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Subject: Re: Excaliber Touch Chess

Author: Terry McCracken

Date: 20:05:37 02/20/02

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On February 20, 2002 at 22:39:41, Terry McCracken wrote:

>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

Please don't take this personally, it's  how I feel about the loss of a
progressive company (Fidelity)just coming into their own and then consumed by
Hegner & Glasser their main rival, ending an era in computer chess.

Terry



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