Computer Space

[sandmountainslim]

Was there ever an Atari port of Computer Space? I have never played this game but as I understand it was the first video game ever but I wasnt sure if it was ever offered on the VCS or any home system. Thanks for any info.

[video game addict]

Space War?

[ubersaurus]

Space War?

836631[/snapback]

 

Space War is almost nothing like Computer Space.

[video game addict]

Computer Space was the arcade version of Steve Russell's Space War.

 

I think Atari Space War is the closest thing to CS.

 

There's also a PDP hack of Space War, maybe more faithful to the original.

[Cassidy Nolen]

I'm a big CS and 2600 fan. You would think that would make me want to see a port. Honestly, after the technology advances of the mid 70's, nobody in their right mind would have wanted a CS home version. Space War is more challenging and fun; the arcade was severely crippled by lack of power. The game play is slow, to say the least, and not really a "top 10" on anybodys list.

 

If any programmer wants to take it on, go for it. Speeding it up would be a major advance.

 

Cassidy

[mos6507]

Compuer Space had a very weird stipple-like drawing method that I feel could be duplicated very effectively by hacking Suicide Mission.

[almightytodd]

Bump...

 

I did a search for "Computer Space" in the thread titles for Atari 2600, and this was the only thread that I found. I also found nothing in the "Homebrew" forum. I'm hoping that anyone who is interested in the original arcade game has seen this web page where you can download a simulator program. It isn't available on MAME, because this game was created before the age of microprocessors and had no CPU. I agree with the sentiments of the previous posts that while this game was not a success, there would be some merit to bringing it to the 2600 platform. I also agree that the graphics on Suicide Mission seem to come close to the "feel" of this game.

 

While it is true that the PDP game "Space War" was the inspiration for Computer Space, and it motivated Nolan Bushnell to try to figure out a way to bring this kind of game experience out of the university computer departments to the masses, Computer Space was a very different game. It was originally a solo game (...interesting, because the first video games to become "hits" were two-player), although a two-player version was added later.

 

I remember the first, and only time I played it on real hardware - it was a couple years after Pong had come out; although Computer Space was first. I remember dropping my quarter and placing my fingers on the buttons... ...it seemed like the saucers pounced on me immediately and before I knew what was happening, I was being blasted repeatedly and spinning around hopelessly. And of course, the whole experience was over in the allotted 90 seconds of game play. At the time, of course, I had no concept of "screen wrap" and so I was unable to employ the kinds of strategies that I can use today to defeat the saucers soundly when playing the simulator version.

 

I'm hoping that someday there will be a 2600 version of this game. It just seems appropriate to have a port of the original video game on the original video game system. It seems to me that a ROM with game variations could present something close to the original as "game 1", and then variations could be added to make the game more playable. That way we could recognize the historical nature of the game, while providing another fun homebrew for the 2600.

 

Thanks for reading,

[supercat]

Thanks for pointing me to the web site. Rather a disappointing game. Are the sound effects in the original really that annoying?

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Thanks for pointing me to the web site. Rather a disappointing game. Are the sound effects in the original really that annoying?

 

 

Hi there,

not only is http://www.computerspacefan.com my website but the annoying sounds you hear in the simulator are recorded directly from my very own machine. So yes I can vouch for the fact that the original sounds truly are THAT annoying. Heh heh. And yes, the game play is that boring and bad. But I love that machine!

As far as a 2600 port, I would certainly love to see such a thing, I would definitely post it on my site with full credit to the creator (for example the simlator was built by Mike "Moose" O'Malley). The closest I have seen is Warplock but even that is pretty far off the Computer Space game.

 

Anyway, thanks for checking out my site and definitely if anyone makes a proper Computer Space Atari 2600 game, let me know.

[sandmountainslim]

My Computer Space thread has returned from the abyss!

Manuel is the undisputed KING of porting old arcade games to the VCS but I am unsure if CS would be enough of a challenge for him or if anyone would want to buy a homebrew version......I know I would.

WP

[Rev. Rob]

I'm hoping that someday there will be a 2600 version of this game.

 

It would be awesome on the Vectrex.

 

 

It just seems appropriate to have a port of the original video game on the original video game system.

 

I don't think it could be done on the Odyssey, though Interplanetary Voyage is pretty good.

[mos6507]

BTW, when judging Computer Space, remember that the thing is really just an elaborate analog computer which would later be used by the much simpler Pong. So Nolan tried to use a technology that was really not suited to the math-heavy simulation nature of Space War. It was only years later that these "no-CPU" games began to overtake Computer Space in complexity, after the concepts were better understood, often employing graphics ROM chips like in Tank.

 

A more successful approach was Larry Rosenthal's CCPU design for Vectorbeam Space Wars, just doing a whole CPU in TTL, but that was many years later.

[supercat]

BTW, when judging Computer Space, remember that the thing is really just an elaborate analog computer which would later be used by the much simpler Pong.

 

How did Computer Space actually work? It's raster scanned, right? So how is the rotation managed?

 

BTW, here's a little demo I did awhile ago that may be apropos. The control is totally goofy. Use select/reset to rotate the ship. Whatever you do, don't push fire!

ll.bin

[supercat]

I don't think it could be done on the Odyssey, though Interplanetary Voyage is pretty good.

 

The Odyssey's controls would not be terribly well-suited to the game, since its potentiometers have end stops. Nonetheless, it might be possible to design some game cartridges that perform some interesting "physics" if one doesn't mind adding some circuitry to them. If you're willing to do that, the sky's the limit.

[almightytodd]

It just seems appropriate to have a port of the original video game on the original video game system.

I don't think it could be done on the Odyssey, though Interplanetary Voyage is pretty good.

I know you're making the point that the Odyssey preceeded that Atari VCS, and I respect that. It is unfortunate that it seems that Ralph Baer has never really gotten the amount of respect he deserves for his work in bringing the video game experience into the home. But I feel like Nolan Bushnell isn't really well known outside of the world of enthusiasts like those here either. Mention the name "Nolan Bushnell" during casual conversation with any group of non-retro-gamers and you'll get blank stares. The same can also be said of Philo Farnsworth with respect to television.

 

I think what I'm trying to do is establish linkage between Bushnell's first attempt - Computer Space; a commercial failure, and one of his greatest successes - the VCS (...which admittedly, he didn't really personally have a whole lot to do with). But it's like, the beloved 2600 VCS owes its existence to Bushnell taking a chance, and working to develop a form of entertainment that the technology really wasn't yet ready for (...it would have made far more sense to wait for the microprocessor to be readily available, and to have designed the first commercial coin-op games around one of these CPUs, like the 6502 or the Z80.).

 

But the fact of the matter was, Bushnell couldn't wait. He was impatient. He knew that it wasn't commercially viable to develop a coin-op arcade game around a million-dollar general purpose computer, but if he could just work the logic out, and architect it around discreet TTL circuit chips, he could introduce the public at-large to the excitement that was being shared by a small cadre of University computer nerds who were getting the opportunity to play Space War on a PDP computer.

 

It's just an incredible wonder that the damn thing worked at all. It was one of those seminal historical events - like when Bill Gates wrote that BASIC interpreter program for an Altair 8800 - a computer that he didn't actually have access to. Gates has persisted the historical nod to himself in making sure that the BASIC programming language has always been a big part of Microsoft - from the GW BASIC that was distributed as part of every MS DOS installation, to including it as a scripting language in MS Office software and the IE browser, all the way up to the present with Visual BASIC .NET.

 

It's a little bit like when the Disney Company re-gained the copy rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He wasn't a successful character for Disney and was actually a tremendous source of frustration and discouragement when Disney lost ownership of the character and had to come up with a new character - Mickey Mouse. But without the hope for success that was started with Oswald, Disney wouldn't have had the realization of success that came from Mickey. The Disney Company is now distributing Oswald cartoons on DVD - not expecting it to be a successful commercial enterprise, but because it's a part of their legacy, and it should be there as part of the Disney story.

 

So it is with Computer Space and Atari. Computer Space wasn't the fulfillment of a dream - but the first step towards it. In the years from 1977 to the crash in 1983, Atari was THE name in the video game business. Their slogan, "Have you played Atari today?" was a way of putting the branding stamp on something the way that people say "Make a Xerox copy" or ordering a "Coke" instead of saying "I'd like whatever brand of Cola soft-drink your establishment sells along with my Taco Bell meal...". "Playing Atari" was synonymous with playing video games. And in 1978 if you were "playing Atari" at home, odds were it was on an Atari 2600 VCS console.

 

Thanks for participating in this thread.

[mos6507]

How did Computer Space actually work? It's raster scanned, right? So how is the rotation managed?

 

My guess is that each frame of rotation is burned into diodes on the various layers of boards that make up the card-cage.

[Retro Rogue]

It isn't available on MAME, because this game was created before the age of microprocessors and had no CPU.

 

 

Well, it uses a discrete technology/state machine computer vs. a general purpose computer. But I'd be careful equating no microprocessor to no CPU when talking about discrete technology and the early arcade game architecture. A state machine doesn't need a CPU because it doesn't have to behave in a general processing manner (I.E. run code). That's why there's no CPU, it has nothing to do with being before microprocessors. "CPU's" or Central Processing Units were around long before Microprocessor based IC's. Microprocessors simply shrunk discrete technology CPU's on to a single IC chip, where they previously consisted of anywhere from a few cards to a large cabinet of cards that performed the functions expected in a CPU.

[Retro Rogue]

How did Computer Space actually work? It's raster scanned, right? So how is the rotation managed?

 

My guess is that each frame of rotation is burned into diodes on the various layers of boards that make up the card-cage.

 

 

Yes, the schematics are available on computerspacefan's site. There's actually a memory card dedicated to all the shapes, and uses a diode array.

[supercat]

There's actually a memory card dedicated to all the shapes, and uses a diode array.

 

That explains the "dotty" appearance of the ship, then--every pixel that's turned on would require an extra diode, so the smaller the number of pixels used, the better!