🚀 go-pugleaf

George R. Gonzalez might have said:

[CT rats game]

>Anybody remember that game?  Anybody have the source code to it?

Yes, no.

"George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote:

>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.

     I worked with one.

[snip]

>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.

     The BASIC was interpreted.  It was a Q&D port.

>In My Humble Opinion, a HECK of a lot better computer than the IBM PC.

     Quite.

>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?

     I remember it.  It got official blessing when CTOS version 4.0
was released.  There was Rats 4.0.  I have no source from that system.

    Novell had (has?) a version of Rats.  It was not nearly as good.

>Drool....  drool...

     I was late for a bookkeeping class once because I kept playing.
That was the evening that I finally won.

>( 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.)

     CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation.  It was
logical and easy to read.  Among OS routines that could be called was
Crash, which would crash the system.  The document included a note
that Crash did not return.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote in message news:<3eda6c24...@news.ocis.net>...
> "George R. Gonzalez" <gr...@attbi.com> wrote:
> 
> >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.
> 
> 
> >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.
> 
> >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?
> 
> 
>      CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation.  It was
> logical and easy to read.  Among OS routines that could be called was
> Crash, which would crash the system.  The document included a note
> that Crash did not return.
> 
Once upon a time, I worked at Convergent (on the not-quite-famous
Generic Print System)...one of the highlights of my career.  I still
remember how horrified I was to go from there to my first "DOS" job,
it felt like a jump into the Stone Age.  I'm still in touch with one
of the tech-writers...she'll appreciate the comment.

Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls?  wild stuff!

jsei...@aldon.com (LittleBear) wrote:

>ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote in message news:<3eda6c24...@news.ocis.net>...

[snip]

>>      CTOS still has the record for my favourite documentation.  It was
>> logical and easy to read.  Among OS routines that could be called was
>> Crash, which would crash the system.  The document included a note
>> that Crash did not return.
>> 
>Once upon a time, I worked at Convergent (on the not-quite-famous
>Generic Print System)...one of the highlights of my career.  I still
>remember how horrified I was to go from there to my first "DOS" job,
>it felt like a jump into the Stone Age.  I'm still in touch with one
>of the tech-writers...she'll appreciate the comment.
>
>Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls?  wild stuff!

     ...and 99 factories.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

LittleBear might have said:

>Did you ever play RATS with 0% walls?  wild stuff!


Oh yeah!

plus

scrabble, snakes, centepede,

the best games we had at work other than baseball on cyber console

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

Let's see, a bit of thread necromancy here, 13 years later. We were developing translation tools in 1983 and for a while we had the CT terminals as part of our lineup. Rats was so addictive; I hacked into the image files and replaced the big rats with little ones, and the little rats with pixels. It made the game so much more challenging. I discovered that if you navigated yourself to a zone opposite a rat factory but with a wall between you, the rats would still sense you and shoot like crazy, invariably blowing up the factory in the process.

On Sunday, June 1, 2003 at 9:32:53 AM UTC-5, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
> 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

I remember the game fondly as well. I worked as a district admin in the Atlanta Regional office and spent many hours after work and during lunch hour playing the game. Would love to get a copy to play now.

If you do find a copy / version that would play I would be ecstatic...

Dave

On Sat, 25 Nov 2017 22:17:40 -0800 (PST), dad...@gmail.com wrote:

>On Sunday, June 1, 2003 at 9:32:53 AM UTC-5, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
>> 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.)

>I remember the game fondly as well. I worked as a district admin in the Atlanta Regional office and spent many hours after work and during lunch hour playing the game. Would love to get a copy to play now.
>
>If you do find a copy / version that would play I would be ecstatic...

     Rats was great.  I remember staying late and nearly late for an
accounting class, but I finally won a game.  Then, I got really good.

     Novell's rats game (nlsnipes) was nowhere near as good, but I do
have it.  I just tried to run it under DOSBox, but it wants share.  I
have had it running before; I do not remember what I did.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Just following up to a comment, a mere 15 years later — I thought that Rats was a simple, but wonderful, game, and I spent many hours at it. Even now, I'm sorry that it's not in the Play Store.