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Subject: Re: BORIS Chess Computer

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 20:41:57 05/29/02

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On May 29, 2002 at 23:32:36, Timothy J. Frohlick wrote:

>Joshua,
>
>Boris,the talking chess computer originally came with its own NiCad battery pack
>(UPS) and operated also via a 120 volt wall transformer.  It had a red mini neon
> display and a keypad for alphanumeric position entry.  Boris came with a
>whopping 256 kilobytes of RAM and had an F-8 processor courtesy of Fairchild
>Electronics.  You stored the plastic Staunton magnetic pieces in the walnut box
>that housed the electronics.  I loved playing Boris when travelling  in my
>Mustang convertible on the Baltimore-Washington Beltway back in the early 1980s.
>
>It was probably 700-800 ELO on a good day.  I sold my Boris to a fellow from
>Georgia and he had it taken apart after two months.  Maybe he thought there was
>a little man inside?
>
>Tio Timmy


256Kb of RAM? This must be a mistake. Wasn't it 256 bytes?

Mini neon? I guess we call it LED most of the times... :)

NiCad? Are you sure? At that time I'm not sure this technology was available for
a mass market product.

And finally Boris as far as I remember was not talking. But the Chess Challenger
voice was. But that was 2 years later and from a different company.



    Christophe



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