30 May
2008
30 May
'08
10:57 a.m.
Gene Buckle wrote:
I'm going to have to rent that move again. I distinctly remember a
Vic-20 display with a moving border of asterisks counting something
down and I could have sworn the screen was a tiny little CRT in the
side of the WOPR...
Then again, I'm 40 so all sorts of crap is breaking. :) I won't fault your
memory. I watched this and was sure the unit was a
VIC-20 screen, but I long ago decided otherwise, even before I read the
IMSAI page about it.
I have the DVD, so I checked it out:
Time index 1:10:56 is where we see the screen. (David has just escaped
The "original" WOPR used a Vic-20 as the
display. This one doesn't
appear to have that. :)
Actually, the display was a "flourescent matrix" driven by a custom
controller in an Apple ][. Some information about this is available on
Todd Fischer's IMSAI website:
http://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm
Search for "flourescent" to find the relevant bits, though the whole
page
has interesting history about the technology used in the movie from
one of
the guys who worked it.
from NORAD on the bus, and then we see a 360 pan around
the WOPR)
Screen is 16 characters wide by 16 characters high.
Characters are 8x8
pixel ratio is 1:1, so it is not a VIC screen, which does not have 1:1 ratio
128x128 vacuum flourescent screen. Characters are bitmapped onto the
screen, as the character lines do not match up to the 16x16 matrix, and
adding the longer descender space also does not match up.
I cut out an 'E' and pasted it alongside the screen capture to count the
lines and positions to verify.
bitmap available on request.
Jim