{"id":520,"date":"2008-11-13T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T22:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2008-11-13T18:11:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-13T23:11:21","slug":"fuzzy-memory-mainframe-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/520\/fuzzy-memory-mainframe-memories","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"orange_color\">[ Fuzzy Memory ]<\/span> Mainframe Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/sitewide\/fuzzy_logo.jpg\" alt=\"Fuzzy Memory\" class=\"alignright\" \/>It&#8217;s not every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory dating back to the early days of personal computing.  Come to think of it, it&#8217;s no every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory.  But I digress &#8212; in this case, the computer in question isn&#8217;t even personal, but a mainframe PDP 11\/34.  The year?  1979.<\/p>\n<p>Like always, I&#8217;m not an oracle of infinite knowledge and resources, so I need you (my adept readers) to help solve the mystery.  And besides, I like making you do most of the work.<\/p>\n<h3>Advent, Trek, and Tripe<\/h3>\n<p>Robert wrote me a few days ago regarding a neolithic computer game from the disco era:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have a new &#8220;fuzzy memory&#8221; search for you. When I first became addicted to computers in 1979, it was on a PDP 11\/34 at my local college. That computer had 3 text-based games that endeared me to computers forever: Advent, Trek, and Tripe.<\/p>\n<p>I have been able to find both Advent (which was the precursor to Zork) and Trek (a text-based Star Trek battle\/strategy game). I have never tracked down a version of Tripe.<\/p>\n<p>Tripe was a text-based parody of Star Trek. Key things that I recall about the game include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Away teams would raid a planet and &#8220;kill the women and rape the bad guys!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The ultimate weapon was the &#8220;dusn&#8217;t matter probe&#8221;. When fire, it would start playing one of Kirk&#8217;s famous speeches, at which point the enemy would commit suicide. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if this game ever left the confines of the PDP, but it sure would be cool to track down a version of it.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks,<br \/>\nRobert<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Search Begins<\/h3>\n<p>In this case, we&#8217;re fortunate: Robert knows the name of the game he&#8217;s looking for, and he knows the platform.  But one key absence still prevents him from reliving his fondest gaming memories: the game itself.  If anyone out there knows more about <em>Tripe<\/em> or how to obtain a copy of it, please let us know in the comments section.  Perhaps there&#8217;s a more recent port of the game for another platform, or maybe someone has a disk image of the game that Robert could run on a PDP\/11 emulator.<\/p>\n<p>While you&#8217;re at it, feel free to leave your own mainframe memories in the comments below.  Good luck!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><em>Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying?  <a href=\"mailto:askred@REMOVE-STUFF-IN-CAPS-BEFORE-SENDINGvintagecomputing.com\" target=\"_blank\">Send me an email<\/a> describing your memories in detail.  Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&#038;G readership can help solve your mystery.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory dating back to the early days of personal computing. Come to think of it, it&#8217;s no every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory. But I digress &#8212; in this case, the computer in question isn&#8217;t even personal, but a mainframe PDP 11\/34. The year? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,7,44,27,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-games","category-computer-info-and-history","category-fuzzy-memory","category-regular_features","category-retrogaming","category-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}