Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 11:22:47 01/14/00
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On January 13, 2000 at 17:59:45, Jeroen van Dorp wrote: >Is anybody familiar with the way micros (I mean stand alone chess computers) are >being tested by SSDF? > >I have an old '86 Scisys stand alone without any pc connection possibility, and >I'm not too well known with modern stand alones. > >Are the ones in the SSDF list hooked up to the PC, and if yes, is there a >possibility of autoplaying programs in those comps. Maybe without showing moves >on the sensory board or so, I can't really imagine. Or is it imperative to play >the moves manually? > >Thanks for the info as I'm wondering if I could test mine (Scysis Kasparov Turbo >S-24K) for its appr. strenght. It claims Elo 2000, but I hadly believe it's more >than 1800 at strong tournament setting (40/150'). On say 30'level I'm able to >draw it relatively simply, as a lousy 1600 player I am. > >Jeroen ;-} > >http://zip.to/jeroen I don't believe any of the dedicated units on the SSDF list have been tested with autoplayers. They were all played manually by their owners. This is one reason why there are fewer games with them (and even fewer recent games). AFAIK, the only dedicated units on their list which have the possibility of being autoplayed are the Novag Sapphire & Sapphire II. They are equipped with serial ports. If you buy the Novag Distributor, you get an adapter to connect it to a standard DB25 RS232 serial port and an (outdated) description of the protocol they use. I made a WinBoard driver which I use to autoplay SapphireII on FICS. Theoretically, you might be able to do a similar project for Mephisto modular units, if you had some electronics knowledge and could get Mephisto's modular interface specs. Perhaps you could interface to the TASC R30 unit, since it connects to its sensory board via a cable. If you were ambitious and into robotics, you could design an arm for pressing squares on a sensory board and and image recognition system for detecting the LED's which indicate the move the computer made. Actually, if you did that you might be able to sell it back to the chess computer manufacturers' Quality Assurance departments. :) Manufacturers are notorious for inflating their computers' ratings for marketing purposes, as Steve often points out. Ian
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