23 Oct
1998
23 Oct
'98
12:47 a.m.
You play the game like this:
1) Scout for a surface deposit of Coal and start mining coal.
2) Scout for (surface) deposit of iron ore and start mining ore.
3) Using Coal + Ore build Pig Iron
4) Using Pig Iron build picks and shovels to increase your
mining efficiency.
5) Build Smelter/Foundry
6) Locate lime and concrete develop cement.
7) Collect Sand and use with cement to build an iron casting apparatus
8) Using the sand casting build a steam boiler and steam engine
9) Using the steam engine and iron casting build metal stamping
10) Using Steam engine and metal stamping build rail road.
11) Start mining below ground and locate Copper.
12) Build a copper foundry.
13) Using metal stamping build wire puller (makes wire)
14) Using iron, and wire build generator.
15) Using generator create electricity.
18) Mine tungsten and build lightbulb.
...
First one to a PDP-8 wins :-)
What about creating a Game ?
Of course all Graphics has to be ASCII :)
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
23 Oct
23 Oct
12:46 a.m.
> You play the game like this:
> 1) Scout for a surface deposit of Coal and start mining coal.
.
.
.
> 14) Using iron, and wire build generator.
> 15) Using generator create electricity.
> 18) Mine tungsten and build lightbulb.
> ...
> First one to a PDP-8 wins :-)
Hey! I though about this for a grad project in History - build a computer
using Roman technology (metallurgy, etc., since the Romans didn't have
electricity). The point was to prove that with sufficient relevant
information, primitive computer technology *could have been* built with
materials at hand. I wasn't too sure about transistor manufacture, though.
In any case, it would have only been a demonstration of the technology;
building a PDP-8 from scratch is clearly a monumental task.
What about creating a Game ?
Of course all Graphics has to be ASCII :)
Not on a PDP-8. There was a vector graphics board set. It used an
oscilloscope for a display tube. As was proven in a patent lawsuit
filed against Nintendo, video games did exist before Pong, just not
in the living rooms of America.
-ethan
3:41 a.m.
On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Not on a PDP-8. There was a vector graphics board
set. It used an
oscilloscope for a display tube. As was proven in a patent lawsuit
filed against Nintendo, video games did exist before Pong, just not
in the living rooms of America.
Oooh, this sounds cool. Do you have any more details behind this or a
URL?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
6:17 a.m.
On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, Ethan Dicks wrote:
If you mean the PDP-8 vector board set, I have no details at hand except
those in the Small Computer Handbooks of the 1960's. I am aware of some
pre-OMNIBUS stuff for the -8, -8i and LINC that did this. I do not know
what was compatible with what or what the IOTs were.
If you mean the lawsuit, I can shed some light. The story was told to me
by a ringside participant, Charlie Lasner, of some fame in Usenet circles
for his strong views and his long detailed posts. It seems that sometime
in the 1980's, some patents relating to video games fell into the hands
of some greedy, bloodsucking, intellectual property laywers who decided
to extort money from the video game industry with them. Most companies
paid a "license fee" with little fuss. Nintendo balked. They sent out
the call far and wide for "prior art". Word reached cjl; living in Queens,
it was no big trouble for him to be an expert witness on antique computers.
At a demonstration at his house, cjl fired up a PDP-12 (or LINC-8, I forget
which he has) with the vector scope, loaded a paper tape and showed the
judge and assembled crowd a video game (with paper listings) that could
be documented to have existed several years before the patents in question
were granted. This was sufficient for the judge to invalidate the patents.
That is the story as I remember hearing in 1993 while standing in the
middle of the biggest pile of PDP-8's I've ever seen in my life.
-ethan
Not on a PDP-8. There was a vector graphics
board set. It used an
oscilloscope for a display tube. As was proven in a patent lawsuit
filed against Nintendo, video games did exist before Pong, just not
in the living rooms of America.
Oooh, this sounds cool. Do you have any more details behind this or a
URL? 
6:36 a.m.
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8:26 a.m.
On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Not on a PDP-8. There was a vector graphics board
set. It used an
oscilloscope for a display tube. As was proven in a patent lawsuit
filed against Nintendo, video games did exist before Pong, just not
in the living rooms of America.
Sam replied:
Oooh, this sounds cool. Do you have any more details
behind this or a
URL?
The board set was the VC8-E (M869), and it was typically used with a VR14
monitor (same as used in the PDP-11-based GT40).
I have a not-yet-fully-functional Lab-8/e, which is a PDP-8/e configured with
the VT8-E, A/D and D/A converters, and a rack-mount VR14. There was a special
version of FOCAL with support for these devices.
There is a version of Space War that will run on an 8/e with the VC8-E.
There is also a raster display interface, the VT8-E (M8335, M8336, M8337)
that can even do bit-mapped graphics, DMA'd from the core memory. I'd like
to get my hands on one of these.
Eric
9870
days inactive
9870
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
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eric＠brouhaha.com -
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