Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 13:35:20 05/31/02
Go up one level in this thread
On May 31, 2002 at 02:35:22, Les Fernandez wrote:
>On May 31, 2002 at 02:33:22, Les Fernandez wrote:
>
>>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 :(
>
>Yep and I bought one and still have it!!
>>
>>Les
>>>
>>>So I decided to save the money to buy a TRS-80 instead.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Christophe
Some Mephisto computers with 68030 inside (equivalent of a 386) were sold at
more than $5.000 IIRC.
Christophe
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