GT40 MOONLANDER (waw Re: The Computer Museum)

Eric Smith

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Sep 23, 1996, 3:00:00 AM9/23/96

to Megan

In article <DxoL1...@world.std.com> m...@world.std.com (Megan) writes:
>
> we...@alingo.zk3.dec.com (Eric Werme) writes:
>
> >>JR>>I would add Moon Lander (inspiration for the Atari coin-op Lunar
> >>JR>Lander) >to this list. It ran on a GT-40, which was a PDP-11/05 with
> >>JR>a VT-11 vector >display configured to be used as a graphics terminal.
> >>JR>Al Kossow gave me the >source.

For what it's worth, the attributions on this got lost. It was my original
text, posted March 2nd in response to Arnold G Reinhold's posting suggesting
software that should be preserved in a museum. I also suggested SPACEWAR
by Steve Russell; the Computer Museum has it.

> I got a copy from the author, who also joined me in getting it working
> on a GT44 system at WPI back in about 1976. We had to make a few
> changes because of some system problems. Anyway, I still have the
> source (as well as the sources for the roses program).

Al Kossow told me that at one point (perhaps more recently than 1976),
Jack Burness no longer had the source, and got a copy from Al.

It would be interesting to compare the sources you have with Al's. His sources
as well as some binaries from John Holden are available from my GT40 page:

http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/gt40/

Unfortunately there's not much else there at the moment; contributions will
be gratefully accepted!

Cheers,
Eric

Alan Frisbie

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Sep 28, 1996, 3:00:00 AM9/28/96

to

In article <ERIC.96Se...@goonsquad.spies.com>,
er...@goonsquad.spies.com (Eric Smith) writes:

<GT-40, GT-44>

> It would be interesting to compare the sources you have with Al's. His sources
> as well as some binaries from John Holden are available from my GT40 page:
>
> http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/gt40/
>
> Unfortunately there's not much else there at the moment; contributions will
> be gratefully accepted!

I have a VS-60 at home, along with Lunar Lander for it.
This is the large-screen follow-on to the GT40. It uses
a PDP-11/34 running RSX-11M. If anyone needs the source
code for it, I would be happy to supply it.

Unfortunately, my VS-60 (GT-48) appears to be a bit sick
(it fails some diagnostics) and I am having trouble finding
spare boards for it. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Alan E. Frisbie Fri...@Flying-Disk.Com
-- Flying Disk Systems, Inc.
-- 4759 Round Top Drive (213) 256-2575 (voice)
-- Los Angeles, CA 90065 (213) 258-3585 (FAX)

Al Kossow

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Sep 28, 1996, 3:00:00 AM9/28/96

to

From article <52kqkj$k...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, by sho...@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa):
>
> Anybody care to take a stab at the fraction of time that GT40's
> spent running something *other* than Lunar Lander? My 8.5" x 11"

The Air Force Avionics lab had a bunch of GT44's that were used to
front end a dual processor KI10 in a simulation system. They were
also fun to use for text editing with the VT11 teco.

Tim Shoppa

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Sep 29, 1996, 3:00:00 AM9/29/96

to

In article <1996Sep28....@flying-disk.com>,

Alan Frisbie <fri...@flying-disk.com> wrote:
>I have a VS-60 at home, along with Lunar Lander for it.

I only once got to see a GT40 - and it was running, believe it or not,
Lunar Lander.

Anybody care to take a stab at the fraction of time that GT40's
spent running something *other* than Lunar Lander? My 8.5" x 11"

color glossy "PDP-11 Computer Family Products and Services" book, June
1975, has a nice color picture of a wooden model of a LEM at
the beginning of the "Graphics and Signal Processing Peripherals"
section :-). Was "Lunar Lander" all the rage inside DEC at the
time?

This particular book/sales brochure goes overboard in "cuteness".
It has wooden toy-like painted mockups of PDP-11's, terminals, lab
equipment, and little wooden people without arms (kinda like those
Fisher-Price people) in pictures throughout it. Why they sat
all those people without arms in front of DECwriter's I'm not sure.
Maybe they were supposed to peck at the keyboards with their nose?

Tim.

Mark Hittinger

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Sep 29, 1996, 3:00:00 AM9/29/96

to

sho...@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa) writes:
>In article <1996Sep28....@flying-disk.com>,
>Alan Frisbie <fri...@flying-disk.com> wrote:
>>I have a VS-60 at home, along with Lunar Lander for it.
>I only once got to see a GT40 - and it was running, believe it or not,
>Lunar Lander.
>Anybody care to take a stab at the fraction of time that GT40's
>spent running something *other* than Lunar Lander?

I remember seeing the gt-40 at Georgia Tech busy with a "spacewar"
implementation - anybody have sources for that? :-)

Later

Mark Hittinger
Netcom/Dallas
bu...@freebsd.netcom.com

Eric Werme

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Oct 1, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/1/96

to

a...@goonsquad.spies.com (Al Kossow) writes:

>From article <52kqkj$k...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, by sho...@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa):
>>

>> Anybody care to take a stab at the fraction of time that GT40's

>> spent running something *other* than Lunar Lander? My 8.5" x 11"

I (and others) wrote terminal emulators which we used to talking to
the KI10 based TOPS-20 system used to design the KL10. They were used
for a lot of CAM work. (Yes, that was KI10 and TOPS-20 in the same
sentence.) I also ported my ROSES program from C-MU (where we called
it PETAL) to RT11 and then to standalone GT40. That too was a commonly
used program. If I ever have time I want to dress up my X11 version
and get that out.
--
<> Eric (Ric) Werme <> Why Government Doesn't Work! For details <>
<> <we...@zk3.dec.com> <> visit http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/ <>

Carl J. Appellof

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Oct 2, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/2/96

to

Tim Shoppa wrote:

> Anybody care to take a stab at the fraction of time that GT40's
> spent running something *other* than Lunar Lander?

I know the GT40 we had at Wesleyan University had the mountains
permanently burned into the screen.

The one I used in the chem department at the University of Washington
also spent some of its time playing spacewar (almost wore out the toggle
switches) and chess (I took the standard pdp-11 chess program and added
GT40 graphics.)

Now and then, we would also use it for drawing and rotating pictures of
molecules.

Megan

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Oct 3, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/3/96

to

bu...@freebsd.netcom.com (Mark Hittinger) writes:

>I remember seeing the gt-40 at Georgia Tech busy with a "spacewar"
>implementation - anybody have sources for that? :-)

I have a friend who was a fellow student at WPI during the
'70s who wrote a version of spacewar which ran off the
switches, but was also conditionalized to run with a DR11-C
wired to a set of boxes which provided the correct bit
for control. There was also a console switch setting
which enabled or disabled gravity, or enabled or disabled
asteroids...

He did a great job with it... I think I have a set of sources
for it somewhere... but I'd have to contact him to see if
he's okay with releasing it. Also, we'd have to come up with
some sort of schematic for the boxes... I still have my DR11-C
and home-made boxes for when I had it working on a VT11 at
home...

Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer

Megan

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Oct 3, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/3/96

to

we...@alingo.zk3.dec.com (Eric Werme) writes:

>I (and others) wrote terminal emulators which we used to talking to
>the KI10 based TOPS-20 system used to design the KL10. They were used
>for a lot of CAM work. (Yes, that was KI10 and TOPS-20 in the same
>sentence.) I also ported my ROSES program from C-MU (where we called
>it PETAL) to RT11 and then to standalone GT40. That too was a commonly
>used program. If I ever have time I want to dress up my X11 version
>and get that out.

Hey Ric... I think I still have a copy of the -10 end of the roses
program as well as the teco file which ran the demo... somewhere...

If you don't have these parts, I'll look for them...

I also wrote a program a number of years ago which did the host-end
protocol for the down-line load of a GT40... the program (I called
it GTLOAD) ran on a pdp-11 running RT... I'll have to look for
that as well...