Battle of the Digital Clocks

(from Flint Area Backgammon News issue #299, Feb/Mar 2009)

Chuck Bower

On the US tournament backgammon scene, the most common digital clock presently in use is the Excalibur Game Time II (GTII). A recent arrival is the Digital Game Technology 960 (DGT960). Excalibur is a US company while Digital Game Technology is located in the Netherlands. Both clocks are made in China and sell for under $50 in the US. This article is a review/comparison of these two devices.

From an overall appearance and usability standpoint, the DGT960 jumps off to an advantage because of its size. Folded closed, and even opened, it fits easily into a standard (closed) tournament backgammon board. The GTII fits into a few closed tournament boards (such as the Crisloids) but does not fit into most.

A second advantage of the new kid on the block is ease of setup. Ironically, the reason for this difference has to do with the versatility of the GTII, which can be used for many games including GO and word games like Scrabble. The DGT960 appears to be designed for chess only. Fortunately for backgammon players, the variety of chess settings envelops popular backgammon settings so it works fine for us. A person experienced with setting up the GTII can reset the time values in about a minute. For the DGT960 to be reset, it takes less than half that much time. A brand new GTII takes much longer to initialize but once that task is completed the only resetting required is changing the delay time (free time per move) and reserve time (bonus time for the full match).

That’s the end of the advantages of the DGT960 over the GTII. In a couple characteristics the two trade off roughly equally. The DGT960 is noticeably lighter, although at ~2/3 lb (0.3 kg) the GTII is hardly a burden. Being heavier, the GTII is less likely to be knocked off the playing table if bumped. However if this feature is important to you then I recommend you find a more civilized club to play at! The DGT960 uses a calculator battery (CR2032) while the GTII takes four standard AA batteries. A plus for the DGT960 is the fact that the unit comes with a battery already installed whereas the GTII batteries must be bought separately. This advantage is offset by the ease of finding AA batteries compared to the CR2032 battery when they expire. The price of power sources is about the same and neither requires frequent replacement. The DGT960 manual says the batteries last four years with typical use while the GTII manual says the battery life is 500 hours (which can be converted to roughly 200-400 matches).

I found the visibility of the DGT960 to be inferior to that of the GTII. Both have LCD displays but the GTII has backlighting while the DGT960 does not. Apparently the DGT960 display was optimized for the location of chess players but when Jeb Horton and I played a practice match at Pittsburgh in the actual playing room I found I had to lean uncomfortably forward (over the table) from my usual position to get a good view of the clock’s digits. In addition, the delay time (free time per move) digits were quite small, unlike those of the GTII. Finally it took more effort to see whose clock was running when using the DGT960. With this clock you must look for the arrows on the LCD display which point towards the person whose clock is running. On the GTII, besides this display pointer you can also very quickly tell whose clock is running by observing the position of the plungers.

The plunger difference between these clocks is worth elaboration. For those not familiar with game clocks, each player has a switch or ‘plunger’ which ends his turn (stops his clock) while simultaneously starting his opponent’s turn (clock). Traditionally with analog clocks these were mechanical and gave an audible click as well as a solid tactile response when depressed. The GTII carried over this sound and feel while modernizing it to an electronic mechanism. The DGT960 has neither the sound nor feel of plungers but instead works with a slight tap giving a faint click. Furthermore there is a spring mechanism which returns the plunger to its up position so except when being pressed both plungers are always in the exact same orientation.

An added weakness of the plunger implementation of the DGT960 occurs between games. In order for the score to be recorded and checkers and cube to be reset, the clock must be made dormant. Again carried over from analog clocks, this is known as “centering” the plungers because when most clocks have their plungers placed halfway between up and down, neither clock runs. That is the case for the GTII. But for the DGT960 the clock must be switched into “pause” mode. Unfortunately when the next game begins (and the clock is taken out of pause mode) the clock of the player who was last to play the previous game starts running. Consequently the “pause” mode does not give the players equal chances to begin the game as with the GTII, where either plunger can be depressed. I was unable to find a workaround for this shortcoming, nor were a couple other players I talked with.

A less detrimental but still annoying characteristic of the DGT960 occurs when the total reserve time for the match is set for more than 20 minutes. Below 20 minutes, the time can be set for any number of minutes and seconds. For 20 minutes and above the clock can only be set in units of minutes. Furthermore, there is no display of the number of seconds remaining until the clock runs down to less than 20 minutes. For example, if a player’s clock shows 22 minutes he has between 22:00 and 22:59 remaining. The clock internally keeps record to the nearest second but it doesn’t show the players what it knows. The GTII shows the minutes and seconds for match lengths out to 999:59 (over 16 hours).

Some extra features of the GTII, which can be an annoyance when initially setting it up, turn out to be advantages on occasion. First of those is the ability to save the current match values when taking a long break (for example, a dinner break). The GTII allows the current time values to be saved so the clock can be turned off. Then these values can be recalled and redisplayed when the match is resumed. The DGT960 does not have this feature. If the DGT960 clock is closed (which is how it is turned off), the clock values are lost. (This is also true when turning off the GTII if the save feature is not activated prior to turning it off.)

Both clocks remember the initial match settings when turned off. However the DGT960 only remembers these values (delay time per move and reserve time per match) whereas the GTII has a total of five memory locations. For example, I have mine programmed for matches of lengths 5-, 7-, 9-, 11-, and 13-points. That way if I’m using the US clock rule default time settings and playing in a match of any of these lengths I merely turn on the clock and with a couple clicks of the switches have the clock in the mode desired.

The relative advantage/disadvantages of these two clocks is summarized in the accompanying table. My conclusion is that the choice between these competitors is subject to the buyer’s priorities. If being able to store the clock inside one’s closed board is paramount then for most the DGT960 will be the choice. But if some of the advantages of the GTII are more important, particularly the visibility features, then this clock should be purchased. I recommend a “test drive” of the two models before making a commitment.

feature	GTII	DTG960
size		+
setup simplicity		+
price	o	o
weight	o	o
batteries	o	o
visibility	+
plungers	+
>20 minutes setting	+
between game "centering"	+
saving match-in-progress	+
multiple match setup storage	+