> Certainly, as I said, he and Dabney were inspired by the PDP-6 version of
> Spacewar they saw at SAIL. They were originally going to go the
> mini-computer route and have an actual copy of Spacewar running on a coin
> modded mini, which turned out to be too expensive to have mass produced.
it more of cost issue, the mini was not able to run the number of terminals that was needed to recover cost of the mini
I think it was two terminals to break even, three to make a profit
>So
> they decided to a game loosely inspired by Spacewar via TTL based state
> machine after Ted designed their first spot motion circuitry.
tom
I require some help with a program which may be of interest
to other hobby users. The program is:
SHOW EMULATOR or SHOWEM
and runs under:
(a) RT-11 both UnMapped and Mapped Monitors
(b) TSX-Plus
(c) RUST both RUST/SJ and RUST/XM
(d) RSTS/E
(e) RTEM-11
The current Emulators which are detected and displayed
are SimH, Ersatz-11 and V11. If anyone knows of any
other PDP-11 emulators which can also be included, that
would be of great interest, especially if access to that
emulator for testing is possible. I have asked for help
in the past about this and the only other PDP-11 emulator
which runs RT-11 compatible programs is Charon which
unfortunately no longer seems to be available or even running.
If anyone can help expand the list, it would be appreciated!!!
Unfortunately, for (d) and (e), I do not have any information
on how to access the IOPAGE registers since SHOWEM
requires access to SR0 (177572) and SR1 (177574) in
addition to the PSW (177776).
I do not believe that RTEM-11 will ever allow a User program
to gain access to the IOPAGE registers, however, RSTS/E
may allow such access. Does anyone who is reading this
post know if access to the IOPAGE registers is possible
under RSTS/E for a program running in RT-11 compatibility'
mode? And do you also know how it is done?
If there is no solution, then I will make to current SHOWEM
available to any hobby users who are interested. Otherwise,
I would prefer to delay until the RSTS/E solution is implemented.
Jerome Fine
Hoping some of the people here can help, I'm trying to compile a listing of
hardware that versions of the Spacewar code were ported to after the PDP-1
during the 1960s. There was the PDP-6 version which was done at Stanford
SAIL, and there were the PDP-7 and 8 versions which appeared in the DECUS
catalog in the early 70s (which means they could have technically been
done in the very late 60s), and the early 70s PDP-10 version (which was
just a port of the PDP-6 version).
Is anyone aware of any non DEC hardware it was ported to in the 60s? I
haven't been able to find any concrete evidence that it was on anything
other than DEC hardware in the 60s.
Thanks!
--
Marty
Kurt: Please respond directly to Stan Paddock's questions below. Thanks
---- Jud
Justin (Jud) McCarthy
251 SW 9th Ave
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Home (561)391-1422 Cell: (561)504-7048
In a message dated 12/25/2012 2:00:16 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
stpaddock at sbcglobal.net writes:
Jud,
As you know we have two fully operational 1401 systems each with a 1403
printer.
Each printer still has the same paper feed box they had when I started
there 5 years ago.
It is anmazing how far a box of paper goes when we come in one day a week
and then some days we don't print at all.
I hate to see the paper go to waste tho.
How full is the box and what is the total cost shipped to
Computer History Muesum
1401 North Shoreline Boulevard,
Mountain View, CA 94043
Stan
----- Original Message -----
From: _JHMcCarthy at aol.com_ (mailto:JHMcCarthy at aol.com)
To: _director at ctandi.org_ (mailto:director at ctandi.org) ; _Robgarn at mac.com_
(mailto:Robgarn at mac.com) ; _ed at ed-thelen.org_ (mailto:ed at ed-thelen.org)
; _stpaddock at sbcglobal.net_ (mailto:stpaddock at sbcglobal.net)
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2012 6:37 AM
Subject: Fwd: Continuous feed computer paper anyone?
FYI. Take action as appropriate. ---- Jud
Justin (Jud) McCarthy
251 SW 9th Ave
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Home (561)391-1422 Cell: (561)504-7048
____________________________________
From: _kurt.m.nowak at gmail.com_ (mailto:kurt.m.nowak at gmail.com)
Reply-to: _cctech at classiccmp.org_ (mailto:cctech at classiccmp.org)
To: _cctalk at classiccmp.org_ (mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org)
Sent: 12/24/2012 4:02:21 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Continuous feed computer paper anyone?
Does anyone want any 14-7/8" X 11" continuous feed paper? I have a
partial box full that I was going to just take to the recycling. Asking
the cost of shipping plus a little extra for my troubles. These are over
$50 a box new....How times have changed! Email me off the list.
-Kurt
Jochen writes:
> I suspect CI cables are just ordinary 50 Ohm coax, but heavily
> overspeced in best DEC tradition. ;-)
Dave writes:
> I agree (now) that they're most likely 50-ohm, but that particular
> coax is anything but ordinary. ;) I'm sure they over-specced it like crazy.
OK I found some hanks (chopped up from computer room removal) of old blue "thick" CI cable. I was actually gonna take it home and use it for some recabling of my radio station anyway when this subject came up on cctalk.
Externally it is 0.4" like many RG-8 and RG-213 types.
Internally the center conductor is 11AWG, silver plated solid copper. Yep, silver plated.
The dielectric is 0.238" diameter polyethelyne foam. Again, a little smaller diameter than usual for RG-8 types, but I think in ratio with the inner conductor being smaller and the properties of foamed poly, gives 50 ohm impedance.
Then, the amazing thing is what's outside the dielectric. There is a layer of foil, a THICK layer of braid, then another layer of foil, then another THICK layer of braid. I don't think I've ever seen a RG-8 type coax with 4 layer shielding. Most RG-213 types have a single thinner layer (and some have foil). I don't think the braid is silver plated, I think it's just tinned, may test that out later.
If you wanted to put crimp-on N or UHF connectors onto this stuff, the funny dielectric diameter might cause some heartache, as could the extra thickness of the double braids.
I have some hanks of "reddish-orange" DEC Thicknet Ethernet cables too, will check out what's inside them. I seem to recall them being solid polyethelyne dielectric but it's been more than a decade since I cut into any.
Tim N3QE
> From: Lyle Bickley <lbickley at bickleywest.com>
> Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:32:29 -0800
> Subject: Re: Spacewar hardware?
Here is an image of me playing Spacewar on a PDP-12. I am the on on the right.
http://www.rcsri.org/collection/pdp-12/spacewar.jpg
--
Michael Thompson
I'm looking for one or two DEC E2057 (VAX 7700 CPU) modules.
I'd also like to find some CI cables. (the thick blue coaxial cables)
Anybody gots? Please contact me off-list of is.
Thanks,
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
Though not a direct copy of the original Spacewar, it is very clear that it was inspired by Bushnell playing Spacewar on various computers.
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Goldberg [wgungfu at gmail.com]
Received: Monday, 24 Dec 2012, 12:33pm
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only [cctech at classiccmp.org]
CC: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts [cctalk at classiccmp.org]
Subject: Re: Spacewar hardware?
On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 11:16 PM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
> Jay wrote
> >
> >
> > I also recall their being a free-standing game version of the thing.
> >
>
> Nolan Bushnell, of Atari fame, built what he felt could be an arcade
> version of Spacewar in 1970. He built it in his daughter's bedroom.
>
> Bushnell licensed the design to a company (I can't remember the name)
> that ended up building about 1500 or so of them, calling them
> "Computer Space". They are extremely sought-after collector's items
> today. I have no idea what hardware was in the machines.
>
> Rick Bensene
>
That's actually not a version of Spacewar, nor is it based directly off the
game. It was "inspired by," and created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney.
The hardware is a custom TTL based state machine (no software). They
licensed it to Nutting Associates in Mountain View. We have the full story
in our book:
http://amzn.com/0985597402
--
Marty
Backing up a usb device sure but as Cindy pointed out its likely a poor backup media itself. Some friends and I all had 64mb flash drives back when they were new. We all lost our copies of some source code we had been using it for (portable coding drive so we could use each others systems and have our progress). Left a sore spot despite them being nice for quick trips or transferring files.
For those of you that could not make it in December, we will be having
another warehouse day on Jan 13, 2013, Saturday, beginning at 9AM, and
lasting until about 1PM.
Some of this stuff is too bulky/heavy to ship, and some I have no clue on,
so bring test disks, and let's have some fun J
Cindy Croxton
Electronics Plus
1613 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax
AOL IM elcpls
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