PDP-1 Space Wars forom 1959

[Cliff Matthews]

Interesting, I didn't think thing were so advanced back then..

[Richard Crowley]

I saw that in action in a computer lab at USC. 

They also had a large analog "computer" with scores of 10-turn pots and a colorful patch panel for "programming".

[xrunner]

They might seem old and archaic but patch panels are very useful in a lab. We had several in the lab I worked at. If you have a lot of signals that need to be routed quickly and simply they work very well.

[Richard Crowley]

They might seem old and archaic but patch panels are very useful in a lab. We had several in the lab I worked at. If you have a lot of signals that need to be routed quickly and simply they work very well.

Oh, indeed. I am well acquainted with.patch panels, both audio and video.  Although in modern times we use routing switchers for video where we have complete flexibility to send a signal to any number of destinations, etc.



It was the whole concept of an analog computer that baffled me even back in the early 1960s. Even then I couldn't see that you could do anything with an analog computer that wouldn't be easier and faster with digital computation.  And be able to solve several simultaneous equations while the analog computer seemed to be limited to one at a time.  A concept perfectly illustrated by the ability to play "Space Wars" on the PDP-1.  You probably couldn't even program "3-card Monte" on an analog computer.

[helius]

Early digital computers were not good at log/antilog or integration. There are an absolute ton of engineering problems that require those functions, and analog computers implemented them directly.

The title is not accurate: It's "SPACEWAR!" not "Space Wars" and dates from 1962; MIT received its PDP-1 in 1961.