27 Dec
2012
27 Dec
'12
4:52 a.m.
On Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Tom Sparks
<tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au>wrote:
Certainly, as I said, he and Dabney were inspired
by the PDP-6 version of
Spacewar they saw at SAIL. They were originally going to go the
mini-computer route and have an actual copy of Spacewar running on a coin
modded mini, which turned out to be too expensive to have mass produced.
it more of cost issue, the mini was not able to run the number of
terminals that was needed to recover cost of the mini
I think it was two terminals to break even, three to make a profit
from one of those Atari Anthology cds
--
Marty
tom
27 Dec
27 Dec
1:17 p.m.
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 6:52 AM, Tom Sparks <tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au>wrote:
thanks that explain it more
No problem.
to me as the video I heard were short and to the
point
from one of those Atari Anthology cds
tom
Ok, that explains it. If you're talking about what Nolan says on those,
he's known for "waxing philosophical" in these and other interviews.
(That's how fomer Atarian Steve Bristow phrases it). It basically means he
likes to "fill in the gaps" by creating a grander tale, or "better
story"
that usually has to do with upping his PR as well. That's where you have
the stories in those videos like the one he tells regarding him tying up
N-channel chip (NMOS) manufacturers for the "custom chip" of the 2600,
which simply never happened. Another way of putting it might be "tall
tales" or "fast and loose with the facts." ;)
We had to do a lot of vetting with his material for the Atari book because
of that.
--
Marty
3:48 p.m.
Tom Sparks wrote:
Tom, cost of production. This is per our direct talks with Bushnell and
Dabney for the Atari book (Atari Inc. - Business is Fun). In fact, Curt and
I had the pleasure of driving around with Ted Dabney to some of the
original locations for a day while he reminisced everything. It had nothing
to do with the number of terminals to make a profit, the cost of the mini
alone would have prohibited them from sales in the coin industry at a time
when typical coin-ops cost in the $500-$1500 range. For even the cheapest
mini at the time (the Data General Nova they considered), you're talking
around $4000 just for an entry level Data General Nova - without enough RAM
let alone the cost of the terminal stations. They decided fairly quickly
that besides the Nova being too slow to run the game on multi-terminal
stations, the cost was way too prohibitive. And this was precisely why
Nolan felt Pitt and Tuck's Galaxy Game (around $17,000) wouldn't go
anywhere, it was impossible for it to scale to mass sales let alone the
cost in upkeep on loctaion. Let alone how long it would have taken an
operator to even begin to recoup those kinds of costs.
thanks that explain it more to me as the video I heard were short and to the point
from one of those Atari Anthology cds
And what about the Vectorbeam (Cinematronics) SPACE WAR from 1977? Done
entirely with TTL logic...or was that discussion elsewhere on this
thread that runs through at least two mail lists...
John :-#)#
On Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 1:18 AM, Tom Sparks
<tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au>wrote:
Certainly, as I said, he and Dabney were inspired by
the PDP-6 version of
Spacewar they saw at SAIL. They were originally going to go the
mini-computer route and have an actual copy of Spacewar running on a coin
modded mini, which turned out to be too expensive to have mass produced.
it more of cost issue, the mini was not able to run the number of
terminals that was needed to recover cost of the mini
I think it was two terminals to break even, three to make a profit
--
Marty
tom
6:35 p.m.
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 5:48 PM, John Robertson <pinball at telus.net> wrote:
And what about the Vectorbeam (Cinematronics) SPACE WAR from 1977? Done
entirely with TTL logic...or was that discussion elsewhere on this thread
that runs through at least two mail lists...
John :-#)#
Yes, that was discussed elsewhere in the thread. Don't know how this got
into two mailing list, only started with my original post to one. It's also
outside the late 60s scope I was asking about.
Just for clarification, The Cineamtronics/Vectorbeam version is not done
entirely with TTL logic. It's comprised of a
TTL based psuedo incarnation of a PDP-8 instruction set (a TTL based PDP-8
simulator if you will) that in turn is running the actual software for the
PDP-8 version of Spacewar, which Rosenthal licesned from MIT.
--
Marty
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