The WhiBBS uses the more video-game-like approach of having the player adjust physical controls. One source refers to a version where players turned "frequency knobs" to change the parameters of the simulations, while other versions were probably controlled by reprogramming the game. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate any detailed information about how the bouncing ball was controlled. I simulate this effect in the WhiBBS by rendering each point with a size and opacity that decrease with time. The most apparent difference between the CRT oscilloscope and what you would see on a modern display is the persistence effects - the screen cannot be cleared after plotting a point on the ball's trajectory, so the ball has a "tail" made up of the residual light from previous points. How much slower depends upon the coefficient of restitution.īouncing Ball was originally displayed on a cathode ray tube oscilloscope and fortunately we have footage of it being played. After the ball strikes the floor at some speed, in the next step it will "bounce" upwards at a slightly slower speed. The coefficient of restitution is like a damping factor for the bounce. The equations use a constant acceleration to simulate gravity and the "bounce" is modelled with a constant coefficient of restitution.
#BOUNCING BALLS GAME SHOW MANUAL#
The Programmer's Manual for Whirlwind I lays out how the programmers wrote the simulation, using the Backward Euler method to solve a set of differential equations. While there remains some uncertainty about how Bouncing Ball was originally played, the simulation of the ball's movements is not a difficult or ambiguous problem. See The History of How We Play for a detailed discussion the game's origins and possible authorship. However, one thing the Bouncing Ball clearly had over its predecessors was a video display.Īuthorship of the original bouncing ball game is uncertain, though likely contributors include Charles Adams, Oliver Aberth, and Jack Gilmore. In fact, Bouncing Ball is considered by some to be the very first video game, though opinions differ on what constitutes a video game and whether Bouncing Ball fits all of the criteria. At this point, Bouncing Ball went from simulation to game. The initial versions of the program were just a simulation, but sometime in subsequent versions, a hole was added to floor as an objective. The problem of computing the trajectory of a bouncing ball was used as a classroom demonstration of how a computer could solve differential equations.
#BOUNCING BALLS GAME SHOW SIMULATOR#
The Whirldwind computer was originally developed to be a flight simulator which would assist the US Navy with training flight crews, but programmers at MIT also applied it to a range of general mathematical and physical problems. You can also have the edges of the hole displayed by pressing the silver button in the upper right corner of the panel while the simulation is active.īouncing Ball started its life as a demo on MIT's Whirlwind I computer sometime in 1951-1953. If you click/press the right half of the knob, it will make positive adjustments (clockwise), and if you click/press on the left side of it, it will make negative adjustments (counter-clockwise). You can make adjustments to the bouncing ball using the black knobs on the panel. The goal of the game is to get the ball to fall through the hole by adjusting the speed, bounce, and/or gravity. If you look carefully, you'll see a hole in the floor in the lower right corner. After pressing the switch, a spot will move in a straight line across the bottom of the window showing the floor that the ball is going to bounce on. If the balls reach the bottom of the play area, the game ends.To play the Whirlwind Bouncing Ball Simulator (WhiBBS), press the red switch in the upper left corner of the control panel. If you can destroy a larger pile of balls, more points will be awarded. Your score is recorded at the top left corner of the screen. When the balls are removed, the pieces which are only attached to the destroyed group of balls will also be eliminated, for example, when you have destroyed a group of blue balls, the red balls which are only attached to the blue balls will also be removed. If the ball forms a group of at least 3 balls of the same color, the whole group of balls will be destroyed. Move your mouse to change the direction of the launcher, then click to launch the ball. A color ball is placed inside the launcher at the bottom of the play area, while the next ball will also be displayed. When the game starts, multiple rows of color balls will slowly move downward from the top. Prepare to be seduced and get addicted to one of our most popular games! In the arcade classic of Bouncing Balls, your goal is to form groups of 3 or more balls of the same color so that they can be destroyed.
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