20 Aug
2008
20 Aug
'08
1:11 p.m.
A very similar puzzle, except played on a 3x3 grid and
the neighborhood
around a move wrapped around the borders, appeared in a Processor
Technology publication back in 1977, although its origin is even earlier
(see comment below):
http://www.sol20.org/articles/access_v1n4.pdf
It used the numeric keyboard as the 3x3 pad to control game play. I
reconstructed the source code from that publication:
http://www.sol20.org/programs/galaxy.asm
The comments for it say:
; PROGRAM ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED TO THE
; HEWLETT-PACKARD SOFTWARE LIBRARY IN BASIC
When I was reading you artlcle, I thought of an HP calculator program
that seemsed to be very similar...
; SUBSEQUENTLY PUBLISHED BY PEOPLE'S COMPUTER
; COMPANY IN SEPT 74 AS "TEASER"
A later version of this program appears in the HP67/97 Games Pac 1. it
runs fine on the HP41 with a card reader, and IIRC is available from the
HP museum web site.
-tony