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Subject: Collector's Corner..On Modifying A Chess Computer

Author: Steve B

Date: 20:02:35 07/09/05


Modifying a  chess computer is the process whereby a pre existing chess computer
is changed in an unauthorized (by the company manufacturing it)manner

modifications can take any number of forms

most commonly seen are:
Increasing the internal clock speed
increasing the Ram
modifying the program
replacing the internal components with parts from a different computer
replacing original Eproms with copied Eproms

while some collectors have no objection to modifications and indeed enjoy
modifying  their computers,True Purists of the hobby have no interest in this
and consider modified computers as uncollectible



Generally non- rare chess computers are modified ..

some common examples of modified computers are:

the  Fidelity  EAG out fitted with a 68060 processor running at 72 Mhz(commonly
referred to  as the EAG V11)
the Mephisto MMV over clocked to 10 Mhz from 5mhz
the Fidelity Elite A/S display screen modified to show the same information as
the dual display screen EAG

perhaps the most troublesome modification is when someone modifies a  rare
computer
troublesome because the modification removes  the rare computer from existence
and replaces it with "something else"

as is well known the Tasc R40 is one of the rarest computers ever released for
sale
less then 10 were sold to the public ,with the figure of 7 being quoted most
often

one collector has modified the opening book of the R40 to "update" it from its
original book

while at first blush i both mortified and horrified to learn of this,another
part of me was pleased in that now there was one less originally released R40 in
existence today ,thereby increasing the  value of all remaining R40's

Genuine Original Regards
Steve



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