Computer Games

From: John Lawson <jpl15_at_netcom.com>
Date: Sun Aug 16 20:20:20 1998

  Okay. I have debated over and over, whether to say what I'm going
to say next. But I can provide a tidbit of interesting info.

  Look: no flames... I feel bad enough as it is. Be *gentle*.

  More than twenty years ago... in '75. I had an E-type Jaguar. I
paid about $2K for said car (4 years earlier) while serving in The
Glorious and Omnipotent Soldiers of His Majesty King Richard the
Nixon. I **loved** that car, lusted for it as a child, finally got
one. (poignant note: nice ones are now going for $40-60K)

  Well. Back then, I was Very Poor, and the Jag was up on blocks
deteriorating and I was taking busses and bumming rides. One of the
regular customers at the little surplus shop I worked for came in
one day describing this *computer* he had gotten, and didn't really
want. At that time... computers were the one item I would have glady
traded spiritual equity to the Dark Side to have...

  "I'll trade ya my old Jag for it!!" I blurted.

  "Deal." he said. (O! to be young again!) [NOT!!!!]

 What he had was a 1962 Bendix G-15, with all the docs and
everything. A real, vacuum-tube, hybrid, drum machine....

The previous owner, seeing the standard 220V plug, had run a long
cable from an outlet, around the building, over the roof, and in the
window. The Bendix was *actually* a 110V device... but someone had
installed the heftier plug due to the 175KVA the thing drew starting
up. Well, my 'friend' got it home, trundled it into the garage,
plugged it into the clothes-dryer outlet, and, thanks to ignoring Mr.
G. S. Ohm, blew out %70 percent of the thousands of germanium glass
diodes it used for passive logic.

 I lived in an upstairs apartment... 900lbs of computer was out of
the question. One of the other guys at work volunteered *his*
garage, and we went to work changing diodes. Some weeks later, we
fired it up... no good. More (hidden) diodes. Again. Nothing...
ooops, drum clamped and motor disconnected... and clock track on
the drum...

  Then it worked! My, were we happy!! it was about 5:30 am on a
sunday, we had worked through the night.. and there it was.. the OS
signed on to the console typewriter.. and it *was* a typewriter..
and IBM Executive that Bendix had fitted solenoids under.. the keys
looked like a ghost was typing when output was taking place.

  Which gets me to the topical thread of this post: even *it* had
two games (on 5-level paper tape).. one was called Nim, and the
other was a version of Tic/Tac/Toe.. which re-drew the whole game
(on the s l o w typewriter) with every move.

  Then, the lights dimmed, all the power supply meters dropped into
low-margin red zones, and the breakers snapped out. Fifteen seconds
later, my friend's sleepy wife stumbled into the Computer Room
(garage) and asked if we wanted some fresh coffee. You can guess
which circuit the coffee-maker was on.

  Sigh. Five years later, he moved to a different state, and we gave
the G-15 to one of the Burroughs divisions for a lobby display. I
lost track of it in the rush of time and career.... what I'd give
to have it back. ((What I'd give to still have my Jag!))

  sniff, sniff... One of these days, maybe I'll find another, on
it's side in some junk yard.... who am I kidding?


  Anyway... just a little bit of history on Computer Gaming.

  Cheers


  John
Received on Sun Aug 16 1998 - 20:20:20 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:30:44 BST