Vintage Chess Computers: The SciSys (= Saitek) Turbo King of 1988

I took the opportunity to purchase another vintage chess computer through classifieds, this time a 1988 SciSys Turbo King, the successor to the popular Turbostar 432 (KGS). SciSys, shortly to become Saitek, collaborated with programmers Julio Kaplan and Craig Barnes over a number of years to develop a variety of new chess computers; they also re-badged older engines for the budget market over, and over, and over. Many of their machines were sold as "Radio Shack" in the US.

At the time, the Turbo King was one of the strongest micro chess computers outside of Mephisto's expensive machines, it cost "only" the equivalent of €250 in 1988 money. 

The 8-bit powered, 16kB RAM machine excelled at positional play at a time when most brute force computers knew next to nothing about it; on the downside, its tactical strength wasn't the highest. Micro chess computers had come a long way since the first machines (Chess Challenger I, Boris, Chess Champion Mk I, etc) had been introduced a decade before. By the time the Turbo King was released, he best engines, including this one, were able to defeat 97-98% of all chess players world wide, and were starting to pose a challenge even for highly experienced club players. The Turbo King was rated a little below ELO 1,900 (SSDF, FIDE), could reach a depth of up to 20 half moves, offered 64 levels for playing and game analysis (from blitz to infinite search), and a 100,000 ply opening book (provided by Craig Barnes; a vast improvement over the Turbostar 432).

Julio Kaplan, the programmer of the actual engine, was an IM himself, with a peak rating of ELO 2480. He was by far the strongest chess player among the micro computer programmers.

My own first chess computer was the Fidelity Chess Challenger 7 of 1978, which by comparison to the Turbo King, could be considered a "patzer". The Turbo King, in contrast, could handle the opening and the middle game equally well, and was above-average in the endgame, too. As long as it didn't get into overly complex tactical middle game positions. 

When it came to advertising the Turbo King's prowess and options, the people at SciSys/Saitek sure weren't subtle. The advertised rating of 2,250 is USCF, and a tad optimistic at that. The machine offered people to program their own favourite opening variations, and you could buy extra program modules to increase the strength or endgame knowledge.

Unlike earlier models in the ....-star/-king series, this one came with a tiny LCD display that would show the move/overall time, and the move and following moves the machine was pondering at any time. Of course, the Turbo King had, as it was then called, "permanent brain". Unlike other micro computers, the Julio Kaplan engines were considering 3 possible replies of the player, so they calculated their next moves on the basis of three movies instead of just one that they considered the player's strongest reply.

The strongest weapon in SciSys's marketing arsenal was a collaboration with world champion Garry Kasparov, who (allegedly) advised the company on their products and actively campaigned for them, too.

One feature of the series was that you could store the pieces inside the machine, something that proved to be more of a disadvantage as you sometimes had to fish for the pieces to get them out. I never liked this feature.

Also, the Turbo King and others did often not include a mains adapter, which you then had to buy separately. How very "Google" of them.

My machine came with pieces and instructions only, but I have the right mains adapter from my purchase of the Turbostar 432. It can also be operated with standard Mephisto HG-5001 adapters, or 6x C batteries. The pieces for the small pressure-sensitive board (16 LEDs) were SciSys Saitek 1-0-1.

Nice review! I always wanted one of these but were far too expensive.

Great overview. How would the expansion pack be installed on the machine?

There's a compartment for EPROMs in the bottom of the machine:

That is great! I have always wondered how it was done.

Do you know if Scisys released many expansions?

Not really. The most successful implementation of expansions on SciSys came with the older, much weaker "Sensor Chess" - for which three modules were available (one each for classic and hyper-modern openings, plus a strong play module). For the Turbostar 432 you could get a "KSO (Kasparov Selected Openings)" eprom that increased the openings library from 8,000 to 36,000 ply. For the Turbo Kings you could buy an endgame eprom.

Hi,

Does anyone have knowledge of the Kasparov Cougar table top computer ( roughly year 2000, about £120 in England ). I've not used it much but hope to dust it off for some training games. I recall it being a very sharp opponent but I'm a bit stronger now 😀😀

Thanks,

Alterego8

chessmaster_diamond...this is coll stuff! Thanks for posting. My first exposure to a standalone chess computer was a friend who had one of the first Fidelity Chess Challengers. He wasn't a strong player, so it really did challenge him, but he got many, many hours of enjoyment from that machine.

Then, a bit later, his wife (who had an Apple, the one after the II+) got a chess program. My friend didn't take to playing on a screen at all, so he stuck with his Fidelity.

He is the only person I knew who had a chess computer, so I have not seen all the cool models that have been discussed in these pages.

I have a number of chess computers that I picked up in more recent years. Right now, I am just using my Novag Star Sapphire II hnd held with a nice wooden magnetic travel chess set that I picked up cheap at one of those Games By James stores years ago. I also have the Star Diamond and the hand held version of that. My strongest chess computer is the Mephisto Phoenix with the Millenium Exclusive board that also has the Classics module. I put it back in its box for now until I get a bit better. It has several of the older dedicated computer chess programs in it, but I don't recall offhand what they are. They show up in the menu system so you can pick which you want to play. I typically choose Hiarcs or Stockfish though.

Anyway, I wish there was a dedicated chess computer show around my area so I could see all these older machines in person. I could spend days at something like that.

Tony

The Saitek Cougar is a slightly stronger version of the Centurion (ELO 2056 vs. 2032), and both contain rebadges of older Frans Morsch engines . You'll find the Centurion everywhere in Classifieds with prices starting at $40. The Cougar is rarer and thus more expensive on the used market. The same engines were later used yet again for the Mephisto Explorer/Explorer Pro.

Both machines have the so-called "fun level" bug: Once you've selected a fun level and then switch to a serious one, the computer will play all kinds of nonsense moves. So in order to play a serious game, you'd have to reset the computer and then not select any fun levels after that.

This is my Saitek Mephisto Explorer Pro, with the same program and functionalities as the "Cougar".

I very much like dedicated chess computer, it would be great if you could share more photos/insights on the machine you have.

Hi, nice chess computer and nice review!

I think you maybe misread the label printed on the computer. Actually 2,250 is the scale used, and the advertised rating must be read as the dotted white area of the "progress bar".

Please see the similar labelling on the Chess Companion III and the Turbo 16K, also scaled up to 2,250; where the red bar materializes the estimated Elo:

Thanks to everyone for the Cougar info.

Alterego8

I HAVE THE SAME ONE YOU HAVE!