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Here's a May 1988 computer magazine archive that calls it the Agnes. http://www.atarimagazines.com/...

My daughter found a very dusty 8 inch floppy that must've been at least twelve years old. It had a game on it that I'd bought as shareware in the early days of the Internet. She found an old floppy drive in my spare parts bucket and hooked it up - the game actually worked and was a pretty good RPG for it's day (it was called Lumpies of Lotus), so she wrote a review of the game in an online forum and received an nice "Thank You" from the author.

So there's a chance that the guys watching over the US nuclear arsenal are sitting there playing Lumpies while they wait for the pre-emptive strike.

As much as I'm an Amiga fanboy 4ever, that rumor needs to DIE, they used a wide mix of SGI workstations, Pentium & DEC Alpha renderfarms and even Macs for compositing for the actual series, only the pilot episode mostly had effects created on Commodore HW.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/...
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/...
Sorry for being pedantic, but this IS Slashdot after all ;)

For contrast, think back to the old 9-pin dot-matrix printers compared to the later generation of 24-pin dot matrix (an old example). Same amount of text on the page, but each character had more dots resulting in a crisper image.

That's the main draw of a 4k screen for me. More dots per inch for text, making it easier to read. But the 4k screens are still a bit too expensive for my tastes, so I'm waiting until next year and I'll probably move up to a 30" (instead of the 27" 1080p that I have now).

On the flip side, 4k screens do give you the option to make text really tiny when needed.

You guys know about sites like Computer Magazine Archive and Classic Computer Magazine Archive, right?

(Got my start on Atari 800 w/ the 6502, never looked back... yes, I do have a lawn that I regularly chase kids away from!)

EMP pulse? What dystopian Matrix-like world do you live in?

No, it's not paranoia. It would be accidental, not some nasty action from any government. EMP can arise from some special situations.

Several years (decades) ago, a design error on a computer power source created an EMP every time you turned it on. If you left any storage media around, it would corrupt data.

Where I live, there are some devices used to demagnetize smart tags on supermarkets, they create a small EMP too, and could cause problems to the chip.

CGI first introduced to TV in Babylon 5

The July 1994 issue of Compute! magazine discusses the graphics used in Babylon 5. By today’s standards, it seems primitive, but it was innovative in its time. Each episode of the series used an average of 6,000 frames of computer graphic animation from Foundation Imaging. They used 24 Amiga 2000s, 16 of which were dedicated rendering engines. They had 32 megabytes of RAM, a Fusion-40 accelerator and the Toaster. The Amigas were connected via a Novell network and sent data to a 12 gigabyte 486 PC file server. They later upgraded to Pentium and Alpha-based systems.

The making of Babylon 5

Source of Amiga Video Toaster Software Released

130XE here, but more or less the same with a third (improved) revision of AtariBASIC built-in and a few other nice hardware extras.

But most of the figuring out was with some Atari BBS or user group programming guide an uncle of mine sent on a disk that I had printed out (much more in depth than the included manual, explained peek/poke registers and all kinds of stuff - likely an unofficial condensed version of some programming book) and a subscription to Antic Magazine. Which interestingly enough has its archive available online. Probably worth checking out if really into 8-bit emulation or dusting off an old Atari 8-bit computer that was stashed somewhere in the attic.

The Apple 2 learning expert system program.

Also, I'd say the dBase series of programs. Those and VisiCalc/Multiplan/Excel really made the name for micro computers in business.

Also Gutenberg, the text editor for the Apple 2 that did multiple fonts and "page layout" before anyone else was talking about that. It was super slow, but it was stepping in the desktop publishing direction that computers would later go in.

See here. Note the date, 1983. The Mac didn't even come out until 1984 and desktop publishing didn't really take flight until The Macintosh Office in 1985.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n6/64_Gutenberg.php

Also, maybe just for the lulz, but I think The Print Shop was a pretty big deal. You can write off banners and certificates as frivolous, but everyone used them. Suddenly customized banners and awards were not only possible but expected.

Though RND(0) isn't really random; have it only poke characters into video memory and you'll get diagonal lines with untouched areas in between. I'm kinda rusty, but found this and it rings some faint bells: http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue72/random_numbers.php

Let's see...

I spent the first 10 years of my life in Moscow, USSR, where I haven't seen a computer of any kind.

After coming to NJ, USA in the summer of 1992, I became a computer geek as soon as I had the chance, though mostly through after-school activities. I didn't get a computer of my own until I was 13, and didn't get Internet until 1-2 years later. The once-a-week computer classes in Elementary and Intermediate School that I went to (grades 5-8) were lousy (286es running MS-DOS with Direct Access Menu, a bunch of "educational" games, Microsoft Works 1.0 for DOS, and Print Shop). The instruction was even worse. Obviously there was no mention of anything related to programming / sys admin / DBA. No Internet - no dial-up modems even. I remember that MS Works had a feature through which it was possible to get to a command prompt, which the "teacher" had no idea how to disable... I learned some programming and dial-up BBS administration at home, and everyone was amazed when I brought a couple of simple QBASIC (later VBDOS) games I wrote / enhanced to show off at school.

I went to a charter high school 1996-2000, and there they at least tried to offer up some decent computer classes. I remember they taught Turbo Pascal and later C++Builder for Windows. Of course I already learned all those things through auto-deduction at home.

After graduation I immediately went to a college for a couple of associates degrees in "Computer Information Systems" and "Business Administration" - mainly because I didn't yet know what I wanted to do with my life, and because it was initially free (something like a scholarship). There, again, the programming instruction (Visual BASIC 6, some Java, some C++, and some Oracle SQL) was awful, but the classes that I took in financial accounting, management, marketing, humanities, etc were very interesting. I should have skipped the programming classes (where I knew more than the "professors") and just studied business instead...

The point of the story is that schooling is not for every person and not for every subject. We need to get past that historical mistake of socialist "public" education, and focus on what delivers the best results! Some people learn best on their own, especially now that we have almost limitless amounts of great free information via sites like Wikipedia, online programming tutorials, FLOSS documentation, Creative Commons books, online certification exams, freelancer brokerage sites where inexperienced developers can offer their services cheaply and get some real-world experience, etc. I would have been better off if I had dropped out as soon as I could, and focused on self-education instead!

As for what IMHO kids should be taught today: Wiki editing, Open/LibreOffice, free creativity software (Gimp / InkScape / Audacity / Blender / etc), Python, HTML5, and SQLite. Skip lower-level programming languages and fancy database systems - only a tiny fraction of things need to be optimized, which will eventually shrink down to 1% of the programming work. Then - whatever they're interested in, as long as it's creative and produces useful results.

--libman

If you take this route then see these sites:
http://www.atarimagazines.com/
http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/
http://www.atariarchives.org/morebasicgames/

It was 'More Basic Games' that got me hooked. Best $7.00 I ever spent on a technical book. I still have my copy.

All far too dense for an 11 year old, and all pretty much require more background knowledge than an 11 year old is likely to have. I'm not sure there really is an answer to the OP's question though, at that age, even a very bright kid is almost certainly going to lack the prerequisite knowledge to learn to program from just a book.

Say what?! I was programming at age 11, self-taught, using 'just books.' (Unless you count some early -- and very rudimentary -- Logo exposure in grade school; later scholastic use of the computer was, IIRC, limited to Oregon Trail, though once you got to high school you could take a class that taught Pascal...)

I got started hand-keying source code from magazines and books available at local booksellers. As I progressed, I picked up a copy (likely got it as a present) of the AppleSoft Basic Programmer's Reference Manual.

These days, I have to imagine it would be both easier (every API you need to get started is quickly available online, often with excellent accompanying tutorials and/or with user-contributed sample code snippets), and perhaps more intimidating (as the complexity of our systems has increased precipitously). (On the flip side, much, much easier to get a GUI working under Java than back in the day when you had to hand-code memory bank switching and deal with the bizarre "but it saved a chip!" oddities of Apple II graphics programming...)

Mind you, I wasn't a very good programmer, and honestly wouldn't be until I was finally exposed to proper procedural programming (C), then OOP (C++, and when it was released, Java), in college. But I had fun with it, and my stuff worked. Wasn't terribly robust or full-featured, but, it worked. (My database was a flat-file, not relational, and, um, written in BASIC... ;))

Okay, all that said, it might be worth checking out the Head First books. Head First Programming uses Python and is supposed to be a general introduction to programming. There's also Head First Java. No direct experience with either, but people rave about 'em.

I once typed in a program for three days to see it generate a three dimensional donut on my TV. It took the program hours to calculate and display that donut.

I remember that one: COMPUTE! ISSUE 48 / MAY 1984 / PAGE 58 http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue48/3d_plotting.php

That is primarily a software issue.

Not if the memory isn't fast enough.

We're talking about PCs from 1994 like the second model Pentium. Not sure why you're bringing up hardware that was never used to produce the television show.

Really?

Foundation Imaging houses 24 Amiga 2000s, 16 of which serve as dedicated rendering engines. Each of the 16 packs 32 megabytes of RAM, a Fusion 40 accelerator, and a Toaster. All the Amigas share data through a Novell network and offload data to a 12-gigabyte 486 PC file server. Beigle-Bryant's home-brew task manager parcels out rendering work to each of the Amigas in the rack and ensures that no machine sits idle. Thanks to his clever resource management, the rendering time for a frame of "Babylon 5" animation averages 45 minutes, not too much more than that required for the less complex models used in the pilot episode. A true technologist, Beigle-Bryant takes pride in the fact that no machine sits through a day without working. Even the animation workstations double as serious data crunchers when the animators themselves take a break.

The Making of Babylon 5
68040s and a 486.

I went to Camp Atari. I didn't learn anything, but the Warez were awesome! Getting disks was much better than downloading things at 300bps...

I also did Camp Watonka in the Poconos, where I got early exposure to amateur radio, model rockets, rifles, and extra-circular Dungeons & Dragons!

I kept most of my magazines :-) You can also find some issues of old computer magazines available for reading on the internet here: http://www.atarimagazines.com/ (Not just Atari magazines, they have a few others too).

The problem is, you are *fundamentally misunderstanding* Apple's products. The iPad is *meant* to be an appliance. The iPod is *meant* to be an appliance. The AppleTV is *meant* to be an appliance. The MacBook and iMac and Mac Mini and Mac Pro lines are *meant* to be general-purpose computers.

You need to study Apple history. Steve Jobs always meant the Macintosh to be an appliance. It's the word he used right from its introduction.

And as far as "java code being deprecated", that's bullshit and you know it. They decided they weren't going to continue supporting Java bindings for their UI frameworks because *almost nobody* was using them.

Java is alive and well on the Mac if you want to use it

Except that you are prohibited from distributing Java applications via the Mac App Store. That's what I mean by deprecated.

Listen, I've played Pac-Man and countless other action games using those very joysticks as well as this one written about in this article. It's not impossible or even difficult. It's simply not ideal. Even with analog sticks, there is plenty of time to hit the corners properly, which is what I was questioning. I doubt there is more than 1/10 second difference between direction changes for analog vs. digital.

Listen, I've played Pac-Man and countless other action games using those very joysticks as well as this one written about in this article. It's not impossible or even difficult. It's simply not ideal. Even with analog sticks, there is plenty of time to hit the corners properly, which is what I was questioning. I doubt there is more than 1/10 second difference between direction changes for analog vs. digital.

Another game they forgot was one of the first Graphical online games. An early form of Sims or Ninteodo's "Mii"'s but in 1985:

HABITAT aka CLUB CARIBE
(LucasFilms)(hosted by AOL for Commodore)
http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue77/habitat.php

Another game they forgot was one of the first Graphical online games. An early form of Sims or Ninteodo's "Mii"'s but in 1985:

HABITAT aka CLUB CARIBE (invented by LucasFilms - hosted by AOL for Commodore computers)
http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue77/habitat.php

Just run Stellarium and set the date 50K ahead and you will have your answers.

Brings back memories of exploring with Galileo Good times in my youthful pursuit of knowledge and geekery!

In previous generations being a hacker was literally how you learned. They weren't any books in the library to teach you some things. You couldn't afford classes in college to learn. The only way to learn was to do.

I know. My first access to computers was on TRS-80s at Radio Shack and dumb terminals in my high school library used for college searches. The workers at the closest Rad Shack to my home allowed me, and others, to sit there playing with them. So I'd sit there learning to program by writing graphics programs and games. That and though the library workers said it wasn't possible a few of us figured out how to use the terminals to chat with each other at different schools. The terminals were connected to the county school district's mainframe, an IBM System 360 downtown.

So no in todays environment the laws and rules aren't the same, the standards aren't the same, and so I don't think children should expect to be able to accomplish the same with the same resources when their environment is much more harsh and far more risky, even if you are a computer nerd you can find yourself behind bars.

Again I know. Way back when, while playing with Trash 80s, the IBM, and Apples, I enjoyed reading the vintage magazines like Byte, the Micro and Homebrew computer magazine. That was before hacking was dirty and hackers were criminals. Actually a search of slashdot for hackers falcon will return posts of mine like this one or this one. However back then it was much harder to gain access to any of the technology we enjoy today. Computers were exotic machines occupying floors of buildings if not entire buildings and were operated by white jacked priest. Networking was sneakernet and BBSes before CompuServe, Prodigy, GEnie, and AOL came along. Well not CompuServe, CompuServe was started in 1969 as a subsidiary of an insurance company and was called Compu-Serv Network, Inc.

No I don't want a world where children of the future have to be more resourceful than my generation had to be. If the future is worse than the present then we adults are doing something wrong and need to change

It's ironic but today is both better and worse than it was in say the 1970s. I'm trying to think what issue it was, let me dig out old editions of Reason magazine which I subscribe to... I didn't find it but googling I found Are We Freer? on CATOs website. Ah, Google gave me a "Reason" article like the one I was looking for, "Now for the Good News: Mankind has never been healthier, wealthier or freer. Surprised?" Both TFA I was looking for and the CATO article say it depends on how you look at as to whether we were freer in the past or are freer today.

As for being more resourceful, I don't want the children of the future to be forced to be more resourceful, but I do want them to be so.

Falcon

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Okay, maybe Creative Computing wasn't quite as pure as I remembered it (or I had a few particularly good issues), but the Creative Computing archives contain some interesting bits of nostalgia, including:
My five year old knows Basic
Stereo Graphics with hidden line removal.
What does it take to be successful or how to tell the winners from losers? (With articles about successful companies such as DEC,Coleco,Visicorp,Osborn,TI,Atari,Commodore...)
Naked call writing (i.e. I wonder what young kid read this and went on to write the software which created the derivatives panics of 2007?)
Product preview: Microsoft Windows; 23 Manufacturers to support new operating software system -- "Finally, microcomputer users will be able to take their software and plug it into any system, without worrying about compatibility." -- William H. Gates, Chairman of the board of Microsoft

Don't forget Creative Computing!

If you like this, check out the Computer Chronicles the archive is hosting. It's always neat to see people reacting to old technology like it's new. Funny to hear the predictions that pan out, and even funnier to see the ones that don't. Check out the UNIX episode, a lot of what they say about UNIX applies to Linux today.

You can also find scans of some classic computer magazines at Atari Magazines and Old Computer Mags.

When I was a teen I was mainly interested in Adventure Game Toolkit and before that, Player-Missile Graphics. Of course, that brings up a point, how do you get a child interested in programming? In my case, I had my own computer (well, I mostly shared it with my Dad, which occasionally led to arguing) and a supply of cool computer hobbyist magazines. So, if I were going to get a kid interested in programming, the first think I'd do is get him a cheap, linux netbook and the next thing would be a magazine subscription. Hmm, but what magazine? Well, before it got axed, I like Maximum Linux, but there seem to still be a few good Linux magazines around. Oh, someone is probably thinking, at this point, why Linux? Why not Windows? Mainly because Linux is an OS aimed at programmers and Windows is aimed at non-programmers. There are a lot of free tools for both, ymmv.

Oh fuck, is this the whole "they don't make them like they used to" thing again? The cheap laser printers you can get today might not have as much attention to quality as the magical NEC from 1993 or whenever, but that's the thing, they're cheap, and the NEC wasn't. How much was it back then?

LaserJets from mid 80s were apparently about $3500, and according to this magazine review, the Silentwriter 95 was $1749 back in 1992, so that's about $2500 in today's money. Go ahead and buy a monochrome laser printer for two and a half grand, I'll just get one for $150 which will last me most of a decade, if not more.

Anecdote time! The KonicaMinolta Page Pro I got 6 years ago for maybe $90 still works perfectly fine today. I can still get original KM toner if I wanted to, and the only thing that went wrong with it was a tiny piece of plastic which held up part of the paper tray. Now if I shake it, it wobbles a bit more than it should. This might be explained by the fact that I put all the shit that didn't fit on my desk on top of it though, but oh noes! Obviously it's not as good as the one from back when you were my age. And get off his lawn, you damn kids!

A parallel port SCSI adapter could also be used like mentioned in this old article: http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue147/102_CDROM_to_go.php

a local government will have a much harder time shutting down satellite and radio (HAM, CB, walkie-talkie) communications

Plus you could use something like this!

The oldest thing I have is a PCPI Applicard that I bought circa 1984.

I actually overclocked the thing to 10 MHz by replacing the CPU with a Z80-H, replacing the RAM with faster chips, replacing the crystal with a 20 MHz one, and replacing the NOT gate chip being used to oscillate the crystal with a mil-spec version that could go that fast. At the time, it was able to compile code in Turbo Pascal so fast that you couldn't see the line numbers from under the blur of the overstriking cursor. I brought it into school one day and it was actually faster at compiling code than the then reasonably state of the art PCs they had on hand.

In fact, the Applicard was a CP/M machine of its own writ small. It was a Z-80 with 64K of RAM and communicated over a single-byte parallel port with the host. The 6502 ran full speed while acting more or less as an I/O coprocessor for the Applicard. I even wrote some 6502 device drivers for it so that I could run CP/M from my hard disk and could use the 800K 3.5" floppies. I even got it working with my old Apple Cat at one point.

Alas, I no longer have an Apple ][ to use it in, so it just collects dust in the garage. :(

I thought the DECwriter II was 5x7 dot matrix with a cloth ribbon. The TI SilentWriter was thermal paper (and I still have one in the garage with 4 cases of paper. I'm sick, get off my lawn!) Now let me get back to my Son of Cheap Video project.

Let's hope he knows how to program the Pokey chip for 16 bit sound, otherwise it will play out of tune:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue34/112_1_16-BIT_ATARI_MUSIC.php

I used to do raytracing on a 100MHz 486. I also seem to have a vague memory of raytracing being done without floating point. ...actually I remember seeing a program in ST Resource (I think that was the name) which raytraced on the Atari ST (history). I think I would only get a black screen because I didn't understand how to use it properly (probably didn't have any lighting). That computer used a 68000 processor. It didn't have floating point at all and it was only 8 MHz, and I'm sure the number of instructions per clock was worse than this wall wart's processor.

Is this kind of thing really in demand by anyone though? I have a NIB Atari 5200 Trakball from 1983. That's earlier than the peripheral in this article. Am I sitting on a gem that deserves to be preserved for future generations? What is the privilege of taking care of this artifact worth? Anyone out there want to buy it and preserve it? Or should I open it up and get on the front page of ./?

Filed in 2000? Um...shouldn't be too hard to show prior art

Well, they filed an almost identical patent in 1994, which shows slightly more forethought on their part. But still, I played GCP in the mid-eighties which covers most, if not all, of the claims.

Michael Crichton used to write articles for computer magazines. I remember reading one where he talked about the timing how long it took you to type your name and password to determine if it was really you.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/index/index.php?author=Michael+Crichton

Jeez, I thought you were serious for a second. I immediately thought of the SpeedScript word processor for the Commodore 64. If only it had 80 columns (not 40!).

Yes, back when auto-save was a ground breaking feature:

  http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue60/204_1_ScriptSave.php

P.S.

Here are some cool images from that 1985 game. Remember: This was all done with a primitive 0.064 megabyte computer and phoneline modems that barely ran 1 kbit/s. It's amazing that LucasArts was able to create a graphical world using such slow connections.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue77/habitat.php - And a RUN magazine article: http://thefarmers.org/Habitat/2004/09/the_avatar_is_legal_voting_age.html

Check out the cool Commodore 128 Pizza Box. I want one. :-) http://web.archive.org/web/20070221043915/www.fudco.com/habitat/archives/page05.jpg

Games Computers Play might have been just slightly older: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n6/GamesComputers.html

I remember Compute!. It used to be one of my favorite magazines. You can get the content of some of them and other old computer magazines online at http://www.atarimagazines.com/

Like this sort of thing?
http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue153/105_Paradise_Accelerator.php
It's a card that does a hardware bitblt operation so the CPU doesn't.
Windows accelerators are 2-D graphics accelerators.

I had no idea these were available! Oh man, gonna be a hot time THIS Friday evening I can tell you... :-)

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue42/021_1_CRAZY_CLIMBER.php

Computer versions of Solitaire pre-date the Windows versions. For example, Compute! ran listings for Canfield in one of its last issues that had type-it-in-yourself code (1988). Other links on the the Compute! index page show even earlier versions (e.g.,1986).