Obsidian Suspicions...

[fern]

I suspect that Obsidian last Novag chess comp just brings the last Kittinger program for that firm, the Zaphire one, which was announced with the same ELo with which Obsidian is marketed.
I doubt very much the code has been modified beyond what the new hardware impose as a must to work.
I say more; there is NO an apparently new dedicated unit which is not a reincarnation of a 10, 20 or more years old program.
Am I wrong?

Fern

[Larry]

I suspect that Obsidian last Novag chess comp just brings the last Kittinger program for that firm, the Zaphire one, which was announced with the same ELo with which Obsidian is marketed.
I doubt very much the code has been modified beyond what the new hardware impose as a must to work.
I say more; there is NO an apparently new dedicated unit which is not a reincarnation of a 10, 20 or more years old program.
Am I wrong?

Fern

By "Zaphire" I assume you mean "Zircon"? You can't mean "Sapphire"
because that is way stronger. You can forget anything new from
Novag. The company is long defunct and I know of at least one
retailer who is buying Novag old stock at a discounted price and
selling them off. Novag itself has sold off it's assets to a company
called "Solaray", or similar.
No, you are not wrong, and you will not become wrong in the
future. The final Novag release, the Citrine, was a glorified Obsidian
with a jazzed up opening book. The party is over.

L

[Graham Banks]

[.......You can forget anything new from
Novag. The company is long defunct and I know of at least one
retailer who is buying Novag old stock at a discounted price and
selling them off. Novag itself has sold off it's assets to a company
called "Solaray", or similar.
No, you are not wrong, and you will not become wrong in the
future. The final Novag release, the Citrine, was a glorified Obsidian
with a jazzed up opening book. The party is over.

L

Hopefully Dave Kittinger might release some of his Novag programs as uci engines for us then.

[fern]

Maybe so, but it is not the same thing- The core of the pleasure to play dedicated units IS the fact that they are lot more than just a code embedded in a CPU.
There is a delight in things like to take the object, t0 plug it to the electric outlet, arrange the pieces in the board, etc.
Like playing a real entity.

I know you understand...


Fern

[fern]

Who is the guy getting the stock?
Just curiosity.

Fern

[Graham Banks]

Maybe so, but it is not the same thing- The core of the pleasure to play dedicated units IS the fact that they are lot more than just a code embedded in a CPU.
There is a delight in things like to take the object, t0 plug it to the electric outlet, arrange the pieces in the board, etc.
Like playing a real entity.

I know you understand...


Fern

Indeed I do.

[Larry]

Who is the guy getting the stock?
Just curiosity.

Fern

The guy getting the stock that I know of is Peter Parr of
'Chess Discount Sales' in Sydney. He is closing down his
chess supplier company after failing to find any buyer for
the business. As I was buying a Novag Star Opal from him the
other week he told me he was waiting on a shipment of Novag
chess computers to arrive, because there is still demand in
the marketplace for them at the right price.
L

[fern]

And tell me, what about that Opal? Is worth the price?
Our sponsor here still sell them I believe, so if it is valuable, maybe I will get one.

This Mr Parr of Sidney is just following suite the trend.
The age of chess computers over and in fact, it is so since long ago.

Fern

[Larry]

And tell me, what about that Opal? Is worth the price?
Our sponsor here still sell them I believe, so if it is valuable, maybe I will get one.

No, don't buy the Star Opal. There are four in the 'Opal' range with
the Star Opal the strongest, but it is still quite weak. On the box it
says 'estimated USCF 1900'. Wiki gives it elo 1550. Even that is
crap, it would be elo 1450 with a tail wind, from what I can see.
Larry

[fern]

Ok, Thanks.
I will stay with the hand held i already have.

Fern