Analog modem emulator?

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005, Jim Leonard wrote: Yo Leonard! Never heard of Modem Wars for some reason. Sounds intriguing. I once did a legal research project on this (in fact, it was my first). Some guy patented multi-node, multi-player networked video games (i.e. everything on the internet today) back in 1982. The task was to find prior art to prove that this sort of game has been arounded prior to 1982. Of course Mazewar on the Imlac was a major patent killer (and mine came in handy for the attorneys). We also located some other interesting microcomputer examples. The first was TelePong for the Apple ][ (1978). The attorney found reference to it while going through an old issue of Byte or something in my collection. It was a demo that got sent with the then new Apple Communications Card. You could play an opponent at Pong at another Apple ][ either through a null modem or over a modem. The second was Commbat for the TRS-80 (1980). Published by Adventure International (Scott Adams). You played against an opponent on another TRS-80 connected by a serial (or something). The game on one machine (the master) generated a terrain map and then transmitted the map to the other computer. You then had to play "capture the flag". The third was an unwitting clone of Commbat. It was called Flash Attack! (1982) and ran on the PET. It was exactly the same thing as Commport. A map would be generated on the "master" computer (as designated by a certain pin on the user port being set a certain way) and then transmitted to the other computer. Then play would begin and each player on each PET would navigate their tank to the other side of the map where the opponent's base was. The object was to destroy the opponent's base. All these and more are cool early networked microcomputer games. Besides Maze War, the other contender vying for "first" networked computer game is Spasim: http://www.geocities.com/jim_bowery/spasim.html (Somewhat pompous) However, I've found evidence (in the way of memos) of multiplayer networked games (though not graphical based) being played on JOSS (I think running on the Johnniac? It's not clear...) in the late 1960s. Will pick up research on that when I have time. Doom would be a good test case. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]