1 0 0 0 = 0 · 0 = 0 0 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 251,00
14: Mephisto Berlin {Brettcomputer} 18,5/26 0 0 0 0 = 1 = 1 1 · 1 1 1 1 1 = 0 1 1 = 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 269,75
15: Mephisto MM5 {Brettcomputer} 18,5/33 0 = 0 = 1 0 0 1 = = 0 · = 0 = = 0 1 1 1 1 = 0 1 1 1 1 = 0 0 1 1 1 1 242,50
16: Novag citrine {Brettcomputer} 18,5/30 = 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 = · 0 = 1 1 = 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 = 0 1 = 1 1 1 1 222,75
17: NigelShort 10mhz {Brettcomputer} 18,0/30 0 = 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 1 0 1 1 · 1 1 = 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 227,25
18: Mephisto Montreal {Brettcomputer} 16,0/28 = = 0 0 0 = 1 = 0 1 0 = = · = 1 1 0 = = 1 1 1 = 1 1 0 1 1 223,25
19: Mephisto Mega IV {Brettcomputer} 15,0/32 0 1 0 0 0 = = 0 = 0 0 = · 0 0 1 0 1 = 1 0 1 = 1 0 1 1 = 0 1 1 1 = 174,00
20: Mephisto academy {Brettcomputer} 15,0/31 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 · = 0 0 0 1 = 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 161,00
21: Mephisto Schachakademie 24mhz {Brettcomputer} 14,5/30 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 = 1 0 0 = · 1 1 1 = = 1 1 = 0 0 1 1 = 0 1 = 1 174,25
22: Emerald Classic Plus {Brettcomputer} 13,5/32 0 0 0 = = 0 = 0 = 0 1 0 = 0 1 0 · = = 0 0 0 = 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 = 1 161,75
23: Milano {Brettcomputer} 13,0/30 0 0 0 1 = 0 0 0 = 1 1 1 1 0 = · 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 = = = = 1 = 1 166,50
24: Igor 24mhz {Brettcomputer} 13,0/31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 = 1 1 = 1 · 1 0 1 0 0 = 1 = 1 1 = = 1 155,50
25: Designer2000 Display 5mhz {Brettcomputer} 13,0/29 = 0 1 = 0 ? 0 0 0 = 0 0 1 0 · 1 0 = = 1 = 0 1 1 = = = = 1 0 1 152,00
26: Designer2100 {Brettcomputer} 12,5/29 0 0 = = = 0 0 1 = 0 0 = 1 1 0 · 1 0 1 = 0 0 0 = 1 = 0 = 1 1 162,00
27: PsionST EMU unlimited {Brettcomputer} 12,5/21 1 0 0 = = 0 0 1 0 · 1 0 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 148,00
28: Corona D+ {Brettcomputer} 12,5/34 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = 0 0 1 1 = 1 · 0 0 0 0 = = 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 117,50
29: Supermondial B {Brettcomputer} 12,0/30 0 0 1 = 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 = = 1 1 1 = 0 0 1 · 0 0 = 0 1 0 0 1 = 1 158,00
30: Glasgow Emu unlimited {Brettcomputer} 12,0/24 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 = 1 1 1 · 1 0 1 1 1 1 138,75
31: Simultano {Brettcomputer} 11,5/32 0 0 = 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 = = 0 0 = 0 1 0 · = 0 1 0 = 0 1 0 1 = 1 143,75
32: Mephisto MM2 {Brettcomputer} 11,5/33 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 = 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 = · 0 1 0 1 = = 1 1 1 0 = 1 123,75
33: Super Forte C {Brettcomputer} 11,0/19 0 0 1 = 1 = 1 0 0 = 0 1 = 1 · 1 1 = = 1 154,75
34: Excel68000 {Brettcomputer} 11,0/27 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 1 0 = 0 0 = 0 1 1 1 1 = 1 0 · 1 1 0 1 0 0 143,50
35: Ruby {Brettcomputer} 11,0/26 0 = = 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = = 1 = 1 1 · 0 1 = 0 1 1 1 126,75
36: Chafitz Sargon 4.0 16 mhz {Brettcomputer} 10,5/29 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 = 0 0 1 0 · 0 = 1 1 1 0 1 = = 1 1 75,50
37: Maestro D++ 6 mhz {Brettcomputer} 9,5/24 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 1 0 1 0 = 1 = 0 1 0 0 · 1 0 1 1 119,50
38: Constellation Expert {Brettcomputer} 9,5/29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 = 0 1 1 0 · = = 0 1 1 1 89,75
39: Kishon Chesster {Brettcomputer} 9,0/26 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 = 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 = 0 0 = = 0 1 = · 1 1 1 102,75
40: Elegance 8 mhz {Brettcomputer} 8,5/16 0 0 = 1 = = 0 = = 1 1 0 · 1 1 1 0 99,25
41: Kasparov Blitz {Brettcomputer} 8,0/31 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 = = 0 0 0 0 0 1 = = = 0 0 · = 1 0 103,75
42: Tiger Grenadier {Brettcomputer} 7,0/30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 1 0 0 0 = = 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 · 0 1 = 1 69,50
43: Krypton Regency {Brettcomputer} 6,5/33 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = = = 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 = · 0 0 84,50
44: CXG Sphinx40 {Brettcomputer} 6,0/29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = 0 = 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 · 1 1 47,25
45: Rebel X (Portorose Experimental) {Brettcomputer} 5,5/12 0 = 0 = 0 · 0 1 1 = 0 1 1 22,75
46: Mephisto Polgar {Brettcomputer} 4,5/10 0 0 = = 0 1 = 1 1 · 0 59,50
47: Mephi IIIb 8mhz {Brettcomputer} 4,5/30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 1 0 0 = 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 · 0 = 45,00
48: Schneider Titan {Brettcomputer} 4,5/25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 = 0 0 0 = 0 1 1 · 36,25
49: Novag Supremo 16 mhz {Brettcomputer} 2,0/7 0 = 0 0 = 1 0 · 23,75
50: Steinitz encore 4mhz {Brettcomputer} 2,0/5 1 0 0 = = · 18,00
51: Excalibur Grandmaster 32 mhz {Brettcomputer} 2,0/6 0 0 0 0 1 1 · 12,00
52: Radioshack 2150L 16 mhz {Brettcomputer} 0,0/5 0 0 0 0 0 · 0,00
52: Scisys Turbostar 432 {Brettcomputer} 0,0/5 0 0 0 0 0 · 0,00
52: Capa {Brettcomputer} 0,0/0 · 0,00
54 participants (some still have to play many games)
And Igor is 24th in a group with fidelity designer 2000 and 2100 (spracklen) or Mephisto Milano (Ed schröder)
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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Post by ChessChallenger »

Mike Watters wrote:
ChessChallenger wrote:I have an interest to use online computer chess timelines to try to make my own about Fidelity.
Ron

There is a Timeline on my website which may be of use to you in attaching dates to events and machines. It is as comprehensive as I can make it with 680+ chess computers recorded so far, including all Fidelitys and Excaliburs I know about - http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/timeline.html

Mike
Thanks that will help. It brings back memories.

Poppy, an external look and name change, asked for by our manager at our Germany office we opened. His name was Peter Rechwitz, I recall, and he tragically died a few years later after being hit by a car in front of his house.

Sensory Challenger 12 Model SC12 year 1984.
I did the I/O programming and UI design for the Sensory 9. and sent development units to the Spracklens.

The next year I designed it into a wooden housing, and Kathy said she wanted to design the User Interface. I said ok go for it.
When it was finished & masked, I was at an internal sales meeting.
No one could figure out how to start a new game.
Sid turned to me with a questioning look. I showed him how to do it (multiple key presses as I recall) and explained about Kathy. He said, don't let them do it again.
I think that was the one game we made where you better not through away the Instruction Manual.
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Post by Steve B »

ChessChallenger wrote:

Poppy, an external look and name change, asked for by our manager at our Germany office we opened.
.
Ahhh The Poppy Challenger
with the Sensory Challenger 6 display screen covered up with the Poppy Sticker

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@ ... 922170604/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@ ... 922170604/

oft times referred to as the ugliest chess computer ever released for sale
:P

but i kind of like it actually

Shocking Red Regards
Steve
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

ChessChallenger wrote:
Nick,
There have been a lot of questions thrown at me and it is very overwhelming.
The Fidelity days were days of paper files, schematics in PCAD format with no PDF universal file read available. I had a large file cabinet with all of my design histories. But with Fidelity being sold, Excalibur going bankrupt, and me downsizing and retiring to Central Florida, I threw away most of it.

Excalibur on the other hand is different. At Excalibur's time things are starting to go electronic. So I have little paper documents but a lot of computer archived information.
I didn't archive it with any system of retrieval, so it is very helter skelter. So it would take time and a desire to do it, to answer all Excalibur questions.
I have an interest to use online computer chess timelines to try to make my own about Fidelity. I used the name Mach IV in a post, I can't believe I remembered that.

Someone questioned if I was responsible for the Einstein Computer Chess games, and that it seemed I stopped working in 2006 at Excalibur. I wrote the spread sheet in 2006, I wrote in a post I did not complete it, and I certainly didn't go back and update it.
Maybe I should work on my Excalibur Chronology first, since it can be perfectly accurate. mmmm...

I teach Line Dance in the afternoon and the evenings on Tuesdays, today.
Yesterday I went to a Line Dance class in Orlando and danced for 3 hours.
I have more interest in writing an AI Choreographer than another chess program.
Hi Ron,

Thanks for your response. Mike's Timeline is very thorough and should help you a lot.

Well, with all the information you have provided for Excalibur already, it should now be a breeze to put the pieces together :) j/k.

Having played all the EB Einstein's I can assure you that there won't be any question on chess program authorship for those :)

Interests are always more fun then what you do for job, I think we can all relate to that.

Best regards
Nick
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Hi Ron,

This concept was really special:

Image

It would have been really awesome had this been expanded with other computers that could be just popped into the docking station! :)

It would been just like the Mephisto Modular series but smaller and compact and much more affordable.

The sensory board was very responsive.

Best regards
Nick
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Fidelity and Fast Hardware

Post by ChessChallenger »

I believe I always had the fastest chess micro-computer hardware.
There was speed by design and then there was over-clocking.

My first over-clocking was for the World Computer Chess Tournament in Linz, Austria, possibly an ACM tournament. Basically, I built the Chess Challenger Champion into a refrigerator.
The colder the electronics the more you can over-clock it. If one looks at pictures, the Chess Challenger Champion looks like it is in 5 wood housings all stacked on top of each other.

As I recall the only other time I did the refrigerator chess computer design was a unit entered in the World Micro-Computer Chess Tournament in Spain.

If I recall correctly, I over-clocked for the 2100 rated Par Excellence. 5 MHz 65C02 processors were not quite yet available.
So I ran the processors hot, by putting a diode in the base of the 5 volt regulator. This caused a 5.7 volt power on the 4Mhz processor, which since it was CMOS allowed it to be sped up to 5 Mhz.
We started production that way, but soon the 65c02 chip manufacturer was able to offer tested 5 MHz chips at 5 volts.

My other speed up trick this time was by design, and it was to have fast and slow memory.
I had the Spracklins partition their code into fast and slow. Both were programmed into slow ROM, but then on power-up, they transferred their fast small engine into very fast static RAM.
The large block of slow end game code, for example, just ran out of slow ROM.
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Post by Steve B »

Hi Ron
in addition too being the first to write a program for a commercially available dedicated chess computer,i was just thinking about some of the hardware designs you pioneered

a short list:
first to use the pressure sensory playing surface(SC8)
first to use the Voice Chip(Voice Challenger)
first and only chess computer to use motion detectors(Eyeball Chesster Phantom-model 6126)

regarding the Eyeball...
i remember an email exchange we had about it and you mentioned at one time you toyed with the idea of using real eyes
i know you were joking but to this day every-time i play the Eyeball i think of a pair of real human eyes watching my every move

:shock: Regards :shock:
Steve
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Ron Nelson & Talking Chess Computers

Post by ChessChallenger »

I have seen a few questioning postings on Chesster, which I will address.

But first I wanted to talk about the start of Talking Chess Computers.

In early 1979, in one of my Design Electronics magazines, I read about a Talking Calculator for the blind. The article explained how Dr. Forrest Mozer had invented a voice compression algorithm and had the algorithm designed into a dedicated chip. I told Sid Samole and he contacted Dr. Mozer and arranged a meeting with him at UC Berkley in California. We had a wonderful meeting, and worked out a deal with him and TeleSensory Systems to buy the voice chip. The voice data was in an external ROM and I worked on making the chess voice vocabulary, sent it to Dr. Mozer, who used his equipment to create the ROM data and sent it to me for testing and masking. I also eventually did the same in French, Spanish & German.

Texas Instruments was working and introducing their own talking product, Speak & Spell, at about this same time. Dr. Mozer’s compression was done in the Time Domain and Texas Instruments was done in the Frequency Domain.
This explained why TI’s was a little more human sounding compared to Dr Mozer’s Cylon Robotic voice.

If you are interested in a detailed reading on the Talking Calculator here is a link:
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/ ... eech-.html

Fast forward to 1989, Kathy wanted to develop something along the educational lines for computer chess. So she started creating a script of what could be said during a game of chess.
I received her script and we had a marketing meeting, where I presented the idea. It was liked but they wanted more personality with perhaps a wisecracker persona. Names were thrown out and Chesster was a favorite.
All during the discussion, Teri Everett (the first Chess Challenger sales person hired after the CES in 1976), who is a doodler, showed the impish figure she had doodled on her note pad. It was the graphic we used for Chesster.
(off topic, Teri was very capable and was Sid Samole’s protégé. When H & G bought Fidelity, she was passed over to run the company (perhaps because she was a woman) a big mistake in my opinion.)

For the voice system, I again went back to Dr. Mozer. He had started a company call Sensory, Inc, which was now run by his son Todd. But instead of a chip, they now offered a 65c02 software solution.
That was an ideal solution for me, so all was in place but….H & G bought Fidelity. Kathy told me she would not work for a company who called their product The Devil (Mephisto)…
and Saitek made Kathy & Dan an offer to work on a Spark CPU to compete in the World Micro Chess Computer Tournament and win back their title. So no Kathy to do the programming.

So Sid asked me if I could do it. Of course I said yes, and it was my first project in to my 12 month contract. It was not easy, as I had mentioned the Spracklen 6502 code had very few comments, so it was not easy designing a voice system that melded into a chess engine.
I came up with a clever software scheme where the voice events were coded in line with the code, and not arranged in tables. The scheme was designed for 4 languages.
I finished the English and I believe it went into production.
Then I started the French & Spanish, but H & G wanted Kishon to do the German translation and actual recording. While still in development, Helmut Wiegel, from H & G, came over to the USA to start testing the German portion.
I had designed an Apple development system to display all voice as text. So he spent a number of days with me testing and modifying the German voice design.

Helmut liked the development system and wanted to continue testing back in Germany. So I was commissioned to build a second unit and bring it to Munich.
I did and my trip to Germany led me to two projects for H & G, which I want to write about in a separate post.
Helmut Wiegel was the product developer for Tiny Chess, Fidelity imported from H & G. Helmut and I talked about that product, since I was impressed by it. He told me he hired a software company (of two I think) in Belgium to write the software for the single chip.

One of my last projects at Fidelity/H&G was Little Chesster. The goal was to cost reduce Chesster.
The LCD was eliminated, a single chip MCU with external Rom & Ram was used. A three chip solution which allowed a single sided PCB for further cost savings.
The engine & voice code of Chesster was preserved but some of the voice data was removed since it wasn’t used.

Fast forward to 1996, where I am working for Excalibur Electronics. I had finished my H8 chess engine and used it on my Mirage moving chess piece robot design. But we wanted a talking product too.

So I worked on my own compression algorithm. I had done my Master’s Thesis in grad school on a computer voice recognition technique, so I enjoyed getting back into computer voice “research”. So now I had full control, from the studio recording, to the compression and decompression of the voice by computer.

The first product I used my system on was Ivan The Terrible. I also added sound effects to the product, giving it yet another dimension of entertainment. This was done using the H8.

When I switched over to the Sunplus/GeneralPlus 65c02 single chip BLOBs, the chips were even more efficient since they had some voice hardware built into the chip.

The Alexandra The Great product was one of my interesting Talking Chess Computers. Alexandra an up and coming young woman Chess Master, had a manager who called us to see if we could work together, thus promoting Alexandra to the world.
We did, and she went into a local sound studio with me and did all the recordings. The recordings were In English, and also in Russian. They were Russian and the manager had an import company in Russia, so he wanted a Russian version to import into Russia. As I recall we did ship into Russia but not large numbers, since payment in Rubles was problematic.

What was cool, was that I didn’t use any human voices or studio for the French & Spanish (can’t remember if I ever did German).
I used the latest Text To Speech (TTS) systems that were starting to appear online. I eventually used the English TTS voice later, to eliminate Alexandra’s voice when our relationship ended.
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Fernando
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Re: Ron Nelson & Talking Chess Computers

Post by Fernando »

ChessChallenger wrote:I have seen a few questioning postings on Chesster, which I will address.

But first I wanted to talk about the start of Talking Chess Computers.

In early 1979, in one of my Design Electronics magazines, I read about a Talking Calculator for the blind. The article explained how Dr. Forrest Mozer had invented a voice compression algorithm and had the algorithm designed into a dedicated chip. I told Sid Samole and he contacted Dr. Mozer and arranged a meeting with him at UC Berkley in California. We had a wonderful meeting, and worked out a deal with him and TeleSensory Systems to buy the voice chip. The voice data was in an external ROM and I worked on making the chess voice vocabulary, sent it to Dr. Mozer, who used his equipment to create the ROM data and sent it to me for testing and masking. I also eventually did the same in French, Spanish & German.

Texas Instruments was working and introducing their own talking product, Speak & Spell, at about this same time. Dr. Mozer’s compression was done in the Time Domain and Texas Instruments was done in the Frequency Domain.
This explained why TI’s was a little more human sounding compared to Dr Mozer’s Cylon Robotic voice.

If you are interested in a detailed reading on the Talking Calculator here is a link:
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/ ... eech-.html

Fast forward to 1989, Kathy wanted to develop something along the educational lines for computer chess. So she started creating a script of what could be said during a game of chess.
I received her script and we had a marketing meeting, where I presented the idea. It was liked but they wanted more personality with perhaps a wisecracker persona. Names were thrown out and Chesster was a favorite.
All during the discussion, Teri Everett (the first Chess Challenger sales person hired after the CES in 1976), who is a doodler, showed the impish figure she had doodled on her note pad. It was the graphic we used for Chesster.
(off topic, Teri was very capable and was Sid Samole’s protégé. When H & G bought Fidelity, she was passed over to run the company (perhaps because she was a woman) a big mistake in my opinion.)

For the voice system, I again went back to Dr. Mozer. He had started a company call Sensory, Inc, which was now run by his son Todd. But instead of a chip, they now offered a 65c02 software solution.
That was an ideal solution for me, so all was in place but….H & G bought Fidelity. Kathy told me she would not work for a company who called their product The Devil (Mephisto)…
and Saitek made Kathy & Dan an offer to work on a Spark CPU to compete in the World Micro Chess Computer Tournament and win back their title. So no Kathy to do the programming.

So Sid asked me if I could do it. Of course I said yes, and it was my first project in to my 12 month contract. It was not easy, as I had mentioned the Spracklen 6502 code had very few comments, so it was not easy designing a voice system that melded into a chess engine.
I came up with a clever software scheme where the voice events were coded in line with the code, and not arranged in tables. The scheme was designed for 4 languages.
I finished the English and I believe it went into production.
Then I started the French & Spanish, but H & G wanted Kishon to do the German translation and actual recording. While still in development, Helmut Wiegel, from H & G, came over to the USA to start testing the German portion.
I had designed an Apple development system to display all voice as text. So he spent a number of days with me testing and modifying the German voice design.

Helmut liked the development system and wanted to continue testing back in Germany. So I was commissioned to build a second unit and bring it to Munich.
I did and my trip to Germany led me to two projects for H & G, which I want to write about in a separate post.
Helmut Wiegel was the product developer for Tiny Chess, Fidelity imported from H & G. Helmut and I talked about that product, since I was impressed by it. He told me he hired a software company (of two I think) in Belgium to write the software for the single chip.

One of my last projects at Fidelity/H&G was Little Chesster. The goal was to cost reduce Chesster.
The LCD was eliminated, a single chip MCU with external Rom & Ram was used. A three chip solution which allowed a single sided PCB for further cost savings.
The engine & voice code of Chesster was preserved but some of the voice data was removed since it wasn’t used.

Fast forward to 1996, where I am working for Excalibur Electronics. I had finished my H8 chess engine and used it on my Mirage moving chess piece robot design. But we wanted a talking product too.

So I worked on my own compression algorithm. I had done my Master’s Thesis in grad school on a computer voice recognition technique, so I enjoyed getting back into computer voice “research”. So now I had full control, from the studio recording, to the compression and decompression of the voice by computer.

The first product I used my system on was Ivan The Terrible. I also added sound effects to the product, giving it yet another dimension of entertainment. This was done using the H8.

When I switched over to the Sunplus/GeneralPlus 65c02 single chip BLOBs, the chips were even more efficient since they had some voice hardware built into the chip.

The Alexandra The Great product was one of my interesting Talking Chess Computers. Alexandra an up and coming young woman Chess Master, had a manager who called us to see if we could work together, thus promoting Alexandra to the world.
We did, and she went into a local sound studio with me and did all the recordings. The recordings were In English, and also in Russian. They were Russian and the manager had an import company in Russia, so he wanted a Russian version to import into Russia. As I recall we did ship into Russia but not large numbers, since payment in Rubles was problematic.

What was cool, was that I didn’t use any human voices or studio for the French & Spanish (can’t remember if I ever did German).
I used the latest Text To Speech (TTS) systems that were starting to appear online. I eventually used the English TTS voice later, to eliminate Alexandra’s voice when our relationship ended.
What an interesting piece of history you have given to us, Ron!
BTW, I was told that alexandra did not think during the other player turn. It is so? Perhaps you already told us about how some chips could not sustain everythi8ng, but I am not sure. In any case I have played a lot Alexandra and I feel it is stronger than what is usually supposed, OR maybe I have some attachment to that specific computer because of the sweet voice, of course..:-)

Fern
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Steve B
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Re: Ron Nelson & Talking Chess Computers

Post by Steve B »

ChessChallenger wrote:I have seen a few questioning postings on Chesster, which I will address.
a good example of Chessters vocabulary in an actual game
his comments are in Red

i will show the game position at various times throughout the game but the comments will be those of Chesster in BOLD TYPE under each diagram

Take it Away Chesster..

Image

HI!
IM CHESSTER..
HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS??

:)

[White "Chesster Challenger"]
[Black "Mephisto Academy"]
[Time Control- 30 Sec./Avg.]


1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bb5+ c6 7.Bd3 Bxf3
8.Qxf3 Qb4 9.Qh3 Nbd7 10.O-O Qxd4 11.Be3 Qg4 12.Qxg4 Nxg4 13.Bg5 h6
14.Bd2 e5 15.Ne2 Bd6 16.Bf5 Ngf6

[fen]r3k2r/pp1n1pp1/2pb1n1p/4pB2/8/8/PPPBNPPP/R4RK1 w kq - 0 17[/fen]
COME ON..YOU LOVE ME DONT YOU??
:o


17.Rad1 Ke7 18.Be3 Nd5 19.c4 Nxe3
20.fxe3 Nb6

[fen]r6r/pp2kpp1/1npb3p/4pB2/2P5/4P3/PP2N1PP/3R1RK1 w - - 0 21[/fen]
IM STILL THINKING
:?


21.b3 Rad8 22.a4

[fen]3r3r/pp2kpp1/1npb3p/4pB2/P1P5/1P2P3/4N1PP/3R1RK1 w - a3 0 22[/fen]
DONT YOU THINK IM GREAT??
8)


22..g6 23.Bc2 Bc5 24.Kf2 f5 25.a5 Nd7 26.h3
Rhf8 27.g3 Bb4 28.Ra1 Nc5 29.Kf3 Rd2 30.Bd1 e4+ 31.Kg2 fd8
[fen]3r4/pp2k3/2p3pp/P1n2p2/1bP1p3/1P2P1PP/3rN1K1/R2B1R2 w - - 0 32[/fen]
NOW IVE GOT YOU!!
:lol:

32.Rb1 R8d3
33.Kf2 Bxa5 34.Ra1 Nxb3 35.Bxb3 Rxe2+

[fen]8/pp2k3/2p3pp/b4p2/2P1p3/1B1rP1PP/4rK2/R4R2 w - - 0 36[/fen]

PUT ME ON A HIGHER LEVEL IF YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE SO LONG!
:x



36.Kxe2 Rd2+ 37.Ke1 Ra2+ 38.Kd1 Rxa1+ 39.Ke2 Rxf1 40.Kxf1 b5 41.g4

[fen]8/p3k3/2p3pp/bp3p2/2P1p1P1/1B2P2P/8/5K2 w - - 0 41[/fen]
AHEM..ARE YOU STILL THERE??
ITS YOUR TURN!
:roll:



41.. fxg4 42.hxg4 h5 43.cxb5 cxb5 44.gxh5
gxh5 45.Bd5 Bb6 46.Ke2 h4 47.Bxe4 a5 48.Kf3 a4 49.Kg4 Kd6 50.Kxh4 b4
51.Kg4 a3

[fen]8/8/1b1k4/8/1p2B1K1/p3P3/8/8 w - - 0 52[/fen]
HEY! YOUR GETTING GOOD
:shock:


52.Bb1 b3 0-1

FINAL POSITION
[fen]8/8/1b1k4/8/6K1/pp2P3/8/1B6 w - - 0 53[/fen]
OK YOU WON THIS ONE
I RESIGN

:cry:

Speechless Regards
Steve
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Ron Nelson and H & G Projects

Post by ChessChallenger »

I was finishing The Kishon Chesster project, and Helmut Weigel had asked for his own development unit for testing in Munich.
Dr Prommer approved the request and told me to deliver it to Munich so I could also meet the H & G team.

I did, and it was a very enjoyable visit. During my visit, I was asked to sit in on a Product Development meeting.
It was somewhat interesting and then Dr Buckhart (I think that was his name) head of Research & Development, said they wanted to develop an ARM processor chess product.
He wanted permission to hire an outside firm to design it. I held up my hand and said I would design it. He asked if I had ever designed anything with an ARM processor and I said no.
Dr Prommer turned to me and asked me if I could do it, and I said yes. So I got my first H & G project.

Then I went back home and started researching what the hell an ARM processor was. I called the chip sales rep who gave me an ARM development board on permanent loan.
I designed the hardware (after reading an awful lot) wrote the I/O code (LCD & Sensory board and beeper) with Ram Rom test code.
It was designed for a Fidelity Designer LCD housing, and I sent the working unit and source code to Munich but never learned what they did with it.

That success led Dr Prommer to ask me to design a high speed 68020 module for their modular system.
He wanted me to work with Richard Lang to get Richards program on it. I contacted Richard to discuss my Fast Code Slow Code hardware design. He had no problem with it.
I told him the test unit I had for him was layed out for two 68020’s. Did he want me to deliver a fully populated PCB so he could play with multi-processing.
He had no interest, so I just populated one half of the large PCB development unit that worked with their autosensory hardware.

I then also finished the layout of the production PCB for the module using my type of hardware design, I sent it to Munich to sample and build and await Richards “partitioned” software.

When my wife passed away in 1992, I went to Europe to visit friends and to visit H & G in Munich.
One of their good technicians, whom I had met on my previous visit, came up to me and said my fast speed module design was the most solid design he had seen. He said they had very few returns of modules using that design.

So that is the end of all the things I wanted to relate.
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