Excalibur Alive or Dead?

Bryan Whitby · Post by **Bryan Whitby** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:21 pm

Hi
This morning I received Eric Hallsworths excellent 'Selective Search' magazine and in it Eric states that Excalibur Electronics have ceased trading and obviously can't purchase any computers anymore. I do know that last August there was a big auction in Miami, USA involving Excalibur and I have found the following about then being bought out which indicates that they might still be trading afterall?

July 7, 2009
EB Excalibur Completes Acquisition of Certain Assets of Excalibur Electronics

New York — Cortec Group ("Cortec"), a New York based private equity firm which invests in middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and proprietary service businesses, announced that EB Excalibur, Inc, ("EB Excalibur"), a portfolio company of Cortec's affiliate, Cortec Group Fund IV, L.P. ("Cortec Fund IV"), has acquired certain assets of Excalibur Electronics, Inc. ("Excalibur").

Excalibur is a leading designer and marketer of high-margin, niche consumer products including sports, chess and other electronic games, highly engineered radio controlled vehicles, educational products, outdoor living products, tool kits, and home and office accessories. The company's products are marketed under well-recognized company-owned brands and licenses including Excalibur, Einstein, Fox Sports, NFL, and The Weather Channel, as well as under certain customer private brands.

The Excalibur assets acquired include the intellectual property, molds, and tooling for the Excalibur product line. The acquisition was completed as part of a Section 727 Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors process in the State of Florida. EB Excalibur did not purchase any Excalibur contracts, inventory or accounts receivable, nor did EB Excalibur assume any liabilities of Excalibur.

Importantly, EB Excalibur has hired key members of Excalibur's senior leadership team, including Shane Samole, President, Mike Catena, Executive Vice President, other tenured commercial team members, new product development staff, and customer support members.

Maybe one of our American readers can verify the situation.
Regards
Bryan

Post by **Fernando** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:38 pm

Probably is already dead or in the corridor of death. And as it is usual, some wizards will intend to resurrect the corpse to extract from it some leftovers capable of giving some bucks.

Dedicated Unit industry is ancient history regards
Fern

Bryan Whitby · Post by **Bryan Whitby** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:01 pm

Hi
I have unfortunately lost my Phantom Force pieces. I thought I put them up in the loft with the computer but can't find them anywhere. This week I decided to email Excalibur and received this reply.
We sell and ship direct import from HK and we do not have a local warehouse with the ability to store product. Unfortunately we do not sell replacement pieces.
So Excalibur still exists but only as a middle man with no manufacturing facilities in America.
Nelson Retirment Regards
Bryan

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:19 pm

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:So Excalibur still exists but only as a middle man with no manufacturing facilities in America.

Did Excalibur ever have any manufacturing facilities in the US? Every Excalibur I have ever seen or own is indicated as made in China. I think the days of US chess computers died with Fidelity and part of what made Excalibur viable was the Chinese manufacture of all their products.

Perhaps I am incorrect here and they did make chess computers in the US. Anyone know for sure?

Oh well, I guess we will se no Excalibur Humpy then. I was hoping Excalibur might continue on their old "Alexandra" theme, but of course to be true to the name it would have needed to play 100 points stronger than Alexandra did

So I guess if you want a club level Excalibur you will need to buy a Grandmaster while the stocks still last.

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:59 am

This now has me thinking about all the "could have been" Excalibur computers. Please feel free to add yours to the list:

Excalibur Daniel King: A very strong voice computer and superlative coach that when making a move, spends 13 minutes thoroughly explaining to you in easy to understand English or German why it made it. The reason why the computer does not spend 14 minutes explaining the move is because by that time, the auto-shutdown feature kicks in.

Excalibur Nigel Short: After purchasing licensing rights from the defunct Hegener and Glasser, the Excalibur Nigel Short is world calibre machine that will, however, ocassionally make a series of two-fold repetitions of positions in dead-boring positions with the aim of producing the longest chess game ever recorded.

Excalibur Kramnik: A World Champion program. On extremely rare ocassions, however, it has been known to make horrific 1 ply blunders or suffer from the dreaded "horizon" effect.

Excalibur Ivanchuk: Another voice machine that in stark contrast to other models, moans, complains and threatens to give up the game if it loses to you. Can get pretty annoying after a while, so the voice feature can easily be deactivated.

Excalibur Michael Adams: A cool dude of a chess computer. Possibly one of the most bug free and consistent chess computer ever conceived, ultra strong and as entertaining as the very best of the classic Novags.

Excalibur Stefanova: an upgrade of Alexandra the Great. Has a more attractive housing than the earlier model with a faster processor and larger program. In a 20 game test match condcted by Excalibur with the older Alexandra model, the Stefanova won +13 / = 2 / -5.

Excalibur Lahno: might be a peg sensory portable, but masterful design and superb ergonomics make this one of the finest portable schachcomputers ever produced and certainly the most attractive. 32K program running on an H8 processor at 16 Mhz. Thinks on it's opponent's time too - an unusual feature for a new Excalibur computer.

Post by **Steve B** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:37 pm

Great Stuff Jon!

personally i always hoped for the..
Novag Mutant Armed Chess Robot

the Robot would be equipped with three arms..all joined at the base ...
the user would be able to switch between the three arms whenever one of the arms goes defective..which ..if history is any guide..happens in about 1 hour of playing time

while one arm is working..the other arms can be used for serving the owner coffee ..or the beverage of his choice..
performing grooming operations on the owner(such as a morning shave or brushing teeth)
the possibilities are endless...

Teenage Mutant Robots Regards
Steve

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:32 am

Steve B wrote:while one arm is working..the other arms can be used for serving the owner coffee ..or the beverage of his choice..
performing grooming operations on the owner(such as a morning shave or brushing teeth)
the possibilities are endless...

OK. Just so long as that extra hand is strictly used for grooming operations. Otherwise I can think of name for this machine, and it isn't something I could write on a prime time forum

Post by **Steve B** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:52 am

Monsieur Plastique wrote:
OK. Just so long as that extra hand is strictly used for grooming operations. Otherwise I can think of name for this machine, and it isn't something I could write on a prime time forum

Just for that remark...

http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/videos/MissingKing.wmv

Ouch Regards
Steve