I worked in the interactive video industry in the mid-80s – when we had laservision discs with close to instant random access. The peak of this tech was probably the BBC’s “Domesday System” which not only had interactive video discs, but had a custom laserdisc player that could read data encoded into the (I think) audio channel, so it could act like a primitive CD-ROM. Fun times, but yes, definitely a technical dead end, even without the problems of trying to do it with tape!

You make me happy to learn that I am not the only one to waste brain cells learning to read Baudot Code from tape and the Hollerith punched cards. Every night for years I sat up proof reading tape and cards through my early twenties.

I went to the Smithsonian and saw my old gear in the Air and Space museum. How times have changed!

It was the ASR33, the tape reader and punch were essential. Yes, current loop.

And thank you for the reminder of the great Computer History Museum in Mountain View. I remember when it still was in Boston. Which was used in derogatory remarks when faced with outdated (i.e. more than 6 month old) equipment at the times:

“Send that piece of crap to Boston.”

“Why Boston?”

“They have a computer museum there.”

Or, when we unpacked the first IBM Laserprinter designed for PCs, and found that it had a honking controller on an ISA board, and loose toner that created duststorms in the office:

“Send it to Boston right away.”

PS: We always thought that Baudot referred to the 5 bit variety as opposed to the 8bit (or rather 7bit) ASCII. But I stand corrected. The 5bit machines survived in Europe until their bitter end. The 8bit TTY was rare in Europe and had to be obtained through unorthodox means.

PPS: I left Germany in 1981 and moved to the U.S. where I kept being involved in computers as well as cars. A harmless article on the trials and tribulations of SCSI termination escaped into the wild and was translated into hundreds of languages. Granite Digital still owes me a lot of money for the referral.

The Volkswagen display was really a local version of video on demand, kind of like a video jukebox, not interactive video.

I humbly beg to differ. VOD is simply linear video, delivered on demand. The 1979, admittedly Goldbergesque, implementation was interactive video: From hundreds of snippets, it assembled an always fresh video, based on customer input variables. Wikipedia: “The term interactive video or interactive movie sometimes refers to a nowadays uncommon technique used to create computer games or interactive narratives. Instead of 3D computer graphics an interactive image flow is created using premade video clips.”

The early implementation was boring, and as mentioned, I’m not surprised that interactive video is nowadays uncommon.

“Everybody liked it—until someone found out that the maximum height of the booth was 2.5 meters, way below the heights of the lift. Scratch that idea.”

The Japanese, when confronted with this problem, would have simply designed a shorter lift. And that is why I buy their cars.

The Volkswagen display was really a local version of video on demand, kind of like a video jukebox, not interactive video.

Still, it was an impressive effort for the time; Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Bravo! Your story and the associated dates and details sound authentic. You should submit your story to the oral history section of the Computer History Museum (CHM) located at the URL:

Computer History Museum Oral Histories

For Bertel Schmitt, Frank Williams, and other contributors:

You obviously used either the Teletype Model 33 ASR (Automatic Send and Receive) or the Teletype Model 35 KSR (Keyboard Send and Receive) Baudot Code machines. Although these machines were first shipped in 1963 by the USA Teletype Corporation, the basic Baudot Code electromechanical hardware was developed much earlier during the mid-19th century for use with Lord Kelvin’s first Transatlantic Cable (UK to USA in 1858 and 1866).

Yes, the various branches of the US military were early volume adopters of this telecom technology. See below for the details.

More details for the computer history geek:

Both the Baudot Code and the Hollerith punched card technology were originally developed in France during the 18th century. Later, Herman Hollerith used a standardized set of punched cards equal in size to the 1890 US $1 dollar bill to record and process the 1890 US Census data. Even later during the 1920s, the IBM corporation adopted the Hollerith card as the standard for their punched card and tabulating machinery.

See the following Wikipedia URLs for more details about the above items:

Emile Baudot

Lord Kelvin (William Thomson)

Hollerith Card

Teletype Model ASR 33

Even more details for the computer history geek:

Show up at the Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, California on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and attend a free 90 minute walk-through presentation of computer history, including ALL of the computers mentioned in your article and the associated comments, including one of only two versions in existence of Herman Hollerith’s punched card hardware for the 1890 US Census.

In addition, HUNDREDs of additional historic computers are on display, including one of only two copies in existence of Charles Babbage’s five ton Computing “Difference Engine No. 2″ dating from 1837. Any monetary donations will be gratefully accepted by the CHM, a non-profit organization.

See the following URL for more details about the Computer History Museum location, hours, and extensive online videos:

Computer History Museum

Note: The CHM online videos are actually hosted by the Computer History Channel on YouTube:

YouTube Computer History Channel

If Al Gore alleges he invented the internet, you then have a much better shot at the Interactive Video Patent and a post OBE chill-session with Tim Berners-Lee.

Hillman Curtis alone probably owes you millions!

+You Really should put a book together of some type, it would be cool.

Made real good money on those early fuel injected VW’s, in those days service was the gig.

MIT? A “joint” event? Not something organized by Richard Stallman, eh? :-)

Bertel’s articles are always first rate. Thanks for your time and effort, Mr Schmitt.

Thank you, Bertel, for the great Sunday morning entertainment.

The one I used as an Airman was labeled “USAF,” and at the time I could actually read Baudot from the tape. And to clench my cromagnerd credentials, I could also read the Hollerith code on IBM punch cards (remember those?).

the thought is stunning, but just not politically correct. But it is doable, there are no technical limits. And as long as it is practically doable, someone somewhere will do as I foretold, sometimes in the future.

411 & 412. What tanks! Twice the steel of the 75 Rabbit!

Not to diminish your technical accomplishment, but… children exposed to this kind of truth before a certain age may never eat a “moo-burger” again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Vegetarian

Bertel: Great trick using one audio track as a time counter – (just like the “control” track, but you could get access without opening the hardware – smart!).

I was reading PE at the time of the Altair article – I was too poor to afford it (and the assembly task was too daunting). Without a tape/card reader and teletype, all you had were the front panel lights for amusement after hours of assembly (and $400 was a king’s ransom in the day).

My second job had an Apple II setup like the one pictured (but with 2 floppy drives) wired to a PCB testing interface. Boot from the first floppy, run the app from the other. I loved running that thing (I was merely operating the computer), especially when visitors were gawking at me like I was Mr. Spock… :-)

My second experience was on a Digital PDP-10. The machine was hooked to the ARPANET, I had my first e-mail account in 1983.

My idea was a computer stand at every McDonalds, with an EAN-code reader. On every sold hamburger package, there would be a code that you could let the computer scan. If every link in the chain was fitted with codes, and when the product was processed in some way, it would get a new code. That means you could backtrack the chain of events, from hamburger back to a happy cow standing in a field somewhere.

So, you are afraid of how your meat is being processed? Scan the package, you will see a happy cow. Not just any cow, Your cow, the one that you actually end up eating. Webcameras all over the field. Then you would see some live footage from the distribution, moving your cow to the slaughterhouse. Footage from the actual transport of your own cow. Place for some adverts from local logistics, and so on. Then, webcameras along the entire production line. Cows entering at one end, hamburgers being packaged at the other. You will see Your hamburger being made. Not just any hamburger. Your hamburger. Then footage from the bread being made, the tomatoes and sallad being harvested, and so on. And the packages being delivered to Your local McDonalds. live footage on the packages being opened and prepared. footage of Your Big Mac being made. And then delivered.

If every link is coded, and every place is being filmed, it’s only a matter of logistics and scripts. The point is, you could have a two-minute film about the actual events of you particular meal being made. And it could all be paid for by all the companies involved from their pr or advertising budget. A win-win. Local logistics, local comapnies, local meat-making. A global world consisting of local producers. Why I didn’t sell the concept, I don’t know. Perhaps the world isn’t prepared for that kind of knowledge yet?

Not only do I remember 3/4″ (I was a videotape editor at CNN), I remember my first system: the Sony 1/2″ Portapak. Reel-to-reel. Black and white.

And I played Dragon’s Lair. Made by Don Bluth, ex-Disney guy who was banking bucks from his Secret of NIMH (Not in MY House?). Also maker of Banjo the Woodpile cat. And how’s this for an update?

“On March 11, 2009, a Dragon’s Lair-esque version of the film under the name Banjo the Woodpile Cat Adventure Game was developed and released on the iPhone and iPod Touch by Iconic Apps.”