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Novag

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  1. Novag from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki↩︎

Novag Industries Ltd. is a designer and manufacturer of dedicated chess computers founded in 1978 by Peter Auge and Eric Winkler, located in Hong Kong, one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China and at that time (until 1997) under British administration.

Contents
  1. The First Clone
  2. The SciSys Split
  3. Kittinger
  4. Novag Best-Publication Award
  5. Publications
  6. Computers and Programs
  7. Forum Posts
  8. External Links
  9. References

The First Clone

Novag's first chess computer, the Chess Champion MK I appeared in September 1978 1 . It had a Fairchild F8 8-Bit processor running with 1.78 MHz, 2 KB ROM, and 256 bytes RAM. The program was a clone of the Data Cash Systems Inc. CompuChess program, which was developed by David B. Goodrich & Associates 2 , while other sources assume David Levy was involved in the development 3 4 . The Mk I was sold in the USA by Joseph Sugarman's company JS&A 5 , and in 1979 Data Cash Systems took legal action against JS&A for breach of copyright 6 , which failed because it transpired that the copyright had not been adequately protected in terms of USA law 7 8 9 10.

The SciSys Split

The Novag Chess Champion MK II in 1979 had a 6502 compatible 6504 CPU with a program by Peter Jennings. Novag's third computer, the Chess Champion Super System III with a 6502 CPU and a program developed by Mike Johnson and David Levy was already manufactured by SciSys-W Ltd. Despite commercial success, Winkler and Auge decided to part company in late 1979. Winkler had already founded SciSys, and Auge continued with Novag, both first sharing their products, for instance Chess Partner 2000 acknowledged to "programmer" David Levy was delivered in different boxes 11 .

Kittinger

In 1981, Peter Auge hired David Kittinger and his MyChess program which went into the Novag Micro Chess, Super Sensor IV and Savant all in 1981. In the following years the Robot Adversary, Constellation and most notably the Super Constellation appeared. Their cooperation continued over 20 year, despite reissue of his programs in new models, Kittinger made a last update for the Novag Star Diamond in 2003 12. In 2009, Novag was sold to a company called Solar Wide Industrial Ltd, but continued to manufacture chess computers 13 .

Novag Best-Publication Award

Winners of the Novag Best-Publication Award, 1992-1996:

Publications

Computers and Programs

Forum Posts

References

Up one Level

  1. Novag Chess Champion MK I from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki↩︎

  2. CompuChess from Schachcomputer.info - Wiki↩︎

  3. Scisys and Novag : The Early Years from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters↩︎

  4. Chess Champion Mk 1 by Tom Luif↩︎

  5. Karpov Accepts - Popular Science March 1979 - Google Books↩︎

  6. DATA CASH Systems, Inc. v. JS&A Group, Inc., et al.↩︎

  7. Scisys and Novag : The Early Years from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters↩︎

  8. Data Cash Systems v. JS&A Group - The IT Law Wiki↩︎

  9. Data Cash Systems, Inc. v. JS&A GROUP, INC., 480 F. Supp. 1063 - Dist. Court, ND Illinois 1979 - Google Scholar↩︎

  10. Data Cash Systems, Inc. v. JS&A GROUP, INC., 628 F. 2d 1038 - Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit 1980 - Google Scholar↩︎

  11. Scisys and Novag : The Early Years from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters↩︎

  12. David Kittinger - Interview by Bryan Whitby↩︎

  13. Scisys and Novag : The Early Years from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters↩︎

What links here

Contributors: GerdIsenberg.