Ismenio's chess computer collection

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Model: Mephisto Exclusive and Mephisto Mobil
Manufacturer: Mephisto
Year: 1990
Est. ELO rating: 1804 (Module Mephisto MM IV 6502 5 MHz)
Levels of play:
Type: Auto sensory

Beautiful combination of an auto-sensory chess board with the module MM IV. Still manufactured by Mephisto before it was bought by Saitek in the 90's. The module can be replaced for an easy upgrade. That means that this board can even use the ground breaking module by Ruud Martin and become today's strongest chess computer! Here you will also see the Mephisto Mobil which is the portable unit that has magnetic pieces and can be used with the same MM IV module. It runs on a 9V battery.

(click on pictures to enlarge them)


The Mobil unit. You can take the Module (Modul) out of the wooden board and insert into a compact unit that can be transported more easily. It has a foldable board with magnetic pieces. You have to use the keypad to enter your moves.



The MM IV module. One great advantages of the Mephisto boards is the modularity. Even today custom modules can be built like Ruud's Resurrection one.

Here's how the MM IV Module compare to others:





About Mephisto

The company Hegener&Glaser (Mephisto) is a legendary name in chess computers.
Here's a little bit of its history. Information kindly provided by Bernhard.

- 1969 founded in Munich by Manfred Hegener and Florian Glaser for production of semiconductors and displays
- 1978 programmer Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne gets in contact with H+G
- 1980 "Mephisto" trademark was created. First German chess computer by Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne
- 1983 till now, "Mephisto" gets in Germany a synonym for chess computers
- 1984 with Richard Lang and his Psion chess (winner of the WMCCC 1984 in Glasgow) the series of championship victories starts
- 1989 more than 90% of all chess computers sold in German are Mephistos
- 1989 H+G buys "Fidelity Electronics Inc." (~7 million US $)
- 1990 the high price market for chess computers collapse because of the rise of the PCs
- 1992 H+G debts are now 28 million DM
- 1992 Ed Schroeders Gideon 3.1 (Mephisto RISC II) wins the 7th World Computer Chess Championship (not the micro one !) in front of mainframes and special hardware
- 1994 H+G gets bought by "Saitek Ltd." (~ 7 million DM)
- 1994 Richard Langs Genius (Mephisto Genius London) beats Garry Kasparov at the Intel World Chess Grand Prix in London
- 1997 Manfred Hegener and Ossi Weiner setup the company "Millennium 2000 GmbH Hegener & Weiner" and produced the "Millennium Schachpartner 2000" which was sold for 99 DM

Probably the most successful product from H+G was the "Mephisto Modular System". After more than 20 years, there are still modules available and produced. Try the same with an old IBM 8088 PC and its 8 bit ISA slots!

A comprehensive list of modules for the Mephisto Modular System (Exclusive an co.)

- MM I (Mephisto III, 1806, 8 MHz)
- Mirage (Mephisto II, 1806, 8 MHz)
- S [Budapest] (~Mephisto III, 68000, 12 MHz)
- B&P (6502, 3.7 MHz)
- S [Glasgow] (~Mephisto III, 68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- MM II (6502, 3.7 MHz)
- Amsterdam (68000, 12 MHz)
- Rebel 5.0 (6502, 5 MHz)
- Dallas 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Dallas 32 Bit (68020, 14 MHz)
- Roma 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Roma 32 Bit (68020, 14 MHz)
- MM IV (6502, 5 MHz)
- Almeria 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Almeria 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Roma II (68000, 10 MHz)
- Portorose 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Portorose 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- MM V (6502, 5 MHz)
- Polgar (6502, 5 MHz)
- Lyon 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Lyon 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Polgar 10 MHz (6502)
- Vancouver 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Vancouver 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Genius 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- Genius 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- Genius 68030 (33 MHz)
- RISC I (ARM2, 14 MHz)
- London 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- London 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- London 68030 (33 MHz) [Eprom]
- RISC II (ARM2, 14 MHz)
- MM VI (H8, 10 MHz)
- Senator (SH7000, 16 MHz)
- Magellan (SH7000, 20 MHz)
- Resurrection (StrongARM, 200MHz)


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