1980s Computer Throwback

[harshness]

Way before computers, there were serial terminals such as re-purposed teletype machines. 110 baud if memory serves!

You haven't lived until you've played Star Trek on a teletype.

The existence of pre-existing communications devices isn't disputed.

Equating a text version of a turn-based Star Trek game to BBS software is silly.

 

[harshness]

In 1998 or so they used old PDN lines to verify PIN numbers on ATM machines..a dial up modem is 56k..these were like 9k

Still not on topic with respect to vintage computers.

 

[Juan]

Still not on topic with respect to vintage computers.

They are the original internet connections for universities

 

[TheKrell]

Equating a text version of a turn-based Star Trek game to BBS software is silly.

I am not equating the two! I was merely thinking about computing as it was in the 70's and particularly networking via acoustic modems and pathetically slow baud rates.

 

[Juan]

I am not equating the two! I was merely thinking about computing as it was in the 70's and particularly networking via acoustic modems and pathetically slow baud rates.

He obviously never watched WARGAMES.....lol

 

[Foxbat]

They are the original internet connections for universities

I played Chess hosted on a university computer located in the U.K. via ARPAnet, the precursor to the original Internet, and no telephone handsets were involved. That was 1976 using a terminal in the EE department of Purdue University.

 

[Juan]

I played Chess hosted on a university computer located in the U.K. via ARPAnet, the precursor to the original Internet, and no telephone handsets were involved. That was 1976 using a terminal in the EE department of Purdue University.

I played Chess hosted on a university computer located in the U.K. via ARPAnet, the precursor to the original Internet, and no telephone handsets were involved. That was 1976 using a terminal in the EE department of Purdue University.

I know..no handsets involved..for the mainframes..PDN used modems

Public data network - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TheKrell]

I played Chess hosted on a university computer located in the U.K. via ARPAnet, the precursor to the original Internet, and no telephone handsets were involved. That was 1976 using a terminal in the EE department of Purdue University.

You got me; I can't up you on that one!

 

[Juan]

I played Chess hosted on a university computer located in the U.K. via ARPAnet, the precursor to the original Internet, and no telephone handsets were involved. That was 1976 using a terminal in the EE department of Purdue University.

You might know it by x.25 or x.75 connections in the ancient days

 

[harshness]

They are the original internet connections for universities

Personal computers or home computers were not the original tool. This was especially true of the Vic-20 with its 22 column text mode.

Long before the Vic-20 and Apple ][ were CRT-based terminals from Hazeltine, Televideo and teletypes like the ubiquitous Teletype Model 33.

You need to think much harder about what you claim because it just isn't making any sense from a logical or historical perspective.

 

[harshness]

He obviously never watched WARGAMES.....lol

That's a lesser sin than basing your claims on fantasy movies.

 

[Juan]

That's a lesser sin than basing your claims on fantasy movies.

What are you talking about?

 

[Juan]

Personal computers or home computers were not the original tool. This was especially true of the Vic-20 with its 22 column text mode.

Long before the Vic-20 and Apple ][ were CRT-based terminals from Hazeltine, Televideo and teletypes like the ubiquitous Teletype Model 33.

View attachment 155987

You need to think much harder about what you claim because it just isn't making any sense from a logical or historical perspective.

You lost me...i was talking how the original Internet connected all the mainframes back in the 70s..no fiber existed..

 

[harshness]

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about offering up Wargames or Wierd Science as examples of the state of computer telecommunications in their day.

 

[harshness]

You lost me...i was talking how the original Internet connected all the mainframes back in the 70s..no fiber existed..

Nobody said that ARPANET started life on fiber. Your's is the first mention of fiber (and ARPANET) which doesn't have anything to do with dialup which is what the Vic20 could do nor was it a requirement for Usenet (an early example of social media).

 

[Juan]

I'm talking about offering up Wargames or Wierd Science as examples of the state of computer telecommunications in their day.

No
I was talking about reality
Neither of those films had punch card computers..lol

You are too young to remember life before the internet

 

[TheKrell]

Long before the Vic-20 and Apple ][ were CRT-based terminals from Hazeltine, Televideo and teletypes like the ubiquitous Teletype Model 33.

Yup; we used those hooked up to a PDP-20 with CORE memory and a ridiculously dinky disk of a capacity I no longer remember. And that PDP-20 didn't boot off disk! We toggled in the bootstrap loader using the front panel, and "dos" was read in via that stupid paper tape reader on the side.

 

[harshness]

You are too young to remember life before the internet

I was working with punch cards on a 60 bit mainframe as an everyday tool before Wargames debuted. Don't assume.

 

[TheKrell]

I was working with punch cards on a 60 bit mainframe

Ah yes. Must have been a CDC something or other. I used one of those as well to analyze data off my 50 reel-to-reel magtapes. I had to get a genius who knew that CDC to write me an assembler program to convert my 32- and 64-bit floating point words to that odd 60 bit word size. And it was big endian, too, whereas the PDP-20 was little endian like a PC and ARM.

 

[harshness]

Yup; we used those hooked up to a PDP-20 with CORE memory and a ridiculously dinky disk of a capacity I no longer remember.

I'm betting you're actually thinking of a PDP-8. The PDP-20 was relabeled as the DECStation 20 before release.

I used a PDP-8/L with 4K of RAM in high school. It didn't have any disk capacity at all. Everything was stored in RAM and when it was turned off, everything was lost.

And that PDP-20 didn't boot off disk! We toggled in the bootstrap loader using the front panel, and "dos" was read in via that stupid paper tape reader on the side.

This is my memory of the PDP-8. One of my classmates could actually paddle in the bootstrap from memory!

The last time I saw a PDP-8/L, it was part of an retired scoreboard setup in a university's main gym ("Slats" Gill Coliseum at Oregon State University).