Steve B wrote:Hi Robert
i dont recall exactly now but i do remember comparing and testing the Phantom and the Dttc together when i received the Phantom last year..
i think they were exactly the same reaching the same plies after 30 seconds after a3 or h3
i would need to check this again ...
thanks, but i think, if there really would have been a remarkable difference at your first test, you surely would remember!
Chess Life 2008.11 has a brief buyer's guide of sorts starting on page 32. Page 33 has blurbs about the Novag 2Robot and the Excalibur Phantom Force. Page 34 has a blurb on the Mon Roi; at US$349, I'd like to think that a work-a-like US$10 application for the iPhone/iPod Touch will be available soon. On the same page is a mention of the DGT folding clock and a cat-proof chess set.
Crafty gets a mention on page 35, as does a fold-up pressure sensory USB chessboard that can be had for under US$30. The board just might be useful if someone would write some open software drivers.
sje wrote:Chess Life 2008.11 has a brief buyer's guide of sorts starting on page 32. Page 33 has blurbs about the Novag 2Robot and the Excalibur Phantom Force. Page 34 has a blurb on the Mon Roi; at US$349, I'd like to think that a work-a-like US$10 application for the iPhone/iPod Touch will be available soon. On the same page is a mention of the DGT folding clock and a cat-proof chess set.
Crafty gets a mention on page 35, as does a fold-up pressure sensory USB chessboard that can be had for under US$30. The board just might be useful if someone would write some open software drivers.
just got my issue
read the blurb on the 2Robot
they dont have it in stock..yet..you will notice the article mentions they had a demo model to work with
still dont know if ICD has them but i dont think so...
strange that they will accept orders for it when you try to checkout with a 2robot in your basket
Steve B wrote:Hi Robert
i dont recall exactly now but i do remember comparing and testing the Phantom and the Dttc together when i received the Phantom last year..
i think they were exactly the same reaching the same plies after 30 seconds after a3 or h3
i would need to check this again ...
thanks, but i think, if there really would have been a remarkable difference at your first test, you surely would remember!
Robert
as luck would have it i received the Phantom Chess Robot (Sharper Image) today so i compared it to the DTTC
1.a3 is in both computers book(1..Nf6).. so i tried 1.a4
both computers took 47 seconds to reach 6 ply and both played 1..e5
i also tried 1.h3..again in book for both computers(1..d5)
after 1.h4..both reached 6 ply in 46 seconds with 1..e5 the move played for both
so the speeds seem to be the same
please remember this so you can remind me when i forget it again regards
Steve
I'm guessing that there are only two programs in use for the various Excalibur machines, one for the low end and one for the high end.
Are the Excalibur programs linear descendants of Nelson's earlier work, the Spracklens' Sargon programs, or some mixture? Back in the 1980s consumers were demanding ever stronger dedicated units, but today it appears that old and not-too-strong programs are acceptable in the marketplace.
sje wrote:
Are the Excalibur programs linear descendants of Nelson's earlier work, the Spracklens' Sargon programs, or some mixture? Back in the 1980s consumers were demanding ever stronger dedicated units, but today it appears that old and not-too-strong programs are acceptable in the marketplace.
i guess you can say that the Excalibur programs are all linear descendants from Nelson
ALL Excalibur chess computers are programmed only by Ron Nelson
in schachcomputer.info we discuss this issue in the moment.
it seems excalibur also sold few machines with programs from other programmers. e.g. with novag program and with guyla horvaths program that was also in the CXG machines such as Legend.
the guyla horvath programs can be identified by showing information during search process and also you can set up different styles and change the evaluation function, while the ron nelson programs show mainly the search infomation when it is the opponents move and not during computation.
its a pity IMO that the companies do not tell us more about the software and hardware they use.
would a car company not tell us about the engine used ?
mclane wrote:in schachcomputer.info we discuss this issue in the moment.
it seems excalibur also sold few machines with programs from other programmers. e.g. with novag program and with guyla horvaths program that was also in the CXG machines such as Legend.
yes this is true
Fidelity and CXG were business associates dating back from the release of the Travel Master
Excalibur does sometimes licence from other companies
examples are Karpov 2294 and Avenger
and of course other companies sell Excalibur computers
but all chess programs released by Excalibur are written by Ron Nelson
Steve B wrote:
after 1.h4..both reached 6 ply in 46 seconds with 1..e5 the move played for both
so the speeds seem to be the same
please remember this so you can remind me when i forget it again regards
Steve
Thank you!
i will remember, that there is nothing to remind you! (as the speed is identical)
Robert
interestingly Robert
i just received the Excalibur Alexandra which as you know has the same program as the DTTC
However it seems to be running about 10% slower then the Robots and the DTTC
after 1.a4 she reaches 6 ply in 52 seconds(as opposed to 47) and after 1.h4 she hits 6 ply after 51 seconds (as opposed to 46)
about a 10% slowdown
Hmmm Regards
Steve
PS..the voice option is nice because it includes the Russian language(in addition to English and Spanish) which is a nice change from the typical...English,French,Spanish and German options
(oddly the box and manual mention that the computer offers English,French and German)
