Phantom Force Chess Computer (Autoplay Game)

[Mrclawstorm]

How does it move it's knight? Shoot it upwards?

[swampwiz]

OK, so if I am playing this game, would I need to punch in my move into the computer, and let it move, or could I just move it myself?

[mmehall]

@swampwiz You move your pieces manually by pressing the edge of the piece’s base on the center of its FROM square, then press the edge of the piece down on the square you want to move it to. The computer then moves its piece.

[Hamlin008]

75$ for this?

[chessrobot2010]

Nice :) But see the chess robot we offer - it can beat best world human players!

[zilvasv]

It's totally fake, why ppl can't see that? It's old computer graphic nothing more. Look at textures and shadows, then movement, its all computer graphic.

[RamonShinobows]

@zilvasv are you fucking stupid, they sell this shit at walmart!!!

[96515325]

@zilvasv I think you live in a really remote country that is non-existent or you live in a cave

[300Z31]

You know, I was reading about these, and all I wanted to know was how the computer dealt with moving Knights from behond pieces. I figured it would move them out of the way like that...pretty cool.

[Stevensc33]

this computer sucks i am a 1400 player and i could beat it on expert my first try, shouldn't have been that easy

[CharlesP2009]

Very cool chess set but the voice is terrible and I don't really care for the sound effects. Is it possible to mute all the sounds?

[mmehall]

Yes, the sounds can be turned off.

[RomanticLinguaphilia]

@mmehall Can the sounds be turned off, but her lovely voice remain on?

[cdemanelis]

@CharlesP2009 Oh thank god lol! Really cool set but yeah the sound affects need to go.

[killerskillet]

Thank God for this chess set! I got so tired of making sword noises by myself for all these years!

[basketcream34]

that is good and all but i still have to make the fight scenes

[mraxeguy]

Lol that was pretty good :D.

[knchen]

pretty cool.  could do without the sound effects though.

[KesavaAVP]

no words can describe how stupid this thing is

[TheNomad22]

its really wierd

[Mider999]

whats stupid about it? a few noises? forget that its a set that plays by itself but oh yeah the noises make it lame...........fucking moron

[KesavaAVP]

Yes they do!

- a fucking moron

[reliantj]

fail

[UTubePowerUser]

WTF==Did woot pull these out of the 1980s warehouse?

[anshultech]

I would rather play on my computer than on this annoying machine. Not worth $70.

[DeejMT]

I think some people are mistaking the white bishop (2 squares in front of the king) for a knight. The only piece that was ever a threat to the queen was the white queen's night, and the black queen moved as soon as the knight came out. And HOLY COW is that annoyingly loud or what?

[markowalski]

That must be really loud.

[timerider4]

The knight could have taken out the queen (by sacrificing itself).

[codinapkin]

The queen moved after the knight was in position

[Youradumbassbarnes]

Yeah ok tell me when

[bandwagonretards]

what the fuck! it should've taken the queen.  computer fails

[Youradumbassbarnes]

What should have taken the queen ?

[RomanticLinguaphilia]

@bandwagonretards She's going easy on herself :-) Maybe someone paid her to let the other side win :-D

[armoredcavalry]

Wow, that servo on the (I assume magnet) is really really annoying. It would drive me crazy.

Cool concept, but only if they could

a) make it much faster

and

b) make it much quieter

I don't think that is too much to ask for $70

[sladevi]

completely agree, it sounds so primitive and ... low quality that it's grinding and squealing all the time

[spartanfan10]

What do you mean what's the point? It plays against you and has a 136 difficulty levels.

[remingtonhuntin]

$70 for this thing? What the hell? What's the point? I suppose if you were on acid, and it was completely quiet, it would be entertaining...

[yugi420]

LOL! nice and quiet ......

[fanboat9179]

lol @ move 2:11

pretty odd choice

[dandantaximan]

Damn those battle sounds are convincing! I could have sworn the Black Knight was in the other room, getting his appendages hacked off!

[Tatsuhiko]

It's whisper quiet!

[NotEvenSmoozed]

this is horrible

[ZUUL42]

It's just annoying. The mechanical noise of the single mechanism under the board is a lot louder than I would have expected. Then the sound effects intended for grade-schoolers just makes it intolerable.

Can you at least turn the sound effects off?

Are you allowed to move your pieces yourself? Or do you have to enter the move and let the mechanism move for you? I'd want to move my own piece.

[watchmaker2]

Yes to both questions. You can turn the sound effects off. You can move the pieces yourself. When you want to move a piece, you press down on the board with it, make your move, and press down again. Each square is a "button" that you can push with the piece when moving manually. You can move your pieces and let the "Phantom" move its own.

[smileyborg]

try watching the last 10 seconds of video.

[AiBuster]

kinda tedious listening to the hit hit hit

[ckaminsk]

Is its mechanicals really THAT noisey!??

[mkearley49]

Woot has them for $70 for the next 24 hours.

[naes101010]

that is why i'm on here lol...I think most people are on here because of that reason (product review)

[xxxxDre4mxxxx]

going to buy one now.

[Masterfreak12345]

scary

[xxxxDre4mxxxx]

expensive?

[mprutherford]

its about 100.00 us dollers

[xxxxDre4mxxxx]

omfg sweet . . ive always wanted one that moves its self.

[duke00895]

epic sound effects lol

[kwudude]

So what if you need to move a knight to f3 or c3?

[mmehall]

The computer is smart enough to know if there is a piece in the way. It simply moves the blocking piece slightly out of the way and then returns it after the move.

[wOoL87]

Just look at the last move in the vid. I was wondering the same thing ;)

[nejihyuga665]

i gotta have this

[silverkobo]

coooooooool

technology....

[Rockapebates]

lol an even easier way would be to get a friend to play chess with you.

[MegedEisenberg]

But what if a friend doesnt want to play? Phantom Force ALWAYS plays, without question, and never reluctantly. I have one.

[grahamashe]

I just bought one. It's pretty cool except that the pieces don't always set up nicely in their squares.

[Sallygreatmom]

Can one person play against the computer?

[grahamashe]

Yes.

[MegedEisenberg]

Thats the point...

[MagicOdd]

That's Wizard Chess!!:p

[thetshirtblog]

"for ages 3 & up"

[6543212341]

wow 199.95 for a chess board that takes longer to move than to pick up...no thanks.

[TheLarryBrown]

I can't believe that people don't want this miraculous machine. Since ancient times a machine that plays chess automatically has been a dream. Now we actually have a real machine that can think and move it's own pieces and some people don't want it. Oh well, if it doesn't appeal to you then it's no good for you. But it's not slow....it takes 15 seconds to think of its move and then just a few seconds to make its move.

[WiredKnight1053]

We've had machines that play chess for a while, they're called computers. All this does is add a bunch of mechanical parts to move actual pieces instead of just making moves on a screen.

I admit it's pretty cool, but the fact that it "thinks" isn't new or remarkable.

[ZUUL42]

I think people in "ancient times" would have killed whoever showed them one of these because of the evil black magic being used.

[TheLarryBrown]

WiredKnight-it's "new" as in the last 50 or less years. "Remarkable" shows just how much you take for granted and how quickly miraculous technology becomes old hat. A machine that can think well enough to play chess? No one ever thought that would *ever* be possible.

Zuul42-depends on how ancient. Remember that over 100 years ago the automaton with the hidden person in side was playing chess and no one was getting burned at the stake.

[klintly]

how does the knight

behind move?

[mmehall]

The computer first slightly moves the pawn in front of the knight out of the way so the knight can move. The pawn is put back in place after the knight moves.

The same thing happens when castling or anytime a piece blocks a legal move.

[RealMrJambo]

Just got one of these from edwards luggage for $129 and free delivery - it should turn up next week, so I'll be able to say what I think of it.

[RealMrJambo]

Just got one of these from edwards luggage for $129 and free delivery - it should turn up next week, so I'll be able to say what I think of it.

[RealMrJambo]

Can anybody who has actually used one of these, give us a mini review. How reliable is it?

[raymercado]

its better to use the Excalibur Ivan II "The Conqueror" Fun Chess Computer, its cheap and reliable.. I have mine for 3 years already use rechargable battery.

[LarryBrown2]

It's awesome. Brand new it works fine. I've only had it for a few weeks. Expect this to be a delicate machine that won't work forever. Any abuse and it will die, that's only to be expected. It really feels like playing an opponent. Compared to punching your moves in via a kbd and reading a display and moving the pieces for the computer, this is waaay better and allows for uninterrupted concentration. I've wanted one for years. At $200, I popped for it immediately.

[Razieluk]

How can you have "uninterrupted concentration" with that racket going. I'll stick to moving the computer's pieces any day.

[TheLarryBrown]

I don't find the noise bothersome at all. It only makes noise when it's in the process of moving, otherwise it's silent. During the time that it's moving, you aren't trying to concentrate anyway because you are watching it to see what surprise move it's going to make. Compared to the usual method of having to read a tiny dim screen, decipher move codes, moving the computer's piece, coding your own moves and punching them to a kbd-yes, it's uninterrupted.

[grimscar]

they're on sale for $55 right now. Sweetness eh?

[TheLarryBrown]

grimscar: $55? That's fantastic. I gladly paid $200 for mine and would do so again. Where? Where? Where can I find that?

[xxxxDre4mxxxx]

where from? why is everyone saying they are under $100, they are showing up as £200 which is about $350 . . .wtf?

[rjmari]

woot(dot)com for saturday, may 16. $70 new.

[omgaphat]

Buh, the gameplay is nice, but WAY to slow and WAY to noisy...

[LarryBrown2]

It's not slow at all. During normal game play the pieces move with a delay that does not register as annoying. Yes it's noisy, but not so much that my family complains. It sounds like a dremel grinding tool on low speed. I don't find the noise bothersome at all. The speed of the transport is fine during normal gameplay. On higher skill levels the speed of the computer thinking may become a problem...that's often a problem with computer chess. Of course, I take a long time to think as well. :)

[LarryBrown2]

It's true that the transport is annoyingly slow when the game does a reset of any sort, like setting the pieces up for a new game or for a practice game. If those resets can't be avoided by doing them manually, than yes, that's a problem. It's still the most awesome chess game available.

[ILLUMANOV]

wots its ELO

[mmehall]

Their writeup states, "The computer has an estimated U.S. Chess Federation Class A skill rating of 1900".