FIDELITY ELECTRONICS LD. INC was an American company, founded in 1959, bought in March 1970 by Sidney and Myron Samole. From 1976, Fidelity Electronics developed and manufactured dedicated chess computers. On February 21, 1984, FIDELITY ELECTRONICS LD. INC filed its petition for relief under Chapter 7 of Bankruptcy Code and transferred its ownership to FIDELITY COMPUTER PRODUCTS INC. becoming later FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL,INC. Their computers won the first four World Microcomputer Chess Championships: London 1980 (Chess Challenger ), Travemünde 1981 (Fidelity X), Budapest 1983 (Elite A/S), and Glasgow 1984 (Elite). They won 4 consecutive years the United States Open Computer Chess Championships (Mobile, Alabama) in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988. Sold in 1989 to Hegener & Glaser. Fidelity disappeared definitely in 1992.
The Fidelity Chesster Phantom EyeBall 6126 is a rare computer.
It was released in 1982 and around 2500 were produced.
The Chesster is a very attractive computer by its voice and by its front detectors allowing him to play as if it was seeing what was happening around him.
The repertoire of sentences is rich and the comments aim to be humoristic.
The Chesster Phantom Eyeball is probably the most achieved of the Phantom series.
To see it in action:
Specs:
- ELO: 2100
- Programmer: Dan and Kathe Spraklen
- 24 levels of play
- Pressure sensory board with robotic magnetic mechanism under the board
- LCD display