Initial Programming

Convinced that I really could get a wargame running, I set to work writing the program. This was 1976; all I had to work with was the IBM 1130 at the school where I was teaching physics. It had, I believe, 8K of memory and a hard disk with virtual memory. After hours I would insert my hard disk cartridge, fire up the computer, and go to work on the program. It was written in FORTRAN, an old computer language used for scientific calculations. All input and output were made through a Selectric typewriter. The computer would type a line of text specifying the situation, and then I would type a string of characters specifying my move. No graphics, no sound, no nothing: just a typewriter. I had a mapboard next to the computer console on which I placed little tanks to represent the two sides, and I would translate the coordinates on the typewriter paper into the positions on the map.

I still remember the sense of elation I felt when, during one of the early games, the computer got the upper hand and chased my tanks all the way across the board. I made a fighting retreat, with one tank lying in wait while the others bounded back. I was able to pick off the computer tanks one by one, and by the end of the game, I knocked out the last enemy tank with my last tank. Only then did I notice that it was after midnight. This may well have been the first hexgrid-based computer wargame played anywhere.

In May of 1976, I hosted a small wargame convention and several dozen people came. There they had the opportunity to play the first version of Tanktics. People were mildly impressed, but the game experience didn't have the richness of the boardgames available at the time. It seemed to them an interesting oddity.