Author: Terry McCracken
Date: 19:39:41 02/20/02
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On February 20, 2002 at 22:04:33, Chris Kantack wrote: >On February 20, 2002 at 14:11:38, Terry McCracken wrote: > >> >>That's most unfortunate! Excaliber isn't known for producing strong stand alone >>units, in fact their known for the opposite! Terrible really as they tried to >>fill in the mass-market void a several years after Fidelity was purchased by >>Hegner&Glasser, (Mephisto) back in the late summer of 1989. >> >> >>Terry >>>You could check with Steve of ICD for the playing strengths of these machines. > >To each their own. Touch Chess is my favorite handheld and I find it more than >challenging enough. True, Excalibur handhelds are no match for far stronger >programs like Chess Tiger and ChessGenius. But heck, they provide very >inexpensive chess computers that can still easily beat 85% of the world's >players. > >I probably average around 8 to 10 letters each week from extremely satisfied >users of Excalibur products. (Almost all of them in reference to LCD Chess or >Touch Chess as "handheld computer chess" is the main focus of my web site.) >Many of the letters I've recently received come from people who own multiple >Excalibur chess computers. The fact that Excalibur gets so much repeat >business says a lot for the company. > >(As for letters from dissappointed Excalibur customers, I've gotten only 3 such >letters in the past year.) > > >Chris Kantack >http://home.earthlink.net/~kantack/lcdchess/home.htm Well Excaliber did not fill the void, for strong chess players in the wake of losing Fidelity Electronics and programmer Dan Spracklen. I see this as a loss, and that Excaliber only cares and caters to the mass market weekend players. I doubt very much, regardless of features and quality of design that Excaliber produces a machine that plays over 1500. That's ok for most people, but many wanted master rated and above standalones and that went up in smoke when Fidelity left the market, and out of the ashes Excaliber arouse, a step backwards in time. Terry
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