[game_preservation] How to get old code running on a PDP-5/8 emulator

[Devin Monnens]

I've identified about the only game that seems to be a direct inspiration of
Spacewar (other than other Spacewar modifications, of course). ICBM (DECUS
8-277) displays a UFO on the PDP-8's scope which the player then must try to
shoot down with a rocket. I'm not sure if this game has already been
emulated at the Computer History Museum, but the code is freely available
(in a somewhat illegible format due to paper decay) through this link:

http://www.pdp8online.com/pdp8cgi/query_docs/view.pl?id=339

While I don't have time just now to transcribe and try running the code
myself (unless of course I want to spend all weekend on it when I need to be
finishing this paper - but hey, I might finish early :) The code looks
legible enough to write. Will a PDP-8 emulator take the code as-is if it's
written all down into a .txt file, or is there a special format I need it
in? I've never run a PDP-8 emulator before, so I wouldn't have any idea if
typing all that out would be the right place to start.

I am curious as to how this game looks and if it's going to be as boring as
I think it will ;-)

I've also identified a version of Space War that might be the mythic 'Snoopy
and the Red Baron' described in Stewart Brand's Rolling Stones article. This
is probably just a straight-up Spacewar port to the LINC with just the names
changed. No code printout though...

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/decus/linc8/L-39_SPCWAR.pdf

I also want to track down the original FOCAL version of Sumer (DECUS
FOCAL-5) and get that running, so I'll be looking for a PDP emulator that
can run FOCAL next!

-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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