Virtual VAX Machine ?

[n2ize]

This is a bit dated (2004) but it looks pretty cool nonetheless.

http://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomputing/vax-simh.html

[KC2UGV]

sdf.org offers accounts on their VMS system, for those who just want a bit of terminal time :) They have a bunch of other services too, for learning opportunities.

[n2ize]

sdf.org offers accounts on their VMS system, for those who just want a bit of terminal time :) They have a bunch of other services too, for learning opportunities.

Yeah, I think I have a shell account on their Unix system. I wouldn't mind trying their VMS system. It's been a long time since I have operated a VAX/VMS terminal. Those were the days when we had some really cool people hacking around and doing all sorts of neat stuff on the VAX, PDP, DEC20, IBM and other awesome systems of the time. Those were some great days. A lot of the guys were stoners, acidheads, etc. They were freaks but they were brilliant and were having a lot of fun.

[W1GUH]

TOPS-10 in a Box (http://www.filfre.net/2011/05/tops-10-in-a-box/)


In addition to a complete and healthy TOPS-10 operating system, this distribution also includes FORTRAN and BASIC compilers and — probably of most interest to readers of this blog — Crowther’s original and Woods’s completed Adventure, both in source and executable form. Now you can experience these relics in their original incarnations. The completed 1977 Adventure is particularly interesting to experience on the “real thing,” what with its implementation of “cave hours” and “magic mode” and its strange save system.

In addition, this should serve as a solid TOPS-10 “starter system” onto which you can install games and even other programs. (There’s a nasty rumor that entertainment was not the PDP-10′s prime purpose, although I’m not sure I believe it.) To do that, you’ll have to get to know SIMH and TOPS-10 a bit better, but this system should still give you a leg up in getting started.

I really liked TOPS-10; there were a lot of "fun" things about it. Going to VAX/VMS kinda sucked...didn't even come close to TOPS-10!

[n2ize]

TOPS-10 in a Box (http://www.filfre.net/2011/05/tops-10-in-a-box/)



I really liked TOPS-10; there were a lot of "fun" things about it. Going to VAX/VMS kinda sucked...didn't even come close to TOPS-10!

I played around with TOPS-20 on a DEC System 20 back in the 1980's. I designed some programs that would generate very large listings of complex numbers and then test specially chosen groups of values for specific identities. It involved a lot of recursion and really put the systems processor to the test. Those were some great times. Thanks for the link. Looks interesting.

[W1GUH]

Yea, I gotta check that out.

[n6hcm]

I played around with TOPS-20 on a DEC System 20 back in the 1980's.

[54,450] ... my first PPN on a DEC20

[W1GUH]

You TOPS-20 people, did that have a program called "Aid" on it? We had that on our TOPS-10 system (that was the CAD machine at DEC in the late 70's). It was a little strange. It was pretty much a powerful calculator/interpreter geared towards the military. If you told it to, say, open a file, It would report back, "Roger".

Fun program!

Also -- who used the video version of Teco? I think it was called "dt", but not altogether sure of that.

[n2ize]

You TOPS-20 people, did that have a program called "Aid" on it? We had that on our TOPS-10 system (that was the CAD machine at DEC in the late 70's). It was a little strange. It was pretty much a powerful calculator/interpreter geared towards the military. If you told it to, say, open a file, It would report back, "Roger".

Fun program!

Also -- who used the video version of Teco? I think it was called "dt", but not altogether sure of that.

I don't remember anything called "Aid" but it was so long ago that I played around with it. And soon thereafter the school I was attending replaced everything with VAX/VMS so I had to rapidly get up to speed on VMS. Quite a few of the guys I knew who were into hacking on TOPS-10, TOPS-20 jumped over to Unix systems because they didn't like VMS all that much and felt more comfortable in the *nix world.

From what I gather TOP-20 was quite different than TOPS-10 but I believe somehow it was designed to be backwards compatable with TOPS-10 , at least to a certain degree.