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invention - draw program
2022-06-30 23:24:49
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4141
Ivan Sutherland’s seminal Sketchpad application was an early inspiration for OOP. It was created between 1961 and 1962 and published in his Sketchpad Thesis in 1963. The objects were data structures representing graphical images displayed on an oscilloscope screen, and featured inheritance via dynamic delegates, which Ivan Sutherland called “masters” in his thesis. Any object could become a “master”, and additional instances of the objects were called “occurrences”.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5522
  • don't write specs. Users should consider themselves lucky to get any programs at all and take what they get.
  • don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to read.
  • don't write application programs, they pro- gram right down on the bare metal. Application programming is for feebs who can't do systems programming.
  • don't eat quiche. Real programmers don't even know how to spell quiche. They eat Twinkies, Coke and palate-scorching Szechwan food.
  • don't draw flowcharts. Flowcharts are, after all, the illiterate's form of documentation. Cavemen drew flowcharts; look how much it did for them.
  • don't read manuals. Reliance on a reference is a hallmark of the novice and the coward.
  • programs never work right the first time. But if you throw them on the machine they can be patched into working in only a few 30-hours debugging sessions.
  • don't use Fortran. Fortran is for wimpy engineers who wear white socks, pipe stress freaks, and crystallography weenies. They get excited over finite state analysis and nuclear reactor simulation.
  • don't use COBOL. COBOL is for wimpy application programmers.
  • never work 9 to 5. If any real programmers are around at 9 am, it's because they were up all night.
  • don't write in BASIC. Actually, no programmers write in BASIC, after the age of 12.
  • don't document. Documentation is for simps who can't read the listings or the object deck.
  • don't write in Pascal, or Bliss, or Ada, or any of those pinko computer science languages. Strong typing is for people with weak memories.
  • know better than the users what they need.
  • think structured programming is a communist plot.
  • don't use schedules. Schedules are for manager's toadies. Real programmers like to keep their manager in suspense.
  • think better when playing adventure.
  • don't use PL/I. PL/I is for insecure momma's boys who can't choose between COBOL and Fortran.
  • don't use APL, unless the whole program can be written on one line.
  • don't use LISP. Only effeminate programmers use more parentheses than actual code.
  • disdain structured programming. Structured programming is for compulsive, prematurely toilet-trained neurotics who wear neckties and carefully line up sharpened pencils on an otherwise uncluttered desk.
  • don't like the team programming concept. Unless, of course, they are the Chief Programmer.
  • have no use for managers. Managers are a necessary evil. Managers are for dealing with personnel bozos, bean counters, senior planners and other mental defectives.
  • scorn floating point arithmetic. The decimal point was invented for pansy bedwetters who are unable to 'think big.'
  • don't drive clapped-out Mavericks. They prefer BMWs, Lincolns or pick-up trucks with floor shifts. Fast motorcycles are highly regarded.
  • don't believe in schedules. Planners make up schedules. Managers 'firm up' schedules. Frightened coders strive to meet schedules. Real programmers ignore schedules.
  • like vending machine popcorn. Coders pop it in the microwave oven. Real programmers use the heat given off by the cpu. They can tell what job is running just by listening to the rate of popping.
  • know every nuance of every instruction and use them all in every real program. Puppy architects won't allow execute instructions to address another execute as the target instruction. Real programmers despise such petty restrictions.
  • don't bring brown bag lunches to work. If the vending machine sells it, they eat it. If the vending machine doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Vending machines don't sell quiche.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3952
Damit die Historie stimmt: Die Version 1 erschien am 7. Januar 1998; es gab aber eine 0.x-Version, die ich als Silvestergruss an einige Freunde verschickt hatte. Ob es die noch gibt, glaube ich aber nicht...
Coding Basic
2022-06-11 14:48:47
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=489
Basic was one of the first coding possibilities in the 8bit and also the ‘OS’. the interface to the computer. The shells were ‘basic’.
LOAD “”",8,1
With the second generation of homecomputers. The linenumberless basic came up like GFA-Basic etc. This was a new step and brought basic on the level of Pascal and co. 
mainframe
2022-04-15 10:31:58
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1553
of course mainframe computing was only possible for universities, students or big companies. creating workstation like lilith or next were a middle thing between mainframe and personal computers. 
Dev-Bio XYZ 70+
2022-06-06 14:09:19
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3767
  • No curriculum there for information technology > ETH Mathe/Physik > Pascal (Mathem. Algorithmen) > Speicherung Lochkarten
  • Firma  (Cobol) PDP11
Who is ...
2022-08-03 21:32:49
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5080
Metalwar: Olivier Régis
PGCS: Pascal Arn
Helix:
Hornet: Alain Malek
Firestone:
J.O.E.: Peter Baustädter
Zoltar: Gilles Raimond
Greg:
.
2022-12-06 08:34:22
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5922
» How did you spread the word about the language (if you did), and how widely was it used?
Mostly by announcing it on usenet. That had a tight-knit community of Amiga programmers that was easy to reach. Then on Fish disks and Aminet as well. At some point, print magazines started to cover it with courses etc, and I got invited to speak at conferences about it.
It got fairly popular, to the point where at some point a popularity poll was held somewhere on the internets, and E came in second after C/C , but before Pascal and Basic. Probably a biased sample, but still :)
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=969
Turings Assembly-Line is a game orginally written on the Plato systems (1960 ) in 2020 on Cyber1.org by and-or.ch. 
There is also a version as a web-app.
Grotic
2022-07-01 08:46:45
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1162
Is a clone of the arcade puzzle bobble with other graphics. In development the problem was the hexagonelogic. Another was a not initialized Rectangle, who crashed on some macs and on other not. 
Specials:
- there was even a cracked version out there
- the serial of the game was in the serial number collection
- sold for 15$ > made around 3000 sFR with it. 
Years later a guy in the bus asked me: Are you the guy behind imp89, grotic and co?
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4554
Aus Wikipedia über Hofstettler: 
Kreml von 1986 (englische Version Kremlin, herausgegeben von Avalon Hill, Träger eines „Origins Award“ 1988) ist eine Parodie der sowjetischen Politik. Dieses Gesellschaftsspiel lässt sich nicht im klassischen Sinn in die gängigen Spielarten einordnen, da ihm sowohl ein Spielbrett wie auch Spielkarten im herkömmlichen Sinn fehlen. Die Spieler spielen die Rolle grauer Eminenzen, welche hinter Kandidaten stehen, die um Ministerposten bis hinauf zum Amt des Staats- und Parteichefs kämpfen. Nimmt ein Spieler dabei mehr als nötig Einfluss auf das Spielgeschehen, so verrät er seine „Beziehungen“ und macht sich dadurch angreifbar. Kreml stellt insofern ein Kuriosum dar, als man durch weitestgehende Passivität und Unauffälligkeit beste Gewinnchancen wahren kann. Der Spielverlauf nimmt dabei immer wieder überraschende Wendungen.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7307
Das klingt abstrakt. Können Sie das anhand eines Beispiels konkretisieren?
Es gab im Laufe der Geschichte viele Fälle, in denen Projekte, Ideen und Frameworks, die von Frauen entwickelt wurden, die Art und Weise, wie unsere Welt funktioniert, wirklich radikal hätten verändern können – wenn diese Frauen bekannt gewesen wären oder das Projekt zur richtigen Zeit ans Licht gekommen wäre. Hypertext ist ein großartiges Beispiel dafür. Es gab fast 20 Jahre lang Leute, die wirklich ausgeklügelte und interessante Hypertext-Plattformen und -Systeme (siehe Kasten) entwickelt haben, die sich Gedanken über die ganzheitliche Beziehung gemacht haben, warum Ideen miteinander verbunden sind und was es bedeutet, wenn eine Tatsache mit einer anderen Tatsache verbunden werden kann. Viele davon Frauen. Und sie haben Systeme entwickelt, in denen so etwas wie ein 404-Fehler (Seite nicht gefunden, Anm. d. Red.) unmöglich ist, weil die Verbindungen, die Links das Wichtigste in diesem System sind. Hätten wir heute solche Systeme als primäre Informationsbrowser, würden wir vielleicht anders denken. Wenn ich mir solche Dinge anschaue, stelle ich mir vor, was wäre dann gewesen? In der Zukunft könnten ähnliche Dinge passieren. Wir müssen einfach in der Lage sein, an die Gegenwart zu denken, statt die Dinge im Rückspiegel zu betrachten.
TENNISFORTWO
2022-04-29 14:48:08
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2343
Tennis For Two was the first Videogame ever! It was developed in 1958. The gameplay features were more complex and more fun than in the later very popular Pong or Breakout. GameLab ZHdK has made a new version to bring the amazing game mechanics to attention. You hit the ball with the A-button of your controller while you use the left analogue stick to indicate the direction (or angle) of the tennis ball. And since it is tennis, you can hit the ball anywhere in your own half of the court! It is surprisingly fun to play the "TennisForTwo Fantasy 1958" version. Made in 2015 by GameLab ZHdK.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5484

 

Games waren am Anfang einfach kopierbar. Ein Kopierschutz existierte nicht. Die Games wurden dann auch kopiert, was das Zeug hielt. Die Schweiz war prädestiniert dafür, denn sie kannte kein (digitales) Copyright – die Privatkopie lässt grüssen! Damit war das Feld weit offen für alle. Berüchtigt und bekannt waren die sogenannten Kopier-Parties. Häufig waren sie ein Missbrauch der Treffen in den Computerclubs. Erst mit der Zeit entstanden komplexere Schutzmechanismen wie nicht kopierbare Anleitungen oder Disketten mit Löchern. Diese ließen sich nun nicht mehr so einfach umgehen – und so entstand eine Szene von «Crackers».
Abbildung 11: Rudolf Stramm alias Hcc prüft den Code des Spiels WAR HELI und zeigt, wie gut der Kopierschutz eingebettet wurde. So gut, dass das Spiel nicht kopiert werden konnte, in der Konsequenz aber gerade deswegen auch keine sehr grosse Verbreitung fand. Screenshot aus de SRF Doku (Schlumpf/Trinkler 1989).
Crackers dis-assemblierten den Code und hatten damit den unkommentierten Source-Code vorliegen. Nach und nach entfernten sie die Schutzmassnahmen und gaben die Software frei. Meist handelte es sich dabei um Games.
Das Cracking war für viele selbst eine Art Spiel mit einer Spielmechanik. Rudolf Stramm alias Hcc beschrieb es als ein Duell zwischen dem Entwickler und dem Cracker:
“Man misst sich mit dem, der den Schutz gemacht hat. Es ist im Prinzip ein Wettkampf. Darum strahlt es einen gewissen Reiz aus. Es ist eine Sucht”.
Hcc, Rudolf Stramm, Min 15:09, in: (Schlumpf/Trinkler 1989)
Im besten aller Fälle integrierten die Cracker auch noch einen sogenannten Trainer. Damit konnte man sich eine unendliche Anzahl Leben geben oder sich an bestimmte Orte im Spiel teleportieren. Viele Spiele waren mit ihrem hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad nur so wirklich spielbar – so zum Beispiel das berüchtigte Rick Dangerous.
Der Name der Swiss Cracking Association singt im Namen von dem allem ein Lied. Und sie betätigten sich auch im ‘Schweizerischen GameDesign’. So crackten sie die Summer Games (C64, 1984) und ersetzten eine der Flaggen mit der schweizerischen Flagge und fügten dazu noch eine instrumentale 8 Bit Version der Nationalhymne ein. Wer auf die Schweizer Flagge klickt, hört diese Hymne. Das ist gleichzeitig Schweizer Game Design als auch die inoffizielle Hymne für das Schweizer Game Design.
Abbildung 12: Summer Games für den C64 (1984). Mit der Schweizer Flagge und Hymne gecrackt von der Swiss Crackers Association SCA.
Cracken bedeutete letztlich, eine Software und damit Spiele verstehen zu lernen. Und langsam aber kontinuierlich begannen diese Cracking-Gruppen die Programmierung von Spielen zu verstehen. Angefangen hat das bei der Darstellung von Grafiken und dem Abspielen von Musik, dann ging es weiter zur Integration von Spielmechanik – alles war erkennbar und letztlich auch wiederum einsetzbar. Wurden Grafik und Musik anfangs aus den Games extrahiert, kamen je länger desto öfter eigene Grafiken und eigene Musik hinzu. Unter den Mitgliedern von Cracker Gruppen entdeckt man viele spätere Grafiker und Musiker. Cracken von Spielen und Entwicklung eigener Spiele diente also durchaus auch als Startbrett für eine Karriere im Bereich der sogenannten Kreativwirtschaft sowie der IT.
.
2022-12-19 15:00:31
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6156
'dropfiles', small binary or text files dropped into known locations in the BBS'
A major use of doors is for door games: computer games played on the BBS.[3] These games included strategy games such as TradeWars 2002, Food Fight!, [4] Solar Realms Elite,[5] Space Dynasty, Usurper,[6] and Barren Realms Elite.[7] There were also role-playing games (RPG), often derived from earlier email-based games. One such game was Seth Robinson's Legend of the Red Dragon,[8] and another popular dystopian RPG: Operation: Overkill,[4] another was Mutants!. BBSes often published high scores, encouraging players to beat others.[9]
InterBBS leagues allowed users of different BBSes to compete against each other in the same game. A modern version of this known as BBSlink exists allowing sysops to offer door games on their BBS which are hosted on a remote server, thereby increasing the user base of the game.
FILE_ID.DIZ
2023-02-07 10:00:37
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6685
  1. Program/file name: Ideally, all uppercase and followed by one space. Carriage returns are ignored in this file.
  2. Version number: In the format "v1.123", followed by a space.
  3. ASP number: Only if an actual ASP member, otherwise ignored.
  4. Description separator: A single short hyphen "-".
  5. Description: The description of the file. The first two lines should be the short summary, as older boards cut off the rest. Anything beyond that should be extended description, for up to eight lines, the official cut-off size. Additional text could be included beyond that but might not be included by the board.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9073
Subject:
'Re: VIC-II colors'
From: Robert 'Bob' Yannes
To: Philip
'Pepto' Timmermann
Date: 27.09.1999
I was involved with the development of the VIC-II, however the actual implementation of the design, including the Color
Palette, was done by someone else. I have forwarded your message to him, but it is up to him if he wants to respond.
I can tell you that the design was based on the principle that adding a sine wave of a particular frequency and amplitude
to an inverted version of the same sine wave at a different amplitude produces a phase-shifted sine wave of the same
frequency. The amount of phase shift is directly proportional to the amplitudes of the two sine waves.
The VIC-II used the 14.31818 MHz master clock input (4 times the NTSC color burst frequency of 3.579545 MHz) to produce
quadrature square-wave clocks. These clock signals were then integrated into triangle waves sing analog integrators. The
triangle waves were then integrated again into sine waves (actually rounded triangle waves, but good enough for this
application). This produced a 3.579545 MHz sine wave,
inverse sine wave, cosine wave and inverse cosine wave.
An analog summer was used to create the phase-shifts in the Chroma signal by adding together the appropiate two waveforms
at the appropiate amplitudes. The Color Palette data went to a look-up table that specified the amplitude of the waves by
selecting different resistors in the gain path of the summer. The end result was that we could create any hue we wanted by
looking at the NTSC color wheel to determine the phase-shift and then picking the appropiate resistor values to produce
that phase-shift.
Color Saturation was controlled by scaling the gain of the summer. When we picked the resistor values to determine the
output phase-shift, we also scaled them to produce the desired output amplitude. Luminance was controlled using a simple
voltage divider which switched different pull-down resistors into the open-drain output. We could create any Luminance we
wanted by choosing the desired resistor value.
I'm afraid that not nearly as much effort went into the color selection as you think. Since we had total control over hue,
saturation and luminance, we picked colors that we liked. In order to save space on the chip, though, many of the colors
were simply the opposite side of the color wheel from ones that we picked. This allowed us to reuse the existing resistor
values,
rather than having a completely unique set for each color
I believe that Commodore actually got a patent on this technique. It was certainly superior to the Apple or Atari approach
at the time, as they ended up with whatever colors that came out--ours allowed the designer to freely select Hue,
Saturation and Luminance.
Since all of this was based on selecting different resistor values and resistance varied from chip lot to chip lot, there
was variation from one Commodore 64 to another. It wasn't as bad as it could have been though, since all of the Chrominance
selection was based on resistor ratios, which could be kept constant even if the actual resistor values varied. Luminance
was more of a problem. A trimmer resistor should really have been used to pull up the output. This would have allowed the
Luminance to be adjusted for consistency from unit to unit, however Commodore didn't care enough about consistency to
bother with adjusting each unit
Robert
'Bob'
Yannes
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9245
Die beiden Deutschen Oliver Lindau und Mario Knezevic portierten die Original Amiga Version von Rolling Ronny für C64 (Für Starbyte und Virgin Games)
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9255
OLIVER It all started for me at a Christmas party at Starbyte Software. It was a remarkable event. I never met so many talented people at one place before. The developers showed the games they were developing including the Amiga version of Rolling Ronny. We got the offer for converting the game and if I remember correctly, we agreed almost instantly. Previous projects of Bones Park were economic simulations, which was… how to describe… rather static stuff. I usually call those games Excel-pushers. A jump-and-run is way more interesting and it is action we wanted to create.
MARIO Back then, in the C64 era, most games took only a few weeks or a couple of months to develop. So we had to keep a constant flow of new contacts and projects. One project we did in late 1991, Trans World, for German publisher Starbyte, went pretty smooth and even became our first #1 in German sales charts, so we were invited and offered to work on other titles. One concrete offering was the C64 conversion of Rolling Ronny. Even though most of the first games I programmed were simulations, I still had spent a lot of time on developing action and real-time oriented games. So it was a perfect moment to put all the learnings into a concrete game – and that would have been Rolling Ronny.
Swiss Game Design
2022-06-25 19:17:32
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=85
The swiss gamedesign was influenced and even founded by the cracker scene coming from the C64 to Amiga and the other tree was the Atari ST. Around 25 own Games and Ports were created and published from 1985-1997. There was even an own publisher Linel. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=855
Games made for old hardware or emulators for hardware. Restrictions of yesterday.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2360
Acknowledgments
My interest in man-machine communication was awakened while working on the PLATO project at the
University of Illinois, to which I owe many insights. The experimental systems XS-0 and XS-1 served as
test beds for evaluating the design techniques presented in this paper. I am indebted to my co-workers on
these projects, in particular to G. Beretta, H. Burkhart, P. Fink, B. Plattner, J. Stelovsky, H. Sugaya, A.
Ventura, and J.Weydert. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1982 International Zurich
Seminar on Digital Communications, MAN-MACHINE INTERACTION, March 9-11, 1982.
Power (Einfluss, Agency)
2023-04-04 08:41:24
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7692
Coding gives you power.
Everybody can have its own slave (LCP)!
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1138
First developing on Atari ST (Assembler) but never published something except a demo for a bbs 1993 (First founded by two brothers). First not released ‘product’. A listing game for Happy Computer. 
Than switched to Macintosh (1995 ). Games in C . And than published over the net (website) or in Maganzines Disc-Magazines as Shareware. Paid first with checkes (almost impossible to get the money for 15$ games), so switched to real money and than to KAGI.com a first worldwide payment service.
Inbetween the author worked produced Flash-Games for advertising and ported a lot of games for Java (Applets) 1996 . 
Afterwards switched to Objective-C on MacOSX with a new name: la1n.ch.