Convergent Technology Workstations and "Rats game"??

[George R. Gonzalez]

Waay back around 1982, I had the rare privilidge to buy one of the
pre-peroduction prototypes of the not too famous Convergent Technology
workstation. It was a OEM product, resold under various brands, maybe
Burroughs, NCR, and Univac? Not sure.

Anyway, at the time it was a STEAL, I got a 8086 CPU, a 14megabyte hard
disk, 256K bytes of RAM, a green-screen hi-res (for the time) monitor, and a
fancy keyboard. (No mouse), (no graphics, eacept downloadable character
font graphics). No case, just open chassis, open monitor, three uncased
power supplies, all screwed onto a sheet of plywood.

It was a STEAL for only $3000.

It had a very advanced operating system for the age. While PC's barely had
PCDOS, this OS had a non-modal screen editor, long file names, a form-based
command processor, a fuss-free local area network and file-sharing,
spreadsheet, good word processor, FORTRAN, BASIC and Pascal compilers
(shoddy Msoft ones). Text windows.,
an awesome assembler, system source code, custom build system options, and
more that I've forgotten.

In My Humble Opinion, a HECK of a lot better computer than the IBM PC.

But as we know the PC won out.

And oh yes, an addictive and fun "rats maze" game that I played for hours
and hours. Pretty good graphics considering it was all character-font
based.

Anybody remember that game? Anybody have the source code to it?

Drool.... drool...

( Eventually after a few years the custom hard disk controller died and I
tossed the whole shebang in the dumpster. Sad, but that seemed like the
only option at the time.)

Regards,

George

[Gene Wirchenko]

"George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote:

>Waay back around 1982, I had the rare privilidge to buy one of the
>pre-peroduction prototypes of the not too famous Convergent Technology
>workstation. It was a OEM product, resold under various brands, maybe
>Burroughs, NCR, and Univac? Not sure.

I worked with one.

[snip]

>It had a very advanced operating system for the age. While PC's barely had
>PCDOS, this OS had a non-modal screen editor, long file names, a form-based
>command processor, a fuss-free local area network and file-sharing,
>spreadsheet, good word processor, FORTRAN, BASIC and Pascal compilers
>(shoddy Msoft ones). Text windows.,
>an awesome assembler, system source code, custom build system options, and
>more that I've forgotten.

The BASIC was interpreted. It was a Q&D port.

>In My Humble Opinion, a HECK of a lot better computer than the IBM PC.

Quite.

>But as we know the PC won out.

>And oh yes, an addictive and fun "rats maze" game that I played for hours
>and hours. Pretty good graphics considering it was all character-font
>based.
>
>Anybody remember that game? Anybody have the source code to it?

I remember it. It got official blessing when CTOS version 4.0
was released. There was Rats 4.0. I have no source from that system.

Novell had (has?) a version of Rats. It was not nearly as good.

>Drool.... drool...

I was late for a bookkeeping class once because I kept playing.
That was the evening that I finally won.

>( Eventually after a few years the custom hard disk controller died and I
>tossed the whole shebang in the dumpster. Sad, but that seemed like the
>only option at the time.)

CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation. It was
logical and easy to read. Among OS routines that could be called was
Crash, which would crash the system. The document included a note
that Crash did not return.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

[Don Quixote]

George R. Gonzalez might have said:

[CT rats game]

>Anybody remember that game? Anybody have the source code to it?

Yes, no.

[LittleBear]

ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote in message news:<3eda6c24...@news.ocis.net>...

> "George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote:
>
> >Waay back around 1982, I had the rare privilidge to buy one of the
> >pre-peroduction prototypes of the not too famous Convergent Technology
> >workstation. It was a OEM product, resold under various brands, maybe
> >Burroughs, NCR, and Univac? Not sure.
>
>

> >It had a very advanced operating system for the age. While PC's barely had
> >PCDOS, this OS had a non-modal screen editor, long file names, a form-based
> >command processor, a fuss-free local area network and file-sharing,
> >spreadsheet, good word processor, FORTRAN, BASIC and Pascal compilers
> >(shoddy Msoft ones). Text windows.,
> >an awesome assembler, system source code, custom build system options, and
> >more that I've forgotten.
>

> >And oh yes, an addictive and fun "rats maze" game that I played for hours
> >and hours. Pretty good graphics considering it was all character-font
> >based.
> >
> >Anybody remember that game? Anybody have the source code to it?
>
>

> CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation. It was
> logical and easy to read. Among OS routines that could be called was
> Crash, which would crash the system. The document included a note
> that Crash did not return.
>

Once upon a time, I worked at Convergent (on the not-quite-famous
Generic Print System)...one of the highlights of my career. I still
remember how horrified I was to go from there to my first "DOS" job,
it felt like a jump into the Stone Age. I'm still in touch with one
of the tech-writers...she'll appreciate the comment.

Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls? wild stuff!

[Gene Wirchenko]

jsei...@aldon.com (LittleBear) wrote:

>ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote in message news:<3eda6c24...@news.ocis.net>...

[snip]

>> CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation. It was
>> logical and easy to read. Among OS routines that could be called was
>> Crash, which would crash the system. The document included a note
>> that Crash did not return.
>>
>Once upon a time, I worked at Convergent (on the not-quite-famous
>Generic Print System)...one of the highlights of my career. I still
>remember how horrified I was to go from there to my first "DOS" job,
>it felt like a jump into the Stone Age. I'm still in touch with one
>of the tech-writers...she'll appreciate the comment.
>
>Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls? wild stuff!

...and 99 factories.

[Don Quixote]

LittleBear might have said:

>Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls? wild stuff!

Oh yeah!

[Charlie Goodman]

plus

scrabble, snakes, centepede,

the best games we had at work other than baseball on cyber console

[dwight elvey]

Hi
I played Rats. We used these machines because they came
with a few multi-bus slots that we could use to develop
custom hardware. I wrote an implementation of Forth ( FIG )
for this machine. I used Forth to debug the hardware I was
making. It was to control a CO2 laser that bonded 3 mil
wires to deal with overflow wires. It had a 24 inch travel
XY table that I could position to 0.0005" using DC servos.
The actual operational software was written in PASCAL.
The machine we had used Shugart hard drives. I remember
when one of them failed. I scoped it out and found the
failure to be related to the stepper. It would stop working
after about 10 minutes. I carefully documented the failure
and exactly how to get it to fail on the RMA ( in the space
provided ). Two weeks later, we got the drive back and
installed it in the machine. 10 minutes later it stopped
working again. I hand carried it over to the Shugart building
where the repairs were being done. I showed them the careful
notes on how it failed so they could recreate it. The
person at the desk said that the technician never saw the
note because that was only for paper work. The only thing
they did was replace the drive belt and run it for a
quick surface test. I gave them a piece of my mind and
left with a tech manual. A little later, I replaced the
intermittent transistor.
I regret to say that I have nothing other than the memories.
I loved to play Rats.
Dwight

"George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote in message news:<p8oCa.535733$Si4.4...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>...

[ccd...@gmail.com]

Let's see, a bit of thread necromancy here, 13 years later. We were developing translation tools in 1983 and for a while we had the CT terminals as part of our lineup. Rats was so addictive; I hacked into the image files and replaced the big rats with little ones, and the little rats with pixels. It made the game so much more challenging. I discovered that if you navigated yourself to a zone opposite a rat factory but with a wall between you, the rats would still sense you and shoot like crazy, invariably blowing up the factory in the process.

[dad...@gmail.com]

I remember the game fondly as well. I worked as a district admin in the Atlanta Regional office and spent many hours after work and during lunch hour playing the game. Would love to get a copy to play now.

If you do find a copy / version that would play I would be ecstatic...

Dave

[Gene Wirchenko]

>I remember the game fondly as well. I worked as a district admin in the Atlanta Regional office and spent many hours after work and during lunch hour playing the game. Would love to get a copy to play now.
>
>If you do find a copy / version that would play I would be ecstatic...

Rats was great. I remember staying late and nearly late for an
accounting class, but I finally won a game. Then, I got really good.

Novell's rats game (nlsnipes) was nowhere near as good, but I do
have it. I just tried to run it under DOSBox, but it wants share. I
have had it running before; I do not remember what I did.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

[dcwe...@gmail.com]

Just following up to a comment, a mere 15 years later — I thought that Rats was a simple, but wonderful, game, and I spent many hours at it. Even now, I'm sorry that it's not in the Play Store.

[cyril.r...@gmail.com]

Ahhh Rats! One of the first video I played as kids ... on CTOS while dad compiling program during weekend.
I would love to find the source or binary in some sort.

Thx for pointing to dos/snipes, I would not have figured it out without this post.

[cyril.r...@gmail.com]

Has anyone a good screenshot/picture? I would like to mimic the look&feel in snipes.
https://github.com/Davidebyzero/Snipes
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49073

[cyril.r...@gmail.com]

I do not know if this is one of you but found some rare screenshot here
https://flic.kr/p/5XkxY2
https://flic.kr/p/5XpR25
https://flic.kr/p/5XkvD6
https://flic.kr/p/5XpF1L

[steve....@gmail.com]

I loved the Generic Print System! I developed and successfully sold a sysyem I called "Print Master" that used it. It's primary function was being able to print 132 column mainframe output landscape on A4 laser printer paper. What fun! Those were the days!

[Peter Flass]

Sounds interesting.

--
Pete

[Dan Espen]

Where I worked we did 4 up on US Letter.
No special software was required although I did create an ISPF panel
to take the JCL coding out of the users hands.

The 4 up printing was surprisingly readable on the Xerox 9700 and
all of IBM's PSF printers (3811, 3820).

--
Dan Espen

[Gerard Schildberger]

(Regarding the Rat's game ...)


Attributed to Lily Tomlin and/or Robert Reisner:


“The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win,
you're still a rat.”

________________________________________ Gerard Schildbergr

[cyril.r...@gmail.com]

hi,

do you remember what was the behavior difference between the rat and the small one (bug?)?

I try to write my own version of the game ...

[Peter Flass]

<cyril.r...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday, 26 May 2020 00:18:15 UTC+3, Gerard Schildberger wrote:

> Hi
> do you know what was the behavior difference between the rat and the
> small one (bug?)? I try to re-write my own version of the game ...
>

Cyril, probably asking once would be enough. ;-)

--
Pete

[cyril.r...@gmail.com]

Yep indeed ... still fighting with google groups :D

[George T Peppel]

We called them "anklebiters" at Burroughs. I do remember they were fast but I am forgetting their full behavior.

[Carlos E.R.]

Didn't you notice that you are replying to a thread from two decades ago?

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Jan van den Broek]

2023-05-03, Carlos E.R. <robin_...@es.invalid> schrieb:
>
> Didn't you notice that you are replying to a thread from two decades ago?

In my opinion the error is Googlegroups allowing this.

[Schnipp]

--
"There's an eyeball in my Martini"

Jan v/d Broek balg...@sdf.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

[Kerr-Mudd, John]

On Wed, 3 May 2023 14:08:18 -0000 (UTC)
Jan van den Broek <balg...@sdf.org> wrote:

> 2023-05-03, Carlos E.R. <robin_...@es.invalid> schrieb:
> >
> > Didn't you notice that you are replying to a thread from two decades ago?
>
> In my opinion the error is Googlegroups allowing this.
>
> [Schnipp]
>

But I'd welcome a rewrite of the game to.. well for me. MSDOS. I might
tackle it myself, if had more of a spec.

Ah
https://convergentaws.blogspot.com/2022/02/finding-and-implementing-rats-of-maze.html
has a lot of info. Maybe later.
--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

[Peter Flass]

Jan van den Broek <balg...@sdf.org> wrote:

> 2023-05-03, Carlos E.R. <robin_...@es.invalid> schrieb:
>>
>> Didn't you notice that you are replying to a thread from two decades ago?
>
> In my opinion the error is Googlegroups allowing this.
>
> [Schnipp]
>

Right, or at least it should give a warning “the message you’re replying to
is more than xxx days old, do you want to continue.” Google should hire us
old-timers to fix their code.

--
Pete

[Charlie Gibbs]

Or not. Considering how far Google has insinuated its tentacles into
our lives, the last thing I'd want to do is help them in any way.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | You can't save the earth
\ / <cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid> | unless you're willing to
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | make other people sacrifice.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Dogbert the green consultant

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 3 May 2023 13:34:38 -0700
Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Google should hire us old-timers to fix their code.

Google (also Amazon and Meta) have been pinging me about working for
them on and off for the last decade, apparently I'm talent they'd like to
acquire. I haven't been desperate enough yet.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <20230504055155.02ec...@eircom.net>, Ahem A
Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> on Thu, 4 May 2023 at 05:51:55 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

>On Wed, 3 May 2023 13:34:38 -0700
>Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Google should hire us old-timers to fix their code.
>
> Google (also Amazon and Meta) have been pinging me about working for
>them on and off for the last decade, apparently I'm talent they'd like to
>acquire. I haven't been desperate enough yet.
>

Or you are dealing with people with evil intentions.....

as you were.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Vir Campestris]

On 03/05/2023 21:34, Peter Flass wrote:
> Right, or at least it should give a warning “the message you’re replying to
> is more than xxx days old, do you want to continue.” Google should hire us
> old-timers to fix their code.

I had a perfectly good job. I stopped when I decided I had enough money
to do the things I wanted, but might not have enough time.

I imagine that's true of a lot of people.

Andy

[greymaus]

A bit of a story from many, many years ago.

The machine was not working, so a learned man came from afar,
contemplated it for a while, then turned a screw, the machine started,
and the learned man presented his bill

"How can you justify charging so much for turning a screw?."#

"I knew which screw to turn."

Then there was the hospitals where someone noticed that patients died
between 6 and 7. The cleaners would plug out things to plug in vacuum
cleaners.

equally old


--
grey...@mail.com
Where is our money gone, dude?

[Mike Spencer]

greymaus <ma...@darkstar.org> writes:

> A bit of a story from many, many years ago.
>
> The machine was not working, so a learned man came from afar,
> contemplated it for a while, then turned a screw, the machine started,
> and the learned man presented his bill
>
> "How can you justify charging so much for turning a screw?."

The bill presented is for $101.00. The defence is, "One dollar for
turning the screw; $100 for knowing which screw to turn."


In the more grease-stained trades,

s/turned a screw/whacked it with a hammer/

and so on.

> "I knew which screw to turn."

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On 11 May 2023 15:09:46 -0300

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

> The bill presented is for $101.00. The defence is, "One dollar for
> turning the screw; $100 for knowing which screw to turn."
>
>
> In the more grease-stained trades,
>
> s/turned a screw/whacked it with a hammer/

That was the version I first heard - with an extra zero in the bill
and without the 1 at the end - the figures were $50 for call out and hitting
with hammer, $950 for knowing where to hit.

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-05-11 21:57, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On 11 May 2023 15:09:46 -0300
> Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>
>> The bill presented is for $101.00. The defence is, "One dollar for
>> turning the screw; $100 for knowing which screw to turn."
>>
>>
>> In the more grease-stained trades,
>>
>> s/turned a screw/whacked it with a hammer/
>
> That was the version I first heard - with an extra zero in the bill
> and without the 1 at the end - the figures were $50 for call out and hitting
> with hammer, $950 for knowing where to hit.

It's an old story that have been around in multiple variants for a long
time.

Just google for "where to tap", and you'll find a bunch.

Johnny

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

I'm pretty sure it was ancient when I heard it circa 1980.

[greymaus]

This is alt.FOLKLORE.computers. just a thought from olden time that
came to me .

[Sn!pe]

Percussive maintenance was certainly a thing in 1969.

--
^Ï^. – Sn!pe – My pet rock Gordon just is.

<https://youtu.be/_kqytf31a8E>

[Joe Makowiec]

On 11 May 2023 in alt.folklore.computers, greymaus wrote:

> On 2023-05-11, Vir Campestris <vir.cam...@invalid.invalid>
> wrote:
>> On 03/05/2023 21:34, Peter Flass wrote:
>>> Right, or at least it should give a warning “the message
>>> you’re replying to is more than xxx days old, do you want to
>>> continue.” Google should hire us old-timers to fix their code.
>>
>> I had a perfectly good job. I stopped when I decided I had enough
>> money to do the things I wanted, but might not have enough time.
>>
>> I imagine that's true of a lot of people.
>>
>> Andy
>
> A bit of a story from many, many years ago.

...

> "How can you justify charging so much for turning a screw?."#
>
> "I knew which screw to turn."

I've heard a version of the story attributed to Charles Proteus
Steinmetz. He had gone his own way, perhaps nudged a bit in that
direction by General Electric. But nobody understood his material* as
he did, so he got called back in. They gave him the specs and plans
for the device they were having trouble with. He returned home and
contemplated the problem for a couple of days, came back, grabbed a
piece of chalk, marked the device, dropped a bill for ${large number}
on the table and left.

A few days later, comes a missive from GE - they want an /itemized/
bill. (Bean counters are always with us.) So Steinmetz sent the bill:
- $100 placing chalk mark on device
- ${large number} - $100 knowing where to put the chalk mark

GE, at least according to this story, paid.

* High voltage electricity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz

Ah, not quite. Footnote 13 of that article refers to this article:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/charles-proteus-steinmetz-the-wizard-of-schenectady-51912022

Apparently, the victim was Henry Ford, not GE.

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

[Charlie Gibbs]

On 2023-05-12, Sn!pe <snip...@gmail.com> wrote:

> greymaus <ma...@darkstar.org> wrote:
>
>> On 2023-05-12, Johnny Billquist <b...@softjar.se> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2023-05-11 21:57, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11 May 2023 15:09:46 -0300
>>>> Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The bill presented is for $101.00. The defence is, "One dollar for
>>>>> turning the screw; $100 for knowing which screw to turn."
>>>>>
>>>>> In the more grease-stained trades,
>>>>>
>>>>> s/turned a screw/whacked it with a hammer/
>>>>
>>>> That was the version I first heard - with an extra zero in the bill
>>>> and without the 1 at the end - the figures were $50 for call out and
>>>> hitting with hammer, $950 for knowing where to hit.
>>>
>>> It's an old story that have been around in multiple variants for a long
>>> time.
>>>
>>> Just google for "where to tap", and you'll find a bunch.
>>

>> This is alt.FOLKLORE.computers. just a thought from olden time that
>> came to me .
>
> Percussive maintenance was certainly a thing in 1969.

I've heard it referred to as a "broad-spectrum seismic impulse".

[Peter Flass]

The six-inch-drop was a way to fix terminals and PCs au aulden days.

--
Pete

[Charlie Gibbs]

On 2023-05-12, Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Sn!pe <snip...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> greymaus <ma...@darkstar.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2023-05-12, Johnny Billquist <b...@softjar.se> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2023-05-11 21:57, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 11 May 2023 15:09:46 -0300
>>>>> Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The bill presented is for $101.00. The defence is, "One dollar for
>>>>>> turning the screw; $100 for knowing which screw to turn."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In the more grease-stained trades,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> s/turned a screw/whacked it with a hammer/
>>>>>
>>>>> That was the version I first heard - with an extra zero in the bill
>>>>> and without the 1 at the end - the figures were $50 for call out and
>>>>> hitting with hammer, $950 for knowing where to hit.
>>>>
>>>> It's an old story that have been around in multiple variants for a long
>>>> time.
>>>>
>>>> Just google for "where to tap", and you'll find a bunch.
>>>

>>> This is alt.FOLKLORE.computers. just a thought from olden time that
>>> came to me .
>>
>> Percussive maintenance was certainly a thing in 1969.
>
> The six-inch-drop was a way to fix terminals and PCs au aulden days.

The contacts on the circuit boards in our mainframe terminals
(Uniscope 200) weren't gold-plated, and would often corrode.
A quick once-over with a pencil eraser usually fixed things.
(You'd have to be careful doing a six-inch drop - they weighed
50 pounds.)

[Mike Spencer]

> Percussive maintenance was certainly a thing in 1969.

I had an IBM 19" CRT that, circa 2010, responded to percussive
maintenance. Eventually I took it apart and firmly attached the loose
item. No more percussion until last month when I retired it.

[Niklas Karlsson]

On 2023-05-11, greymaus <ma...@darkstar.org> wrote:
>
> Then there was the hospitals where someone noticed that patients died
> between 6 and 7. The cleaners would plug out things to plug in vacuum
> cleaners.

Twenty years or so ago when I was doing hardware support, I had a
customer whose network switch was ceasing to function at roughly the
same time every night, then would come back to life in the morning. I
strongly suspected it was a case of a cleaner unplugging it, but in the
end, it turned out to be a case of the light switch being wired to the
outlet the switch fed from. Apparently this is not uncommon in US homes,
and his office was in a converted home.

Niklas
--
"BASH! THUD! POW! OCTOTHORPE!"
-- SteveD

[Charlie Gibbs]

One of the favourite stories I remember from this froup is about a
system that would go down overnight. When the staff came in in the
morning, they would find one or more disk drives offline. Hardware
testing revealed no problems that would make a drive spontaneously
go offline. Finally someone set up a cot in the machine room and
stayed overnight. In the middle of the night he saw a janitor come
in to clean the machine room. The janitor would push his cart between
the two rows of disk drives, and would occasionally bump into one,
sometimes hitting the "offline" button.

The solution was not, as one would initially think, to move the
disk drive rows farther part. Rather, they moved them closer
together so the janitor couldn't get his cart between them at all.
Problem solved.