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Subject: Re: Collector's Corner..The Best Selling Chess Computer Of All Time..

Author: Mark Ryan

Date: 15:39:29 01/24/05

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On January 24, 2005 at 09:57:55, Steve B wrote:

>Perhaps we can say this computer is the exact opposite if the term RARE
>however no anthology of the old computers could be complete without its
>inclusion
>
>The Fidelity Chess Challenger 7 remains to this day ,and most probably for all
>time, the largest selling chess computer ever made.
>
>programmed by Ron Nelson and released in 1979,it ran on the Z80 A processor at 4
>MHz
>it had a small  opening book of less then 100 positions and was rated at about
>1300 Elo
>
>the computer was constructed out of  cheap plastic which enabled Fidelity to
>offer the computer to the buying public at the very attractive price of $100
>
>buyers who were not serious chess players bought them up as gifts,or as
>curiosities,wanting the latest high-tech gizmo of the day.
>much the same as we see today with the Palm,Pocket,PDA,Blackberry(or is it
>Blueberry?)market.
>
>
>Fidelity wound up selling close to  700,000 units
>
>there are always at least 5-10 CC7'S available on Ebay on any given day:
>
>personally i always get a kick out of the photo on the CC7 box
> Dad and Son play chess while a loving and adoring Mom looks on approvingly and
>in marital bliss
>
>http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cpaa2@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=3353&.dnm=4ef0.jpg&.src=ph
>
>whenever my Wife complains about my collection i always refer her to this photo
>her typical response..UH HUH
>
>Best
>Steve

I was one of the 700,000 buyers.  It was a lot of fun for a while, but there
were some physical problems with mine.  For example, the "keys" on the keypad
needed to be pushed down extremely hard, and my fingers were getting sore.  I
found a small hard rubber ball in my old toy box, and I used the ball to push
down on the keys.  I challenged my friend to play CC7, and the first thing he
said when I brought him the set was, "What the hell is the rubber ball for?"

Mark  :)




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