🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi
 I played Rats. We used these machines because they came
with a few multi-bus slots that we could use to develop
custom hardware. I wrote an implementation of Forth ( FIG )
for this machine. I used Forth to debug the hardware I was
making. It was to control a CO2 laser that bonded 3 mil
wires to deal with overflow wires. It had a 24 inch travel
XY table that I could position to 0.0005" using DC servos.
The actual operational software was written in PASCAL.
 The machine we had used Shugart hard drives. I remember
when one of them failed. I scoped it out and found the
failure to be related to the stepper. It would stop working
after about 10 minutes. I carefully documented the failure
and exactly how to get it to fail on the RMA ( in the space
provided ). Two weeks later, we got the drive back and
installed it in the machine. 10 minutes later it stopped
working again. I hand carried it over to the Shugart building
where the repairs were being done. I showed them the careful
notes on how it failed so they could recreate it. The
person at the desk said that the technician never saw the
note because that was only for paper work. The only thing
they did was replace the drive belt and run it for a
quick surface test. I gave them a piece of my mind and
left with a tech manual. A little later, I replaced the
intermittent transistor.
 I regret to say that I have nothing other than the memories.
I loved to play Rats.
Dwight


"George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote in message news:<p8oCa.535733$Si4.4...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net>...
> Waay back around 1982, I had the rare privilidge to buy one of the
> pre-peroduction prototypes of the not too famous Convergent Technology
> workstation.  It was a OEM product, resold under various brands, maybe
> Burroughs, NCR, and Univac?  Not sure.
> 
> Anyway, at the time it was a STEAL, I got a 8086 CPU, a 14megabyte hard
> disk, 256K bytes of RAM, a green-screen hi-res (for the time) monitor, and a
> fancy keyboard.  (No mouse), (no graphics, eacept downloadable character
> font graphics).  No case, just open chassis, open monitor, three uncased
> power supplies, all screwed onto a sheet of plywood.
> 
> It was a STEAL for only $3000.
> 
> 
> It had a very advanced operating system for the age.  While PC's barely had
> PCDOS, this OS had a non-modal screen editor, long file names, a form-based
> command processor, a fuss-free local area network and file-sharing,
> spreadsheet, good word processor, FORTRAN, BASIC and Pascal compilers
> (shoddy Msoft ones). Text windows.,
> an awesome assembler, system source code, custom build system options, and
> more that I've forgotten.
> 
> In My Humble Opinion, a HECK of a lot better computer than the IBM PC.
> 
> But as we know the PC won out.
> 
> 
> 
> And oh yes, an addictive and fun "rats maze" game that I played for hours
> and hours.  Pretty good graphics considering it was all character-font
> based.
> 
> Anybody remember that game?  Anybody have the source code to it?
> 
> Drool....  drool...
> 
> ( Eventually after a few years the custom hard disk controller died and I
> tossed the whole shebang in the dumpster.  Sad, but that seemed like the
> only option at the time.)
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> 
> George