old PDP/DEC PSU hardware question

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

I have a query out on VCFed, but I am not gettin gany interest.  Neither did my 
2015 request on a similar topic - must be the wrong forum.

Advice please: where is the best place to get some troubleshooting tips on 
debugging a DIGITAL H7202B power supply?
I have 2 supplies that are giving me trouble.  I am competent at digital work, 
much less so on switch-mode and analogue
(555 is an analogue in my books!).  I have variacs  scopes, logic analysers, 
voltmeters but no skill ;-(

Any advice?

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 61, Issue 17

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

Paul - I had a quick look at PLATO.
I dont think it was like that.
In this game when you set a movement direction and velocity you moved through 
the universe in that direction “forever”.
There was not concept of “moves” or “turns”, it was very dynamic.
Spasim looks much closer - but was that “vector graphics”?  The game I was 
using was just 24 x 80 characters.  For the year and the 
WYSE terminals (etc) it was great.

> 
> I wonder if this is a port of the PLATO game by the same name, which goes 
> back to 1976 or so.  PLATO had lots of multi-user games with various levels 
> of graphics sophistication.  Space war games included "conquest", "empire", 
> and "spasim" -- that last actually had 3d graphics, which was quite a stretch 
> for 1977.  Then there was "airfight" (the inspiration for Microsoft Flight 
> Simulator) as well as a boatload of "dungeon & dragons" games.
> 
>   paul
> --
> 
> Was it in use at Berkeley?  I might have it stashed away in some of my
> BSD-related tapes.
> 
Chuck, I am Scottish, I have never been to Berkeley!  I just cant remember the 
history.  I remember playing the game with a bunch of post-graduates.
I was either a post-grad or perhaps an early lecturer in the Uni.  That places 
it square in the mid-80s.I did spend most of my time researching.
The games would have appeared on tapes from other places…..  I am hunting 
around amongst the post-grads to see if any of them can tell me
where it came from.

I knew the game as “search” in that that is what you typed in to start it.  To 
keep the undergrads out if it we had to put both passwords and time-locks in
the code….

Iain
> --Chuck

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 61, Issue 16 Message 11 - computer game

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

> 
> Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:55:09 -0400
> From: Bob Smith 
> To: Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk 
> Subject: Re: looking for a program - last gasp questions
> Message-ID:
>   
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> are you thinking of conquest?
> https://github.com/jtrulson/conquest
> 
> conquest
> 
> Conquest is a top-down, real time space warfare game. It was
> originally written in RATFOR for the VAX/VMS system in 1983 by Jef
> Poskanzer and Craig Leres.
> 
> I spent incredible amounts of time playing this game with my friends
> in the terminal labs at college, and when I actually had a multi-user
> system running at home (Unixware) I decided to try and translate/port
> the code to C in Unix. This was in the early to mid 1990's.
> 
> Of course, over the years many things have changed. Today, Conquest is
> a true client/server game. The client uses freeglut, SDL 2.0 (for
> sound) and OpenGL. It uses C++11 to build, though for now it's "C
> software with some C++ containers and constructs”.
Fraid not ;-(
no grid in search….
You actually scrolled through the universe on your 24 x 80!
If you passed a plannet/star then you could see it on screen ( in the distance, 
or with a screen full of *’s as you hit it!)
It had a vast universe and you could scroll around the universe for a hour 
without seeing the same place.  
> 

4 or 5 of us playing it really cranked up the CPU load. I think many terminals 
were 9600, if you got your hands on
a 19200 or better you were a p*g *n sh*t.

On and off I have been hunting for this for 3-4 years.  I know I am not making 
it up - it did come from some US university.

looking for a program - last gasp questions

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

Not star-trek

I am trying to track down the source of a unix game .

Years and years ago - 1980s - I was in the Computing Science Department 
at Strathclyde Uni.  and we had a bunch of BSD4 systems running on VAXen.


I have memory of - but have never located - a curses based 24 x 80 
display - multi-user "space-war" game that allowed you to navigate 
around a 3D universe with the 24 x 80 giving you a full screen view of 
the universe..


In the game you could

* hunt the universe for aliens (like "shankers" I cant remember the 
others),

* other players - you saw them as they saw you

you could also team up with other players to have more firepower and 
call for help using a 1-line on screen chat/broadcast system,

there were planet(s) scattered about - that you could hide behind.

The students and I modified the program with some "special features".  I 
cant remember if the name of program was changed too ;-(


Anyway we knew the game as "search", it was written in C - it was a good 
test of serial output capability of the VAXen - it was also a great way 
to teach students about the VI keys - since hjkl worked as expected for 
movement (at least that was out excuse to the prof when caught playing 
the game during the day).


From my poor description can anybody tie down what I am looking for?

Appreciated

Iain

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 52, Issue 18

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

I have used Jorgs kit to get my 11/70 front panel running.

There is NO NEED to split the cables - for manual circuit, nor is there in the 
new
“cap” adaptor board.

I *THINK* Jorg has many cables and many panels and the split is a throwback
to some earlier work that I saw photos of.

My (wire wrapped, no using the new “cape”) is at 
http://www.scotnet.co.uk/iain/DEC/1170/ 

Flat 40 pins - no split.

I have not had time to document the process of the old or new board.  All I can 
say is 
that the kit turned a messy job into a fairly quick and easy one.

I can strongly recommend the kit to anyone.  

It took me two nights with the circuit list and a wire-wrap tool to set up the 
board in the
link above.

Then an elasped day footering with the test software and scope checking signals 
etc.
With the  newer 11/70 add on board I would think it would be a painless evening 
of work.



> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2019 13:45:19 -0500 (EST)
> From: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: "Plug and Play" adapter for PDP-11/70 panel - BlinkenBone
>   update
> Message-ID: <20190117184519.32c6918c...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
> 
>> From: Jorg Hoppe
> 
>> Now you can painlessly plug a physical 11/70 panel
> 
> So I'm curious about the flat cables to the -11/70 console, which have been
> taken apart into individual conductors. I am wondering why?
> 
> This doesn't seem to have been done because you needed to re-order them (they
> turn back into flat cables before they go into the connectors - although
> perhaps you cross-connected a pair of wires)? Easier access to individual
> signals for debugging?
> 
> Needless to say, if people who want to build one of these also have to do
> this, I wouldn't exactly call it 'painless'! :-)
> 
>   Noel

off topic - capatob - saratov2 computer Russsian pdp8? HELP

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

Off topic, but looking for help and/or wisdom.

If you visit https://www.scotnet.co.uk/iain/saratov 
/  you 
will see some photos and wire-lists of work that I have started on the front 
panel of a Capatob 2.

I plan to get the switches and lights running on a blinkenbone board with a 
PDP8 emulation behind it.  (I already have an PDP11/70 front-panel running on 
the same infrastructure)

I have been struggling for over a year to get much info about this saratov 
computer (circuit diagrams etc).  So I have started the reverse engineering on 
the panel.

Does anybody know anything about this computer?  online or offline it would be 
much appreciated.

Iain

chasing down an old game

[Dr Iain Maoileoin via cctalk]

Many many years ago in a distant galaxy (called Strathclyde University Computer 
Science) we ran a game on the
PDPs.  It was great at testing out terminal line speed handing and debugging 
curses (well that is what we told the
bosses).

I remember the game as being called “search”.  But since we had the source code 
it could have been anything. 

It was played on 24 x 80 dumb terminals.  It was multi user.  In the game you 
moved around the universe in your 
craft - the display was a kind of 3-D picture (you got closer to a plant and 
the planet got bigger - try drawing increasing
circles on a 24x80!).  

You could travel through the universe shooting other craft (friend of foe).  
The only craft name I think I remember is
“shankers” - becuase we had source a lot of the craft names turned into locally 
relevant names.

You could team up with other players and (1 line) communication with a group or 
with that player.

I have searched (on and off) for the game.

I cant find anything like it.

I would like it to test out the DZ cards on my PDP! - OK that is my excuse ;-)

Is anybody aware of what I am talking about?  Does anyone have any old code 
anywhere?

Aye, it was not as good as the old GT40 - but it was a different era.