Around 1971, student programmer Michael Irrgang wrote a game called Freeway Crossing. He made it for Dr Earl Hunt for use in a psychological study at University of Washington involving reaction times. The game runs on an early version of the IMLAC PDS-1.
Michael retained a listing over the years, and I came across the PDF a few years ago. imlac-software/washington/freeway.pdf at master · larsbrinkhoff/imlac-software · GitHub I rounded up some volunteers to type it in. Much to the consternation to me and a fellow emulator author, the game would run but not display correctly. A few weeks ago Zachary Harper contacted me, having figured out why. It turns out the early PDS-1 had less capable display hardware than later standard models. I was able to fix my emulator and have the game display correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj6-XjxbYOs
Unfortunately, other than the listing and Michaels recollections, there doesn’t seem to be any historical record of this game, or the study it was used in.
This is the same computer that was used for the first FPS game, Maze (aka MazeWar). There’s an older thread about that game: The first first-person shooter
Atari Space Race (1973, another CPU-less arcade game) is pretty much the same gameplay, but for 2 players racing against each other.
Regarding Maze / MazeWar, there was already a Spacewar! for two displays by D.D. “Monty” Preonas about a decade earlier. While not rendering in 3D perspective, it already rendered the game from the respective subjective point of view of each of the two players (but still top-down), which is an important intermediate step. (It’s not widely known, and it had one or two bugs, but it was pretty much there.)
Testing reaction times using a computer seems to have been popular around that time - a challenge given the limits of early hardware and programming options; My good friend and mentor, Dr Alick Elithorn developed some programs that gained use in the UK and USA by his professional medical colleagues for research into Left-Right hemisphere transmission times with a view to identifying characteristics of damage, mental capacity and so on. Two tests he pioneered were the Maze test, adopted by the US Army for recruits, and his “pbqd” test, where the subject was presented with a random sequence of these letters on a screen and had to press the corresponding keyboard key - you may notice that these four characters are identical shapes just rotated through 180degrees either horizontally or vertically.
The test would be time limited, a new screen character was presented immediately after a response but only for a second or so and after a very short interval a new character would be shown. Only the first response was accepted and timed, or a failed response ( as an error or omission). For several years I tested his versions of these tests - as a guinea-pig that he could take as “normal, undamaged candidate” values, and he tested his many psychiatric practice patients. Alick had been an RAF Wroughton UK MD and went on to develop his reputation in psychiatric research at a central London hospital. Sadly, he passed away several years ago, a greatly missed friend and mentor. His other fame was to be the invention of “Advice” a two-player board game that was also transferred to run under an early Windows version, and was further developed to be run on the early Internet. I hold a copy of the software for both versions if anyone is interested but note the Elithorn family hold the rights to any commercialisation. More details held on Wikipedia.
On reaction times … Yes, I’ve written many programs to do this - always good fun - Wait a random time; light an LED (or make a sound); wait for a button push, print the time… (also, make sure button isn’t pressed before the LED is lit!)
But I remember another way - and I wish I could recall who told me this one… It goes like this:
Q: “How do you measure your reaction time?”
A: “With a ruler.”
So, the person being measured places a hand off the edge of a desk with thumb and forefinger poised to catch something. A 2nd person holds a ruler so the end is by the 2 digits of the person being measured and after a short period of time drops the ruler. The other person needs to catch it. The “time” is measured in millimetres (or inches, depending on the ruler being used!) Repeat a few times to get an average. (Then try it when they’re drunk or worse…)
It’s a nice little diversion away from computers, I guess and quite repeatable.
That’s funny, I’d test reaction time with a ruler by placing the ruler halfway off the edge of a table and having the person stand in front of the ruler. And then I’d whack the side of the ruler off the edge of the table.
Not very repeatable and completely useless scientifically in terms of measurable data, but I never claimed to be a scientist.