Mephisto Collection

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spacious_mind
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Mephisto Collection

Post by spacious_mind »

I am trying to update my list of dedicated computers, so I thought I would share what I have as I get to them. Here is my current Mephisto Collection list. Mephisto that fall under Saitek I don't count in this list. I tend to keep those under Saitek.

Chess Computers and Portables

ACADEMY
ALASKA
AMERICA II
ATLANTA
AVANTI
BEACH RED
BEACH YELLOW
BERLIN 68000
BERLIN PRO
BERLIN PRO LONDON
BISTRO RED
CHAMPION
ESB 3000
ESB 5000
ESB 6000
EUROPA
EUROPA A
JUNIOR
JUNIOR HANDHELD
MADISON
MANHATTAN
MARCO POLO
MEGA IV
MEIN ERSTER MEPHISTO
MELBOURNE
MEPHISTO I
MEPHISTO II
MEPHISTO III
MERLIN 16K
MEXS
MIAMI
MILANO
MILANO PRO
MINI
MIRAGE MOBILE
MIRAGE MODULAR
MODENA
MONACO
MONDIAL
MONDIAL 68000XL
MONDIAL II
MONTANA
MONTE CARLO
MONTE CARLO IV
MONTE CARLO IV LIMITED EDITION
MONTREAL 68000
MONTREUX
MYSTERY
MYTHOS
NIGEL SHORT
SCHACH TRAINER
SCHACHCOMPUTER 64
SCHACHSCHULE
SOLAR KING
SUPER MONDIAL
SUPER MONDIAL II
SUPERMINI
TEUFELCHEN

What I think I have missing to complete the Mephisto chess computer collection is:

AMERICA
BEACH BLACK (IF IT EXISTED)
BISTRO YELLOW
BISTRO BLACK
EXCALIBUR
MEXS PRO
PHANTOM
SCHACHSCHULE II
WUNDERMASCHINE

MEPHISTO BOARDS

BAVARIA
EXCLUSIVE (SEVERAL)
MOBIL LCD (COUPLE)
MODULAR (SEVERAL)
MUENCHEN (SEVERAL)

MODULES FOR MEPHISTO MODULAR BOARDS

MODULE III-S GLASGOW
MODULE ALMERIA 68000
MODULE ALMERIA 68020
MODULE AMSTERDAM
MODULE B & P
MODULE DALLAS 68000
MODULE DALLAS 68020
MODULE GENIUS 68030
MODULE GENIUS LONDON 68030
MODULE LONDON 68000
MODULE LONDON 68020
MODULE LYON 68000
MODULE LYON 68020
MODULE MAGELLAN
MODULE MM II
MODULE MM IV
MODULE MM V
MODULE MM VI
MODULE MM3000
MODULE POLGAR
MODULE PORTOROSE 68000
MODULE PORTOROSE 68020
MODULE REBELL 5.0
MODULE RISC I
MODULE RISC II
MODULE ROMA 68000
MODULE ROMA 68020
MODULE ROMA II
MODULE SENATOR
MODULE VANCOUVER 68000
MODULE VANCOUVER 68020

I think I am just missing MM1, but MM3000 is supposed to be identical to it.

TOURNAMENT MACHINES

TM LYON WITH LONDON, PORTOROSE AND VANCOUVER ROMS
TM VANCOUVER WITH LYON, PORTOROSE AND LONDON ROMS

I am missing:

TOURNAMENT MACHINE ALMERIA
TOURNAMENT MACHINE PORTOROSE
TOURNAMENT MACHINE ROMA

And that is about it. Other Mephisto peripherals I really don't bother to track.

Best regards
Nick
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blaubaer
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Post by blaubaer »

Hi Nick,

wow! :P

As I said some time ago, some day I'd love to visit that Chess Computer Museum in Alabama for sure....

Anticipation regards, Michael
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Post by Scally »

Blimey Nick,

Knocks the spots off my measly collection .....


Jealous regards,

Al.
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Scally
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Post by Scally »

Blimey Nick,

Knocks the spots off my measly collection .....


Jealous regards,

Al.
mauben
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Post by mauben »

Nick,

I'm impressed ! Big time.

Wondering how you store and arrange that lot !

My wife cannot stand anything chess related, as she maintains it makes me self-excluding from social life in my spare time and keeps me away from photography.

Consequently, my boards are hypocritically stacked into a cabinet and the Exclusive briefcase is tucked behind some furniture, so that we all can pretend it is still in the attic (where it stayed until last November, when I had my recurrent chess re-discovery).

My first wife hated chess (she experienced the "Eric Hallsworth period"), the next "girlfriends" simply did not understand why and my current wife genuinely thinks it is simply a time burner.

In my mind that explain why I cannot get back to 1800 Elo ...

Best,

M
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Thanks all, it takes a lot of love for the game of chess. Chess you can play for a lifetime unlike soccer and other sports where your body can't take it once you get older... so it's quite easy to grow a collection if you spend your spare cash on the odd chess computer over the years instead of blowing it in the pub :)

Best regards
Nick
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Post by Fernando »

mauben wrote:Nick,

I'm impressed ! Big time.

Wondering how you store and arrange that lot !

My wife cannot stand anything chess related, as she maintains it makes me self-excluding from social life in my spare time and keeps me away from photography.

Consequently, my boards are hypocritically stacked into a cabinet and the Exclusive briefcase is tucked behind some furniture, so that we all can pretend it is still in the attic (where it stayed until last November, when I had my recurrent chess re-discovery).

My first wife hated chess (she experienced the "Eric Hallsworth period"), the next "girlfriends" simply did not understand why and my current wife genuinely thinks it is simply a time burner.

In my mind that explain why I cannot get back to 1800 Elo ...

Best,

M

You must simply choose better the female company. Usually they does not understand nothing beyond her noses
F
Festina Lente
xchessg
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Post by xchessg »

spacious_mind wrote: easy to grow a collection if you spend your spare cash on the odd chess computer over the years instead of blowing it in the pub :)

Best regards
Wow,

That's a lot of Beer, I say...

You don't have the PC Module? One of my favorites with Chess Tal (Dos), athough the synchronosation with the Board isn't as far as smooth as with Genius versions.

Xavier
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

xchessg wrote:
spacious_mind wrote: easy to grow a collection if you spend your spare cash on the odd chess computer over the years instead of blowing it in the pub :)

Best regards
Wow,

That's a lot of Beer, I say...

You don't have the PC Module? One of my favorites with Chess Tal (Dos), athough the synchronosation with the Board isn't as far as smooth as with Genius versions.

Xavier
Hi Xavier,

Yes I have the PC Module. I just don't count in the dedicated chess computer collection. I have not used it for while but I used to play it quite a bit with Genius etc.

OK lets do the math. 50 Euro a week (being generous) spend on booze, cigarettes and ice cream, chocolates :) x 52 x 10 years say = 26,000 Euro or 20 years = 52,000 Euro.

I would say that would get you a pretty good collection :P And if you sold them all later again you would hardly loose a thing!! 8)

What a boring life...eh... lol
Nick
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Post by Fernando »

That remember me of a guy that was rich and now poor and was asked about that and he said "I expended half my money in parties, women, luxury cars, trips, whores, etc..."
"and the other half?" they asked.
He said: "the other half I expended badly..."
Festina Lente
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

Fernando wrote:That remember me of a guy that was rich and now poor and was asked about that and he said "I expended half my money in parties, women, luxury cars, trips, whores, etc..."
"and the other half?" they asked.
He said: "the other half I expended badly..."
Nice story lol... I think we would all be millionaires by now if we hadn't have spent all our money on the females in our lives! :P

Just think...we would party, stay up all night with friends, play chess whenever we want... and we would be super rich lol..

ps...any ladies reading...we are joking!! We don't mean it!!

Best regards
Nick
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Post by red_potatoes »

Nick,

As mentioned in your TASC B/V thread, I just picked up a Monte Carlo. What really surprised me about this machine is how BEAUTIFUL it is. Appears that the seller had never/rarely played it. My (well-used) Exclusive and Munchen boards are nice, but hadn't prepared me for this.

I bought the machine because I prefer playing with wood, and because I've long enjoyed the games I play with my SuperMondial I. At present I win more than I lose, but as I ever-so-gracefully age, expect these machines will eventually gain the upper hand. Chess-for-retirement planning :)

Anyway - my question: do you (or anyone else) happen to know why SuperMondial I and Monte Carlo are given identical ratings on schach-computer.info/wiki, but Monte Carlo is rated about 60 points higher by Selective Search? The wiki mentions three versions of SuperMondial I: the A, B, and AB versions. Is it simply that one version is 60 points higher than other versions, and Monte Carlo contains the strongest version software?

I'll very much enjoy the machine regardless regards,

Walter
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spacious_mind
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Post by spacious_mind »

red_potatoes wrote: Anyway - my question: do you (or anyone else) happen to know why SuperMondial I and Monte Carlo are given identical ratings on schach-computer.info/wiki, but Monte Carlo is rated about 60 points higher by Selective Search? The wiki mentions three versions of SuperMondial I: the A, B, and AB versions. Is it simply that one version is 60 points higher than other versions, and Monte Carlo contains the strongest version software?

I'll very much enjoy the machine regardless regards,

Walter
The hardware is the same on both, that is probably why the games are collected and combined to provide a joined rating for both computers at Schachcomputer.Info. Whereas in Selective search they kept them separate. The ratings comprise a collection of games that people send in and therefore you are going to have some variation for sure as the results are also dependent on who played who and at what time/level settings.

With Super Mondial you do have the 3 versions were the indications are that version A is perhaps not as strong at the other versions.

What I would first do is try out the simple test with your Super Mondial that is listed on the Schachcomputer.Info site and find out what version you have.

Secondly I would still question the equality of both computers because even though they have the same hardware specifications, they are not exactly the same perhaps? After all one has 40 levels of play and the other 32 levels of play. I would question that as well as the 3 Super Mondial versions by checking it all out myself.

I would go ahead and Test them both with Test Game 1 which you can download here. It takes about 30 minutes to do Test Game 1 on each computer. Set them both at 30 second per move average time and let them play the test and see what comes out of it.

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic. ... &start=195

If the test comes out differently where the programs play some different moves and score differently then you will now more and lets you question any logic of not showing them separately. Especially since there are apparently 3 Super Mondial versions. Why mix Monte Carlo into that confusion?

Best regards
Nick
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Post by red_potatoes »

According to the criteria at schach-computer.info, I have a Super Mondial I Model B. I ran it, and my Monte Carlo, through the game 1 test you suggested. Time control level C3, 30 seconds per move. The moves were identical for both machines, as follows:

START TEST 4. ... Nc6 7.80
5.d4 30.00 5. ... Nc6 19.80
6.Ne5 30.00 6. ... Bh5 30.00
7.Qxf3 30.00 7. ... c6 30.00
8.Qxb7 30.00 8. ... Nbd7 30.00
9.Nb5 30.00 9. ... Bd6 30.00
10.Nxa7 30.00 10. ... Rb8 30.00
11.Bb5+ 30.00 11. ... Nxc4 30.00
12.Qb5+ 5.40 12. ... Nd6 9.00
13.Qc6+ 30.00 13. ... Ke7 5.40
14.Qxb5+ 30.00 14. ... Nd7 12.60
15.Bf4 16.20 15. ... exd5 16.20
16.0-0 30.00 16. ... Qf6 0.00
17.Qxd5 30.00 17. ... 0-0 30.00
18.c3 16.20 18. ... c6 30.00
19.Qa4 0.00 19. ... Qe4+ 30.00
20.Qxd7+ 30.00 20. ... Kf8 30.00
21.Qd8+ 30.00 CHECKMATE
2852 2472
COMBINED RATING: 2662

Based on this test game, I can't reject the null hypothesis that Mephisto Carlo has the same strength as Super Mondial I Model B.

One area where the Monte Carlo differs from model B, though, is what happens when you press INFO + CL when turning on the machine. That runs some diagnostics with the Super Mondial, but does nothing special for my Monte Carlo.

Has anyone run the game 1 test with model A or AB?
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Post by spacious_mind »

red_potatoes wrote:According to the criteria at schach-computer.info, I have a Super Mondial I Model B. I ran it, and my Monte Carlo, through the game 1 test you suggested. Time control level C3, 30 seconds per move. The moves were identical for both machines, as follows:

COMBINED RATING: 2662

Based on this test game, I can't reject the null hypothesis that Mephisto Carlo has the same strength as Super Mondial I Model B.

One area where the Monte Carlo differs from model B, though, is what happens when you press INFO + CL when turning on the machine. That runs some diagnostics with the Super Mondial, but does nothing special for my Monte Carlo.

Has anyone run the game 1 test with model A or AB?
There you have it Walter, you now know that the Super Mondial with version B ROM is the same as what is used in Monte Carlo. From the tests shown at Shachcomputer.info it looks like there is really no difference between versions AB & B. With version A however there is. Their test shows in some cases 40% faster and in another case the other versions find solutions which the version A does not.

But that is all in hindsight. Schachcomputer.Info is a kind of cooperative just like Wiki, where anyone who is a member can add information to their wiki site which results in its wiki information growing in time with new information as it is found.

The rating lists are managed by people sending in their games and these get collected and the rating list is then updated maybe twice a year. Well as you can imagine the people who send in the games are hardly likely to name their Super Mondial as version A, AB or B. They probably would just name them Super Mondial just like we all would do it.

So you start developing a rating list and the information you started with correctly showed that Monte Carlo and Super Mondial are identical, when suddenly someone a few years later comes up and shows through his due diligence and research that there was such a thing a Version A and a Version B and that they are different.

Now you are stuck, you combined hundreds of games and its almost impossible to undo. Besides how do you undo it? After all everyone had just named them Super Mondial :)

Its not easy :)

So based on the information you provided in your test and what is shown at Schachcomputer.Info Wiki, you could have a situation as follows if you divide the total number of games by 4 to get to an approximate number of game played with Version A. This also assumes since MC is a lot more expensive that most games were played with Super Mondial ie... in the estimation below I estimate 117 games were played by Monte Carlo out of a total of 471 games played.

Code: Select all

VERSIONS	      # GAMES		   ELO
------------    ----------      -------------------------
A		          118		       1836 (Estimated)
AB+B+MC		    353		       1896 (Estimated)
============    ==========      =========================
TOTAL GAMES	   471		       1881 (Schachomputer.Info)
Therefore it is possible that Version A plays at around 1836 ELO and AB, B & MC at around 1896 ELO which is about 15 ELO higher than shown at Schachcomputer.Info. As I said this assumes 25% distribution of games and a 60 ELO loss in strength for version A.

Best regards
Nick
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