What are you doing with your PiDP-1

[Angelo Papenhoff/aap]

Now that the first people have gotten their kits, we're really interested in hearing about what your doing with it! Also what troubles you may be running into that we have to fix, or what extra guidance would be helpful.

Cheers,

Angelo

[Bill E]

Nothing, since I don't have mine yet. I have to say, communication about kit shipment has been nonexistent, and emails go unanswered. How many have been shipped?

Bill

[Malcolm Ray]

For what it's worth:

Oscar emailed me on 12 Sep to say that kits were available, and again on 17 Sep to inform me that mine had shipped.

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[Norbert Landsteiner]

Hi all,

I missed the previous messages, because mail forwarding from Gmail didn't work, but I'm catching up and should be able to respond to any questions.

(The workflow for mail forwarding in Gmail seems to be like this: in Gmail go to settings; go to All Settings; navigate to forwarding tab; activate forwarding and enter email address to forward to; save, everything seems fine; go to settings again; go to All Settings; navigate to forwarding tab; there's now a "verify address" button; click; check your email and follow the link, admire the "verified" page; in Gmail go to settings; go to All Settings; navigate to forwarding tab; there is no indication of the forwarding address and forwarding is set to off; activate forwarding again and enter the forwarding address again; save again. – Totally simple and intuitive!)

PDP-1 related things I've been planning to do for quite a while:

1) Maybe a PDP-1 programming guide (as a series of posts on my blog, https://masswerk.at/nowgobang/ )

Please let me know if there's any interest!

In the meantime, the project log for ICSS maybe of interest: https://www.masswerk.at/rc2016/10/

(This was a RetroChallenge project, where the principal idea is to do a retro-computing related project over a month and let other participate in your progress. So the idea of this (b)log was to get you going and let you follow along without any particular knowledge of the PDP-1.)

2) As for actually doing something (prob. in emulation), a single player space game for the PDP-1: a simplified version of https://www.masswerk.at/gravioroids/

This is in essence a crossover of a Spacewar! with multiple gravitational attractors and Computer Space with a flavor of Asteroids sprinkled on, where we don't shoot the asteroids (these are just gravitational objects), but the saucers. Three of the most classic video games in one, what could be better? :-)

(This has a bit of a backstory: when this was new, Lyle Bickley from the CHM asked, if this was PDP-1 code – and I really thought that it should be quite obvious that this couldn't be so. But, thinking about this, I came to the conclusion that it actually may be done: ICSS is running at 60 frames per seconds and a game should be running fluently at anything like 20 fps or better. So, with lookup tables for trigonometry and reducing the amount of dots to display – which is really the major bottleneck for any PDP-1 game –, like drawing only every second dot in a line, it should be possible… Of course, there's no chance of drawing a gravity map and there will be no splash screen, high-score list, and no sound, but the basic game may be done. I'm actually curious about how many simultaneous screen objects may be practically maintained this way. So, challenge accepted – not immediately, but hopefully soon.)

Cheers,

Norbert

[Rolf Peters]

Hello Angelo,

Just finished mine (although I have to build the controllers yet), now I am looking around trying the demo's, figuring out how to operate the PiDP-1 :-)

Regards Rolf

Op donderdag 18 september 2025 om 18:47:23 UTC+2 schreef Angelo Papenhoff/aap:

[John Kennedy]

Blowing minds in my office with my PDP-1 rack!

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Bill,

On Friday, September 19, 2025 at 12:33:58 PM UTC+2 wjegr...@gmail.com wrote:

Nothing, since I don't have mine yet. I have to say, communication about kit shipment has been nonexistent, and emails go unanswered. How many have been shipped?

I think we're at about 65 or so now, Jose is doing five or six a day. Keep in mind, we're a tiny team! But Jose sent out emails to everyone on the wait list, it may be that his emails went into the spam folder?

To make sure,  I've just asked him to contact you & ensure you are on the list!

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Glenn Babecki]

I thought I got on the PiDP-1 mailing list rather late because I was sort of half following the development newsletter reports indicating "it will be available any day now..." I put my name on the list and Jose confirmed I was on the early-bird list around 6/25. Oscar sent an email on 9/10 asking if I "really wanted one" so I responded indeed. Next thing I knew I got a DHL notice saying it was shipped Friday 9/12 and it was delivered Monday 9/15.

I've inventoried the kit but haven't had a chance to start constructing it yet.  Delivery caught me off guard so I haven't acquired a processor yet, but construction is in the queue.  I'm retired and there still isn't enough time in a day.

Early thoughts on projects include possible mini rack for the frame, out boarding an HDMI LCD display for the Type 30, and perhaps a more ergonomic set of Spacewar controllers.  Then there's all the software fun and frivolity.

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[Bob Darlington]

I'm patient.   If it's a year from now, that's a year more cool stuff and work folks put into it to make it better.   I love building kits but this is one that I'm not super jazzed up about getting early.  It can wait.

-Bob

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