Chess Computer Vintage (Hardware and Software)

[AlexChess]

Thank you Mr Clive Sinclair!

RIP

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... es-aged-81

At the time, he was a national hero!

Former Sinclair employee, Chris Curry, formed Acorn, another successful British computer company, and "Acorn" is the "A" in ARM - the world's best selling CPU, which Acorn created.

RIP Sir Clive.

Genial Acorn, too. ARM is still here, luckily

[AlexChess]

To renew the glories of 1980-'90 dedicated chess computers, I'm really tempted by this modern wooden chessboard that connect with the smartphone, so it's STRONG, but I fear that the self moving mechanisms (like Novag Robot Chess or Fidelity Chess Phantom ) could be fragile...



https://squareoffnow.com/product/gks

[AlexChess]

To renew the glories of 1980-'90 dedicated chess computers, I'm really tempted by this modern wooden chessboard that connect with the smartphone, so it's STRONG, but I fear that the self moving mechanisms (like Novag Robot Chess or Fidelity Chess Phantom ) could be fragile...



https://squareoffnow.com/product/gks

[mclane]

Those mechanical motorized machines are fragile and often they fail after much usage.
I prefer a good chess board, magnetic reed contacts are imo good enough.

Even the oldest wooden machines still work in my house.
Chafitz ARB or Novag constellation.

Sometimes the pieces lost color and there is no contrast between black/white anymore.
Or the felt under them is rotten.
But these things can ne repaired or the pieces can be exchanged with better ones.

But those mechanical machines are difficult.

[AlexChess]

Those mechanical motorized machines are fragile and often they fail after much usage.
I prefer a good chess board, magnetic reed contacts are imo good enough.

Even the oldest wooden machines still work in my house.
Chafitz ARB or Novag constellation.

Sometimes the pieces lost color and there is no contrast between black/white anymore.
Or the felt under them is rotten.
But these things can ne repaired or the pieces can be exchanged with better ones.

But those mechanical machines are difficult.

True, and there is no assistance labs near home. It's really a risk

[towforce]

I played a phantom at an exhibition, probably in the late 1980s. The technology worked very well, but there was a serious fault: the Phantom won.

[AlexChess]

I played a phantom at an exhibition, probably in the late 1980s. The technology worked very well, but there was a serious fault: the Phantom won.

Fidelity was very well supported, I'm sure some Phantom are still working. In Italy the technician was a real guru and gentlemen: Angelo Besana. He opened in advance all the Elite Avantgarde in stock for soldering a different diode before there was issues as reported by one customer!

I have bought my Elite Avantgarde 2100 A/S directly from him, sending a Kasparov Renaissance in exchange.

[AdminX]

As a side note for Chess-EMU users that use the Banksia Gui and have multiple systems available for use. Banksia has a Network mode that can be used to allow to Chess engines on different systems to play against each other. That in itself is cool, but if you pull up a third system running Banksia you can use it to monitor the game being played by the 1st two systems.

You can see from the screenshot below link, that my third system is monitoring the game being played by Tasc ChessSystem R40 (King 2.50) on DT1 versus Mephisto London 68040 on DT0 with my third system LT0 monitoring it and displaying On The Fly analysis of the game in progress.


Click Image for Larger View

[AdminX]

As a side note for Chess-EMU users that use the Banksia Gui and have multiple systems available for use. Banksia has a Network mode that can be used to allow to Chess engines on different systems to play against each other. That in itself is cool, but if you pull up a third system running Banksia you can use it to monitor the game being played by the 1st two systems.

You can see from the screenshot below link, that my third system is monitoring the game being played by Tasc ChessSystem R40 (King 2.50) on DT1 versus Mephisto London 68040 on DT0 with my third system LT0 monitoring it and displaying On The Fly analysis of the game in progress.

To follow up, below is a position from King 2.50 vs Gideon 2.1 that is in progress.




Click Images For Larger View.

King 2.50 played Qxd2 here which all modern engines see is not whites best move here.

[AlexChess]

As a side note for Chess-EMU users that use the Banksia Gui and have multiple systems available for use. Banksia has a Network mode that can be used to allow to Chess engines on different systems to play against each other. That in itself is cool, but if you pull up a third system running Banksia you can use it to monitor the game being played by the 1st two systems.

You can see from the screenshot below link, that my third system is monitoring the game being played by Tasc ChessSystem R40 (King 2.50) on DT1 versus Mephisto London 68040 on DT0 with my third system LT0 monitoring it and displaying On The Fly analysis of the game in progress.


Click Image for Larger View

It could be really interesting if you menage to play a Vintage engines tournament on BSG with all the Glories