Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Collector's Corner...Fact from Fiction..

Author: Steve B

Date: 09:28:03 09/12/04


Another nuance of collecting is the ability to distinguish between computers and
modules that were heavily advertised in advance of actually being released but
never made it to market.

an unsuspecting collector, in reading over all of the  vast literature on the
hobby would set about trying to collect items that in fact never saw the light
of day..

Perhaps the most notorious of them all was the Applied Concepts Boris Handroid

this Robotic Arm computer was heavily advertised in several leading chess
magazines of the day at a listed price of about $1500.photo's and all

the company went out of business well before the company even had a fully
working prototype
today, only two known working prototypes are known to exist,with the  owner of
only one making himself publicly known.

other famous examples would be:

Laser Chess-by the same company as the Handroid(but they changed their name to
Destiny,in what certainly was an ill-fated omen  :))    )
this was to be the worlds first "touch screen LCD pieces portable

Fidelity Master 2400-complete with model number and photo's
this baby was to have a Risc Processor running at 12Mhz.-never released.

even auxiliary items such as opening book cartridges were not immune to this
fate
Fidelity advertised several modules for their top of the line wooden computers
which were never released complete with model numbers:
module TCE-theoretical chess endings
module RPE-rook and pawn endings
module BLZ-specializing in Blitz chess
to name a few..

Best
Steve



This page took 0.01 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.