8 Mar
2023
8 Mar
'23
11:41 a.m.
My point was that "home computing" does not equal playing computer games at
home. That is something that evolved into the early 90's. Games were
much less of a thing in home computing of the 70's. THere are always
exceptions, there are always variations. It's not that games weren't there
either, it's just that economically if you wanted to play games in the 70;s
you bought a console or went to the arcade. Home computer games were
inferior in the earliest versions
b
On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 2:37 PM Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
places.
Computer Games are almost as old as (Turing Complete) Computers. Alan
Turing
insisted that the Manchester/Ferranti MK1 had a Random Number generator.
Christopher Strachey wrote a tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses to the
English) program which displayed its output in patterns on the MK1 screen.
In 1951 he wrote a checkers/draughts program for the Mk1.
He also wrote the "love letters" program.....
.. Turing was thinking about Chess but he couldn't fit it in the MK1....
-----Original
Message-----
From: Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 8, 2023 7:25 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Cc: Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: on the origin of home computers
> On Mar 8, 2023, at 2:13 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
>
> There is ample evidence of people doing personal computing before the
> microprocessor was invented. There was a whole terminal/time sharing
> scene in the late 60s, plus people who did personal computung by using
> the machine at a school, work, or library. There were also people
> whonowned surplussed minicomputers who used them at home. I think you
> should consider mentioning this somehow.
>
> Really, your video is about personal computers with a microprocessor
> installed.
>
> A person from the 70s would not look at computing the same as we do
today.
The
larger consumer of "home computers" were doing engineering type
work, not so much playing games. Even the apple/tandy/commodore users.
Conversely, computer games predates home computers by a decade or so; the
PLATO system is a major source of early games, documented in several
paul
Dave