Shredder 9 Running on Windows 7

[John Upham]

I wonder which early chess programs have value to collectors, either due to rarity or due to being collectible for other reasons? You might need to have kept a sealed, pristine copy of whatever packaging these things came in.

Francis Bowers usually brings a selection of sealed and unsealed boxes of unwanted chess items along with this bookstall.

He remains, as ever, optimistic about what people might wish to purchase.

At least these items do get to travel to various parts of the country.

[John Upham]

Does anyone here remember playing the early really rubbish chess computers?

Yes, here are some examples:

img_0033_lv.jpg

and

img_0659_lv.jpg

[Greg Breed]

Hi John, I find it mildly amusing that the only things that haven't changed in those pictures are the chess sets and clocks.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Great images John. Are they from the BCM archives? Are you able to supply dates (I would hazard a guess at early 1980s for the PCW Microchess Championships) and locations or any more details (computer names and names of the carbon-based animate objects)? Note the ash-trays and (wine? water?) glasses in the second image and the king that has been checkmated and is lying on its side!!

[Matt Mackenzie]

I think the second photo is from CHESS circa 1980 (when I started reading it)

[Gavin Strachan]

Who says I can't beat them? I'll bet I could beat Shredder 1 at least. Shredder 9 is really old - I've had it about 8 years. I want to transfer it from my old computer to the new one to avoid having to buy a new engine.

After Sadler and Short, Shredder was next on the to beat list.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Talking about old chess computers, I have still got one of those old 'Mephisto' things, which is a proper wooden board with a small light in the corner of each square, which it uses to recognise your move and indicate its own move. I think it played at about 180-strength, and probably dates from around 1985 (a bit like my opening repertoire). I have got no idea if it still works, it is in my loft somewhere. I am sure it is worth less than the £30 PC programmes you can buy now, probably even less if it still works. I might dig it out one day.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Talking about old chess computers, I have still got one of those old 'Mephisto' things, which is a proper wooden board with a small light in the corner of each square, which it uses to recognise your move and indicate its own move. I think it played at about 180-strength, and probably dates from around 1985 (a bit like my opening repertoire). I have got no idea if it still works, it is in my loft somewhere. I am sure it is worth less than the £30 PC programmes you can buy now, probably even less if it still works. I might dig it out one day.

I had one of those as well. Can't remember the name, but I remember it had an option where you could set up a position and program it to search for the best move or look for a mate. I remember setting up some two-mover chess problems on it to test it, and (of course) it found the solutions. Don't think I still have it, but I'm sure some of these old chess computers must be collectible. Or maybe there is a chess computer museum somewhere?

[Roger de Coverly]

(computer names and names of the carbon-based animate objects)?

Taking the second picture, the man at the screen is obviously David Levy himself (as confirmed by the file name). Flanking him are Stean and Basman whilst Bernard Cafferty is nearest the camera. The slightly older gentleman with the beard might be John Roycroft from the context, but I wouldn't be sure. As to who it is between Basman and Cafferty, it might be the late Andrew Law, but again that's a guess. The computer in use by Levy looks like a Texas TI-99 and the context would be right as he was involved with some software development for it. Wiki, assuming it can be trusted, confirms it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Levy ... _player%29

In the late 1970s, Levy consulted with Texas Instruments on the development of the Chess module for the TI-99/4A Home Computer Project.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi

I think that is the machine I played. It's selling point was it could play 7 games at once.

That one with the King laying down after being checkmated.

r4rk1/pp3ppp/5n2/2b1p3/N1B5/5P1b/PPPPQPq1/R1B1R2K w - - 0 16

I think I can re-create that game. (I'm great at finding duff moves.)

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 d5 3. exd5 c6 4. dxc6 Nxc6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. O-O Bc5 7. Nc3 Bg4 8. Qe2 O-O 9. h3 Nd4 10. Qd1 Nxf3+ 11. gxf3 Bxh3 12. Re1 Qd4 13. Qe2 Qh4 14. Na4 Qg3+ 15. Kh1 Qg2

[Mick Norris]

Talking about old chess computers, I have still got one of those old 'Mephisto' things, which is a proper wooden board with a small light in the corner of each square, which it uses to recognise your move and indicate its own move. I think it played at about 180-strength, and probably dates from around 1985 (a bit like my opening repertoire). I have got no idea if it still works, it is in my loft somewhere. I am sure it is worth less than the £30 PC programmes you can buy now, probably even less if it still works. I might dig it out one day.

I know someone who collects these, so if you do dig it out and want to sell, PM me for an email address

[Nick Murphy]

Does anyone know if Shredder 9 should run on Windows 7 or not?

It appears to install successfully. It then (as expected) asks for the CD the first time it is run. Then it says the CD in the drive is the wrong one, when it isn't. It's not clear to me whether this is a Windows 7 problem (so I need to run it using a Windows XP VM within Windows 7) or a fault with Shredder 9 which might be solvable.

I've definitely had Shredder 9 running in Win 7 before. It's probably worth downloading the patch though:

http://www.fritzserver.org/updates/gui8.iup
download it, copy to folder/ChessProgram8 Folder (usually: C:\Program Files\ChessBase\ChessProgram8) , and start "IUpgrade.exe".
Close Shredder before installing.