unexpected error " tables can have at most 1600 columns"

Situation

I have a co-developer installing a new Virtual Machine and encountering a postgres error during the installation.

One of our  SQL patch files is failing unexpectedly. 

The patch is attempting to add columns to a table,  The table involved  currently has only 2 columns,

Interactively I can generate the same error in his current state.

psql -h ohio -U redcom ace_db

psql (9.3.6)

Type "help" for help.

ace_db=# select * from log.conference_history;

conf_id | max_size

---------+----------

(0 rows)

ace_db=# ALTER TABLE log.conference_history ADD talker_limit integer DEFAULT 0;

ERROR:  tables can have at most 1600 columns

ace_db=#

ace_db=#

Puzzled ?

Any thoughts ?

Regards

Dave Day