Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed

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ChessChallenger
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Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed

Post by ChessChallenger »

So what does a small memory model 2Kbyte ROM 128 Byte Ram program look like to a programmer. Unfortunately this Post Board does not accept TAB in text file so it is not as clear as what a programmer sees.
Here are some snippets:

M6805 Portable Cross Assembler 0.05 CHESS.ASM Page 2
Thu Jan 07 09:56:06 2016
Options - MD,MC,NOG,NOU,W,NOMEX,CL,FMT,O
'CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 9/4/95 CHESSMATE'
LINE S PC OPCO OPERANDS S LABEL MNEMO OPERANDS COMMENT
00001 **************************************************************
00002 * CHESS CHALLENGER 6805
00003 **************************************************************
00005 OPT LLE=98
00006 * FOR IASM05 REMOVE ABOVE 2 LINES ADD '$BASE 10T' LINE
00007 * FIND KING3 AND CHANGE SUMS TO ZERO
00008 *
00009 * STARTED 12/28/91 BY R.C. NELSON
00010 * VERSION 1.0 4/14/92
00011 * 9/4/95 MODIFIED PV ROUTINE TO SAVE 5 BYTES
00012 * MODIFIED UDR10 TO SAVE 2 BYTES
00013 *
00014 * GENERAL EQUATES
00015 *
00016 P 0000 00a5 A SKIP1 EQU 0A5H ;BIT IMMEDIATE TEST (SKIPS ONE BYTE)
00017 P 0000 00c1 A SKIP2 EQU 0C1H ;CMP ABSOLUTE OPCODE (SKIPS TWO BYTES)
00018 *
00019 P 0000 0088 A SAVKEY EQU 88H ;SAVE KEY
00020 P 0000 0089 A CLKEY EQU 89H
00021 P 0000 008e A PBKEY EQU 8EH
00022 P 0000 008f A PVKEY EQU 8FH
00023 P 0000 0081 A LVKEY EQU 81H
00024 P 0000 0086 A TBKEY EQU 86H
00025 P 0000 0082 A DMKEY EQU 82H
00026 P 0000 0087 A RVKEY EQU 87H
00027 *
00028 P 0000 0040 A ONESEC EQU 64 ;64 TIMER INTERRUPTS EQUALS 1 SECOND
00029 P 0000 000b A MAXDEP EQU 11
00030 *
00031 * REGISTER EQUATES
00032 *
00033 P 0000 0000 A PORTA EQU 00H ;PA7..PA0: LCD SEGS & KEYBOARD ROWS

M6805 Portable Cross Assembler 0.05 CHESS.ASM Page 5
Thu Jan 07 09:56:06 2016
Options - MD,MC,NOG,NOU,W,NOMEX,CL,FMT,O
'CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 9/4/95 CHESSMATE'
LINE S PC OPCO OPERANDS S LABEL MNEMO OPERANDS COMMENT
00102 *
00103 * PAGE ZERO RAM DEFINITIONS
00104 *
00105 A 0080 ORG 80H
00106 *
00107 A 0080 20 A PBORD RMB 32 ;PACKED CHESS BOARD
00108 A 00a0 01 A GENSTATE RMB 1
00109 A 00a1 01 A FROMD RMB 1
00110 A 00a2 01 A FRMKLLR RMB 1
00111 A 00a3 01 A TODISP RMB 1
00112 A 00a4 01 A TOKLLR RMB 1
00113 A 00a5 01 A FROM RMB 1
00114 A 00a6 01 A TO RMB 1
00115 A 00a7 01 A FPIECE RMB 1 ;PIECE ON FROM SQUARE
00116 A 00a8 02 A BESTMV RMB 2
00117 A 00aa 01 A DURATION RMB 1 ;TONE DURATION COUNTER
00118 A 00ab 01 A REFRESH RMB 1 ;LCD REFRESH COUNTER
00119 A 00ac 01 A LEVEL RMB 1
00120 A 00ad 01 A SIDE RMB 1 ;SIDE TO MOVE 00-BLACK FF-WHITE
00121 A 00ae 01 A TEMP RMB 1
00122 A 00af 01 A R6 RMB 1
00123 A 00b0 01 A CSP RMB 1
00124 A 00b1 01 A TREBOT RMB 1
00125 A 00b2 01 A POSVAL RMB 1
00126 A 00b3 01 A SRXC RMB 1
00127 A 00b4 01 A BONUS RMB 1
00128 A 00b5 01 A MOBILITY RMB 1
00129 A 00b6 01 A MOVCNT RMB 1
00130 A 00b7 01 A TMRCNT RMB 1 ;TIMER COUNT FOR SECONDS
00131 A 00b8 01 A MAXSEC RMB 1 ;MAXIMUM SECONDS
00132 A 00b9 01 A KEYSIG RMB 1
00133 A 00ba 01 A LEVFLG RMB 1 ;CASTLING FLAG
00134 *
00135 A 00bb 0001 A BRRM EQU 01H ;BLACK RIGHT ROOK MASK
00136 A 00bb 0004 A BLRM EQU 04H ;BLACK LEFT ROOK MASK
00137 A 00bb 0002 A WRRM EQU 02H ;WHITE RIGHT ROOK MASK
00138 A 00bb 0008 A WLRM EQU 08H ;WHITE LEFT ROOK MASK
00139 *
00140 A 00bb 0007 A PRABRT EQU 7 ;PREMATURE ABORT FLAG

M6805 Portable Cross Assembler 0.05 CHESS.ASM Page 6
Thu Jan 07 09:56:06 2016
Options - MD,MC,NOG,NOU,W,NOMEX,CL,FMT,O
'CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 9/4/95 CHESSMATE'
LINE S PC OPCO OPERANDS S LABEL MNEMO OPERANDS COMMENT
00142 *
00143 * BIT FLAGS AND DEFINITION OF EACH BIT
00144 *
00145 A 00bb 01 A FLAGS RMB 1
00146 *************************
00147 A 00bc 0000 A ABORT EQU 0
00148 A 00bc 0001 A FAIL EQU 1
00149 A 00bc 0002 A KLLR EQU 2
00150 A 00bc 0003 A STSER EQU 3
00151 A 00bc 0004 A CONTRF EQU 4
00152 A 00bc 0005 A NONCAPT EQU 5
00153 A 00bc 0006 A MOVETO EQU 6
00154 A 00bc 0007 A UPDATE EQU 7
00155 *
00156 A 00bc 0002 A BFAIL EQU 2
00157 A 00bc 0008 A BSTSER EQU 8
00158 A 00bc 0010 A BCONTRF EQU 10H
00159 A 00bc 0020 A BNONCAPT EQU 20H
00160 A 00bc 0040 A BMOVETO EQU 40H
00161 * MASK FOR CLEARING UPDATE,CONTRF,MOVETO,KLLR
00162 A 00bc 002b A NOTUCMK EQU 2BH ;ABORT,FAIL,STSER,NONCAPT
00163 *************************
00164 ******************************
00165 A 00bc 01 A IOFLAG RMB 1
00166 ******************************
00167 A 00bd 0000 A TONE EQU 0
00168 A 00bd 0001 A HTHINK EQU 1
00169 A 00bd 0002 A VALKEY EQU 2
00170 A 00bd 0003 A PVFLAG EQU 3
00171 A 00bd 0004 A RANDOM EQU 4
00172 A 00bd 0005 A BEEP EQU 5
00173 A 00bd 0006 A FLASH EQU 6
00174 A 00bd 0007 A MATEF EQU 7
00175 *
00176 A 00bd 0001 A BTONE EQU 1
00177 A 00bd 0002 A BHTHINK EQU 2
00178 A 00bd 0004 A BVALKEY EQU 4
00179 A 00bd 0010 A BRANDOM EQU 10H
00180 ******************************
00181 *
00182 A 00bd 02 A RMB 2 ;INITIAL SCORES
00183 A 00bf 0c A SCRCSP RMB 12
00184 A 00cb 0c A FRMCSP RMB 12 ;12 PLY MAXIMUM
00185 A 00d7 0c A TOCSP RMB 12
00186 A 00e3 0c A RETCSP RMB 12 ;NEXT MOVE GENERATOR STATE
00187 A 00ef 01 A DIG1 RMB 1
00188 A 00f0 01 A DIG2 RMB 1
00189 *
00190 A 00f1 00ff A STKTOP EQU 0FFH ;TOP OF STACK

M6805 Portable Cross Assembler 0.05 CHESS.ASM Page 8
Thu Jan 07 09:56:06 2016
Options - MD,MC,NOG,NOU,W,NOMEX,CL,FMT,O
'CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 9/4/95 CHESSMATE'
LINE S PC OPCO OPERANDS S LABEL MNEMO OPERANDS COMMENT
00244 *
00245 A 0100 ORG 100H
00246 *
00247 * MOVE GENERATOR PAGE
00248 *
00249 A 0100 0100 A MOVPAG EQU *
00250 *
00251 *
00252 A 0100 87 A PVTBL FCB 87H ;PAWN (MOVE)
00253 A 0101 86 A FCB 86H ;KNIGHT (UNDO)
00254 A 0102 82 A FCB 82H ;BISHOP (SOUND)
00255 A 0103 81 A FCB 81H ;ROOK (LEVEL)
00256 A 0104 8f A FCB 8FH ;QUEEN (VERIFY)
00257 A 0105 8e A FCB 8EH ;KING (SETUP)
00258 *
00259 A 0106 3c a0 A AR00 INC GENSTATE
00260 A 0108 a6 f0 A LDA #-16
00261 A 010a c1 A FCB SKIP2
00262 A 010b a6 10 A AR0X LDA #16
00263 A 010d bb ad A ABSA ADD SIDE
00264 A 010f b8 ad A EOR SIDE
00265 A 0111 81 RTS

M6805 Portable Cross Assembler 0.05 CHESS.ASM Page 9
Thu Jan 07 09:56:06 2016
Options - MD,MC,NOG,NOU,W,NOMEX,CL,FMT,O
'CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 9/4/95 CHESSMATE'
LINE S PC OPCO OPERANDS S LABEL MNEMO OPERANDS COMMENT
00267 **************************************************************
00268 * CHESS CHALLENGER 6805 MOVE GENERATOR
00269 * USES 35 STATES WHICH ONLY
00270 * NEEDS 6 BITS OF STORAGE ON CHESS STACK
00271 **************************************************************
00272 *
00273 * 0
00274 A 0112 ad f2 0106 PAWN0 BSR AR00 ;ACC=ABS(-16) AND ++GENSTATE
00275 A 0114 0a bb07 011e BRSET NONCAPT,FLAGS,PAWN05 ;BRNCH IF NOT CAPTURE PASS
00276 A 0117 4a DECA ;LEFT CAPTURE
00277 A 0118 ae 03 A LDX #3
00278 A 011a bf a0 A STX GENSTATE
00279 A 011c 20 6a 0188 BRA MSB
00280 * TEST FOR ENPASSENT CAPTURE
00281 A 011e 4c PAWN05 INCA ;ASSUME ENPASS. CAPTR TO RIGHT
00282 A 011f bb a6 A ADD TO
00283 A 0121 b7 a6 A STA TO
00284 A 0123 be b0 A LDX CSP
00285 A 0125 e6d7 LDA TOCSP,X
00286 A 0127 a4 77 A AND #77H ;PREVIOUS TO SQUARE
00287 A 0129 b7 af A STA R6
00288 A 012b bd 40 A JSR FNP ;FIND IF PAWN
00289 A 012d 26 15 0144 BNE PAWN1 ;NO
00290 A 012f be b0 A LDX CSP
00291 A 0131 e6cb LDA FRMCSP,X
00292 A 0133 a4 77 A AND #77H ;PREVIOUS FROM
00293 A 0135 bb af A ADD R6
00294 A 0137 44 LSRA ;(PREVFROM+PREVTO)/2
00295 A 0138 a5 88 A BIT #88H ;OFF BOARD?
00296 A 013a 26 08 0144 BNE PAWN1 ;DELTA NOT MULTIPLE OF 32
00297 A 013c b0 a6 A SUB TO ;((PREVFRM+PREVTO)/2) - TO
00298 A 013e 27 48 0188 BEQ MSB ;MAKE ENPASSENT CAPTURE (RIGHT)
00299 A 0140 a1 fe A CMP #-2
00300 A 0142 27 44 0188 BEQ MSB ;MAKE ENPASSENT CAPTURE (LEFT)
00301 *
00302 * 1 PAWN MOVE FORWARD 1 SQUARE
00303 A 0144 b6 a5 A PAWN1 LDA FROM
00304 A 0146 b7 a6 A STA TO
00305 A 0148 ad bc 0106 PAWN15 BSR AR00 ;ACC=ABS(-16) AND ++GENSTATE
00306 A 014a 20 3c 0188 BRA MSB
00307 *
00308 * 2 PAWN MOVE FORWARD 2 SQUARES
00309 A 014c 02 bb24 0173 PAWN2 BRSET FAIL,FLAGS,NXT_PIEC
00310 A 014f 3c a0 A INC GENSTATE ;SKIP OVER STATE 3
00311 A 0151 b6 a5 A LDA FROM
00312 A 0153 b8 ad A EOR SIDE
00313 A 0155 43 COMA
00314 A 0156 a4 60 A AND #60H ;RANK 2?
00315 A 0158 27 ee 0148 BEQ PAWN15 ;BRNCH IF YES
00316 A 015a 20 17 0173 BRA NXT_PIEC ;NEXT_PIECE
00317 *
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Steve B
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Re: Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed

Post by Steve B »

ChessChallenger wrote:In finalizing my Development spread sheet with pictures, I found two errors.
A typo for Saber IV having 18KByte ROM when it should be 8KByte ROM.

The other was Little Chesster external ROM at 1 MByte it should have been 1Mbit or the preferred 128KByte ROM.

Corrected CSV data:

1991,6125,Little Chesster (Fidelity Spracklen Chess Engine),M50743 + ROM + RAM,4/15/1991,65c02 Core Expanded MCU external 128KByte ROM 2KByte Ram,CXG

2001,901E-4,Saber IV,S3C72K8X11-C0C8,12/29/2001,"4-Bit core SAM47 S3C72K8 8K Byte ROM 1,024 Nibble Ram 1.5MHz",Sametime

Hi Ron
i edited your original post making the corrections above

NYTIMES Editing Regards(Pun Intended)
Steve
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Post by Steve B »

Hi Ron

one of the few non-chess playing gadgets i own is the Fidelity Taro

this little guy could tell the future

Image
Did you program him?

Asking Him To Pick The 1.5 Billion Dollar Powerball Regards
Steve
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Post by ChessChallenger »

Steve B wrote:Hi Ron

one of the few non-chess playing gadgets i own is the Fidelity Taro

this little guy could tell the future

Image
Did you program him?

Asking Him To Pick The 1.5 Billion Dollar Powerball Regards
Steve
The software was written for a multi-game system we were designing,by my software group based in France, that worked on European games and card games.
It was demoed by them in Miami to Sid and he liked it, but wanted a stand alone unit.
My engineer, Rick Merrick then converted it to a single chip micro.
There was some type of bug that it would NOT tell your fortune "correctly" if you put in Sunday as your day of the week.
We called it the "Never On Sunday" bug...or if you know the movie...Taro never worked on Sunday, wink wink.
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Post by Cyberchess »

Steve B wrote: Asking Him To Pick The 1.5 Billion Dollar Powerball Regards
Steve
Greetings Steve:

Eager to partake of this magnificent fortune, I queried my vintage Magic 8 Ball for the winning numbers, and obtained only the following response:

Image

:shock: Hey, You Never Know Regards,
John
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Post by Steve B »

ChessChallenger wrote:
There was some type of bug that it would NOT tell your fortune "correctly" if you put in Sunday as your day of the week.
We called it the "Never On Sunday" bug...or if you know the movie...Taro never worked on Sunday, wink wink.
:P
I will try that..will enter the day as a Sunday...will do it this Sunday
since it will predict incorrectly I guess it will probably tell me I will grow up to be handsome and Famous

Butt Ugly and Infamous Regards
Steve
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Post by pr1uk »

Steve B wrote:
ChessChallenger wrote:
There was some type of bug that it would NOT tell your fortune "correctly" if you put in Sunday as your day of the week.
We called it the "Never On Sunday" bug...or if you know the movie...Taro never worked on Sunday, wink wink.
:P
I will try that..will enter the day as a Sunday...will do it this Sunday
since it will predict incorrectly I guess it will probably tell me I will grow up to be handsome and Famous

Butt Ugly and Infamous Regards
Steve
OH your very famous in the chess computer world mind you probably butt ugly :-)


Peter
King Performance Chess Computer M830
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Post by Cyberchess »

Cyberchess wrote:
Steve B wrote: Asking Him To Pick The 1.5 Billion Dollar Powerball Regards
Steve
Greetings Steve:

Eager to partake of this magnificent fortune, I queried my vintage Magic 8 Ball for the winning numbers, and obtained only the following response:

Image

:shock: Hey, You Never Know Regards,
John
:P And the winner is Chesster Eyeball from sunny California!

Image

How ‘Bout a Nice Powerball Jackpot Regards,
John
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Post by Steve B »

Cyberchess wrote:
Cyberchess wrote:
Steve B wrote: Asking Him To Pick The 1.5 Billion Dollar Powerball Regards
Steve
Greetings Steve:

Eager to partake of this magnificent fortune, I queried my vintage Magic 8 Ball for the winning numbers, and obtained only the following response:

Image

:shock: Hey, You Never Know Regards,
John
:P And the winner is Chesster Eyeball from sunny California!

Image

How ‘Bout a Nice Powerball Jackpot Regards,
John
Well i guess we werent one of the three Powerball winners
if i were i wouldnt be using a computer...
Ever Again
Steve
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Post by Cyberchess »

Steve B wrote: Well i guess we werent one of the three Powerball winners
if i were i wouldnt be using a computer...
Ever Again
Steve
I could have used it to help pay the FIOS bill.

I’m so broke...

:cry: I Can’t Pay Attention Regards,
John
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Re: Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed

Post by Steve B »

spacious_mind wrote:
Fluppio wrote:
Hi Nick,

yes, both machines exist. I will soon get this type of Ivan (with speaker on the side) and try to give you the specifies then.

The second Igor (model 711-E2) plays significantly weaker.

Peter
Hi Peter,

Cool if you ever see another let me know. I would like to add them to my collection. Maybe they were sold in Europe. Never seen one in USA, but then again I might never have paid closer attention to it before either.

Best regards
An Ivan II showed up on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ivan-The-Conque ... SwL7VWmXjb

No Box Regards
Steve
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Post by mclane »

250 pesetas would be Better.
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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Re: Excalibur Chess Products Ron Nelson designed/programmed

Post by spacious_mind »

ChessChallenger wrote:Well here is my Excalibur Timeline.
I added a few from my Fidelity days, since they don't seem to be correctly described on some of the Chess Computer history sites.
This is comma separated text, which you should be able to import into a spread sheet.

1/11/2016,,Ron Nelson Chess PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CHRONOLOGY,,,,
,,,,,,
YEAR,Model #,PROJECT,MCU,DATE,COMMENT,Factory
2005,410X,e-Chess Express,Chipmast ET50C014,5/20/2005,ET50C014 65c02 14 KBbyte ROM 160 Byte Ram 2.2 MHz,Wide Concept Limited (WCL)
2005,410X-RS,e-Chess Express (Radio Shack 60-2742),Chipmast ET50C014,5/20/2005,ET50C014 65c02 14 KBbyte ROM 160 Byte Ram 2.2 MHz,Wide Concept Limited (WCL)
2007,410K,LCD Keychain Chess,Chipmast ET50C014,,ET50C014 65c02 14 KBbyte ROM 160 Byte Ram 2.2 MHz,Wide Concept Limited (WCL)
Hi Ron,

I have gone through my collection and updated my website information for Excalibur. Everything matches really well.

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/excalibur.html

Except I do have a problem finding information on ET50C014. Do you have more information on the spec sheets for the above as I cannot locate information on ET50C014 anywhere. A few years ago I had opened up Excalibur e-Chess Express Model # 410X-CS-RS and I believe I saw the description PIC18F452.

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/e-chess_express.html

The Datasheet for PIC18F452 is here:

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/D ... 39564c.pdf

What is confusing with PIC18F452 if it were the correct datasheet is that it could be either 10 MHz or 2.5 MHz in speed?

Best regards
Nick
Nick
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Post by spacious_mind »

Hi Ron,

I bet you didn't know that you also have a chess computer that was sold by Novag under their Perfect Chess brand.

Image

http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/touch.html

Since about 1980, everything that Novag produced was attributed to David Kittinger (which is of course not necessarily 100% correct) so this is a first since 1980, naming you as author for the above Novag chess computer.

Best regards
Nick
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Nick

Also Portal Chess which is the Chess Station that can be seen here.
http://www.todocoleccion.net/juegos-ant ... ~x16492259

Bryan
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