1978- Boris is King- First Chess Computer
It is one of the first chess computers for general public. The electronic components are contained on the left side in an elegant walnut case, on the right, there is a space where is stored the adapter and the chessmen provided with the machine.
To play, you must enter the moves via a keyboard. It does not have real levels; to select the level of play, you have to program the timer (from 0 to 99 hours, 99 minutes, 99 seconds) which determines time allocated to "Boris" his moves calculation.
The information about the game are provided via a window of 8 high quality red led’s digits (displayed on a single line). For example, this window is necessary to enter the moves, to see the machine responses, to see «Boris» compute his moves (the various moves are flashing in the display), to adjust the internal timer, to setup an arbitrary position (arranged one line at the time) by using specific "Boris" characters and, obviously, to give his commentary on the game…
There is another very interesting function of this window; if you recall the board (with the rank button) while "Boris" is computing, you can see him moving the pieces around, trying the effects of various moves (see the video). An innovative "marketing" characteristic for the time; occasionally "Boris" makes comments on your moves, such as for example: "Boris plays Black" (when the unit is powering), "Have you played before?", "Spot me a queen", "Are you rated?", "Is this has trap?", "I need help", "May I cheat?", "Illegal move", etc. These comments are generated in a random way and do not have obviously any bond with the played moves... Here an over flight of the "Boris" functionalities on the back of his instruction manual.