14 Jan
2020
14 Jan
'20
8:54 a.m.
Hello,
https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/spacetravel.html says:
Later we fixed Space Travel so it would run under
(PDP-7) Unix instead
of standalone, and did also a very faithful copy of the Spacewar game
I have a file with ".TITLE PDP-9/GRAPHIC II VERSION OF SPACEWAR". (I
hope it will go public soon.) It seems to be a standalone program, and
it's written in something close to MACRO-9 syntax. I'm guessing the
Bell Labs version would have been written using the Unix assembler.
Best regards,
Lars Brinkhoff
14 Jan
14 Jan
4:59 p.m.
Lars Brinkhoff writes:
Hello,
https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/spacetravel.html says:
I have a copy of double-sun space war (sorry, just the binary) for the
PDP-15/GRIN-2 on DEC fan-fold paper tape with the boot loader written
in octal on the leader. Not sure if it's of any use but it's a nice
historical artifact from the BTL explorer scout days.
Jon
Later we fixed Space Travel so it would run under
(PDP-7) Unix instead
of standalone, and did also a very faithful copy of the Spacewar game
I have a file with ".TITLE PDP-9/GRAPHIC II VERSION OF SPACEWAR". (I
hope it will go public soon.) It seems to be a standalone program, and
it's written in something close to MACRO-9 syntax. I'm guessing the
Bell Labs version would have been written using the Unix assembler.
Best regards,
Lars Brinkhoff
5:19 p.m.
Lars Brinkhoff writes:
Jon Steinhart wrote:
Now that's an interesting question. Being paper tape, it's from the days
in which you could see a bit with the naked eye. Another industrial
artifact that I have somewhere is a paper tape reader, but it would take
time away from skiing to get it working. Does anybody know if the
Computer History Museum or equivalent has a DEC paper tape reader that
works? I could probably lay it out on a scanner but that would be
tedious. Might actually be best, it's over 45 years old and probably
fragile.
I have a copy of double-sun space war (sorry,
just the binary) for the
PDP-15/GRIN-2 on DEC fan-fold paper tape with the boot loader written
in octal on the leader. Not sure if it's of any use
I'm very interested in this! Is the paper tape readable somehow? 
5:25 p.m.
I built a paper tape reader at one point, lord knows were it is. It's
pretty easy -- Two pieces of wood to hold the paper with a mm or 2 shaved
off the bottom of one of them the width of the paper tape. Then 9 parallel
holes and put optical transistors connected to a 5 volt supply via a series
resistor, running into a parallel port the 4th one is used as a strobe to
pick of the 8 data bits and small light bulb on the other piece of wood.
You then just pull it through and its self strobing. Set up a cat <
/dev/parallel > /tmp/foo
Your basically done, you'll need to pick reasonable values for the
resistors to that match your transistors to switch on/off if the light
passed through the hole. I've forgotten what I used, it something I had in
the parts box.
On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 12:16 PM Lars Brinkhoff <lars(a)nocrew.org> wrote:
Jon Steinhart wrote:
I have a copy of double-sun space war (sorry,
just the binary) for the
PDP-15/GRIN-2 on DEC fan-fold paper tape with the boot loader written
in octal on the leader. Not sure if it's of any use
I'm very interested in this! Is the paper tape readable somehow?
5:26 p.m.
Jon Steinhart wrote:
I'm almost certain they do. If you can get it to them, that's probably
the best option. To people closer to Seattle I would recommend Living
Computers Museum.
Is the paper
tape readable somehow?
Does anybody know if the Computer History Museum or
equivalent has a
DEC paper tape reader that works? I could probably lay it out on a scanner but that
would be tedious.
Might actually be best, it's over 45 years old and probably fragile.
Having recently read some Whirwind paper tapes, I'm sure the CHM people
know how to handle old tapes. Paper or otherwise.
1565
days inactive
1566
days old
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Al Kossow -
Clem Cole -
Jon Steinhart -
Lars Brinkhoff