Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 07:12:38 07/04/03
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On July 04, 2003 at 08:44:42, ludicrous wrote: >If a super strong program like Ruffian was taken back in the early 80's in the >form of a 3.0 Ghz PC, with a chessbase interface, about how much would a chess >fanatic back then be willing to pay (including the PC) for it? > >Just a thought. Many Chess Programs were much more expensive in thes early 90's - PC Chess programs were not really available in the early 80's other than the Sargon series for the VIC20 etc. In mid 80;s is when the first PC chess programs started coming available. Back then the strongest Chess machines available to purchase were dedicated chess units with some costing as much as $5000 and more. I remebered one unit was nearly $10,000. Some casual chess players have a lot of wealth. It was not really until the early 90's (92/93) when the first pentium machine came out that PC's programs took over. I have a flyer from the 90's that I am looking at right now. Here are the prices: Hiarcs 2.1 Pro $149.95 Socrates 3.0 $129.95 MChess Pro 3.5 $149.95 Genius 2.0 $149.95 Gideon Pro $149.95 RexChess 2.3 $19.95 -"Best Buy" ;>) So for all those that complain aboyt Fritz or Junior for about $50 - you now get a program that is 100x better for 1/3 the cost. All those programs were DOS programs with aome butr limited non chess playing capabilities (database, saving games etc,). All engine matches back then were done by hand. oh ..to answer your question - if Ruffian was available and was near the top (it would have to be DOS since Windows was not a common platform) and it had its own GUI - perhaps $149.95 would have been the price.
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