Pressie wrote:
It started out with the Boris 2.5 module and ended up with Stenitz. I also have an endgame module named Capablanca Edition master chess endgame. And finally Borchek Edition master checkers. I don't see the Morphy module, not sure what happened to it.
Does anyone remember the playing strength of Boris 2.5? I believe it was much stronger than the original Boris (maybe 1550?). As I think back now, I do believe it did draw that first game with the 1850 player. When it first came out Steinitz was touted as being near 1800, but I don't think that it played near that strong.
It was pretty cool playing those early machines.
Still is pretty cool playing them
the rating for these modules are not exact but here is a pretty good guesstimation:
Sargon/Boris 2.5-1500 Elo
Morphy-1550 Elo
Steinitz 1600 Elo
these are ELO ratings and not USCF ratings so you can add about 125-150 to get USCF rating equivalents
also the Capa endgame modules and Gruenfeld opening book modules were released in two versions..each one having an upgrade(S version)
the improved Capa endgame module could display Eval's and had an extra playing level(10 in all)
Speaking only for myself the answer is easy: when I bought that dedicated unit in the early 80s, it was said to be a little better than your ratings show (don't know which modules it had) and at that time it was a sensation for a machine playing chess, nevertheless I bought it in a toy shop, not in a one for chess products, but more than this it was simply good enough for me at that time.
I had learned the rules of chess from my father, who, may God rest his soul, could not really play chesss at all. I never was in a club till then and simply had to try and try to find openings (one good side of Boris was to repeat one and the same variant answering the same first moves rather often and reliably) that would lead him to the one and only position I knew to win for sure
I can say I learned playing chess a little better earlier from Boris and then Mephisto, than from books and good human players, maybe it's therefore I never learned it well enough to beat the engines of today
The only dedicated that I ever bought was chess challenger 7. It was rather boring and very easy to beat. Then I started NULL MOVING (passing) every other move and that was rather challenging, but still, I won every game. So, I gave it away.
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mclane wrote:what a pity. you missed many interesting machines.
the CC7 was really not very strong. but a few years later the machines were more serious.
superconstellation.
mephisto III.
mm4
cxg dominator
amsterdam.
...
Yes - the golden age of dedicateds!
I recall many interesting games against the Super Constellation and the later Forte C.
Plus the Turbostar, Super Sensory 9 and Dominator.
Sadly..never released for sale
there are 2 known prototypes in existence today
legend has it that a third was also built
here's a video of one of them: http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/videos/Handroid.AVI
