Author: Chuck
Date: 15:07:25 03/29/01
Go up one level in this thread
On March 29, 2001 at 13:43:51, Ed Schröder wrote: >On March 29, 2001 at 11:21:30, Fernando Villegas wrote: > >>Hi: >>In 1989, in Paris, the very first day of my very first visit to that lovely >>city, I went to "Le damier de l'Opera", a shop like ICD specialized in chess >>stuff, and there I met with a surprise: the guy that was in charge was chilean >>like me. He was living in Paris since ever. Eventually this guy was going to >>produce his own magazine, La puce Echiquien, dedicated top chess computers. As >>many others, it is by now completely dead. The magazine, I mean. Well, this guy >>said to me the Mephisto MM IV unit was the best buy at the moment even if it was >>somewhat old for the time. But it was not too much; besides the price was good >>so I got it and since then I played againts "him" lot of games until the day >>came when advanced software and fast PC's made of MMIV not only a somewhat old >>piece of chess computer, but an awfully obsolete one. >>Nevertheless, from time to time I put it again to life exhumating it from the >>drawer where usually sleeps and I play a game to see if my years of hard >>trainning againts top programs have had some value after all. Well, yes. It is >>in these ocasions when you perceive that your chess has improved even if you are >>mauled 9 times of ten by the current crop of Tigers, centuries or Fritzses. MM >>IV is tactically strong and can give you more than a surprise if you are >>carefree and lazy, but it is enough strategically weak to give to a decent club >>player more than a chance to trash him IF you avoid his tactical blows. >>So this post has the this purpose: to advice you to do as me, playing at least >>one game in five to any of these old and venerable monster in order to boots >>your ego with some victories and to see how much better player you has became. I >>clearly recall that my first games agains MMIV were almost all defeats even if I >>worked hard at every move, but yesterday I trashed the poor criature almost >>without thinking. Clearly, with time, a chess fan get more and more tactical >>acumen and so the only weapon of those old programs is absolutely dented. >>And now, Ed, tell me if I am right you was the programmer. And tell me about it. >>How much Kb the program has? Which is his relation with programs that came >>after? Any story about this loved monster of mine, now again sleeping in the >>drawer, would be cherished and welcome. >>Fernando > > >Hi Fernando, > >The MMIV was mine indeed. I believe it was released in 1986 and was >massively sold during 3 years when it was replaced by the MMV. In those >days it seems that everybody would like to have a chess computer to >impress their neighbors all against the firm price of EUR 400 but in >those days nobody seemed to care about that. It still relative was new >that a computer could play chess and pretty strong too. > >To make the program was quite a challenge if you realize its system >requirements, just 16 Kb ROM and 8 Kb RAM. To compare, these days >Rebel is over 800 Kb ROM and 4000 Kb RAM minimum. > >From these 16 Kb ROM (16,000 bytes) more than 4 Kb went to the openingbook >and about 6 Kb was in use for the Interface. Thus the left space for the >chess engine was 6 Kb. Almost mission impossible to write a good positional >chess program but somehow I managed. The MMIV was weak in tactics but was >praised for its playing style. > >My direct concurrent in these days was Frans Morsch (Fritz). Although we >worked for the same company there was a high competition between us. Frans >had even less resources, if memory serves me well he had only 8 or 16 Kb >ROM but much less RAM, 1 Kb or so. Still Frans managed to be in close >competition with me regarding playing strength even with that great >handicap. > >In these days I have been asked several times to write a chess program with >such low resources as Frans but I never saw a possibility to do the job. I >must admit that my interest was not in that direction, lower resources meant >lower playing strength and I preferred to spend my time improving Rebel than >making more money. > >Much to the dislike of the company I invested all my time in a new processor >the ARM RISC processor which was much faster than the 6502 chip. In a way >I was digging my own commercial grave (I could afford it) but the inner urge >to more strength was too strong and also it was crystal clear to me that the >6502 chip was a dead-end street. The ARM RISC processor was a totally new >concept, 16 x 32 bit registers, no RAM limitations, a programmers paradise. > >In the end everything went well, my investment has honored by TASC. Without >knowing from each other TASC had invested in the same processor. We met each >other for the first time at the AEGON tournament where Johan the Koning >(ChessMaster) also had a program running on the very same RISC processor. >From one thing came another, the hard- and software combination later became >known as the ChessMachine. I still have about 10-15 ChessMachine cards lying >somewhere under the dust. > >This was the year 1989 for me, the year you bought a MMIV in Paris and I >earned about DM 20 because of that. Thanks :) > >Ed I would like to add how much I love my Mephisto Exclusive Polgar which I bought say in 1990. After 11 years, it is still working perfectly and I enjoy playing it more than any other program I have seen. Not only is it within reach of my playing strength, but the Exclusive board is fantastic, and the Polgar has a very human playing style in my opinion, which is very nice. I understand Ed also did the Polgar, and it makes for a very nice game. Superbly done. Chuck
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