http://www.computerspacefan.com/

lots of info here, and a serial# database

So why did Computer Space fail to ignite the imaginations of a public that never saw video games before? Why did it take Atari and Pong to start the whole video game craze?

Quoted from jonny_eh

So why did Computer Space fail to ignite the imaginations of a public that never saw video games before? Why did it take Atari and Pong to start the whole video game craze?

I'd suggest the controls were far too complicated for the time - remember, PONG was a huge success with just a knob.  I took a few more years for similar games with multiple buttons (Space War, Asteroids etc.), to become mainstream.

Also, although the theme is almost identical to Asteroids, the implementation was relatively poor and more closely resembles the Atari home version of Asteroids.  Computer Space is a raster game, and would surely have benefited from a vector version - which would have been easily doable at the time.

Having said all this, one very cool thing about Computer Space is there are no program ROMS at all.  The programming is all built on discrete, off the shelf,  TTL chips and a simple (and visually obvious), diode matrix for the graphics.

The machine itself is pretty neat on a few levels, and may have actually done better if it appeared later in history on the video game time line, rather than first.

I would be very interested to see the schematic and a breakdown of how they crammed all that stuff into discreet components and how many parts it took.

Quoted from MarkToo

I'd suggest the controls were far too complicated for the time - remember, PONG was a huge success with just a knob.  I took a few more years for similar games with multiple buttons (Space War, Asteroids etc.), to become mainstream.

Also, although the theme is almost identical to Asteroids, the implementation was relatively poor and more closely resembles the Atari home version of Asteroids.  Computer Space is a raster game, and would surely have benefited from a vector version - which would have been easily doable at the time.

Having said all this, one very cool thing about Computer Space is there are no program ROMS at all.  The programming is all built on discrete, off the shelf,  TTL chips and a simple (and visually obvious), diode matrix for the graphics.

The machine itself is pretty neat on a few levels, and may have actually done better if it appeared later in history on the video game time line, rather than first.

Nolan Bushnell has said that it wasn't cost-effective to use Vector monitors at the time. It wasn't until a few years later that vectors became less expensive and more practical for use in vids.

Quoted from gjd

http://www.computerspacefan.com/

lots of info here, and a serial# database

Absolutely freakin fascinating information in retrospect. Some damn interesting reading on the above site for anyone who cares to take the time. Really enjoy that kind of perspective.

Thanks very much for that.

So it was basically just ahead of its time? Makes sense.

Quoted from gjd

http://www.computerspacefan.com/

lots of info here, and a serial# database

What a great read ... thx Gerald

You're welcome

In case anyone wants to see what the actual game play looks like, here is a short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur7-z94oHro&feature=related

Necessity is the mother of invention. The post states $10,000 for a CPU at the time so to be marketable the game was designed without one using discreet components. I don't know if this was a spark of genius or verging on the brink of insantity?

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Necessity is the mother of invention. The post states $10,000 for a CPU at the time so to be marketable the game was designed without one using discreet components. I don't know if this was a spark of genius or verging on the brink of insantity?

The game is incredibly simple (and relatively crappy too), so it wouldn't have been much of a stretch for them to produce it as described - even for the time.  The PCBs consist of 3 small, well laid out and stacked boards.  The diode matrix for the "Sprites" are laid out on the board in the actual shapes that they are displayed on the screen - I've never understood why they did this but, it's kind of neat to look at the PCB and see the shapes of the main ship and enemy ships laid out in diodes.  I have the manual and schematics around somewhere and they're very easy to read.  I initially had a problem where the top segment of the digits that keep the score and time would not show and it was very simple to trace the problem back to an off-the-shelf 7-segment driver chip.  It certainly opened the floodgates of the video era, and looking back (and living through it from beginning to end), it was incredibly short lived.  There was a lot of innovation, progress and spent quarters in a very short time...

Hey Mark, so you got yours fully working ?

Quoted from b1buwg97

You really should have seen the looks I was  getting driving home from COlumbus with them...
even the US border guards stopped me leaving the US... just to look at them

wth B1, on CGCC you told us these came from elsewhere...?!