Hi Steve,
Yes, unfortunately only the two 4K modules were available at the time Cameron bought the Sensor Chess. I still remember how impressed we were when the style of the machine would change so radically when the modules were exchanged. I have very happy memories of that computer - it was the first one in the house that played decent (solid) chess. I also well remember how hot it used to get. There must have been this huge heatsink near the keypad somewhere. It was extremely well built too. Of all the non-holz machines I have known, the Sensor Chess was the best built. It weighed a ton for what it was, LED on every square (and under a clear plastic membrane) - sheer luxury.
The Sensory 9 was the first machine I played against that was stronger than me, so that will always impress me whichever way you cut it
The Mark V of course was just brilliant. The Elegance though was perhaps the most impressive all things considered - an incredibly balanced game, especially at a time when most machine's endgames were relatively poor, the Fidelity Elegance had an endgame to match everything else. Plus a very broad and varied openings library that was not typical of other Fidelity machines of the time (they might have had the lines but they did not actually willingly play the same variety that Elegance did).
And in recent times, it is Novag Star Beryl that has impressed me the most. Surely the best all-round 4K program
ever written. Infact I am no less impressed with Star Beryl than I am the greats of the past. Sadly the Star Beryl has a couple of ergonomic issues that would make it a pain to use for non-enthusiasts (like the absolutely rediculous alignment of the LCD display, making reading off some moves almost guesswork). But I guess as you would say, that is what makes it's character.
There are surely many machines I have never personally tried and which would probably impress me. I hope one day to take a Mephisto II or III for a test drive, for example.
As for Saitek Maestro, I think I will play some games with it against Star Beryl. I played a 45 second a moves game with them both yesterday. Maestro won a pawn, then lost it, then won it back again in the endgame. And luckily for Maestro, there was just the right amount of material left on the board to mate the Beryl at the end
Should make for an interesting match. Kittenger's brilliance versus the far gruntier hardware of the Maestro and a 4-fold increase in memory footprint. It's the classic confrontation of a high-revving tiny capacity 4 cylinder versus the big loping V8.
I'm a bit short of machines in the genuine 1400 - 1600 ELO range, so I might have to consider giving Maestro a guest spot. Especially as the Saitek Trainer I bought on eBay seems to have disappeared off the postal rader at this stage
But when one is kissing a potential new dedicated computer goodbye, well you must know that the survival instinct kicks in