PDP-1Original Spacewar in Java Emulator
Mr Nukem
running on a PDP-1 emulator in Java. Pretty cool to be able to play
this in a browser. Wonder what other PDP-1 goodies we could see using
this emulator?
http://spacewar.oversigma.com/
From the readme file on the web site:
Spacewar! was conceived in 1961 by Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and
Wayne Wiitanen. It was first realized on the PDP-1 in 1962 by Stephen
Russell, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and Martin Graetz, together with
Alan Kotok, Steve Piner, and Robert A Saunders. Spacewar! is in the
public domain, but this credit paragraph must accompany all
distributed versions of the program.
This is the original version! Martin Graetz provided us with a printed
version of the source. We typed in in again - it was about 40 pages
long - and re-assembled it with a PDP-1 assembler written in PERL. The
resulting binary runs on a PDP-1 emulator written as a Java applet.
The code is extremely faithful to the original. There are only two
changes. 1)The spaceships have been made bigger and 2) The overall
timing has been special cased to deal with varying machine speeds.
The sources are available in a subdirectory called "sources".
The "a", "s", "d", "f" keys control one of the spaceships. The "k",
"l", ";", "'" keys control the other. The controls are spin one way,
spin the other, thrust, and fire.
Howard S Shubs
<41496f77-6fd9-4e43...@v15g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
Mr Nukem <mrn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just found this cool page that has the Original 1962 Spacewar Game
> running on a PDP-1 emulator in Java. Pretty cool to be able to play
> this in a browser. Wonder what other PDP-1 goodies we could see using
> this emulator?
>
> http://spacewar.oversigma.com/
The "screen" isn't round! Realism! I demand realism!
--
Don't bother with piddly crap like "gun control".
Life is 100% fatal. Ban it.
Mensanator
The commercial version was better.
The two ships were a bit more abstact, something like
.
/ \ <-- main ship
| | <-- engines
.
/ \ <-- main ship
/ \ <-- engines
And, if I recall correctly, there were 3 buttons: left thrust,
right thrust and fire. You went straight went both thrusts
applied and turned by using one engine.
A shot that struck an engine only destroyed that particular
engine, so the ship could only fly in circles.
Once I found myself dead still with both engines gone.
When my opponent zoomed in for the kill, he foolishly
approached me from the front and I fired before he did
and got him even though I was unable to move.
And the star was optional and gravity had a choice of on,
off or negative (which was a riot).
Joe Morris
>> Just found this cool page that has the Original 1962 Spacewar Game
>> running on a PDP-1 emulator in Java. Pretty cool to be able to play
>> this in a browser. Wonder what other PDP-1 goodies we could see using
>> this emulator?
>>
>> http://spacewar.oversigma.com/
Is this the real "original"? My listings are from late 1962/early 1963 at
version 4.4 (the version built by Monte Peronas, and another where I added
some trivial hacks); if that is the original version (which I never saw) the
one I first ran across also had hyperspace you could enter by pressing a
button. There was a nonzero probability of death in hyperspace (higher each
time you used it), and if you did return it was with random position and
velocity; I have no idea when that feature appeared.
And you could set options with the six sense switches...I don't have my
notes handy, but IIRC some of the options were...
suppress background stars
Deadly sun
Light sun gravity
Spaceship rotation uses angular momentum
One perhaps unobvious feature of the versions I've used on a PDP-1 (and
which I see was included in this Java implementation) is that the background
of stars represents the real sky, and moves slowly until the program is
stopped. Pete Sampson coded the data for the version I have, and I presume
that he was responsible for the original as well since my listing (with 468
individual stars, most commented with their Flamsteed number) is dated
3/13/1962 and titled "stars by prs for s/w 2b".
>
> The "screen" isn't round! Realism! I demand realism!
If you want that much realism, remember that the usable screen was square
with a circular mask, but the outline of the CRT housing was
hexagonal...thus the DECUS logo.
Joe Morris
Charles Richmond
How about the "hyperspace" button???
--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond richmond at plano dot net |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Charles Richmond
For more information on Spacewar!, see the web page of an
article from the August 1981 issue of "Creative Computing":
http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/creative/SpacewarOrigin.html
Howard S Shubs
"Joe Morris" <j.c.m...@verizon.net> wrote:
> If you want that much realism, remember that the usable screen was square
> with a circular mask, but the outline of the CRT housing was
> hexagonal...thus the DECUS logo.
Dang! I suppose I was thinking more of the emulation they used to have
at the Computer Museum in Boston.
Al Kossow
http://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp1/papertapeImages/
C versions of PDP-1 and TX-0 simulators are supported in MESS
http://mess.toseciso.org/mess:drivers:pdp1:pdp1
http://mess.toseciso.org/mess:drivers:tx0:tx0_8kw
Mensanator
I seem to have forgotten about that after 30 years.
>
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