[tech] Project "What is this thing?" #2

[Andrew Williams]

On 2018-06-11 7:09 PM, Mark Tearle wrote:

>> Does anyone know what boards would have been installed in this box and 
>> what might have happened to them? Understandably to boot it must have 
>> had storage of some kind or some kind of ROM (if it was even a 
>> computer on its own). Specifically regarding this blue box, is it 
>> worth anything to the club and if it were to be thrown away would 
>> anyone want it (or want to sell it for us)?

> 
> This chassis (and associated) bits came back to the club room from out 
> at Shenton Park.    AFAIK this was always referred to as "Murphy"
> 
> As artifacts go, this is probably the most earliest club related one 
> ("so in a DO NOT DISPOSE category")
> 
> I've never seen it with cards in though (>1993 onwards)

This (the metal chassis with the blue front) is definitely the original 
'ACC Murphy' - I used it when I was in first year in 86, but only to 
play the occasional game on. I remember playing 'UCC, The Adventure', a 
text adventure game set in and around early 80's UCC and UWA, and a 
nethack style game that I can't remember the name of. I think I played 
Trek on there as well.

It's also the machine that produced the need for the three-letter 
acronyms for users, because the multi-user operating system used a 
16-bit number to represent the owner of each file, containing three 
five-bit numbers representing letters (0-31 was enough for A-Z plus five 
other characters).

>> Next to "murphy" under the desk was the computery thing with a wooden 
>> case. It seems like the power button needs a key to operate (anyone 
>> know where that might be? :P). Fortunately the case is reasonably 
>> airtight so everything inside was in a relatively dust-free condition.

> Okay, this gets more interesting.   This machine appeared in the club 
> room sometime in the last decade (around the burst of enthusiasm for 
> hardware things from Craig Williams (aka Reaps)).   Harry McNally knew 
> something of the machine ...

I don't recognise this box (the wooden one) - it's possible the cards in 
there were the original ACC Murphy cards, or that one or more of the 
original ACC Murphy cards were dead and disposed of, and someone donated 
that machine to salvage for parts for ACC Murphy.

Andrew