building a gaming computer...1951...the brits done it again

[tom]

four years after Goldsmith and Mann's Missile Simulator, and one year before the OXO game on EDSAC, the British built a computer just for playing a game.

read here:

http://jwgibbs.cchem.berkeley.edu/nimrod/

[tom]

I like this one:
Historical note by originator John Bennett:
Most of the public were quite happy to gawk at the flashing lights and be impressed.

[agbulls]

So if this was created in '51, well before Computer Space or Ralph Baers stuff, does this make this the first actual electronic video game? I've never seen this mentioned anywhere before ever.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Push Upstairs]

I like this one:
Historical note by originator John Bennett:
Most of the public were quite happy to gawk at the flashing lights and be impressed.

Amazing how little changes in 50+ years.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Lame. Only 480valves? This thing came out after the EDSAC which had 3000valves! Plus, noughts-and-crosses is way batter than nim. Unless the NIMROD had Blast Processing, it sounds like crap.

So if this was created in '51, well before Computer Space or Ralph Baers stuff, does this make this the first actual electronic video game? I've never seen this mentioned anywhere before ever.

I've never heard of it before, either, but as tom mentioned it was displayed to the public four years after the so-called "CRT Amusement Device" patented in 1947 by Thomas Goldsmith and Estle Mann.

You can read the text of the patent here:

http://www.geocities.com/sweaterfishdeluxe/tubetoy.html

I don't think anything else is known about this CRT Amusement Device aside from the fact that it was patented in 1947 and what's in the text of the patent.


...word is bondage...

[stargate]

I actually have one of those.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I actually have one of those.

Bring it to CGE, would you? I might trade you a few rare carts for it!

[lurpak]

strange, I cant find it in the database... then again if it were there it would probably still only be listed as an R8

[Snapple]

So if this was created in '51, well before Computer Space or Ralph Baers stuff, does this make this the first actual electronic video game? I've never seen this mentioned anywhere before ever.

The key word is VIDEO game, not COMPUTER game. I don't see any "visual" aspect to NIMROD. Any monitor or anything of that nature. So unless I'm misunderstanding, this computer did not play a video game, it just played a game.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I'd love to see what this thing looks like on a TV screen b/c it sounds like a LOT is left to a player's imagination. Pictures of airplanes? Yeah, ok. Probably more like a giant fuzzy dot

I actually think they literally mean "pictures of airplanes," as in overlays placed on the screen. My interpretation of the game base don the description in the patent runs something like this:

1)an overlay with a target somewhere on it would be placed over the screen
2)the player would push a button to fire a dot which would arc across the screen
3)the player would try to guide the dot towards the target using analog dials that controlled its speed and/or trajectory
4)when the dot was close to the target, the player would press a button to make the dot defocuss/expand
5)if the dot passed behind the target while expanding, that would be considered a hit

The main problem I see with it and the only thing that really separates it from most other early video games like the Odyssey (which also used screen overlays and had manual scoring) is that a hit or miss might be disputable if it was a close call. Otherwise, it actually sounds pretty fun, in my opinion, and also relatively complex compared to stiff like Nim or Tic-Tac-Toe.

I'd love to see a recreation of it, too. It certainly seems like there's a enough technical information in the patent for someone to try building a replica.


...word is bondage...