Speaking of games, there’s also Introversion’s DEFCON, which turns the vector maps of Wargames into, well, a wargame. The weird feeling of watching the world die in the most abstract, cold-blooded way comes across quite strongly.
From the Dowding System (with it's WRENS moving little wooden models about) forward it's amazing how much effort has gone into figuring out how to display large scale complex systems and situations... and do so in a format such that supervisory elements can reasonably comprehend and digest them and take appropriate action.
Thinking of War Games and the big board reminded me of one of my favorite arcade games from the era - Missile Command. I went looking for it online and found something depressing:
"The NORAD and SAGE photographs highlight an interesting aesthetic aspect — that the dark dimness, used to such impressive effect in Dr. Strangelove, was a reality of these early system"
Still part of US Navy Combat Information Centers today (although AFAIK that's starting to change because more and more combat systems display have multicolor options)
Speaking of games, there’s also Introversion’s DEFCON, which turns the vector maps of Wargames into, well, a wargame. The weird feeling of watching the world die in the most abstract, cold-blooded way comes across quite strongly.
Great game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hrqqld2Aew
Excellent soundtrack, think I still have it on CD.
From the Dowding System (with it's WRENS moving little wooden models about) forward it's amazing how much effort has gone into figuring out how to display large scale complex systems and situations... and do so in a format such that supervisory elements can reasonably comprehend and digest them and take appropriate action.
Thinking of War Games and the big board reminded me of one of my favorite arcade games from the era - Missile Command. I went looking for it online and found something depressing:
"Play Atari's Missile Command at AARP"
https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-missile-command
"The NORAD and SAGE photographs highlight an interesting aesthetic aspect — that the dark dimness, used to such impressive effect in Dr. Strangelove, was a reality of these early system"
Still part of US Navy Combat Information Centers today (although AFAIK that's starting to change because more and more combat systems display have multicolor options)