Tandy LCD Graduate Chess score..

desiv · August 30, 2020

Ok, it is gaming related.. ;-)

I was browsing e-bay recently, and doing my general searches for things from my past that I would probably not be able to afford, find, or fix...

One of the things I remember from when I was a kid was my Tandy LCD Graduate Chess.

Now, it didn't play a great game of chess (which suited me perfectly, as nether did/do I), had only 2 levels, wasn't touch (in that you moved the pieces, and then typed in E2 E4 and hit enter), didn't talk to you... ;-)

It did have little chess pieces with pegs and a compartment to hold them.

This guy: http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/lcd_graduate_chess.html

Every once in a while, I'd ebay search for it. I sometimes see them either crazy expensive, or missing the tiny chess pieces.

Well, this last time, I check, and there is one.

With the box and all (almost, just missing a spare black queen I think; it had 2 spare white and 1 spare black) the chess pieces.

No manual, and it did say there was a problem with the LCD...

And not too spendy... (I am sure because of the LCD problem..)

So I am thinking... Possibly a soldering or zebra stripe issue I might be able to fix.

I went for it...

It showed up today, and it looks pretty clean. No battery damage, etc.

So I pop in a 9v and turn it on.

The LCD just shows some lines (half characters???) on the bottom-half of the LCD.

Now, it's been years and years (and years) since I had this....

So I open it up to check the LCD... Solder joints look good. Zebra stripe looks good...

Go to type on the little keyboard (I know, I should have done that first)... Type e2 e4, and it displays E2 E4 perfectly..

I hit enter, and it says "Computing...." and then comes back with its move... Looks fine...

Something in my memory starts to kick in...

I put it all back together (the LCD was a bit out of alignment, so I am guessing someone else looked in there, so at least I fixed that..), turn it off and on and there are those lines just on the bottom...

Memory kicking in...

I start to remember that I think those characters are just there to show you whose turn it is (white, the bottom of the board).

I go into manual mode, make a move, hit enter... And then there are lines just on the top of the screen. Letting me know it is the turn of black, the top of the board.

So this thing is working perfectly.

I don't blame the person who sold it for not knowing, because I used to own one and forgot myself and thought it was broken.

YAY!!!

And I won my first game of chess on it.. On level 1. I wouldn't say easily. I think I have picked up where I left off.... ;-)

Bummer there is no manual, and I can't find one online anywhere.

But that isn't too big a deal (it's not that complicated), and if there was a manual, the seller would have realized it wasn't broken and I couldn't have afforded to buy it. ;-)

Now, I would not recommend this for someone looking for an electronic chess game.

But I am super happy...

(And if anyone else has one of these (or the Scisys or Acetronic versions) and has the manual and wouldn't mind scanning it, that would be great. But not a big deal. The only thing I don't really know how to do well is the manual mode, and I don't think I ever really used it..)

desiv

Edited August 30, 2020 by desiv