The TQ-1500 Electronic Goban (Electronic Go Board) was released by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (now Panasonic) under the National brand in 1981 and sold by the Nihon Kiin in the early 1980’s.
The original price for the TQ-1500 was JPY198,000.
The goban (including the control panel) measures 53.8cm long, 45.9cm wide, and 25.1cm high.
The go bowls are 14cm in diameter and 9cm high.
Magnetic sensing devices embedded at each intersection of the goban allow the magnetic go stones to be used for recording games on an inserted data card. The data can be played back accurately using the LED lights along the sides which indicate the horizontal and vertical position of each stone. There is also a female computer-generated voice which helps you place the stones correctly.
Additionally, a set of “Learning Series” data modules were sold for around JPY10,000 each module.
These pre-programmed instructional modules allow replaying professional games or solving problems of various grades.
Hope you enjoy these pictures of an interesting relic of the past. Probably the first electronic goban ever built. I do not own or plan to buy one for myself though.
You can also read about other Electronic Go Boards at Sensei’s Library.
Also see this: http://goulo.livejournal.com/68405.html
And this site shows you the insides of the unit: https://cosmomo.wordpress.com/
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I find this just captivating. I wish we still had such interesting intersections between the physical and the electronic. I love having a virtual goban on my iPad – with more features than the designer of this product dreamed of – but it comes with the almost complete absence of ANYTHING physical.
Great find; thanks for posting!
wow… wish ‘could have it!’ agree with Nate Eagle.