Author: Terry McCracken
Date: 21:30:53 12/07/00
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On December 07, 2000 at 22:09:40, K. Burcham wrote:
in july, 1988, at the world open in philadelphia, pennsylvannia, this fidelity
program made chess history and became the first microcomputer to earn a master
rating of 2265. fidelity started selling the same program, model 6113. it is
called a designer mach lll master. fidelity started selling this same program in
a table top sensory board. anyway, i bought one of these back then. i have taken
real good care of it. it is like new. fidelity sent out a certificate,
certifying that each one had the 2265 rating. i also kept this certificate in
perfect shape. i have had it in storage for several years. i thought it would be
fun to see how it would play against todays programs with new hardware. in case
you are interested, it uses a 68000 microprocessor running at 16 mhz, with 64k
rom, and 80k ram. i played it against my 1050 mhz 384 megs ram. shredder4 hash
set at 96megs , shredder4 evaluation tables set at 16 megs. shredder4 used
default settings. game time for both set at 30 minutes. fidelity set at
strongest settings. opening---ruy lopez/marshall counterattack. of couse s4 won.
but it took 58 moves. didnt think it would last that many moves. do i understand
this right, the fidelity has no hash tables, so does this mean it does not think
on the opponents time. so is the ram cleared after every move. it was averaging
about 6 ply on this 30 minute time control. it held shredder4 off for about 20
minutes of a 30 minute game. so maybe that wasnt too bad for such an weak old
timer.
thanks
Ah...those were days!
I also have the Designer Mach III Master, model 6113. I have'nt heard anyone
comment on this machine in years! ( Programmer Dan Spracklen )
I purchased it in 1989 just before Hegner&Glasser ( Mephisto ) bought Fidelity
out later that year. I played many games on it but kept it in " Mint Condition "
as yourself. It has been on mothballs for about a decade!
I purchased the Novag Super "C" the following year, an although it's in good
condition I played " Blitz " on it regularly for years so it shows signs of wear
and tear. So I would'nt call it exactly a collectable:)
However, my Mach III may soon fall under that category, who knows?
Now that I know you own the " Other Mach III In Mint Condition" I may need to
buy it off you!;o)
But to get to your issues, yes the Mach III does have very small hastables with
the 80K ram, which are most notable in it's endgame.
Occasionally, I have brought it out to play against newer chess programms just
to see the difference in playing strength. I was immpressed back in 94 when it
crushed GNU Chess on a 486 running at 33 mgh. It also crushed a Saitek Kasparov
machine rated an expert/master in 1998.
However it fared very poorly against CM5000 on a Pentium 75. It lost 20-1 no
draws and most games were over well before move 40!
Against CM7000 on a Pentium III 500 it was mauled badly in a 10 game Match, by
10-0. Still it was a programm far ahead of it's time with the exception of the
Almeria Programm by Richard Lang of Mephisto fame. The two programms were very
close. Richard Lang used the Fidelity Mach III an IV as " Acid Tests " for his
Almeria and Portorose programms.
I have'nt played Shredder, but I'm impressed it went on for 58 moves against a
top programm on such a fast system!
I think it demonstrates it was'nt too bad at all for an " Old Timer " :) I just
obtained a copy of CM8000, I already know what the results will be!;)
Thanks for the trip down " Computer Memory Lane "!
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