Customer Reviews

Phantom Force Chess

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I received this chess game as a gift and have played about 15 games on it to date. It is enjoyable to watch the pieces move by themselves.

For playing a casual game, it is very challenging. There are many different levels to choose from (about 100 in total). I am by no means an advanced player (I can't think 7 moves ahead) but I am more advanced than the average beginner (my rating average on various websites is roughly 1800). That being said, I find the lower levels to be rather easy, but on the harder levels I get beaten soundly. Therefore, I would say the game overall is quite challenging. The computer also appears to strategically place its pieces on open ranks and files, rather than just attacking material (which many chess computers often do). For example, I recently offered a rook to the computer because I was about to put the computer into mate in 3 moves and the computer passed on the rook and instead defended against the threat.

The only downside is the game is loud and pieces take a few seconds to move. If you're a "good" player, it's defintely very challenging. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the higher levels beat "advanced" players with ease.

This is a fantastic chess set. It's the closest computer based system you can get to playing chess naturally. Because you simply move your pieces, and the computer moves its own, it's really just like playing a game of chess with another person. Compared to the usual cumbersome system of punching your moves in with a keypad, and then reading a screen and moving the piece for the computer, this allows you to concentrate on the game with your usual focus.

Some reviewers may make an issue of the speed of the transport. In normal game play I don't find the speed annoying at all. There is a slight delay while the transport moves to the desired piece and then moves it. The speed is a major problem, however, when the game has to do a reset of any sort, like put all the pieces in place for a new game or clear the board for piece practice. Wherever the Phantom Force does not allow you to bypass these automatic resets and just do it manually instead the slowness will be a problem. I'm not sure how good it is at allowing you to manually reset. Having the Phantom Force reset the board is fun for showing people how cool it is. Other than that it's too slow and manually resetting the board is needed.

Some reviewers also make an issue of the noise. Yes, it's slightly noisy, but I've not had any family members complain. It sounds like a Dremel grinding tool on low speed. I don't find it annoying.

On the good side....this game is simply waaaaaay cool. There's no other way to get an authentic playing experience. To move, you simply press down the piece you want to move, move the piece to the desired position, and then press down there. The touch sensitive playing surface registers the move with the computer and then "Chessica" (love that) makes her move. You can't get any easier than that. Various games have been made in the past that move the pieces. Some of these have featured an above board robotic arm. They've always been expensive and delicate/trouble prone, so they go out of production and the companies go bankrupt. This game is a recent entry into the market and until now an automatic chess game of this type has been unavailable for many years. Go for it!

The game has many features, including adjustable skill level, practice mode (love it), hints, allow the computer to move for you, force the computer to move before it's finished thinking, talking, battle sound effects, and allow the computer to play both sides. I like the talking and battle sound effects, but they can be muted. The talking uses the same phonetic program used by computers since the IMSAI 8080 days (this talking was featured in the 1983 movie "Wargames"). The program existed in the Commodore 64 and was further made famous in the Commodore Amiga. It's incredible that a piece of software would exist that long. The battle sounds are fun. You get sword clashing, grunting when stabbed, thud when hitting the ground dead, drum cadence when royalty is marching, horse hooves galloping, and more.

If you're worried about reliability...get real. This is a delicate machine. It won't work forever and it won't tolerate any abuse. It's a miracle that they are able to produce a robot at this price point, so don't expect Rolls Royce style robustness. If it works for several years you got your money's worth.

In short, this is a fantastic piece of whiz-bang technology that really allows you practice your chess game and play naturally. It's a good price, so if it appeals to you just buy it.

I never write reviews but this product compels me. First let me say compared to what is on the market it is a wonderful product and it had to be produced. The only problem is they stopped short of the end goal of relative perfection. Mine works great on AC power but does not always move the pieces correctly when using even fresh Duracell batteries. Perhaps this is why the AC adapter is included. It appears to have the same decent chess programming and semi-intuitive interface of many Excalibur chess computers and will meet the needs of almost everyone. Here is a list of things that they need to impart on it's successor...

- Reliable battery operation
- A little more durability
- 2 Extra Queens
- Quieter, faster, smoother piece movement
- A real LCD for easy piece verification (like King Arthur)
- A slightly larger chess set
- It is a complete waste to not have a Fritz/Chessmaster or Arena PC interface at this point
- A lower list price unless most of these features are implemented

For a true chess lover this is still one of the best products to buy him/her while we continue to wait for true robot/PC integration.

This is a fantastic chess set. It's the closest computer based system you can get to playing chess naturally. Because you simply move your pieces, and the computer moves its own, it's really just like playing a game of chess with another person. Compared to the usual cumbersome system of punching your moves in with a keypad, and then reading a screen and moving the piece for the computer, this allows you to concentrate on the game with your usual focus.

Some reviewers may make an issue of the speed of the transport. In normal game play I don't find the speed annoying at all. There is a slight delay while the transport moves to the desired piece and then moves it. The speed is a major problem, however, when the game has to do a reset of any sort, like put all the pieces in place for a new game or clear the board for piece practice. Wherever the Phantom Force does not allow you to bypass these automatic resets and just do it manually instead the slowness will be a problem. I'm not sure how good it is at allowing you to manually reset. Having the Phantom Force reset the board is fun for showing people how cool it is. Other than that it's too slow and manually reseting the board is needed.

Some reviewers also make an issue of the noise. Yes, it's slightly noisy, but I've not had any family members complain. It sounds like a dremel grinding tool on low speed. I don't find it annoying.

On the good side....this game is simply waaaaaay cool. There's no other way to get an authentic playing experience. To move, you simply press down the piece you want to move, move the piece to the desired position, and then press down there. The touch sensitive playing surface registers the move with the computer and then "Chessica" (love that) makes her move. You can't get any easier than that. Various games have been made in the past that move the pieces. Some of these have featured an above board robotic arm. They've always been expensive and delicate/trouble prone, so they go out of production and the companies go bankrupt. This game is a recent entry into the market and until now an automatic chess game of this type has been unavailable for many years. Go for it!

The game has many features, including adjustable skill level, practice mode (love it), hints, allow the computer to move for you, force the computer to move before it's finished thinking, talking, battle sound effects, and allow the computer to play both sides. I like the talking and battle sound effects, but they can be muted. The talking uses the same phonetic program used by computers since the IMSAI 8080 days (this talking was featured in the 1983 movie "Wargames"). The program existed in the Commodore 64 and was further made famous in the Commodore Amiga. It's incredible that a piece of software would exist that long. The battle sounds are fun. You get sword clashing, grunting when stabbed, thud when hitting the ground dead, drum cadence when royalty is marching, horse hooves galloping, and more.

If you're worried about reliability...get real. This is a delicate machine. It won't work forever and it won't tolerate any abuse. It's a miracle that they are able to produce a robot at this price point, so don't expect Rolls Royce style robustness. If it works for several years you got your money's worth.

In short, this is a fantastic piece of whiz-bang technology that really allows you practice your chess game and play naturally. It's a good price, so if it appeals to you just buy it.

This is a great toy for adults. I got this chess set for my husband's birthday; it was a hit. He loves to play chess, but unfortunately I am not a chess player so this is a great solution. It has very nice features; it sets the board automatically (if you want it). It makes fun sounds. The only one little minus is the noise it makes when the pieces move. I recommend this for every house hold, even if you are not a player, it's a great entertainment for your guests.

The list price for this chess computer at Excalibur's (the manufacturer) site is one hundred ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents. My rating is based on the price I paid which was sixty percent below that price (and I paid no sales tax or shipping charge). For what I paid, I think this is a very cool chess computer.

There are a few things that can be counted as cons about it. The pieces are extremely lightweight, so light that if I blow on the board to get a piece of dust off the pieces move. Moving the board from one location to another without the pieces moving around is difficult if not impossible. But I appreciate that the pieces have to be extremely lightweight in order for the pieces to be movable by the internal mechanism.

The voice is on the tinny side and although it looks like you will get sound from both sides of the board, there is only one tiny speaker on one side (the left side). "Chessica's" voice could be clearer, but it's adequate.

As far as I can tell, if you want to set the pieces up yourself (to save time) instead of waiting for it to be done mechanically, you have to turn the set off. You can't just put it in sleep mode. This means that you have to reset the language and level you want to play when you turn it back on. A relatively minor inconvenience, but it's still an inconvenience.

The motor makes an unpleasant sound when moving pieces. But the noise is not as loud as I anticipated based on reviews I read about the Phantom Force before buying it. If I play while music plays in the background, the sound of the motor is not obtrusive unless the music is playing at a very low volume, and it's not obtrusive at all when I'm listening to music with headphones. It's not nearly as loud as a blender, a coffee grinder, an electric hair clipper, or a full size cordless or corded electric drill. It's not even as loud as my Norelco cordless razor. It's more like some battery operated toothbrushes that I've heard.

Now the pros. I own several chess computers (the Excalibur Grandmaster, Saitek's Mephisto Expert Travel Chess, Excalibur's Einstein Chess Wizard, the Novag Obsidian, and an old Radio Shack model 1650) as well as Fritz, Ribka, and Chessmaster for computer, and Chessmaster for Game Boy DS and a different version of Chessmaster for Game Boy Color. I like that the Phantom moves my opponent's pieces and that I don't have to. And I like that by just pressing a button, the Phantom will reset the entire board. I can just press that button and walk away, and when I come back the board is set up perfectly.

I like that the voice is female. (I don't care for the sound effects and have them perpetually turned off.)

The squares are very responsive to presses by piece edges or a fingertip (though not as responsive as Excalibur's Grandmaster, which literally requires no pressure applied to the squares to register moves). The Phantom requires a relatively slight amount of pressure to register "from" and "to" moves.

The board is a good size, meaning it's not too small. (It's 7 1/4" X 7 1/4", and the squares are almost 1" X 1". The King measures a tad over 1 1/2" tall. The Pawns are 3/4" tall.)

When I sit down for a game with the Phantom it's like I'm sitting down to play chess with a robot, which I am though it's not a humanoid looking robot. I move and the robot moves. This is the way it works when playing chess with computer software of course, but there is a different quality and feel to playing chess in three dimensions, and sometimes I prefer that to playing against Fritz, Ribka, or Chessmaster.

The time it takes for the Phantom - or "Chessica" - to physically move each piece during play is not a problem at all as far as I'm concerned. I find it no different in this respect than playing against a human.

From having watched the price of this item drop on the web over time, it is my impression that it didn't sell as well for Excalibur as Excalibur had hoped, even before the economy began to tank. At sixty percent off the list price, I think you can't go wrong (unless you think you may be hypersensitive to the sound of the motor, in which case you should either avoid this unit or plan to play while listening to music with headphones). Fifty percent off is good too if you don't pay sales tax or shipping charges. But this is only if you want a chess computer that you can play in three dimensions and that moves its own pieces. If you don't mind moving your opponent's pieces, then you can save money by going with a unit that doesn't feature self-moving pieces. I would also recommend that no one buy this for the novelty, for as another reviewer notes, the novelty of having a chess computer with self-moving pieces will wear off pretty fast. I don't care about the novelty; to me it's just a practical matter: I move my pieces, my electronic opponent moves its pieces, and the price I paid was just right.

The unit comes with an AC adapter. I imagine it would drain batteries pretty fast and keeping it powered by batteries would not be cheap. When I sat down to play with it after it was delivered it made noise when it was its turn to move but nothing moved. I thought I got a defective unit until I bothered to read the manual and realized that you have to flip it over and unlock it before playing for the first time. Duh.

This is a nice toy that will impress even non-chess-playing guests. Just set it to play against itself and you will surely get lots of wows and ahhs. But if you buy it as an actual chess opponent, disappointment is in order.

The first main problem is the slow and noisy mechanical system, which employs 3 servo motors to control the x, y & z movements of the magnet under the board. Given the limitation on speed imposed by the magnet, it is probably understandable that the pieces cannot race across the board. Yet, these motors and the corresponding gears are so loud that one has to wonder how long such cheap components can last. The software effort in making sure the pieces take the shortest, most efficient route is laughable. The algorithm feels straight out of the 70s.

The second problem is no less annoying, namely, the counter-intuitive control. Even simple and common commands require pressing 3 or 4 buttons in some cryptic orders. If you are still using WordStar instead of Microsoft Word, this is a system for you. For my son, who received this as a gift, it is such a frustrating experience that he gives up trying after a few minutes.

My wife gave this to me last Christmas as a gift to replace my defunct 15 year old Radio Shack model, and now that I've had it for 7 months and played it about 100 times I feel I can give it an enthusiastic five star review.

Contrary to some of the negative comments, the machine is very easy to use. I keep the manual handy in case I want to utilize some of the less commonly used functions, but for the most part I just set up and play. You press down on the square with the piece you are moving and then press down on the square you are moving the piece to. The machine talks to you while you play it, and lets you know if you have made a legal or illegal move. It then announces its move and proceeds to make it. If it takes one of your pieces, it moves your "slain" piece to the appropriate marked position on the side of the board. If you take a piece, you move the taken piece to the appropriate location. The machine waits until you press the taken piece down before making its next move. I don't find the automatic movement "slow" since I am generally thinking about my next move while the machine is completing its movements anyway, so this is not an issue either.

I am not a world class player, but I would say I am also not a beginner. For the first few games, I tried the machine out at a "beginning" level, and found that I defeated it easily. That said - it took me less than 10 more games to zero in at the appropriate "mid-range" level to challenge and entertain me. I like to lose about as often as I win, and I like the machine to make me pay if I blunder. At the level I have the machine set now, that is certainly the case. In all honesty, I cannot comment on whether a tournament class player could easily defeat this machine at its highest levels - I don't know how good it really is - but for the remaining 99.9% of the population, I would have to say this machine does just fine. I suspect I will never improve enough to defeat this thing at the highest level possible.

Moreover, it plays differently every time. For example, when I play as black, and the machine opens with E4 (sometimes it opens with D4 - also proving my point) - but in any case - when it opens E4 - I generally use the so-called Dragon variation of the Sicilian defense, making the same general 7 or 8 moves in the same order to complete the opening. The machine's response to my seemingly standardized moves often varies - and I often have to vary my opening to counter what it is doing. In other words - I tend to play more like a machine than it does during the opening. The same is true when I open as white - whether I use E4 or D4 - I will get different responses each time.

Another thing that makes the games interesting - is that the machine seems programmed to make an occasional blunder - even at the mid-range level I am playing at. Just the other day I positioned a knight to drive back the queen it had just advanced, and on its next move it ignored the threat and made an incidental move with its bishop. So I exchanged a knight for its queen and went on to win an unusually quick mid-game checkmate. More often than not, the machine plays exceedingly well, and you have to grind it down to win - often as a result of a pawn promotion made possible because you eked out a one-point advantage early in the middle game and held on to the lead through a series of exchanges as the game progressed.

I have probably gone on to long - a few quick notes that people may want to consider:

After I complete a game, I flick the on-off switch to "off," set up the next game by hand, then reset the machine for a new game. This is because I don't want to wear the mechanism out telling it to reset the game for me. It is entertaining to watch the machine move all the pieces around the first couple of times, but this does turn out to be a five minute process, and I am concerned about wearing the mechanism out since I hope to keep this game for at least ten years. So far the thing seems exceedingly durable and reliable, but it just seems to make sense not to subject it to unnecessary wear and tear. Like any mechanical device,the more you use something, the more its life gets reduced. Same thing when I set up to play as "black" - you have the option to tell the machine to switch the board around, or you can move them yourself. I opt to move the pieces to the "bottom" myself.

All in all, this is an excellent electronic chess game, and I am very satisfied. Plus - for the price Amazon is offering this - where can you go wrong? I've now played a hundred games for a $100 unit. For a dollar a game, that's pretty inexpensive entertainment. And here's the thing - with my current lifestyle - married, working wife, two high school kids, no one else in the family interested in playing chess - I would NEVER get to play if I didn't have a machine in my office sitting there like a loyal and expectant dog just waiting for me to come play it - I don't have the time these days to run out to a local club and find people who also like to play. Given the choice between playing a machine versus not playing at all - getting a quality electronic game like this is a no-brainer...

This chess set has improved my chess game immensely I have had it for less than a month and I have been able to complete 25 of the 136 levels. It has enabled me to get ready for tournaments which is something that I have never done before. I have now been winning a little over half of the games that I have played against people of all ages.

I have a couple of suggestions for the board. For example, there is a board set up option which is the neatest thing but it takes 10 minutes to complete. And lastly, after you put in a command on the board you can't undo it until after it has finished the command unless you turn it off completely.

Besides those two minor things this is the best "toy" and "chess mentor" that I've ever had. Also, even though there are magnets in it, it doesn't affect your computer even at close distance. I have had a great time with this product and I have gotten my money's worth out of it ten times over. Just don't tell it where you are going to move because she will see the move and try to prevent it......

Thank You very much for a great product and I hope others purchase this product to improve or maintain chess skills.

We purchased this as a gift for our 7 year old son who loves to play chess. It works well, and it is a lot of fun for the kids to see it set itself up and move pieces. Pieces do move a bit slowly, but that's not an issue for us. It probably would be for a serious adult player. My only real criticism is that it would be nice if the pieces were magnetic, and a bit larger. They're small and just one jostle of the board, and you have no idea where the pieces are supposed to be. It's frustrated my son greatly, as he'll be trying to move a piece and will be told it's an illegal move (because the computer doesn't think there's a piece on that square, and my son thinks there is, but the piece is actually on the wrong square). It took us a while to figure out that this was the problem. We thought there was something wrong with the board, until I sat down and watched him play an entire game, and saw what happened. All-in-all, we're happy with the purchase, and my son (and the rest of us) enjoy playing.