Chess computers in popular culture

[fern]

Perhaps you should add to that precaution a iron chain touching the ground, just in case.

WHAT A HECK HAPPENED WITH YOUR SEARCH OF A FIDELITY SUPER 9 REGARDS?????????????
I have already earmarked some bucks for that....


Fern

[Steve B]

Perhaps you should add to that precaution a iron chain touching the ground, just in case.

WHAT A HECK HAPPENED WITH YOUR SEARCH OF A FIDELITY SUPER 9 REGARDS?????????????
I have already earmarked some bucks for that....


Fern

the Super 9 is very hard to find
it is rare ..very rare..so rare it is raw

Steak Tartare Regards
Steve

[mhull]

I have not read The Hitchhiker's Guide yet, but I will do so.

IMO, for Adams to work, you have to put your mind into 1970s England because the jokes and social commentary really only resonate in that specific milieu. It's exactly the same situation for "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy". If you've never been immersed in issues of that time (from either having lived through it or from studying it in depth), it will be difficult to fully grok (or otherwise escape into) the story's atmosphere.

[IanO]

Yeah... that Blake's 7 episode was probably the best of the whole series
Does anyone recognise which old program is used to display the chess game ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yN_MJMLMeA

BTW, the characters name is Vila, not Vilan, but there's no youtube link to the final scene when Vila (with Orac's help) draws the game.

Although the resolution and layout is the same as the classic Video Chess for the Atari 400, and the timing is right (this episode was broadcast in 1979), the piece designs are slightly different. I'm guessing the board display was made custom for the show, like a lot of other computer stuff seen in media. (The name for this nowadays is the "Hollywood OS", made to look similar but not identical to the actual copyrighted GUIs of commercial operating systems. Hollywood OS comes with handy utilities which can resolve any detail in fuzzy images, as seen in most cop and spy shows.)

Apparently in another episode of Blake's 7, a character is seen moaning that his handheld chess computer is too weak, having just checkmated it for the sixth time!

[fern]

OK, Ok, that's the reason, then, why I myself did not find it .


Sigh regards
Fern

[Adam Hair]

From an episode (37) of a cheesy cable show called 1000 Ways To Die (very loosely based on real stories, if at all), a Soviet chess master plays against a dedicated chess super computer with a robotic arm. The game does not go as easily as the chess master thought it would, which causes him to sweat profusely. As he touches a piece to make a move, his sweat drips on to the board, causing him to be electrocuted.

A cautionary tale for Steve Blincoe


I will see if I can find a clip of it online.

My memory failed me. The Comrade 5000 did not have a robotic arm.

http://www.spike.com/video-clips/jde5uk ... e-end-game

[Adam Hair]

From an episode (37) of a cheesy cable show called 1000 Ways To Die (very loosely based on real stories, if at all), a Soviet chess master plays against a dedicated chess super computer with a robotic arm. The game does not go as easily as the chess master thought it would, which causes him to sweat profusely. As he touches a piece to make a move, his sweat drips on to the board, causing him to be electrocuted.

A cautionary tale for Steve Blincoe


I will see if I can find a clip of it online.

Actually i have prepared for that possibility years ago
whenever i play one of my dedicated computer's i always use those rubber glove thingies that the folks wear when serving you at a Deli Check out counter
Soup Nazi Regards
Steve

May I suggest an upgrade in your protection gear? After all, just one accident and Mrs. Blincoe will flood the market with dedicated chess computers.



Heart Stopping Regards,
Adam

[Albert Silver]

I have not read The Hitchhiker's Guide yet, but I will do so.

IMO, for Adams to work, you have to put your mind into 1970s England because the jokes and social commentary really only resonate in that specific milieu. It's exactly the same situation for "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy". If you've never been immersed in issues of that time (from either having lived through it or from studying it in depth), it will be difficult to fully grok (or otherwise escape into) the story's atmosphere.

While I completely agree that having a feel for the Cold War fears and paranoia is crucial to getting into to Tinker Taylor (the movie is a mess IMHO - though the BBC miniseries is very true to the book), I don't for Hitchhikers.

It is worth mentioning it was born as a radio play, and is absolutely hysterical. Up until ... I think it is part of book two, the narrator is one of the best voice actors I ever heard. the sense of understated irony smacks of genius IMHO. In any case, I read these books as a teenager the first time round, loved them, and knew nothing of 70s English social issues.

Granted some of the jokes are *very* British, such as the Sunday bath references, but much of it can be taken as is, such as the question to life, the universe and everything, or the numerous short bits like the Pangalactic Gargle blaster, the most useful item in the universe (towel), the sccne with Marvin and the ultra tank, and many others.

[CRoberson]

Got these references from another thread from years ago here.

These are from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

This one is a human actor playing an android that is playing chess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B09lJa6Vv8w

The Queens Gambit
http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Episod ... 27s_Gambit

The Turk
http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_103:_The_Turk

http://www.qwipster.net/sarahconner3.htm

Oh, yes. There was a reference to computer chess in the original Star Trek series. Spock was playing chess against the computer and won. Bones stated that didn't make sense. Spock said given that he programmed the computer to play chess the best that could have happened was a draw.

I programmed my computer to play chess and I don't get draws with it. Then again, I am not a "green blooded Vulcan".

[CRoberson]

This has to be my favorite commercial pertaining to computers and chess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUqXr9Jlhwc