Programing

[Rockafirecheese]

So I was watching the Rock-afire clip on rockafiremovie.com and saw that Aaron uses "old school" macs to program the rock-afire which got me thinking of this phrase... "Hello I'm a Mac, and I help program an incredibly complicated animatronics band since the early 1980's!"

[Rockafirecheese]

Wow... my bad, spelled "Programming" wrong! lol =))

[NickRyder]

Well actually looks like old PRE-Mac Apple 2e's or... as those of us who lived and breathed Apple in the 80s and early 90s ... Apple ][e. Those were some bad arse computers considering most schools still had them at the core of their computer labs well into the 90s. Which even then I thought was DUMB since even at that time, most businesses and users were using DOS and Windows 3.1 at that time OR were using actual MacOS, like System 6 or 7 when I was in grade school. But they were still fun systems and could do quite a bit... slowly and you had to literally hand program nearly everything you wanted it to do. I know a while back when I had my first job at a used computer store, a guy came in looking for an old Apple ][e to run his CNC machine. So in industrial settings, Apple ][e's were the bomb.

Still amazed that Fechter's archaic ][e is still alive and working quite well apparently, unless that's just what HE decided to show in that video for the movie and he's really got a slick daddy MacOS X or Windows version of the programmer that even has little animated RAE's that move when the real thing move.

Mac:"Hi I'm a Mac...
PC: "and I'm a PC."
Mac:"I've been progamming complex animatronic shows."
PC: "So?"
Mac: "Yeah I've been doing it since the late 70s."
PC:"Late 70s?"
Mac "Yeah, since at least 76. Programming entire animatronic shows like the Rockafire Explosion"
PC: "Well... I've been programming Chuck E Cheese shows since 99."
Mac: "That's great... so 8 movements each bot? Our's have at least 10."
PC: "Show off."

[looneybird78]

Nope... belive me that is WHAT HE USES. Its actually 2 of them running in tandom!

He has a small supply of BRAND NEW IN THE BOX Apple IIe's down in the basement of CEI.:-O

[NickRyder]

Well that doesn't quite shock me actually. Aaron always did seem like the old school type. And brand new in box? Wow. Although I have to admit, those IIe's are pretty much bulletproof. No real major moving parts beyond the power supply and keys. And even the floppy drives aren't too overly complex. Suppose he could run on IIe's for another 30 years and he'd be in good shape, even if he had to end up resorting to raiding old school computer labs, junk shops and goodwill for FLOPPY drives.

Course, didn't someone program up a windows based programmer that was pulled? I keep thinking a RAE simulator/programmer type program would be kinda neat to see. Where you could work up a showtape, synch it to 3D animated RAE bots, and then you could always take that showtape and use it on a real mechanical RAE.

But I can see Fechter wanting to keep the programming kind of to himself and a trusted few.

[zeekeroo]

Looks like Aaron is joining all you, Anti-Microsoft Junkies.

Those ARE old!

[SlapHappy]

Well that doesn't quite shock me actually. Aaron always did seem like the old school type. And brand new in box? Wow. Although I have to admit, those IIe's are pretty much bulletproof. No real major moving parts beyond the power supply and keys. And even the floppy drives aren't too overly complex. Suppose he could run on IIe's for another 30 years and he'd be in good shape, even if he had to end up resorting to raiding old school computer labs, junk shops and goodwill for FLOPPY drives.

Course, didn't someone program up a windows based programmer that was pulled? I keep thinking a RAE simulator/programmer type program would be kinda neat to see. Where you could work up a showtape, synch it to 3D animated RAE bots, and then you could always take that showtape and use it on a real mechanical RAE.

But I can see Fechter wanting to keep the programming kind of to himself and a trusted few.

You know, I thought about that 3D thing before. Only it wasn't just for RAE, it'd be for any kind of animatronic show. Glad I'm not the only one who thought of it. ^^