31–37 of 37 posts
I implemented the very slow flood fill for Spectricon, the paint software.
We need a lot more photos of these machines. Maybe even 3D scans.
We need a lot more photos of these machines. Maybe even 3D scans.
They should be preserved somehow. Even a modern web browser has enough compute power to emulate a network of them probably.
I implemented the very slow flood fill for Spectricon, the paint software.
The paint program we used was called "fged". It could generate C code for animations. People would spend hours generating their animation masterpiece, then bring their friends to play it back for them.
> Each Unisys ICON came with its own monitor and a very robust keyboard with a trackball embedded in it. The trackballs were robust indeed. Due to the client/server nature; a classroom of kids logging in at the same time could take several minutes and most of that time would be filled with a classroom of 7 year olds spinning the heck out of the tennis ball sized trackball. One more knowledgeable teacher once told us…
Consider yourself lucky. My public high school in Ontario was supposed to be a "magnet school for the gifted" and instead turned out to be a scam. The computer class teacher was absent for a year, and the substitute teacher insisted that the keyboard and mouse cords should be neatly arranged at the end of each class as if it was a knitting class. The "coursework" consisted of learning how to type out "business memos"…
We need a lot more photos of these machines. Maybe even 3D scans.
It looks like this computer is also known as the Burroughs ICON and the CEMCORP Icon.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They should be preserved somehow. Even a modern web browser has enough compute power to emulate a network of them probably.
We can preserve their function, but the physical experience of using them requires the ability to produce a physical approximation. I can say the C64 Maxi is a low-cost and pretty good approximation of both a C64 and a VIC20 computer. I only wish it could also be a C16 and a Plus/4.