4 ms·

On paper. I remember my cousin who is 50 now writing me letters, handwritten with entire programs in it. All i had to do was writing it and compile it. It often

On paper. I remember my cousin who is 50 now writing me letters, handwritten with entire programs in it. All i had to do was writing it and compile it. It often worked out of the box and was never longer than a few pages. I dont know how he did it.

alexey-salmin 2y ago
That's not the question. There was essentially no computer at all in those videogames
- chongli 2y ago
  You still use paper. Instead of writing the game in a general purpose programming language you write it using logic gates. You get abstraction and modularity by designing larger components (adders, flip-flops, timers, shift registers) on separate pieces of paper and then including them as named black boxes in a higher-level diagram. The good news for the Pong developers is that most of those larger components were already available off-the-shelf. Common families of these chips, such as the venerable 4000-series and 7400-series logic families, began to appear on the market in the mid-1960's. Edit just to add another bit of nuance. If it still seems like an extremely difficult task without much precedent, I think the lineage of these early arcade games can be traced back through their older arcade siblings: pinball machines. People had been building more and more sophisticated pinball machines over the decades since their inception in the early 1930s. For a look into pinball machines, some of their history, and an amazingly deep dive into the workings of a 1970's model, check out Alec's pinball series on Technology Connections [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&list=PLv0jwu7G_DFVAUoqtVxFVIu2oZc2GGyDf&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&list=PLv0jwu7G_D...
- yarg 2y ago
  Wouldn't it be closer to say that the game was the computer? A very simplistic and non-general purpose computer, but a computer nonetheless?
  - alexey-salmin 2y ago
    I believe this is correct, yes. It's not programmable but the term "programmable computer" exists because not all computers are programmable.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- sargstuff 2y ago
  Bit heavy on the academic theory, but Claude Shannon's "Mathematical Theory of Communications" might help with the link between gated logic and modern computation. CS builds/extends hardware based on Shannon's work. CS programming languages are classified according to the Cholmsky hierarch in theory of computation. Given topic of discussion, atari games implimented as logic gates are a form of state machine (autonoma) which can be represented at a higher level of abstraction by a programming language. ( https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/chomsky-hierarchy-in-theory-of-computation/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/chomsky-hierarchy-in-theory-of...) There are different frameworks / ways of implimenting/presenting 'logical computations'. aka ME physical, EE logic gates, math numerical computation, computer science programming languages. Loosely ordered by various implied collision/response (XOR) for anaylzing/presenting "logic/type groupings" in physical spaces / virtual spaces. Higher level/virtual logic/techniques of modern CS hids the 'logic bits' of things. aka gawk chapter "11.3.11 And Now for Something Completely Different" program -- where character fonts are higher order of logical groupings tied to a number of bits ( https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf ) and pdf imaging ( https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale ) Historical progression of display mechanics has less virtual abstraction relative to how programming languages produce/compute results. No player movement, all autonoma state machine : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYTxjJjfxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYTxjJjfxs Progressing from "larger" implimentation to smaller implimentation details for equivalent amount of "logic states": ----- A) mechanical logic devices and circuits : https://www.nacomm09.ammindia.org/NaCoMM-2009/nacomm09_final_pap/R/RCA18.pdf https://www.nacomm09.ammindia.org/NaCoMM-2009/nacomm09_final... zoetropes : https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/interactives/zoetrope kinomatic display : babbage engine : https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X39.81 / https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ mechanical pixel art : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ks0Vy98KI mechanical clock : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqrEMrfoE8pOmxFXpOTk7UyUK8hfkwLH water display : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0i-uTa4kv4 ----- B) electrical logic devices (smaller scale than mechanical devices, so no vaccum tubes / flip displays): light gun : https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5crto3/eli5_how_does_an_arcade_shooting_machine_works/ mechanical tv : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television crt ram : https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/williams_kilburn_williams_kilburn_ram.html e-ink : https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-explained-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/ ----- C) virual stuff: pixel to spreadsheet : https://leondrolio.com/apps/pixel-spreadsheet/ mindcraft computer : https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials/Redstone_computers https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/xecijm/someone_made_minecraft_in_minecraft_with_a/ bash & postscript make it a lot easier to change the display mechanics : https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale -----
hggigg 2y ago
That was a miracle. I used to type in programs from magazines and books and nothing ever worked. That did however teach me how to fix things and was very productive in the long run!
- 486sx33 2y ago
  Just the other day I was manually modding a json file, because damnit I know better. Anyway one typo and it borked the whole deal. Lol it is truly difficult sometimes

alexey-salmin 2y ago

That's not the question. There was essentially no computer at all in those videogames

chongli 2y ago
You still use paper. Instead of writing the game in a general purpose programming language you write it using logic gates. You get abstraction and modularity by designing larger components (adders, flip-flops, timers, shift registers) on separate pieces of paper and then including them as named black boxes in a higher-level diagram. The good news for the Pong developers is that most of those larger components were already available off-the-shelf. Common families of these chips, such as the venerable 4000-series and 7400-series logic families, began to appear on the market in the mid-1960's. Edit just to add another bit of nuance. If it still seems like an extremely difficult task without much precedent, I think the lineage of these early arcade games can be traced back through their older arcade siblings: pinball machines. People had been building more and more sophisticated pinball machines over the decades since their inception in the early 1930s. For a look into pinball machines, some of their history, and an amazingly deep dive into the workings of a 1970's model, check out Alec's pinball series on Technology Connections [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&list=PLv0jwu7G_DFVAUoqtVxFVIu2oZc2GGyDf&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&list=PLv0jwu7G_D...
yarg 2y ago
Wouldn't it be closer to say that the game was the computer? A very simplistic and non-general purpose computer, but a computer nonetheless?
- alexey-salmin 2y ago
  I believe this is correct, yes. It's not programmable but the term "programmable computer" exists because not all computers are programmable.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
sargstuff 2y ago
Bit heavy on the academic theory, but Claude Shannon's "Mathematical Theory of Communications" might help with the link between gated logic and modern computation. CS builds/extends hardware based on Shannon's work. CS programming languages are classified according to the Cholmsky hierarch in theory of computation. Given topic of discussion, atari games implimented as logic gates are a form of state machine (autonoma) which can be represented at a higher level of abstraction by a programming language. ( https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/chomsky-hierarchy-in-theory-of-computation/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/chomsky-hierarchy-in-theory-of...) There are different frameworks / ways of implimenting/presenting 'logical computations'. aka ME physical, EE logic gates, math numerical computation, computer science programming languages. Loosely ordered by various implied collision/response (XOR) for anaylzing/presenting "logic/type groupings" in physical spaces / virtual spaces. Higher level/virtual logic/techniques of modern CS hids the 'logic bits' of things. aka gawk chapter "11.3.11 And Now for Something Completely Different" program -- where character fonts are higher order of logical groupings tied to a number of bits ( https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf ) and pdf imaging ( https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale ) Historical progression of display mechanics has less virtual abstraction relative to how programming languages produce/compute results. No player movement, all autonoma state machine : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYTxjJjfxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYTxjJjfxs Progressing from "larger" implimentation to smaller implimentation details for equivalent amount of "logic states": ----- A) mechanical logic devices and circuits : https://www.nacomm09.ammindia.org/NaCoMM-2009/nacomm09_final_pap/R/RCA18.pdf https://www.nacomm09.ammindia.org/NaCoMM-2009/nacomm09_final... zoetropes : https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/interactives/zoetrope kinomatic display : babbage engine : https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X39.81 / https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ mechanical pixel art : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ks0Vy98KI mechanical clock : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqrEMrfoE8pOmxFXpOTk7UyUK8hfkwLH water display : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0i-uTa4kv4 ----- B) electrical logic devices (smaller scale than mechanical devices, so no vaccum tubes / flip displays): light gun : https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5crto3/eli5_how_does_an_arcade_shooting_machine_works/ mechanical tv : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television crt ram : https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/williams_kilburn_williams_kilburn_ram.html e-ink : https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-explained-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/ ----- C) virual stuff: pixel to spreadsheet : https://leondrolio.com/apps/pixel-spreadsheet/ mindcraft computer : https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials/Redstone_computers https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/xecijm/someone_made_minecraft_in_minecraft_with_a/ bash & postscript make it a lot easier to change the display mechanics : https://github.com/tavinus/pdfScale -----

hggigg 2y ago

That was a miracle. I used to type in programs from magazines and books and nothing ever worked. That did however teach me how to fix things and was very productive in the long run!

486sx33 2y ago
Just the other day I was manually modding a json file, because damnit I know better. Anyway one typo and it borked the whole deal. Lol it is truly difficult sometimes