Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 08:45:07 11/24/04
Hi all: Yesterday, after a hard working day, late into the night, I browsed trought a lot of chess stores -beginning with ICD of course- in order to see what's new or not so new in the realm of dedicated units. I believe I was exhaustive. I also went to some companies sites. And the result of my search is this: you can meet many new brands, but rarely or never a new program behind or under the hood. Novag, by example. You have there a line of precious stones named computers (jade, opal, rubi, saphire, diamond, etc) and also several more with atractive names. Nevertheless, once you get a look -not always available- under the hood of dedicated units you generally meet this: Old programs by Morsch already released years ago under other names in the same industry or even amputated versions of software programs. It is the case with the several versions of Fritz 1 or 2 you can meet in programs like Cosmos as you in fact met them in units of the 90's, like Travel Master. Old programs by Kittinger offered by Novag under new flashy names, but in fact the same programs thar runned as Supercostellation, Bravo, Expert, etc. Old programs by Lang now running in cheap plastic computers instead of the well made -not in China- products of the 80's and 90's. Old prorams by Schroeder....etc.....uner new...etc.... Exception perhaps can be made to a degree with the Excalibur line. Probably some of his computers are running with new engines by Ron Nelson, but also It cannot be dicarded that some are making use of the aged Spracklen harvest. So, we have this: companies are just making good use of programs they already payed to his authors years ago and of the cheap production facilities of China and of the low proces of electronic gadgetry. Eh voila! Understnble but painful. Fdo
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