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Browser Emulation of 1975 Computer Runs First 16-Bit Home Game

Posted by timothy on from the circles-within-circles dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on the 2009 story about the first graphics game written for a 16-Bit Home PC, I thought Slashdot readers might be interested in seeing the game in question running in their browsers. The original hardware has been emulated and loaded with the original machine code transcribed from PDF scans. Some brief background here."

40 comments

  1. Cool! by drosboro · · Score: 4, Funny

    Okay, now I just need someone to be my "player 2"... :)

    1. Re:Cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The submitter didn't take into account that Slashdotter's are usually lonely...

  2. just made me wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...what actually was the very first browser game?

    1. Re:just made me wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      /. trolling

    2. Re:just made me wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was called "Find the Website".

  3. 3... 2... 1... by feldhaus · · Score: 2

    Fortunately 1975 home computers were invulnerable to inadvertent DDOS attacks so there's no chance this site will be slashd.... oh never mind.

  4. oh ffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Yes, we get it, well done, if you don't care a hoot about stability, speed and security then it's possible to port arbitrary software to Javascript using the W3C DOM for I/O. So what?

    Why don't we just buy locked-down graphical terminals with no local storage and hurry up on our way to giving all our data up to "the cloud".

    I just... fail to get it. The web is a horrible applications interface. It's possibly the worst thing to happen to practical computing since all the alternative desktop CPUs were crushed by Intel in the late '90s (and it's taken until around now for ARM to just about almost kinda creep up on them).

    1. Re:oh ffs by Beelzebud · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sorry, I just can't seem to give a shit enough to be outraged by a java based emulator running in a web browser. It must be nice to have a life where that is the biggest outrage you face today.

    2. Re:oh ffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "outrage" was expressed in:

      Why don't we just buy locked-down graphical terminals with no local storage and hurry up on our way to giving all our data up to "the cloud".

    3. Re:oh ffs by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 2

      As someone who maintains about 70 PCs and Macs, I love the idea. Then I would only have to maintain the server and not worry about desktops - which account for 95% of problems. If a dumb terminal has a problem, replace the hardware - problem solved. Having to maintain individual operating systems and installed application bases sucks. The web is only horrible as an applications interface if horrible programmers write the applications.

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    4. Re:oh ffs by dissy · · Score: 1

      The "outrage" was expressed in:

      Why don't we just buy locked-down graphical terminals with no local storage and hurry up on our way to giving all our data up to "the cloud".

      And which said outrage is being posted to a website using a web browser that is stored on a server not local to you...

      The irony, it drips with it!

    5. Re:oh ffs by Nadir · · Score: 1

      java != javascript

      when will people ever learn

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  5. WSAD by chuckfirment · · Score: 2

    My WSAD skills are rearing up to harm me in this game.

    W - Up
    S - Right
    A - Left
    Z - Down

    I can't imagine trying to play Player 1 and Player 2 at the same time.

    1. Re:WSAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bitch, please!

      W - up; A- left ; S - down; D - right.

      That's how god almighty intended.

    2. Re:WSAD by crazyjj · · Score: 1

      God almighty meant for you to use the arrow keys, the way all decent people do.

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    3. Re:WSAD by AshtangiMan · · Score: 1

      Apparently you can fire a torpedo as well . . . but since no controls are given and my boss is here I don't have the time to figure out how.

  6. Rewriting history by rossdee · · Score: 0

    Can someone please tell me what 16 bit home computer was around in 1975?

    The first home computers were all 8 bit

    1. Re:Rewriting history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently Scott Adams hand built the machine when he was in High School.

    2. Re:Rewriting history by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you read the article, you will find that Adam's brother built a custom 16-bit PC.

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    3. Re:Rewriting history by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Informative

      One that the author of the game, Richard Adams, built himself. There's a link to some background, including pictures, in the first link in TFS, but since this is Slashdot and people don't like to RTFS, here the link.

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    4. Re:Rewriting history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Perhaps read TFA before opening your yapper?

    5. Re:Rewriting history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right....it is too much trouble for you to go back and read the original 2009 article....

      From http://exoticsciences.com/
      First Graphics Game written on and for a Home Computer
      Brief chronology of topics covered

      Richard Adams made the world's first 16 bit home computer in 1974
      Eric Adams wrote software to help program the computer
      Scott Adams designed the world's First Graphics Game in 1975 for this computer
      Scott Adams started the Adventure International Co. to sell computer items
      Richard Adams started the Happy Computers Co. to sell computer items

    6. Re:Rewriting history by Desler · · Score: 1

      It was a custom-built computer by the author's brother using an IMP16 chip.

    7. Re:Rewriting history by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      My favorite part of that page was this statement.

      This page contains links to relevant pages at wikipedia and other external sources. These are identified by the text that is colored and underlined. Click on them to open new windows or tabs.

      Purely Awesome.

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    8. Re:Rewriting history by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      It was a one off homebrew. Back then you could get a hell of a lot of chips straight from the manufacturers and guys would often cook up these 'one offs" mixing and matching all kinds of parts and then stuff them into Altair style cases. I don't think there was a COTS 16 bit PC until the mid 80s though.

      man kids today don't know how easy they have it, why even the COTS computers of the day basically just gave you a cursor prompt and you were on your own, if you wanted it to actually do anything you had to write it yourself. I don't know how many hours I wasted on that trash 80 and VIC cooking up cool weird little programs ans saving them to datasettes.

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  7. Charset by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Can using a charset really be counted as "graphics" ?

    1. Re:Charset by walkerp1 · · Score: 1

      Can using a charset really be counted as "graphics" ?

      Ask the folks at Bay 12: Dwarf Fortress

  8. Wow.... by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

    Games sure sucked back then, didn't they? ;)

    (I can't wait to see someone write that in a forum 30 years from now, when they look back at todays games)

    1. Re:Wow.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People are already complaining about today's games.

    2. Re:Wow.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Upscaled jaggy graphics at 20fps becomes old very fast.

    3. Re:Wow.... by Threni · · Score: 1

      http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/fury-as-'retro-80s-arcade'-app-discovered-to-be-just-very-poor-new-games-201111094519/

  9. Um... by _0xd0ad · · Score: 1

    The display is made up of PNG images. For "emulated hardware", that's a bit disappointing.

    I was hoping for something a little more like this.

  10. Bah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No game can be complete without DLC, multiple levels of hardware-enforced DRM, anti-trading policies, forced to be on the Internet every second of play, and random bans of networked IDs just to show that the game company means business, and that the debugger installed with VS *might* be considered a hacking tool.

    Meh... unless it is on a locked down console, it isn't worth playing.

  11. Is there an OpenGL version? by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 1

    I think that would look really sweet.

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  12. That reminds me by operagost · · Score: 2

    I still have to get around to asking Scott Adams where the friggin' lamp was in "Voodoo Castle". My VIC-20 died before I could find the thing.

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  13. 0x10c by Muramas95 · · Score: 1

    this reminds me of notch's new game 0x10c

  14. 16 bits by greghodg · · Score: 2

    16 bits is $2.00, was really expensive for a computer in the 70s!

  15. I remember a very similar game... by forkfail · · Score: 2

    ... that I played on a teletype terminal connected to a mainframe that resided in the Lawrence Hall of Science (associated with UCB).

    Now get off my lawn.

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    Check your premises.
    1. Re:I remember a very similar game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wtf? Was it the HP2000B or the DG Nova? Who are you? I was there in 1970. Did you use the TTYs in the back classroom or in the adjacent classroom?

  16. TRS-80 Color Computer by kriston · · Score: 1

    Of course, we TRS-80 Color Computer enthusiasts would try to claim that somehow we were the first 16-bit home computer owners, but anyway.

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    Kriston