Youtube doc : High Speed Digital Computers of the 1960s.... LOL

So I came across this youtube video, which is a copy of a old 1960s documentary about a Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment. Its a very detailed narrated video. The video nearly bored me until , I got to approx 15:40 , where they show the computer system that monitors the reactor. The narrator clearly says , " .. high speed digital computer ", I had to stop and laugh for some time. Check out the typewriter and the reel to reel magnetic tape machines. No computer monitors, so I guess a computer controlled type writer was better than nothing.

Imagine if we still were using that technology from the 1960s, today. What kind of video games ..... or would it be typewriter games, would exist?! I guess we would have perfected the pinball machines and one-arm bandits with high speeeeeeeeeeeeeeed digital computer(s). From now on, the next time I see these old videos from the 1960s, and I see these types computers where a narrator says those 4 words, I have to stop the video to laugh.

High Speed Digital Computer

The link may put you forward of that video section so watch the counter.... and click the video at 15:40
 

devKathy

Member
Unfortunately I think video games and other applications for computers would be far less common. Just imagine the cost of the raw materials alone on some of those machines! Not to mention all the extra manufacturing costs, when these days a hobbyist can put together a PC in an afternoon! :)

The only games I can really imagine playing would be text based. Maybe also simple physics games on an oscilloscope, like Tennis for Two. 🎾

We can all be glad for people like hardware engineers and materials scientists, who have progressed us to the point where we are today! 🙌
 
Unfortunately I think video games and other applications for computers would be far less common. Just imagine the cost of the raw materials alone on some of those machines! Not to mention all the extra manufacturing costs, when these days a hobbyist can put together a PC in an afternoon! :)

The only games I can really imagine playing would be text based. Maybe also simple physics games on an oscilloscope, like Tennis for Two. 🎾

We can all be glad for people like hardware engineers and materials scientists, who have progressed us to the point where we are today! 🙌
I agree, its just that when we have computers that are fast compared to what was available, I just have to laugh when the narrator says " high speed digital computer ". What was fast back then, the type writer waiting for the computer, or the computer waiting for the type writer to finish its print typing, to send the next chunk of information to print out?
 
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