Collectors Corner - I found my 1st Computer.

[Harvey Williamson]

Hello All,

I was just browsing the website of our Canadian friend, Daniel(Plozikou), from Quebec.

I found this article http://www.boris-is-king.com/mk1english.htm



This is the machine I 1st owned so it looks like I got my 1st machine in the 1970's not 80's.

I seem to remember that level 6 could take up to a week to move. On the side of the box was a quote from Karpov saying something like, " This machine has remarkable game variations." I am not sure about that but at least i owned one of the 1st Commercial Chess Computers!

I remember seeing it advertised in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper for £49 I think and saving up money from my paper round for weeks to buy it so 1978 is probably right!

Steve do you have a working 1 of these?

Best Wishes,

Harvey

[Steve B]

Hello All,

I was just browsing the website of our Canadian friend, Daniel(Plozikou), from Quebec.

I found this article http://www.boris-is-king.com/mk1english.htm



This is the machine I 1st owned so it looks like I got my 1st machine in the 1970's not 80's.

I seem to remember that level 6 could take up to a week to move. On the side of the box was a quote from Karpov saying something like, " This machine has remarkable game variations." I am not sure about that but at least i owned one of the 1st Commercial Chess Computers!

I remember seeing it advertised in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper for £49 I think and saving up money from my paper round for weeks to buy it so 1978 is probably right!

Steve do you have a working 1 of these?

Best Wishes,

Harvey

oh yes
this is the Novag MKI
it was released in the States by a company called JS@A(now long defunct)

here you can download the ad for it here
it was the very first time a chess computer was endorsed by a GM
in this case the endorsement was the then World Champion Karpov

downloadable scan:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 923817845/

photo for your viewing pleasure here:



the manual for it can be downloaded from Moderator Alain's superlative website:

http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/docs/Nov ... gMk1US.pdf

level 6(pg4) 2-40 hours regards
Steve

[Harvey Williamson]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. this from Daniels website:

The VIDEOMASTER Chess Champion MK1 appears on the market in September 1978. Its original price was roughly 140$ US, which made an "economic" machine for the time comparatively to a Boris who was sold for example 300$ US... This machine curiously looks the same as the NOVAG Chess Champion MK1... In fact, it seems that it is its clone. However, the two instructions booklets do not present the same response times for each of the 6 level of play. And somebody who tested the two machines revealed that Videomaster was faster than the NOVAG...

Is there a slight difference between this and the Novag. Daniel's article goes on to say that the model I picture would only play Black and would accept illegal moves - both of these are things I remember about the machine that I owned.

Dedicated Regards,

Harvey

[Steve B]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. this from Daniels website:

The VIDEOMASTER Chess Champion MK1 appears on the market in September 1978. Its original price was roughly 140$ US, which made an "economic" machine for the time comparatively to a Boris who was sold for example 300$ US... This machine curiously looks the same as the NOVAG Chess Champion MK1... In fact, it seems that it is its clone. However, the two instructions booklets do not present the same response times for each of the 6 level of play. And somebody who tested the two machines revealed that Videomaster was faster than the NOVAG...

Is there a slight difference between this and the Novag. Daniel's article goes on to say that the model I picture would only play Black and would accept illegal moves - both of these are things I remember about the machine that I owned.

Dedicated Regards,

Harvey

THE Videomaster is simply the Novag MKI but released under a different name
in the states it was released by JS@A
all the same exact computers

but the MKI did undergo a slight program revision so perhaps that is why there is a difference in levels

Clone Regards
Steve

[Mark Uniacke]

Hello All,

I was just browsing the website of our Canadian friend, Daniel(Plozikou), from Quebec.

I found this article http://www.boris-is-king.com/mk1english.htm



This is the machine I 1st owned so it looks like I got my 1st machine in the 1970's not 80's.

I seem to remember that level 6 could take up to a week to move. On the side of the box was a quote from Karpov saying something like, " This machine has remarkable game variations." I am not sure about that but at least i owned one of the 1st Commercial Chess Computers!

I remember seeing it advertised in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper for £49 I think and saving up money from my paper round for weeks to buy it so 1978 is probably right!

Steve do you have a working 1 of these?

Best Wishes,

Harvey

I don't know about Steve, but I have two of these monsters that work and they play truely remarkable variations, Karpov was right!

Of course you need to read between the lines....

[Steve B]

hi Mark

now the lucky contestants know our combined total of computers is at least two


Steve

[Plozikou]

Hello all, this is the difference that I was talking about on my web site. Here the levels of plays such as they are presented in each handbook:

• LV 1 VIDEOMASTER AT ONCE
  LV 2 VIDEOMASTER 15 - 20 sec
  LV 3 VIDEOMASTER 15 sec to 20 MIN
  LV 4 VIDEOMASTER 20 sec to 25 min
  LV 5 VIDEOMASTER approx 10 hours
  LV 6 VIDEOMASTER 2 days

• LV 1 NOVAG AT ONCE
  LV 2 NOVAG 3 - 14 sec
  LV 3 NOVAG 5 sec to 30 sec
  LV 4 NOVAG 7 sec to 60 sec
  LV 5 NOVAG 30 min to 120 min
  LV 6 NOVAG 2 hours to 40 hours

This is why, on my site, you will not find any test game on the VIDEOMASTER over the level 4...

Bye

P.S. If you go on my web site, please take the time to sign my guestbook it is very important for me. Thank's.

Daniel [/img]

[Peter Grayson]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. this from Daniels website:

The VIDEOMASTER Chess Champion MK1 appears on the market in September 1978. Its original price was roughly 140$ US, which made an "economic" machine for the time comparatively to a Boris who was sold for example 300$ US... This machine curiously looks the same as the NOVAG Chess Champion MK1... In fact, it seems that it is its clone. However, the two instructions booklets do not present the same response times for each of the 6 level of play. And somebody who tested the two machines revealed that Videomaster was faster than the NOVAG...

Is there a slight difference between this and the Novag. Daniel's article goes on to say that the model I picture would only play Black and would accept illegal moves - both of these are things I remember about the machine that I owned.

Dedicated Regards,

Harvey

That's exactly how I remember it but I also recall that it could play the first move but again only with the Black pieces so would open with 1.e7 e5 or 1.Ng8 f6. It's chess Harvey ... but not as we know it!

Fascinating at the time but the Sargon 2.5 was a massive leap forward!

PeterG