3 ms·

The computers I own are from the 60s onward. The 70s and after 2005 (somewhat) are the most unreliable. All my 60s, 80s, 90s systems still work provided they ar

The computers I own are from the 60s onward. The 70s and after 2005 (somewhat) are the most unreliable. All my 60s, 80s, 90s systems still work provided they are not PCs. The PCs from the 80s still work, but 90s and upward are quite hit or miss; HP servers, which can be seen as PCs I guess still work but desktops and laptops are broken. My favorites are msx-2(+), msx turbo r, atari st, Amiga and Sun E450 and UltraSPARC stations. They all seem unbreakable. Or maybe I am just lucky; I never had leaky capacitor issues yet that plagues many 80s ones. The one from the 60s is, obviously, over 50 years now but although called a computer, it cannot win consistently at tic-tac-toe as it is, as the memory Is wired and a few bytes; at least the 70s and 80s ones are usable somewhat (at least for games).

jazzyjackson 5y ago
Funny you should mention an unreliable tic-tac-toe, I've been reading the book "Racing the Beam" and it mentions the 1956 relay-logic computer "Relay Moe", which, despite being constructed of little more than 90 relays and a spinning drum, touted a "variable intelligence" which allowed the operator to choose how often the machine makes a mistake, and rotates the board between games so its repetitive strategy is not immediately obvious. Quoting the book (p39): > Playing against a perfect tic-tac-toe competitor, and playing well, can only ever result in a draw. This may be computationally impressive the first time, but it isn't very fun. Opponents, computer or human, become interesting when they make mistakes--or more accurately, when it becomes clear that they might make mistakes under certain circumstances. Such mistakes highlight weaknesses, which players can exploit as part of a strategy. The book goes onto explain how Pong on the Atari 2600 achieves a similar level of unreliability, since it would be trivial for the computer to follow the y-position of the ball and never lose. Every 8 frames, the computer neglects to track the ball, drifting behind the position, but recovering its position when the ball ricochets off the top or bottom of the screen. This way the "AI" of Pong occasionally makes mistakes, in order not to be too harsh to the human's ego. Thorough breakdown of Relay-Moe's logic with photos is here: (3.5MB PDF) https://www.vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%20Dec%201956%20Relay%20Moe%20Plays%20Tic-tac-toe.pdf https://www.vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%...
- tluyben2 5y ago
  Racing the beam is a lovely book by the way. We'll worth the read.

jazzyjackson 5y ago

Funny you should mention an unreliable tic-tac-toe, I've been reading the book "Racing the Beam" and it mentions the 1956 relay-logic computer "Relay Moe", which, despite being constructed of little more than 90 relays and a spinning drum, touted a "variable intelligence" which allowed the operator to choose how often the machine makes a mistake, and rotates the board between games so its repetitive strategy is not immediately obvious. Quoting the book (p39): > Playing against a perfect tic-tac-toe competitor, and playing well, can only ever result in a draw. This may be computationally impressive the first time, but it isn't very fun. Opponents, computer or human, become interesting when they make mistakes--or more accurately, when it becomes clear that they might make mistakes under certain circumstances. Such mistakes highlight weaknesses, which players can exploit as part of a strategy. The book goes onto explain how Pong on the Atari 2600 achieves a similar level of unreliability, since it would be trivial for the computer to follow the y-position of the ball and never lose. Every 8 frames, the computer neglects to track the ball, drifting behind the position, but recovering its position when the ball ricochets off the top or bottom of the screen. This way the "AI" of Pong occasionally makes mistakes, in order not to be too harsh to the human's ego. Thorough breakdown of Relay-Moe's logic with photos is here: (3.5MB PDF) https://www.vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%20Dec%201956%20Relay%20Moe%20Plays%20Tic-tac-toe.pdf https://www.vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%...

tluyben2 5y ago
Racing the beam is a lovely book by the way. We'll worth the read.