Space War on Channel 4
Dave Daniels
night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
the PDP 1 with, I think, the author. I do not know where it was
filmed but they had a PDP 1 and various other machines there. The
PDP 1 was not operational. Unfortunately I missed most of that
part of the programme. Did anybody else see it? Any comments on
the game or PDP 1, anyone?
Dave Daniels
Charles Richmond
U.S. after an appreciable amount of time.
If they interviewed the author of Spacewar!, it was probably Steve
"Slug" Russell. Russell wrote most of the program, although he did
get some help from others. IIRC, many people augmented it over the
first years of the existence of Spacewar!
There is an interesting WEB page about Spacewar! at:
<http://www.enteract.com/~enf/lore/spacewar/spacewar.html>
It recreates in HTML an old "Creative Computing" article that was
written by one of Slug Russell's associates at the time.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Pete Fenelon
I caught a few minutes of it (probably near the middle of the programme)
with Matthew Smith (author of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy), Sir Clive
Sinclair (holding the millionth Spectrum made, in white!) and the Russian
guy who invented Tetris. The overall tone of the programme was a bit trite,
and it was presented by Iain Lea who made the Eleven O'Clock Show
entirely unwatchable, so I made myself a cup of tea and went to bed...
pete
Hans B Pufal
> Dave Daniels wrote:
> >
> > There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
> > night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
> > saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
> > the PDP 1 with, I think, the author. I do not know where it was
> > filmed but they had a PDP 1 and various other machines there. The
> > PDP 1 was not operational. Unfortunately I missed most of that
> > part of the programme. Did anybody else see it? Any comments on
> > the game or PDP 1, anyone?
Possibly the Computer History Center in Mountain View California?
And here
<http://wex.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/readme.html>
you can play SpaceWar on your java enabled web browser.
-- HBP
freddy1X
TV program called "Life in the 21'st century" or something similar? I
think itt was aired in the late 1960's or early 1970's on CBS network.
He interviewed someone, and discussed the control box, even trying his
hand at playing the game. I wish I could recall more detalis, but it
has been a while.(!)
--
do not short terminals
/\>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>\/
/\ I may be demented \/
/\ but I'm not crazy! \/
/\<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<\/
* SPAyM trap: there is no X in my address *
|| attatch FLAME here ||
\/ \/
X
Maury Markowitz
news:4a64542041d...@argonet.co.uk...
> There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
> night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
> saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
> the PDP 1 with, I think, the author. I do not know where it was
> filmed but they had a PDP 1 and various other machines there. The
> PDP 1 was not operational.
Moffet's computer museum then, it's the actual machine it was created on.
It used to be a part of the Boston Computer Museum back in the early 90's,
but due to a story I've not heard the Boston center became a kids-only kind
of place and all of the machines were moved out to the west coast.
> Any comments on the game or PDP 1, anyone?
I'd love to point you to my site, but with the recent shakeup of ADSL
providers on the west coast I lost it.
Maury
John T Maguire
<maury_m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>"Dave Daniels" <dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:4a64542041d...@argonet.co.uk...
>> There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
>> night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
>> saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
>> the PDP 1 with, I think, the author. I do not know where it was
>> filmed but they had a PDP 1 and various other machines there. The
>> PDP 1 was not operational.
>
> Moffet's computer museum then, it's the actual machine it was created on.
>It used to be a part of the Boston Computer Museum back in the early 90's,
>but due to a story I've not heard the Boston center became a kids-only kind
>of place and all of the machines were moved out to the west coast.
I think the Museum got killed of with the demise of the Boston
Computer Society - just a guess, though.
>
>> Any comments on the game or PDP 1, anyone?
>
> I'd love to point you to my site, but with the recent shakeup of ADSL
>providers on the west coast I lost it.
>
>Maury
>
John T Maguire
Visiting Maine? http://www.docksquare.org
Want to take a look? http://www.maine-webcams.net
Joe Morris
>Does anybody remember the Walter Cromkite report on Space Wars, from a
>TV program called "Life in the 21'st century" or something similar? I
>think itt was aired in the late 1960's or early 1970's on CBS network.
>He interviewed someone, and discussed the control box, even trying his
>hand at playing the game. I wish I could recall more detalis, but it
>has been a while.(!)
I missed that one; if anyone knows when it might be rebroadcast, please
post the info!
Question: were the control boxes in the TV report the original wooden
ones (two telephone-type switches plus a button in a box about the
size of a 3x5 index card file), or the USAF surplus drone controllers
that someone found at Eli's Surplus?
The surplus controllers had a problem: there were so many buttons and
such (including a "trigger" thumbswitch on the joystick and a foot pedal)
that some of the buttons were dedicated to telling Spacewar which
other buttons did what. I doubt seriously that any of my hacks to
Spacewar to support these controllers made it into the "standard"
version, but it was fun writing them.
Joe Morris
Ian Stirling
>On Sun, 01 Apr 2001 12:38:36 -0400, freddy1X <fred...@indyx.net>
>sprachen:
>>Does anybody remember the Walter Cromkite report on Space Wars, from a
>>TV program called "Life in the 21'st century" or something similar?
>No, but a clip of this was shown in the program. It was surprisingly
>good for having Iain Lee in it and for being on television. It was
It was interesting, but they totally neglected text-games, also
MUDS.
--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | mailto:inqui...@i.am | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
'Where subtlety fails, we must simply make do with cream pies' -- David Brin
Simon Slavin
Dave Daniels <dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> Unfortunately I missed most of that
> part of the programme. Did anybody else see it? Any comments on
> the game or PDP 1, anyone?
_Thumb Candy_. Russell went on to find the original distro
papertape of the game and they played the game on a PC PDP1
simulator. Russell showed the presenter that the original
game had been operated using toggle-switches on the console
and they discussed how engineers had wired themselves little
boxes on extention cables so that they could operate the
controls more conveniently. The little boxes looked just
like the handsets you get with modern game consoles !
The programme was highly oriented towards computer-games
rather than computers. There was little discussion of
computer-qua-computer in there. The readers of this group
would have appreciated the minute of so of interview where
one could see various parts of the PDP1 in the background
but there was no discussion of it.
It was actually a pretty good programme and I'm looking
forward to the next part.
Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk | There's a *reason* why talk.politics.* is
No junk email please. | unreadable. It's because people talk about
| politics there. -- Nathan Tenny
Mac OS X. Because making Unix user-friendly is easier than debugging Windows.
Joe Morris
>_Thumb Candy_. Russell went on to find the original distro
>papertape of the game and they played the game on a PC PDP1
>simulator. Russell showed the presenter that the original
>game had been operated using toggle-switches on the console
>and they discussed how engineers had wired themselves little
>boxes on extention cables so that they could operate the
>controls more conveniently. The little boxes looked just
>like the handsets you get with modern game consoles !
The PDP-1 had a "taper pin block" (DEC's name for it) in the first
(or maybe second) bay which provided a very easy mechanism for linking
the machine to external devices. One IOT (Input/Output Transfer)
instruction would transfer 18 bits from the input pins to the I/O
register; this made interfacing with the control box a trivial task.
The same taper pin block allowed an external device to read the
"program flags" (aka "sense lights" in many other computers).
The MIT system had three of the program flag outputs wired through
a simple mixer into a Heathkit amplifier in Alan Kotok's office,
and Pete Sampson's music compiler used this configuration to produce
some quite decent multi-part renditions of classical music.
Joe Morris
Bernie Cosell
} Dave Daniels wrote:
} > There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
} > night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
} > saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
} > the PDP 1 with, I think, the author....
}
} If they interviewed the author of Spacewar!, it was probably Steve
} "Slug" Russell. Russell wrote most of the program, although he did
} get some help from others. IIRC, many people augmented it over the
} first years of the existence of Spacewar!
Actually, it was virtually a community project at the RLE lab at MIT.
Probably the most ambitious 'enhancement' was Peter Samson's starfield hack
[instead of the background being just random 'blips', the background was
the *actual* night sky, and actually slowly moved as you played...]
} There is an interesting WEB page about Spacewar! at:
}
} <http://www.enteract.com/~enf/lore/spacewar/spacewar.html>
}
} It recreates in HTML an old "Creative Computing" article that was
} written by one of Slug Russell's associates at the time.
And if you happen to have a PDP-1 [or a PDP-1 emulator around], you can
find the sources at
<http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/sources/>
If you look at the sources [and know enough PDP-1 assembler to be able to
puzzle them out], you'll find that it was an *amazing* programming job. It
might well be the first [or certainly one of the earlier] examples of
Object-Oriented programming.
/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
ber...@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--
Carl R. Friend
>
> Possibly the Computer History Center in Mountain View California [has
> an operable PDP-1 to play "Spacewar!" on]?
I may be mistaken, but I don't believe their -1 is operable at
the moment. Apparantly it's been dicey for some time and the trans-
continental trip didn't do it any favours.
For what it's worth, the RCS/RI have a PDP-12 that plays a
reasonable facsimilie of the game. There is also, as mentioned in
another message the on-line Java PDP-1 simulator that plays the
original article.
--
+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:crfr...@ma.ultranet.com +---------------------+
| http://www.ultranet.com/~crfriend/museum | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
freddy1X
>
> I missed that one; if anyone knows when it might be rebroadcast, please
> post the info!
Since it was so long ago, it's anybody's guess if a tape still exists.
>
> Question: were the control boxes in the TV report the original wooden
> ones (two telephone-type switches plus a button in a box about the
> size of a 3x5 index card file), or the USAF surplus drone controllers
> that someone found at Eli's Surplus?
>
As I recall, the controller was a singlu unit, with just a few
nescessary controls. I'm not sure anymore about the actuator style, but
it was all small enough to be hand held while operating. They went over
the function( demonstrated ) of each of the contrals. Also saved the
"fire" button til last. It also seems to me that the whole thing was
dark of black colored.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
> Joe Morris wrote:
> >
> > I missed that one; if anyone knows when it might be rebroadcast, please
> > post the info!
>
> Since it was so long ago, it's anybody's guess if a tape still exists.
Huh? Have you been reading all the thread? If you look back at the post
which started it (still in the References: header above), you'll see that
Dave Daniels wrote:
| There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
| night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
| saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
| the PDP 1 with, I think, the author. I do not know where it was
[Channel 4 is a terrestrial TV channel broadcast throughout the UK
(excepting Wales, which has S4C, Siannel Pedwar Cymraeg). So the
broadcast was on Saturday night; looking at my listings magazine, it's
not immediately obvious which the programme was, but it might perhaps
have been SF:UK, which went out at 2001-01-04 00:05 GMT (1:35am local).]
C4 sometimes repeat "factual" programmes a little later the same week; so
I've probably missed it by now as well.
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} b...@dsl.co.uk
"We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of
distributed ignorance. And we know and understand less while being incr-
easingly capable." Prof. Peter Cochrane, formerly of BT Labs
Maury Markowitz
news:B6F00E1E...@0.0.0.0...
> _Thumb Candy_. Russell went on to find the original distro
> papertape of the game and they played the game on a PC PDP1
> simulator.
Which still exists BTW, it was stuck inside the cabinet of the PDP-1 at
Moffet. I visited recently and tried to get pictures, but my bud's camera is
digital and the results were poor due to the low light.
Maury
Maury Markowitz
glaring errors? It's not online now because of the ADSL meltdown in SoCal,
but a version I did as a learning tool for CSS is still up...
http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/spacewar.html
Maury
Joe Morris
>Actually, it was virtually a community project at the RLE lab at MIT.
>Probably the most ambitious 'enhancement' was Peter Samson's starfield hack
>[instead of the background being just random 'blips', the background was
>the *actual* night sky, and actually slowly moved as you played...]
Cycling, IIRC, in about four hours of (real) time. I do recall several
nights when we had the chance to see the entire cycle more than once...
>And if you happen to have a PDP-1 [or a PDP-1 emulator around], you can
>find the sources at
><http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/sources/>
>If you look at the sources [and know enough PDP-1 assembler to be able to
>puzzle them out], you'll find that it was an *amazing* programming job. It
>might well be the first [or certainly one of the earlier] examples of
>Object-Oriented programming.
As a minor oddity, I see that the sources on the MIT site have a macro
package carrying a date of June 1963, but the Spacewar sources themselves
are for version 3.1. Digging into my archives produced sources for
version 4 (created by Monte Peronas), dated February 1963.
Monte also updated the Adams Associates sine/cosine routine to use the
hardware integer multiply optional feature on the PDP-1.
Side note: Monte's name was "Demitrios D. Peronas", and being a good
MIT type he often wrote his initials as:
2
d p
I've not looked in detail through the MIT listing, but IIRC the major
feature of version 4 was the addition of a scorekeeping task that at
the end of a game displayed the score with outlines of the space
ships, similar to the way that fighter pilots paint flags of the Other
Guys on their airplanes to represent kills.
Joe Morris
Charles Richmond
>
> Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>
> } Dave Daniels wrote:
>
> } > There was a programme on Channel 4 in the UK late on Saturday
> } > night that was looking at the history of computer games. I only
> } > saw a little bit of it, in which they were discussing Spacewar on
> } > the PDP 1 with, I think, the author....
>
> }
> } If they interviewed the author of Spacewar!, it was probably Steve
> } "Slug" Russell. Russell wrote most of the program, although he did
> } get some help from others. IIRC, many people augmented it over the
> } first years of the existence of Spacewar!
>
> Actually, it was virtually a community project at the RLE lab at MIT.
> Probably the most ambitious 'enhancement' was Peter Samson's starfield hack
> [instead of the background being just random 'blips', the background was
> the *actual* night sky, and actually slowly moved as you played...]
>
about this "star field" of Peter Samson's that bothered me: IIRC, the
"star field" showed how the stars looked as viewed from *Earth*...yet
obviously the battling space ships were *not* on Earth. I understand that
even a "star field" as viewed from Earth is *more* realistic than just
random blips, but still...
Matt Sayler
>I read about this in Steven Levy's _Hackers_ book...and there is something
>about this "star field" of Peter Samson's that bothered me: IIRC, the
>"star field" showed how the stars looked as viewed from *Earth*...yet
>obviously the battling space ships were *not* on Earth. I understand that
>even a "star field" as viewed from Earth is *more* realistic than just
>random blips, but still...
It seems like the parallax from moving across the solar system would be
very small. Most of these starts are tens or hundreds of light-years
away after all.
Matt
--
/* Matt Sayler -- Network Admin, Speedsite Online
* (312) 803-7000 -- say...@speedsite.com */
D.J.
say...@cesum.alphachannel.com (Matt Sayler) wrote:
[]In article <3ACCDBA2...@ev1.net>, Charles Richmond wrote:
[]>I read about this in Steven Levy's _Hackers_ book...and there is something
[]>about this "star field" of Peter Samson's that bothered me: IIRC, the
[]>"star field" showed how the stars looked as viewed from *Earth*...yet
[]>obviously the battling space ships were *not* on Earth. I understand that
[]>even a "star field" as viewed from Earth is *more* realistic than just
[]>random blips, but still...
[]
[]It seems like the parallax from moving across the solar system would be
[]very small. Most of these starts are tens or hundreds of light-years
[]away after all.
The north polestar of the Earth is not the north polestar of the
Earth's moon. So there is some change.
JimP.
--
djim55 at tyhe datasync dot com. Disclaimer: Standard.
Updated: April 2, 2001
drive-in Movie theaters:
http://www.datasync.com/~djim55/drivein/index.html
freddy1X
>
> In article <3ACBBA...@indyx.net> freddy1X "freddy1X" writes:
>
> > Joe Morris wrote:
> > >
> > > I missed that one; if anyone knows when it might be rebroadcast, please
> > > post the info!
> >
> > Since it was so long ago, it's anybody's guess if a tape still exists.
>
> Huh? Have you been reading all the thread? If you look back at the post
> which started it (still in the References: header above), you'll see that
> Dave Daniels wrote:
>
George Byrd
on "Re: Space War on Channel 4"
"Maury Markowitz" <maury_m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Joe Morris can offer infinitely more depth of comment than I, but I
did enjoy the article. I played Space War, up in Bldg 26 IIRC, but
only one or two evenings around '64 or so. Your page brought back
memories.
In 1985 Bill Seiler of Scotts Valley CA wrote and distributed a
version for the original PC 8088 at 4.77 mhz running DOS, as "user
supported software", an early entry in what what came to be called
"shareware".
The timing depended on the system clock, not realtime clock, so
running it on a current machine is instant and short-lived chaos at
best. It is amusing chaos though.
There is a newer release, apparently rewritten with real timing, and
for use on newer machines, at
<http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~orenso/h_prog.htm>.
It's called "newspace" there.
GB
--
Opinions above are NOT those of APAN, Inc. & are NOT legal advice.
"However, this would be severe topic drift except for the fact that
floorwax has more nutritional value then McD's burgers."
<< Lon Stowell, in AFU, 1/22/98 >>
Maury Markowitz
news:3ACCF8...@indyx.net...
> No, I was referring to the 60's broadcast by Walter Cronkite.
I wrote to CBS asking aobut reprints, but they don't seem to answer their
e-mail.
Maury
Bernie Cosell
} Bernie Cosell <ber...@fantasyfarm.com> writes:
}
} >If you look at the sources [and know enough PDP-1 assembler to be able to
} >puzzle them out], you'll find that it was an *amazing* programming job. It
} >might well be the first [or certainly one of the earlier] examples of
} >Object-Oriented programming.
}
} As a minor oddity, I see that the sources on the MIT site have a macro
} package carrying a date of June 1963, but the Spacewar sources themselves
} are for version 3.1. Digging into my archives produced sources for
} version 4 (created by Monte Peronas), dated February 1963.
Interesting. The set of sources I have are:
spacewar 3.1 24 sep 62 pt.1
Which I _think_ was the first version with the Samson starfield, but who
can tell any more..:o)
Charles Richmond
>
> In article <3ACCDBA2...@ev1.net>, Charles Richmond wrote:
> >I read about this in Steven Levy's _Hackers_ book...and there is something
> >about this "star field" of Peter Samson's that bothered me: IIRC, the
> >"star field" showed how the stars looked as viewed from *Earth*...yet
> >obviously the battling space ships were *not* on Earth. I understand that
> >even a "star field" as viewed from Earth is *more* realistic than just
> >random blips, but still...
>
> It seems like the parallax from moving across the solar system would be
> very small. Most of these starts are tens or hundreds of light-years
> away after all.
>
Earth...I thought it was supposed to be a deep-space sort of thing...
Dowe Keller
>The timing depended on the system clock, not realtime clock, so
>running it on a current machine is instant and short-lived chaos at
>best. It is amusing chaos though.
Heh! I've seen a lot of older PC programs that seemed to mimic a Monkeys(TM)
episode when run on newer hardware.
>There is a newer release, apparently rewritten with real timing, and
>for use on newer machines, at
> <http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~orenso/h_prog.htm>.
>It's called "newspace" there.
BTW: if you run Linux, There is a game that comes with KDE called space duel,
that appears to be a Space War clone.
--
do...@sierratel.com Homepage: http://www.sierratel.com/dowe
Project : http://freshmeat.net/projects/vsh
Luis Fernandes
george> In 1985 Bill Seiler of Scotts Valley CA wrote and
george> distributed a version for the original PC 8088 at 4.77
george> mhz running DOS, as "user supported software", an early
george> entry in what what came to be called "shareware".
I have this game if anyone wants it.
About 5 years ago, we were tossing out old computers (we're a
govt. institution and we don't toss out obsolete equipment until we
need the shelf space to store less obsolete equipment) and I played
this game before throwing out an XT.
Here's the README (spacewar.doc)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
S P A C E W A R D I S K
SWC.EXE Version of spacewar for the standard PC Color Graphics
Card in 640 X 200 resolution.
SPACEWAR.DOC SPACEWAR documentation file.
S P A C E W A R G A M E I N S T R U C T I O N S
OBJECT:
Destroy the other ship before it destroys you. Use your
PHOTON TORPEDOS or PHASERS to reduce its SHIELD energy.
A hit with no shields will destroy the ship.
WEAPONS:
PHOTON TORPEDOS The best offsensive weapon. The torpedo takes
one unit of energy to fire and does four units
of damage to your opponent's shields.
PHASERS A good defensive weapon if you are accurate.
The phaser requires one unit of energy to fire
and does two units of damage to your opponent's
shields.
DEFENSE:
IMPULSE ENGINES Used to move your ship in the direction you are
pointing. Remember in space there is no friction,
to slow down you must turn your ship around and thrust
from the other direction. The impulse engines use
about one unit of energy every half second.
CLOAK Used to makes your ship invisible. You can still move,
fire, hyperspace, etc. but no one can see you, including
yourself. Cloaking will use about one unit of energy
every half second.
HYPER SPACE Hyper space is a quick way to get out of a bad
situation fast. You pay an eight energy units to use
hyper space and you don't know where you will end up.
COMMENTS:
You must have energy to use your weapons or defences. The 'E' bar on
your side of the bottom of the screen must display energy. Your 'E'
bar energy is recharged from your Dilithium crystals at one unit every
two seconds.
Use your phasers to shoot incoming photon torpedos. Those torpedos do
alot of damage.
If you hear the warning sound someone's shield energy is below sixteen
units, and they are about to be distroyed. The 'S' bar on your side
of the bottom of the screen indicates you shield energy. Use the
energy balance keys to increase your shield energy and protect yourself.
The energy balance keys for the left player are 'Z' and 'C' and for the
right player '1' and '3'.
Warning, touching the planet will drain your shields very fast so stay
away.
When using Gravity try to get in orbit. Care must be use when firing
torpedoes in orbit. If they don't hit something they will come back
and hit you.
The Left Auto Robot is a good defensive player. He is a crack shot and
hard to destroy.
The Right Auto Robot is an offensive player. He will chase you around
space firing often.
S P A C E W A R F U N C T I O N K E Y S
F1 = Exits to DOS in attract mode.
Switchs to attract mode in when playing the game.
F2 = Starts the game.
F3 = Enables the Left Auto Robot Player.
F4 = Enables the Right Auto Robot Player.
F5 = Places a Gravity hole at the center of the screen.
F6 = Places a Planet at the center of the screen.
F7 = Freezes the action for attract or play mode.
F8 = Toggles the sound on or off.
S P A C E W A R G A M E K E Y S
LEFT PLAYER KEYS
Q = FIRE PHASERS
W = CLOAK SHIP
E = FIRE PHOTON TORPEDO
A = ROTATE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE
S = IMPULSE ENGINES
D = ROTATE CLOCKWISE
Z = MOVE SHIELD ENERGY TO WEAPON ENERGY
X = HYPER SPACE
C = MOVE WEAPON ENERGY TO SHIELD ENERGY
RIGHT PLAYER KEYS
7 = FIRE PHASERS
8 = CLOAK SHIP
9 = FIRE PHOTON TORPEDO
4 = ROTATE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE
5 = IMPULSE ENGINES
6 = ROTATE CLOCKWISE
1 = MOVE SHIELD ENERGY TO WEAPON ENERGY
2 = HYPER SPACE
3 = MOVE WEAPON ENERGY TO SHIELD ENERGY
S P A C E W A R I S U S E R S U P P O R T E D
SPACEWAR is distributed under the USER-SUPPORTED concept.
You are encouraged to copy and share this program with other users.
Please do not remove the copyright or the user-supported notice.
If you enjoy SPACEWAR, and want me to finish SPACE MINEZ your
contribution ($20 suggested) will be appreciated. For a $30
contribution you will receive a floppy disk with the source code
for latest version of SPACEWAR.
USER-SUPPORTED software is based on these three beliefs:
1. The value of software is best assessed by the
user on his own system.
2. Creation of personal computer software can and
should be supported by computing community.
3. That copying of programs should be encourged,
rather than restricted.
If you have any comments, bugs, additions or improvements,
please use the address below to contact me .
Bill Seiler
317 Lockewood Lane
Scotts Valley, CA. 95066
SPACEWAR COPYRIGHT 1985 B SEILER.
Joe Morris
>jcmo...@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris) wrote:
>} As a minor oddity, I see that the sources on the MIT site have a macro
>} package carrying a date of June 1963, but the Spacewar sources themselves
>} are for version 3.1. Digging into my archives produced sources for
>} version 4 (created by Monte Peronas), dated February 1963.
>Interesting. The set of sources I have are:
>spacewar 3.1 24 sep 62 pt.1
>Which I _think_ was the first version with the Samson starfield, but who
>can tell any more..:o)
My listing of Pete's starfield program carries the header comments:
====
stars by prs for s/w 2b
/stars 1 @ 3/13/62, prs
====
(mentally translate the @ above to the Flexowriter center-dot glyph)
suggesting that it first appeared in Spacewar 2b. Whether that version
was ever successful I can't say since I first discovered its (very
time-consuming!) joys in the fall of 1962.
Joe Morris
George Byrd
on "Re: Space War on Channel 4"
>About 5 years ago, we were tossing out old computers (we're a
>govt. institution and we don't toss out obsolete equipment until we
>need the shelf space to store less obsolete equipment) and I played
>this game before throwing out an XT.
>
>Here's the README (spacewar.doc)
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> S P A C E W A R D I S K
Kewl.
Worth mentioning: Seiler's SW was shipped with two versions on the
same floppy, one for original IBM graphics and one for Hercules.
GB
Bernie Cosell
} Bernie Cosell <ber...@fantasyfarm.com> writes:
}
} >Interesting. The set of sources I have are:
}
} >spacewar 3.1 24 sep 62 pt.1
}
} >Which I _think_ was the first version with the Samson starfield, but who
} >can tell any more..:o)
}
} My listing of Pete's starfield program carries the header comments:
}
} ====
} stars by prs for s/w 2b
}
} /stars 1 @ 3/13/62, prs
} ====
}
} (mentally translate the @ above to the Flexowriter center-dot glyph)
}
} suggesting that it first appeared in Spacewar 2b. Whether that version
} was ever successful I can't say since I first discovered its (very
} time-consuming!) joys in the fall of 1962.
Mine is the must the same:
>>> stars by prs for s/2 2b
>>>
>>> 6077/
>>>
>>> /stars 1 <.> 3/13/62, prs.
So I guess what I've got is a version from a few months later. got no clue
what might've changed from one version to the next, or what they did to it
to go from version-2 to version-3.
Remember playing around with these using the test-word switches:
>>> /interesting and often changed contstants
>>>
>>> /symb loc usual value (all instructions are executed,
>>> /and may be replaced by jda or jsp)
>>>
>>> tno, 6, law i 41 /number of torps+1
>>> tvl, 7, sar 4s /torpedoe velocity
>>> rlt, 10, law i 20 /torpedoe reload time
>>> tlf, 11, law i 140 /torpedoe life
>>> foo, 12, -20000 /fuel supply
>>> maa, 13, 10 /spaceship angular acceleration
>>> sac, 14, sar 4s /spaceship acceleration
>>> str, 15, 1 /star capture radius
>>> me1, 16, 6000 /collision "radius"
>>> me2, 17, 3000 /above/2
>>> ddd, 20, -0 /0 to save space for ddt
>>> the, 21, sar 9s /amount of torpedoe space warpage
>>> mhs, 22, law i 10 /number of hyperspace shots
>>> hd1, 23, law i 40 /time in hyperspace before breakout
>>> hd2, 24, law i 100 /time in hyperspace breakout
>>> hd3, 25, law i 200 /time to recharge hyperfield generators
>>> hr1, 26, scl 9s /scale on hyperspatial displacement
>>> hr2, 27, scl 4s /scale on hyperspatially induced velocity
>>> hur, 30, 40000 /hyperspatial uncertancy
>>> ran, 31, 0 /random number
Joe Morris
>jcmo...@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris) wrote:
>} My listing of Pete's starfield program carries the header comments:
>}
>} ====
>} stars by prs for s/w 2b
>}
>} /stars 1 @ 3/13/62, prs
>} ====
>Mine is the must the same:
>>>> stars by prs for s/2 2b
>>>>
>>>> 6077/
>>>>
>>>> /stars 1 <.> 3/13/62, prs.
True (assuming that your first line meant to read "s/w" and not "s/2").
And yes, my copy shows the reset of the origin ("6077/") that I
omitted from my posting.
<pdp-1-syntax>
In the PDP-1 assembler, a slash adjacent to whitespace had two functions:
<whitespace>/ indicated the beginning of a comment (terminated by EOL)
<number>/<whitespace> resets the program counter (i.e., the memory
location for subsequent object text) to <number>
</pdp-1-syntax>
>So I guess what I've got is a version from a few months later. got no clue
>what might've changed from one version to the next, or what they did to it
>to go from version-2 to version-3.
Well...version control wasn't exactly an established science at that
time. I've got listings of the program with my changes in the source,
but when I wrote them I hadn't yet learned to use footprints on the
modified lines or massive header comments explaining them. One result
is that I have no way to figure out where my changes are...
OTOH, if you look at the sources the *real* Spacewar programmers
wrote, with the exception of the malleable constants on the first page
of the listing, there is no chance that someone will describe the
sources as "overcommented."
>Remember playing around with these using the test-word switches:
>>>> /interesting and often changed contstants
>>>>
>>>> /symb loc usual value (all instructions are executed,
>>>> /and may be replaced by jda or jsp)
>>>>
>>>> tno, 6, law i 41 /number of torps+1
>>>> tvl, 7, sar 4s /torpedoe velocity
^^^^^^^^
Was this a typo on your part, or is this the spelling in the source
you have? My source doesn't pull a Dan Quayle on "torpedo". <g>
[remainder snipped]
These weren't "test word" options; each line represented one
18-bit word in low memory that could be altered from the console
with the DEPOSIT switch. (After the drum was delivered one of
its 32 tracks was dedicated to Spacewar, and the program changed
to respond to any keypress on the typewriter by invoking DDT...the
most common purpose of which was to change one of the low-memory
constants.)
There were some parameters that could be tweaked using the 18 bit
switches ("test word") on the console, including some of the low-
core data but at this instant i can't recall exactly which bits
mapped to which options, and at this instant don't have the time
to dig into the listings to figure them out.
The most-used options (gravity on/off, sun on/off, deadly sun on/off,
and rotation velocity/momentum, IIRC) were selected by the program
switches ("sense switches") on the console.
Joe Morris
Bernie Cosell
} Bernie Cosell <ber...@fantasyfarm.com> writes:
}
} >>>> stars by prs for s/2 2b
} >>>>
} >>>> 6077/
} >>>>
} >>>> /stars 1 <.> 3/13/62, prs.
}
} True (assuming that your first line meant to read "s/w" and not "s/2").
Yeah, I typed mine in by hand and didn't proof it carefully enough [ditto
for the 'torpedoe'.
} >Remember playing around with these using the test-word switches:
}
} >>>> /interesting and often changed contstants
} >>>>
} >>>> /symb loc usual value (all instructions are executed,
} >>>> /and may be replaced by jda or jsp)
} >>>>
} >>>> tno, 6, law i 41 /number of torps+1
} >>>> tvl, 7, sar 4s /torpedoe velocity
}
} These weren't "test word" options; each line represented one
} 18-bit word in low memory that could be altered from the console
} with the DEPOSIT switch.
Ah yes, deposit and examine. With luck I could remember: one of the two
switches only worked 'up' and the other only worked 'down' so you couldn't
push one-for-the-other by mistake.
} There were some parameters that could be tweaked using the 18 bit
} switches ("test word") on the console, including some of the low-
} core data but at this instant i can't recall exactly which bits
} mapped to which options, and at this instant don't have the time
} to dig into the listings to figure them out.
Actually, didn't 'deposit' deposit the test-word? so you did
switch-switch-switch to the test word, switch-switch-switch to the address,
then hit 'deposit'.. that's what I meant by the 'test word'. There was no
while-it-was-running testword stuff in the version we used, because it used
the testword for the input [the four switches at each end].
We actually ruined the switches and a colleague and I [hi paul!] did some
midnight surgery on the front panel to move the switches around [so that
the broken ones were in the middle]. what an *awful* job that was: it
appears that what DEC did was wire up the entire front panel, then put it
in place and then connect all the wires internally... the result is that
when you unscrewed the front panel you got about two inches of 'play'.
GRIMBLE GRUMBLE
lamps were wire-ended. When one of them blew,
you had to remove the panel 'cos they were soldered in.
Such immense force was needed to replace the panel that
the mechanical shock damaged a few more. It could be
quite a bit of trying, and very trying too, to get the
panel working again.
Bernie Cosell <ber...@fantasyfarm.com> wrote in message
news:c98bdtogmkb7sa8o0...@news.supernews.net...