Author: John Coffey
Date: 09:43:53 01/18/99
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On January 18, 1999 at 10:37:48, Karsten Bauermeister wrote: >On January 18, 1999 at 10:20:57, Charlie GOLD wrote: > >> >> Sid Samole started Fidelity back in 1976/7 with the Chess Challenger I. It >>was a plastic unit with wood pieces and a "wood" border. Input was key-in. They >>were produced with a flaw...the coordinates were reversed; a-h going up and 1-8 >>sidewise. It had one level of play and no other features. It only operated on >>the mains. It was the FIRST commercial micro chess computer on the market. >> In 1977 the company came out with the Chess Challenger III ( I don't know >>of a two) which was the same physically, had the same features, plus 3 levels of >>play, monitor mode, position verification, and the coordinates corrected. It, >>also, ran on mains only. >> In 1978/9 they came out with the CC7-the same as the first two but the >>pieces were now plastic. It had all the features of the 3 plus 7 levels of play >>(interchangeable during play), set-up mode, mate in 2, sound control, change >>sides, and a small opening book. It still only ran on mains. >> Stay tuned for more exciting?! news about Chess Challengers... > > >Hi Charlie! > >Some minor correction/additions to your small historie of the first chess >challengers. > >The first Chess Challenger was not called Challenger 1. This name was given to >it later because it was the first one and had only one level. when it came out, >it was named only "Chess Challenger". It was programmed by Ron Nelson, like the >other models you told about. >Therefore there were never a model called Chess Challenger "2". Because the >classification-numbers werde given for the number of levels. So Chess Challenger >3 was the second model. >Chess Challenger 7 had not only plastic pieces, but the wodden frame of Chess >Challenger 1 and 3 was missed too. Therefore it was much cheaper than his >predecessors. I don't know the exact prices in the USA, but I heard the Chess >Challenger 1 should have cost $600. In Germany the Chess Challenger 3 cost 698,- >DM (about US ยง400) and the CC7 only 298,- DM (about US $170). > >Karsten As best as I can recall, Chess Challenger 1 sold for about $300 but the price went down after its introduction. Chess Challenger 7 sold for somewhere between $100 and $200, but I am not sure. I have to wonder who could afford such things in the late 1970's? When you consider inflation, those were pretty expensive D players. John Coffey
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