ChessChallenger wrote:I am Ron Nelson the inventor of Chess Challenger.
It is really nice to see you on this forum, Mr. Nelson!
I was thrilled when I got this Sensory Chess Challenger 8 as a birthday present from his parents in 1981. It greatly sparked my interest in chess and, together with the Commodore 64, in computer science. I have spent many pleasant hours playing this beautiful chess computer as I was proudly making my ways defeating the increasing levels.
Thanks for making this enjoyable machine!
[pgn]
[Date "sometimes in 1981"]
[White "a much younger Aart Bik"]
[Black "Chess Challenger (Level 1)"]
[Result "1-0"]
mclane wrote:Hi Ron. There were 3 chess challenger 10.
Version A did not like to castle.
Version B castled better.
One can identify if a machine is A or B by looking into the opening book,
They have different opening lines.
when playing 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6
Version B plays 3.Nf3, while Version A moves 3.Nc3.
This way one can identify A and B.
C has a different case, therefore identifying is easy.
And version C had a different CPU and it looked some older motherboards
(Chess challenger 3 ?!) had been recycled.
Therefore C has no loudspeaker and less keys.
A and B had z80 while C has 8088.
How did the software change between A B and C ?
Ok we know A rarely castled, but maybe there were more changes.
Hi Thorsten,
It has been many years since the CC10, but versions A & B sound like normal software upgrades.
Your version C cannot be since I never reduced the number of keys and never used an 8088.
I knew the CC7 was a Z80, but couldn't remember if the CC10 was too. It makes sense since about the time of the introduction of the CC7, Sid Samole and I flew to California to visit with Zilog.
Since we were starting to be a major customer we were treated very, very well.
It was about the time when Exxon Mobile had bought Zilog. The new CEO, a youngish clever fellow, met with us, and stated how Exxon considered silicon chips the new "Oil" of the 20th century.
Federico Faggin, the inventor of the Z80 and Zilog founder, stopped in to say hello, which thrilled me enormously.
Hi Ron. Thanks for your answer.
Yes CC10 B could be a normal software update that gives a few elo due to the fact it likes to castle while A version rarely castles.
ChessChallenger wrote:I am Ron Nelson the inventor of Chess Challenger.
It is really nice to see you on this forum, Mr. Nelson!
I was thrilled when I got this Sensory Chess Challenger 8 as a birthday present from his parents in 1981. It greatly sparked my interest in chess and, together with the Commodore 64, in computer science. I have spent many pleasant hours playing this beautiful chess computer as I was proudly making my ways defeating the increasing levels.
Thanks for making this enjoyable machine!
[pgn]
[Date "sometimes in 1981"]
[White "a much younger Aart Bik"]
[Black "Chess Challenger (Level 1)"]
[Result "1-0"]
Yes Mr Nelson...I second that emotion....saw my first chess challenger in Don Oswalds "Chess House" (his basement) where he kept his chess computers for his mail order operations in Kansas....yes in the "Old Days"
lmao.....Thx Again AR
I remember my 3th, it was a Fidelity and when you turned it on it made noise, something like "I am Fidelity your computer opponent, please select your level". What model was that? It must be around the year 1980. Fantastic playing tool. But it was so expensive (999 dutch guilders) aprrox. 1500-2000 euro nowadays I decided to buy chess programs for the TRS-80 only, Sargon and Gambit 81 approx 99 dutch guilders, much cheaper. Nevertheless I bought many afterwards, once infected with the virus it's hard to find a cure, and now 35 years after I am still addicted.
ChessChallenger wrote: It used a Z80 and 256 bytes of RAM, The CC1,CC3,CC10 all used 512 bytes of Ram.
It is very impressive that you could make something like this work with so little RAM. Around those days I was writing my first Chess program on a home-built 6800 machine with 2KB of RAM, but I could freely divide that space between code and variables, so I was never pressed that much to limit the data footprint. (And I think the machine had some other RAM 'hidden' high in the address space amongst the ROMs that it used for system variables, so that the 2KB was completely available to the user.)
ChessChallenger wrote: It used a Z80 and 256 bytes of RAM, The CC1,CC3,CC10 all used 512 bytes of Ram.
It is very impressive that you could make something like this work with so little RAM. Around those days I was writing my first Chess program on a home-built 6800 machine with 2KB of RAM, but I could freely divide that space between code and variables, so I was never pressed that much to limit the data footprint. (And I think the machine had some other RAM 'hidden' high in the address space amongst the ROMs that it used for system variables, so that the 2KB was completely available to the user.)
The first Altair 8800 I built came with 512 byte memory boards (You had to assemble them of course). I remember when bank-select came along letting us slip in new blocks of memory to replace other blocks of memory on demand. A major kludge.
Rebel wrote:I remember my 3th, it was a Fidelity and when you turned it on it made noise, something like "I am Fidelity your computer opponent, please select your level". What model was that? It must be around the year 1980. Fantastic playing tool. But it was so expensive (999 dutch guilders) aprrox. 1500-2000 euro nowadays I decided to buy chess programs for the TRS-80 only, Sargon and Gambit 81 approx 99 dutch guilders, much cheaper. Nevertheless I bought many afterwards, once infected with the virus it's hard to find a cure, and now 35 years after I am still addicted.
