Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: BORIS Chess Computer

Author: Les Fernandez

Date: 23:33:22 05/30/02

Go up one level in this thread


On May 30, 2002 at 13:19:02, Christophe Theron wrote:

>On May 30, 2002 at 00:24:55, Les Fernandez wrote:
>
>>On May 29, 2002 at 23:41:57, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>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.
>>
>>I still have mine but gave it to my sister who still has it.  Do you remember
>>the display? All chess pieces were made with straight lines and it had a mode
>>that allowed you to watch all the permutations going on a particular rank?  The
>>infamous cigar box I use to call it.<s>
>>
>>Les
>
>
>Yes I remember very well. The same program has been released one year after in a
>plastic unit called the "Boris Diplomat". I almost bought one, but it was too
>expensive for me at the time.

Hi Chris,

Talk about expensive do you remember "Prestige" ?  Came with a beautiful hand
crafted oak board and they only made a 1000 of them and each had their own
serial number?? Well guess what the price tag on that was??

$1100.00 :(

Les
>
>So I decided to save the money to buy a TRS-80 instead.
>
>
>
>    Christophe



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.