spmcbr...@us.ibm.com (Sean P. McBride) writes: > I recently found out that Edson Hendricks (the creator of VNET) wrote > a copy of Spacewar! for the IBM System 360 while he was an MIT > student. It was based on the PDP-1 version, and it was used by MIT > for their annual open house in either 1965 or 1966. My understanding > is that this S/360 version ended up getting played by IBMers at the > IBM Research Lab, which resulted in a corporate ban of running the > software on IBM machines. Considering that the source should run on > modern IBM mainframes with some code modification, I thought that this > might be something worth resurrecting for the 50th anniversary of the > System 360 announcement. Do any of you ever recall playing this game > on an IBM mainframe or hearing about others that might have done this? > Do any of you have suggests for finding the source code for this S/360 > version? Edson does not have a copy, and I have not yet heard back > the from Computer History Museum.
Ed wrote spacewar at the science center for the 2250M4 (aka 2250+1130 combination, trivia 2250M1 ... aka 360 channel attached 2250 was same price as 2250M4). misc. past posts mentioning science center http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech two-person game with the 2250 keyboard partitioned in half for controls ... my kids would come in on weekends and play it. maybe confusing a couple other things. Ed & I transferred from science center to San Jose Research about the same time. I imported an early (fortran) version of adventure (had been ported from pdp10 to vm370/cms) and made it available inside the corporation (if somebody got all the points, I would send them the fortran source, one person then ported it to PLI). At one point lots of people in the santa teresa lab (now silicon valley lab) were playing it first shift ... instead of working. Their management decreed that after certain date, anybody caught playing first shift would be severely disciplined (rumor is that something similar was happening at other labs). TYMSHARE (up valley from san jose research) had gotten version from Stanford for their PDP10 and then somebody at TYMSHARE had ported from PDP10 to their vm370/cms service. TYMSHARE trivia ... TYMSHARE made their vm370/cms online computer conferencing free to share starting in aug76 ... archive here: http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare Later, somebody (the author of rexx) did multiuser client/server version of spacewar for vm370/cms. There was game server ... and game clients that could "connect" to a game server. It used the internal SPM for client/server communication. VNET supported SPM ... so clients could run on either the same machine as a game server ... or connect from anywhere on the internal network. The clients used cms 3270 terminal ... however some number of people wrote client 'bots ... that automated controls and would start to beat all other players. game server was then modified that power use/penalty increased non-linear as the interval between client moves decreased (as attempt to level the playing field between real people players and 'bot players). Edson wiki reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Hendricks other drift, ITUNEs app about Edson (there is also book) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cool-to-be-clever-edson-hendricks/id483020515?mt=8 VNET wiki reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_VNET misc. past posts mentioning internal network http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet the internal VNET technology was also the basis for univ. BITNET (& EARN in Europe; trivia BITNET is where this ibm-main mailing list originated). misc. past posts mentioning bitnet http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet bitnet wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET misc. past posts mentioning spacewar, adventure, and/or http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#67 oddly portable machines http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000g.html#24 A question for you old guys -- IBM 1130 information http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#71 Z/90, S/390, 370/ESA (slightly off topic) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#10 5-player Spacewar? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#13 5-player Spacewar? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#14 5-player Spacewar? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#8 VM: checking some myths. http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001j.html#26 Help needed on conversion from VM to OS390 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#20 6600 Console was Re: CDC6600 - just how powerful a machine was http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#22 Computer Terminal Design Over the Years http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#17 PLX http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003c.html#0 Wanted: Weird Programming Language http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003c.html#72 OT: One for the historians - 360/91 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003d.html#38 The PDP-1 - games machine? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003f.html#39 1130 Games WAS Re: Any DEC 340 Display System Doco ? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#14 Seven of Nine http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#45 who were the original fortran installations? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#32 Usenet invented 30 years ago by a Swede? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#20 Whatever happened to IBM's VM PC software? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#22 Where should the type information be? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#40 FULIST http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#4 Fast action games on System/360+? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#28 MCTS http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#7 Linux mainframe game machine http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#41 Tek 4010, info and prices http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#68 CA to IBM TCP Conversion http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#62 PC premiered 40 years ago to awed crowd http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#5 real-time messages http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#74 Adventure - Or Colossal Cave Adventure http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#0 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#33 Was VM ever used as an exokernel? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010l.html#12 Idiotic programming style edicts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010m.html#28 CSC History http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011.html#5 Is email dead? What do you think? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#45 My first mainframe experience http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#49 My first mainframe experience http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#56 VAXen on the Internet http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011i.html#66 Wasn't instant messaging on IBM's VM/CMS in the early 1980s http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011j.html#4 Announcement of the disk drive (1956) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011l.html#24 computer bootlaces http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011m.html#49 CMS load module format http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011n.html#9 Colossal Cave Adventure http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011o.html#21 The "IBM Displays" Memory Lane (Was: TSO SCREENSIZE) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012d.html#24 Inventor of e-mail honored by Smithsonian http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012d.html#27 Inventor of e-mail honored by Smithsonian http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012d.html#30 Inventor of e-mail honored by Smithsonian http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012d.html#38 Invention of Email http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012e.html#64 Typeface (font) and city identity http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012f.html#6 Burroughs B5000, B5500, B6500 videos -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
