28 May
2020
28 May
'20
9:56 p.m.
Eric Smith wrote:
When we restored the PDP-1 at CHM, we *really* wanted
to make sure
that the public could interact with it, though in a limited
fashion. Ken Sumrall and I built quick-and-dirty Spacewar control
boxes out of particle board and arcade switches, which were intended
for restoration team use, and we originally thought that we would
later build some "more authentic" control boxes. (The control boxes
used in Boston had disappeared, and in any case we don't know whether
they were "original".) However, Steve Russell (author of the Spacewar
game) pointed out that our hastily knocked together control boxes
actually were "authentic" in the sense that the originals were also
hastily knocked together out of whatever was at hand.
Random tidbit. I heard from Richard Greenblatt the PDP-1 Spacewar
consoles (original or not, I don't know) had a really great feel, and
when Spacewar was ported to the PDP-6 the new consoles were not as good.
Asking around about this, Michael Beeler said he make the PDP-6 consoles
and conceded the original consoles were better.