TARG video game for the Sol-20 microcomputer

TARG was a game written in 1977 for the Sol-20 computer by Steve Dompier and supplied as part of the GAMEPAC1 software package, by Software Technology Inc., the software arm of Processor Technology. This game probably helped sell thousands of computers.

Although the Sol-20 didn't have bit mapped graphics of any kind, a 1 KB section of memory was set aside to hold the 64x16 text array, much like a TRS-80 but years before the TRS-80 did it. That made the text-mode video gameplay possible, which seemed miraculous to people more accustomed to VT-100 terminals connected to a minicomputer via a slow serial link.

You'll note that the game claims to have sound effects. The Sol-20 didn't have sound capabilities, so that bit was managed by putting an AM radio near the computer and picking up the RF interference coming from the computer.

This video has no sound because it is a screen capture of the game being played on Solace, the Sol-20 emulator, at sol20.org

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Sol-20 computer
• game
• microcomputer
• 1977

[acr08807]

Cool, this brings back memories. You just inspired me to pull my 20 out of storage and write an Itanium simulator for it. Damn, I'm gonna need a big tape cassette....