Hiarcs 13.3 Coming Soon To A Dedicated Chess Comp. Near You

[Steve B]

Its a very small mom and pop company from Holland Matt
literally run and operated by Ruud(also a collector of chess computers) and His Wife
Ruud will contact you via e-mail and stay in close contact with you throughout the entire transaction
from purchase to delivery to installation

I suspected it was a two-person operation from reading the info on their site. But I think they could do themselves a favor by renaming the contact link to something a little more positive sounding, like "How to get your very own cool dedicated unit!"

Just some constructive criticism.

Yes i have every one of their products
in fact i am the first registered owner of Their Resurrection(released in 2005)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 922174876/

the first registered owner of their Resurrection II(2007)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 195096455/

and the first registered owner of their Revelation(2008)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 195096455/

you can see all of my Phoenix computer collections here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 195096455/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N ... 922174876/

it should be noted that i paid full price for everything i ever bought from them and i am in no way involved with the company other then as a customer (and that i know Ruud for many years via the collecting hobby)

Steve

How are the units for reliability?

Any quirkiness in the operation or bugs?

How about the auto-sensory switches?

How does the craftsmanship and beauty compare to other full-sized wooden boards like the Fidelity Elites, ARB, and Mephisto?

Thanks in advance for your opinion.

Seems to be a bit of confusion here Matt
the only thing they have available for sale now are the Revelation MODULES..NOT the Revelation board itself
which means you need an already existing Mephisto board to use them
they are no longer selling the Revelation I board
you should also understand that the Revelation is the only actual board they have ever sold
the Res I and Res II were a set of modules also to be used in Mephisto boards

my understanding is that Ruud in Conjunction with DGT will soon be releasing a Revelation II board which will also have piece recognition technology
as an existing owner of the Revelation I BOARD i will be able to download Hiarcs(when it becomes available) directly into my board
Revelation MODULE owners will also be able to download Hiarcs into their modules


there were some problems with the early display modules for the Res I and Res II which burned out after 2-3 years
this problem has been corrected for all future computers
other then that i have never encountered any quality of work issues/bugs

the board and pieces for the Revelation are magnificent and worthy of having just as a chess set alone
in terms of beauty i would rate the top three wooden dedicated computers of all time as follows:
Fidelity Prestige
Revelation
Tasc R30

If you contact Ruud directly he can explain all of this to you a bit more clearly

Exhausted Regards
Steve

Wait a minute. Let me get this straight: it is 2000 bucks for only the module?

Feeling dizzy regards,

Albert

Two Module set
yes
if you want the Lang Emulation update..add another 475 Euro
http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php?optio ... 71&lang=en

the Rev I board sold for another 1000 euro above all of that

im hoping the soon to be released REV II board will be cheaper because DGT is involved and can mass produce these babies
offsetting that though is that they will probably want to use their existing DGT board and pieces
i own a DGT board and XL clock BTW
(given to me by a well meaning although misguided relative)
it pales in comparison to the Revelation board and pieces

The Best Of The Best Regards
Steve

[Steve B]

http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php

This is the very first time that the Hiarcs engine will run in a dedicated chess computer

Historic Regards
Steve

One important thing seems to be missing from this website and that's how a paying customer can lay his greasy meat hooks on one of these babies.

Well Matt
Hiarcs is not yet available for sale
if you read the news report it will compete in an upcoming tournament for further bug testing
hopefully it will be available soon after..

the basic modules that Hiarcs will run in are available now just not yet with Hiarcs loaded:
once Hiarcs is available the owner of the modules can download Hiarcs and it will install directly into the modules

the price for the modules are a bit steep so its best to click on this link when sitting down:

http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php?optio ... 64&lang=en

Sticker Shock Regards
Steve

Yep,the prices are semi-shocking but I think it worth every buck spent on it.....
Dr.D

I think it is an utter ripoff. Give me a PDA/Smartphone (with better than a 500Mhz XScale CPU) and DGT board any day.

Well i cant justify the price for Phoenix's high end computers
just like its hard to justify the price for a Jaguar or Patek Phillipe
i own a few St . Dupont lighters that cost close to $1000
stupid i guess when a Bic lighter sells for 99 cents
i can say that the high-end dedicated market was always an expensive proposition
one thing to take into account is retained value
when the Tasc computers were released in the early-mid 1990's they sold for $2000 a pop
by 1995 PC programs were already better then the Tasc
today they sell on Ebay for at least that much and in some cases more
same is true for other high-end wooden auto sensory computers
my guess is that 20 years from now an owner of the Revelation will be able to sell it for at least what he paid for it

Steve

Here is an example of an old wooden chess computer retaining value over the years
this baby just sold on Ebay for $5800
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... fresh=true

the Tm was released in 1989 and cost about $7500 at the time
so thats a $1700 drop in value in 22 years or about a drop of $75 per year
you could have bought this baby then..played it for 22 Years and then gotten back over 77% of what you originally paid for it
Now with Pc Engines..they are basically worthless the minute a new version comes out
Now..i ask you .. how many Pc Engines would it take to rake in $5800??
im guessing that If someone had every version of every commercial Pc Engine ever released for sale dating back to the early 1990's and offered the whole package on Ebay ..it would probably sell at auction for a total of about 200 bucks give.. or take ..not to mention the seller would probably have to throw in free shipping

No Comparison Regards
Steve

[IanO]

http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php

This is the very first time that the Hiarcs engine will run in a dedicated chess computer

Historic Regards
Steve

What CPU will it be running on? Which dedicated chess computer will it be running on? They don't seem to be saying.

Their existing systems, presumably. The older Resurrection used a 200 MHz StrongARM and the current Revelation uses a 500 MHz XScale. Their upcoming DGT-based system will probably still use the 500 MHz CPU.

[bretti]

http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php

This is the very first time that the Hiarcs engine will run in a dedicated chess computer

Historic Regards
Steve

What CPU will it be running on? Which dedicated chess computer will it be running on? They don't seem to be saying.

Their existing systems, presumably. The older Resurrection used a 200 MHz StrongARM and the current Revelation uses a 500 MHz XScale. Their upcoming DGT-based system will probably still use the 500 MHz CPU.

Probably it will be the Revelation II with 800 MHz (and Hiarcs 13): http://www.schachcomputer.info/forum/sh ... stcount=41

[Steve B]

Hiarcs 13.3 is now available for the Revelation and Resurrection II dedicated computers
the very first time in history that Hiarcs can be seen in a dedicated computer
i have ordered my copy for the Revelation board

http://www.phoenixcs.nl/index.php


Once received.. i will play a few games against Fruit(Rybka 2.2n8 version) which i have on my Resurrection II computer

Hiarcs v Fruit Regards
Steve