Author: Steve B
Date: 04:29:47 01/13/05
When one has been collecting the old chess computers as long as i have,it only stands to reason that every now and again one will come across or be offered something bizarre and unusual sometimes the item is just unusual ,sometimes it can be rare and sometimes a computer never before seen or even heard of when faced with a computer like this,the collector must decide to either acquire it or let it pass away quietly into the night. the following are four computers in this category two i decided two acquire and two i passed on.. The Novag Disney Magic Castle: more of a toy then a serious chess computer had a very large level selection of ..two played 3 other games as well(checkers,Tic Tac Toe and Bingo) Novag actually released this computer in two different versions the one shown here(in a blue box)was released in 1988 and one in a red box a year later the chess program was by Novag lead programmer Dave Kittinger it is rumored that Kittinger denies all involvement with the Magic Castle when asked :) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=fe82.jpg&.src=ph Novag even sold a box of 20 replacement pieces as an extra "option" why 20 and not a complete set of 32? beats me: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=b19c.jpg&.src=ph the following computer from CXG falls into the "unknown "category CXG made several nice wooden computers with the Sphinx 40 and Sphinx 50 being the top of their line both were programmed by David Levy and ran on 68000 16 bit processor's however i have never read or even heard anything about this computer a CXG Sphinx 40 Limited Edition(LE) Generally a"Limited Edition" version of a chess computer contain's either a faster clock speed or higher hash table ram or even a combination of both,then the standard version so i would guess that perhaps the clock speed is somewhat more then 40 and less then 50,or perhaps there is a higher amount of hash table ram the manual i have is a normal Sphinx 40 manual and makes no mention of its LE status: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=2cc8.jpg&.src=ph http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=bde3.jpg&.src=ph the following two items i decided to pass on.. the first is really a laughable attempt at fraud(or at least i think it was) someone offered me a Mephisto MM III module now any collector worth his salt knows the MM III was released as the Rebel 5.0 by Ed Shroeder the module is not labeled MM III it is labeled Rebel 5.0 this was probably an MM II with a poor paint job adding another I to make it a III sheesh: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=4e7c.jpg&.src=ph finally we have this beauty from Fidelity dosent even play chess and is supposed to tell the future :) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=578d.jpg&.src=ph Best Steve
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