That sounds like simple misattribution. It is clear that CXG Accolade, Comet, Legend II and Krypton Challenge were Horvath engines. Though it wouldn't surprise me if Levy were involved on the business side. He seemed to be an engine broker.Mike Watters wrote:Chess Computer Reports review Excaliburs several times but Ron Nelson does not get a mention. However in Vol 4, No.2 we get this -
"Excalibur is a spiritual descendent of Fidelity, as its president, Shane Samole is the son of Fidelity's founder and many of the employees at Excalibur have been former Fidelity employees. Moreover, Excalibur is based in Miami, as was Fidelity. However Excalibur unlike Fidelity has so far only marketed inexpensive chess computers. The only models of interest to most CCR readers are the Expert level machines utilizing the H8 processor and programmed by David Levy and associates. These include the hand-held sensory Accolade and peg-sensory Comet, the table-top sensory Legend II and Krypton Challenge....etc.
Time to move on? regards
Mike
I have no qualms with calling Ron Nelson the chief programmer of all Excalibur machines. The bulk of the effort goes to all the UI and extra features that differ between products, not the engine which remains largely the same once licensed. But we need to make a distinction between engine programmer (which we all care about) and lead programmer who makes sure all the bells and whistles work. It seems folks like Ron Nelson and Craig Barnes were more lead programmers than engine programmers.
Ian
P.S. Besides choice of levels, another clue is Horvaths "Why not?" feature in hint mode, which was retained on the Excalibur Grandmaster.