Sad, but perhaps inevitable

[sje]

Looking at the catalog pages of Our Sponsor, I note that there are now only FIVE dedicated chess computers available for purchase. These are all Novag models, so at least they're decent units.

http://www.chessusa.com/category/CHESS_COMPUTERS.html

But if you were around in the glory days of chess computers about thirty years ago, then you must miss those times when Our Sponsor listed maybe a dozen manufacturers and many different models.

I've thought about buying a Novag Obsidian in part as a remembrance of my long departed Super Constellation. But the Obsidian's program is the same as the Citrine's (but with half the book), and I already have one of those.

[reflectionofpower]

Looking at the catalog pages of Our Sponsor, I note that there are now only FIVE dedicated chess computers available for purchase. These are all Novag models, so at least they're decent units.

http://www.chessusa.com/category/CHESS_COMPUTERS.html

But if you were around in the glory days of chess computers about thirty years ago, then you must miss those times when Our Sponsor listed maybe a dozen manufacturers and many different models.

I've thought about buying a Novag Obsidian in part as a remembrance of my long departed Super Constellation. But the Obsidian's program is the same as the Citrine's (but with half the book), and I already have one of those.

I think the Obsidian is a great buy for the price of a stand alone.

[Larry]

Hi Steven, yes, your heading 'inevitable' is correct. The market
for dedicateds flooded at the same time chess was going onto the
screen.
They were heady days. The Fidelity 7 level challenger had a production
run of 600,000 units. Those things are more valuable as a door stop
nowadays, but boy they must have been a money spinner for the
manufacturer back then.
BTW those models you mentioned that are advertised are old stock,
they are no longer being manufactured.
L

[sje]

BTW those models you mentioned that are advertised are old stock,
they are no longer being manufactured.

I had heard that Novag exited the chess business, and that's sad. Regardless, I'm still tempted to buy an Obsidian.

http://www.chessusa.com/product/CHESS_C ... 2-N16.html

About US$200 for the machine and a wall wart.

Some versions came with a carrying case and wooden pieces, but maybe that ended some time ago.

[Steve Maughan]

Steven - why not save up and buy a Revelation II? Isn't this the future of dedicated computer chess?

http://www.chesscomputer.eu

Surely supporting the future makes sense!

Steve

[sje]

Steven - why not save up and buy a Revelation II? Isn't this the future of dedicated computer chess?

http://www.chesscomputer.eu

Gosh, that's expensive (~US$4,000).

Is it overpriced? Well, the DGT board and pieces are about US$1,200 by themselves. But the rest of the package seems a bit anemic. For half of the US$2.800 margin, one could get a very juiced-up Apple Mac Mini with a 2.6 GHz Core i7 quad core CPU, 16 GB RAM, a 256 GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. and hide it underneath the board. The monochrome OLED display would be swapped with a color touchscreen at maybe 800x400 resolution.

[sje]

Our Sponsor informed me that the Obsidian does come with wooden pieces and a case. I couldn't resist any longer and ordered one along with a wall wart earlier today.

[Steve Maughan]

Hi Steven,

(...)Gosh, that's expensive (~US$4,000).

Is it overpriced? Well, the DGT board and pieces are about US$1,200 by themselves. But the rest of the package seems a bit anemic. For half of the US$2.800 margin, one could get a very juiced-up Apple Mac Mini with a 2.6 GHz Core i7 quad core CPU, 16 GB RAM, a 256 GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. and hide it underneath the board. The monochrome OLED display would be swapped with a color touchscreen at maybe 800x400 resolution.

All good reason not to buy. But for me the future is in beauty and not raw computing power - I have that on my laptop.

Steve

[sje]

But for me the future is in beauty and not raw computing power - I have that on my laptop.

For me, it's the past which dictates beauty. Learning chess back in the late 1960s, I grew up with real wooden chess pieces and not with two dimensional graphics on a monitor or a tablet. Replicating that early experience -- hiding a ghost in the machine -- is what makes an old style dedicated chess computer attractive.

[sje]

In anticipation of the immanent delivery of a Novag Obsidian, I fired up my old Novag Citrine to have do battle in a blitz game. The Citrine plays at about 2000 elo as attested by independent reviewers including my humble self after my Symbolic (then 2400 elo) beat the Citrine 99+% after hundreds of games. Since the Obsidian has the same 16 MHz H8 processor and pretty much the same program (but a smaller book), playing the Citrine is about the same, strength-wise.

After thirty moves, I lost rook for bishop; also, I was flagged. My own playing strength was never that great and is certainly in decline, so I should be happy I made it that far.