What was your first chess computer?

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Dave C
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What was your first chess computer?

Post by Dave C »

My first? Late 1970's and it was a Multi Game System (MGS). During the Fischer vs. Spassky world chess championship I became interested in playing chess, but I didn't have many friends that were interested in playing. When I saw the MGS system at a game store in Los Angeles I saw the solution to my chess partner problem. I saved a little money each week for a couple of months and made the purchase. I don't remember what I paid for that unit but it may have been around $200US.

After a year I purchased a Capablanca end game module for the unit. But my enthusiasm lessened due to the slowness of entering moves until I saw an advertisement for Fidelity auto sensory chess games, Prestige and Elite A/S. I saw the beautiful wood and the easy & nature play and had to have one. I started saving but this time it took a lot longer to save the needed money, $400US for an EAS.

What a joy to open that box when it arrived. I set it up on a card table and couldn't stop playing during every spare minute. My wife still complains about hearing the mechanical voice saying, "I am Fidelity's chess challenger, your computer opponent. Select your level." at 1am. (unfortunately, I was even less considerate as a young man than I am now as an older one.)

In the late 1980's I saw an Excaliber Phantom on sale at a local electronics store for $90US and bought it. Later, at a garage sale I bought an Excaliber King II for $5US. My collection was off to a slow start.

Then nearly two decades passed, busy family raising years, then retirement arrived and chess computer collecting returned. During those decades I wasn't studying chess or chess computers and wasn't familiar with Mephisto, Conchess or Saitek. During the last few years I've purchased 25+ chess computers, but I have decided to slow down now and enjoy the units in my current collection.

How about you? How and when did your interest in dedicated chess computers begin? Do you focus on a particular narrow portion of the dedicated chess world (strong, wood, portable, a certain manufacturer?) or buy one of everything?
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pr1uk
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Post by pr1uk »

I was between relationships and started late with chess but in the early 80's i bought a spanking new Conchess Ambassador. Loved the board and soon found out it was basic the openings were very limited but worse was one of the sensors stopped working. I returned the whole thing and the shop replaced it and the second one soon had problems to. When i took it back to the shop a small model shop they said they had had problems and stopped doing them so i got my money back. Funny i still missed the old thing even today and since then i have always wanted to play on wooden boards with wooden pieces.

Peter
King Performance Chess Computer M830
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paulwise3
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Post by paulwise3 »

I never thought much of chess computers, thought they were to weak to play with. But somewhere in the nineties on a second hand market I saw the Tandy 1850, for sale for 2,50 dutch guilders (1,25 euro). They said it didnt work, but pressing the ACL did the trick. It was a reasonable partner to play with. Some years later Hans Böhm did a chess course on TV, accompanied with a book and the Scisys pocket chess. That was about 50 guilders. But disappointing weak to play with. But from the beginning I was interested in chess programming, so I am a long time member of the CSVN (dutch computerchess association). and after my retirement I finally decided to participate in a user tournament, that was november last year. And then, as some of you already know, the spark became a flame so to say ;-). It started with detecting a Mephisto Europa in a second hand shop for only 7,50 euro. After that I really scanned internet, and in no time I bought a Saitek Turbo Advanced Trainer in mint condition, and I was loose...
With some help and tips from fellow collectors I now already have about 35 comps (not counting doubles!), and still I have the feeling a few are missing...

Still searching regards,
Paul
2024 Special thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12741
2024 Special results and standings: https://schaakcomputers.nl/paul_w/Tourn ... 25_06.html
If I am mistaken, it must be caused by a horizon effect...
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Fernando
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Post by Fernando »

Great histories!!!

Mine is simple. One day, in 1979, walking along one of the streets of the downtown of Santiago, I saw, in a shop, Fidelity 7 . Couldn't believe it!! Until that day I thought of chess playing computers as something appertaining to the realm of Sci-Fi.
So I cheated, stole, stabbed and killed to get the money and there it was one day, over the dinner room table, waiting for my first move.
From then on it was a history of love and so it is to this day. I will spare you the details because probably we share the same histories of asking money, asking questions, giving explanations in home to women, hiding the thing, etc. etc.
What is more and probably best, I have known lot of stupendous people, like you all and specially Steve, with whom I met certain day in NYC.

Fern
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Dubliner
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Post by Dubliner »

Mine was the CXG SPHINX CHESS CARD , I think 1990.
Never really used it but funny, ten years after I pulled it from a drawer and it was still working! - on the same battery.
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Steve B
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Re: What was your first chess computer?

Post by Steve B »

Dave C wrote: How about you? How and when did your interest in dedicated chess computers begin? Do you focus on a particular narrow portion of the dedicated chess world (strong, wood, portable, a certain manufacturer?) or buy one of everything?
How.. is an interesting question
learned the game as a child but like everyone else in the US ,i became more interested in it when in the summer of 1972 Fischer shocked the world and single handedly beat Spassky to wrestle the World title from Soviet domination
we were called "Fischer Baby Boomers"
:P
i joined clubs,played in weekend tournaments..played for my high school and University teams and played some correspondence chess ...etc..etc

with little time for chess after graduating it was a no brainer when in 1977 the very first dedicated computer to be released for sale..the Fidelity Chess Challenger hit the market
actually it was also the second chess computer i bought because Fidelity upgraded it to 3 levels a few months later
i never focused on any particular housing ,,was just as happy to acquire a large wooden board or a small hand-held plastic model
i cant say i bought everything ..i did buy everything i could by the major manufacturers and almost nothing from companies like Millennium and Lexibook

Rollin In The Years Regards
Steve
Larry
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Post by Larry »

The year must have been 1981 when a friend bought a Fidelity Voice
Champion. He paid a pretty penny for it but he was a keen beginning
chess club player. Out of curiosity I also bought one, but mine gave
trouble soon after. The squares just stopped registering. I took it back
but they could'nt fix it either, and gave me a refund. Not a good experience
to start out with. Later I bought a Fidelity Elegance, and it had trouble
with the reed switches after the warranty had expired. It went into the
closet where it sat for about 25 years.
In 1986 I bought a one year old Novag Expert, all complete. I only
bought it because it was an easy walk from where I worked. The girl
seller said she was selling to recoup some money her ex boyfriend owed
her, so I don't even know if she had the legal right to sell it. To this day
I've still got that Expert and the Elegance. The Elegance has of course
by now had all it's reed switches replaced.
When chess went onto software I preferred to go that way. I paid dearly
for Genius2 which came with 3 "lives", installs, on it. I should'nt be
mentioning software on this forum in fear of being banned. :lol:
Apart from a couple of weak units bought for peanuts at flea markets,
I did'nt buy any more until about 10 years back. It was a Tandy1850,
all complete and mint for $1. How could I resist? Well, this started me
on the comeback trail. I got hooked, and went to our local chess
retailer, fossicked through his stuff and walked out with several dozen
units. Some in my collection I did'nt know existed, eg risc2500,
Montreux, Septennial and Super9. They simply were never imported
here.
I've had endless hours of fun with the collection and no regrets about
the expense. In recent times the Australian dollar has depreciated against
other major currencies and the shipping price has risen to the point
where wooden units in particular are quite expensive to ship. I'm
fairly happy with the collection as it stands, and the few on my wish
list, including the elusive Excel Mach4, I will probably never find.
L
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ricard60
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Post by ricard60 »

I learn to play chess when i was 10 during a ship travel from Valparaiso to La Guaira, it was a 15 day travel so for not getting bore my brother taught me chess i really enjoy playing. My first machine was a Mini Sensory Chess Challenger and then i bought the oppening module i really have a lot of fun with this machine, I could take it anywhere, sadly one of its plastic strip inside the machine broke and i sold the machine to somebody. After quite some time maybe 8 years again i start for looking for a dedicated chess machine and i bought my second one a Fidelity Designer 2100 wich i still have, this machine has with me about 26 years.

Loving dedicated chess machines regards
Ricardo
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

Scisys Travel Sensor. Confiscated during Divinity (scripture) class in 1980 by a teacher who had become sick and tired of my constant interjections, challenges to authority, secularist ravings and atheistic rants.

PS: The batteries had run down considerably when I got it back a week later.
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
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chesspcmac
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Post by chesspcmac »

I have been playing chess since the age of 9 but never good chess. My mother always believed that books were more important than toys, so I never had a chessboard until i was 12. Jump to 1982 Im in NY city walking down 7th and 42nd street and thats when I saw my first fidelity and I fell in love with chess computer. Many months later after saving many tips ( I was a busboy) I bought a chess challenger, dont remember the type but it was very weak.
Years later , after college, when I was making some decent money I bought an elite Avant garde v-2 but I still remember myself staring at all the mephistos and Tasc computers that I couldnt afford.
Now in the last 6 months my computer collection has literally exploded, I went from 3-4 to probably 20. I guess all I need to calm this BEAST is the TASC r30 (there's one on ebay right now) or a mephisto montreux, or risc 2500 or a Novag diablo. Anyone would do. If you or any of you know somebody who wants to sell one of these, please let me know. I'll be nice to IT!!
To my collector friends, I understand having duplicate computers but triplicates?!?!. whats with the paranoia?? Afraid they 'll break!!

:D :) :D :( 8) :( 8) 8)

Addictive personality regards

Mike
"Sir, the slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is insufferable"

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red_potatoes
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Post by red_potatoes »

The first chess computer I ever played was a chess challenger 10. An older friend had one; rather easy to beat, though. That was 1979, I was 14.

The first chess computer I ever bought was a Mephisto Super Mondial, in 1986, while traveling in the Netherlands. Saw it in a shop window - I'd never seen a dedicated chess computer in a shop in Canada - and what a blast it was to play. For some reason I especially liked to play the Albin Chatard attack against it. An opening I've never played over the board -- yet :)
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Steve B
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Post by Steve B »

chesspcmac wrote: To my collector friends, I understand having duplicate computers but triplicates?!?!. whats with the paranoia?? Afraid they 'll break!!

:D :) :D :( 8) :( 8) 8)

Addictive personality regards

Mike
Excellent use of Icons Mike

:P

any doubles or triples I have are either defective in some small way or some big way..so I replaced them with a working model
I guess I could just throw them away..but something inside me physically prevents me from doing that
it seems like an act of cruelty or something

Chess Computer Lives Matter Regards
Steve
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

A faulty machine becomes a good supply of spare parts, since it's likely many parts inside a faulty machine not only remain useable, but invaluable because they are often bespoke.

I have had several instances in the past where I salvaged parts from a broken machine and was subsequently able to repair another machine with those salvaged parts. If I had discarded the broken machine, replacement parts would have been impossible to find.

I'm aware of a relatively recent instance, for example, where a perfectly mint condition late model Saitek machine was rendered completely useless by the failure of a small bespoke plastic clip worth about 20 cents if that. Impossible to make, impossible to source except from a donor machine. All it takes is one duplicate machine and the original machine would have been back on the road and there would have been a whole heap of spare parts suddenly available for that model as well from the broken machine. Probably enough to keep that model functioning for the rest of the owner's life. Or dead in the water forever without a duplicate backup.

So in my opinion, working duplicates are not silly. They are a contingency against the failure of the main machine in service and if one of the machines goes completely belly up, strip the machine down, salvage all useable parts then label / catalogue them in sealed paper envelopes for future use. I've got a whole drawer full of chess computer spare parts thanks to this.
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
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Fernando
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Post by Fernando »

Monsieur Plastique wrote:A faulty machine becomes a good supply of spare parts, since it's likely many parts inside a faulty machine not only remain useable, but invaluable because they are often bespoke.

I have had several instances in the past where I salvaged parts from a broken machine and was subsequently able to repair another machine with those salvaged parts. If I had discarded the broken machine, replacement parts would have been impossible to find.

I'm aware of a relatively recent instance, for example, where a perfectly mint condition late model Saitek machine was rendered completely useless by the failure of a small bespoke plastic clip worth about 20 cents if that. Impossible to make, impossible to source except from a donor machine. All it takes is one duplicate machine and the original machine would have been back on the road and there would have been a whole heap of spare parts suddenly available for that model as well from the broken machine. Probably enough to keep that model functioning for the rest of the owner's life. Or dead in the water forever without a duplicate backup.

So in my opinion, working duplicates are not silly. They are a contingency against the failure of the main machine in service and if one of the machines goes completely belly up, strip the machine down, salvage all useable parts then label / catalogue them in sealed paper envelopes for future use. I've got a whole drawer full of chess computer spare parts thanks to this.[/quote




We should have spare parts to fix our wives, but I suppose that we can also just change the model.


Fern]
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TracySMiller
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Post by TracySMiller »

My first was a Radio Shack 1650 Fast Response, which a friend gave me as a gift in the late 80's.
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