Posted by Bill Vermillion on 01/30/07 16:15

In article <os6tr2levap7m31ul1ln79106f9acao2u1@4ax.com>,
MassiveProng <MasiveProng@yourhiney.org> wrote:
>On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:35:01 GMT, bv@wjv.com (Bill Vermillion) Gave
>us:
>
>> Which was several months after the first LD players went
>>on sale in Atlanta - the only place they were available.
>
>
> Check the date on the release of the Dragon's Lair upright video
>game.
>
>http://www.djgallagher.com/games/classics/dragonslair/history.php
>
> It contained an "addressable" version of the Magnavox player.
>
> Computer interface was serial port, and the player got a decision
>based gaming experience via fast track addressing on a CAV DISC.

> The year was 1983.

That was the year I worked on what turned out to be the world's
first interactive electronics parts catalog. What was for
the Westinhouse Steam Turbine division. They never used it
but it wound up in their bus manufacturing division.

The LD player was a Sony 1000 - which wasn't compatible with
something on the Pioneers. I think it was a chapter stop. I ROM
upgrade made it compatible. It also was driven by a serial
interface.

We drove that with a Sony CP/M computer using the Laserdisk
extensions for BASIC. The Sony computer had a very small vertical
height and had a 3.5" floppy drive in it - and we were using this
about 3 months before the Mac debuted with the ads during the
Superbowl - which made most people think that Apple had the first
computeres with 3.5" drives.

And we basically servoed two machine together over a serial link -
with the final install being over modems.

A client could be looking for something, and if they could not
figure it out, they'd pick up a phone which was on a ring-down
circuit that would connect to the support in Orlando.

The far side modem would also dial the one in Orlando and it was
pass the frame it was on the the laser player in Orlando so
the support could see exactly what the customer was doing.

Then the support could change the display by going to a different
frame on his machine, and the machine in the far city would
read the information and sync to the Orlando machine.

That was a fun project. I never made so much money in such a short
time in my life. I was called in by an outside consulting firm,
and we picked up the project 2 weeks before it was to be finished.

The interal people working on it for a few months had only gotten
about 10% of the job done.

So it was about two weeks of 18 hour days, and when we turned it
over to them 2 hours before showtime we had 99% of the system
implemented.

The ONLY thing not implemented was the sensor in the chair so that
when a person sat down the track on the LD would say "Good morning,
good afternoon, or good evening".

It did say that on startup - but without the automatic chair
sensor.

The person who was mastering the video disks - with one of the few
authoring sites in the South - also had his crew modifying the
Sony rear projection TV sets that were used in the display so
we could have computer output and video output on the screen at the
same time. That's pretty common now, but required card
modifications in those days. Of course he had a big video facility
and even had a Rank Cintel film to video transfer unit - as he did
a lot of work for the military making instructional video disks and
used the Rank for transfering film for those venuse, as well as
commercial work.

My first new LD player had a model number that >I think< was
a PR-1829. Semi-industrial. Top loading. And with a gas laser
instead of the solid state devices that came later. I'm not really
sure of that number as it's been over 20 years ago.

Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

[Back to original message]