WOPR sells on eBay

[Jim Brain]

Gene Buckle wrote:
>>> The "original" WOPR used a Vic-20 as the display.  This one doesn't
>>> appear to have that. :)
>>
>> Actually, the display was a "flourescent matrix" driven by a custom
>> controller in an Apple ][.  Some information about this is available on
>> Todd Fischer's IMSAI website:
>>
>> http://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm
>>
>> Search for "flourescent" to find the relevant bits, though the whole 
>> page
>> has interesting history about the technology used in the movie from 
>> one of
>> the guys who worked it.
>>
> I'm going to have to rent that move again.  I distinctly remember a 
> Vic-20 display with a moving border of asterisks counting something 
> down and I could have sworn the screen was a tiny little CRT in the 
> side of the WOPR...
>
> Then again, I'm 40 so all sorts of crap is breaking. :)
I won't fault your memory.  I watched this and was sure the unit was a 
VIC-20 screen, but I long ago decided otherwise, even before I read the 
IMSAI page about it.

I have the DVD, so I checked it out:

Time index 1:10:56 is where we see the screen. (David has just escaped 
from NORAD on the bus, and then we see a 360 pan around the WOPR)

Screen is 16 characters wide by 16 characters high.

Characters are 8x8

pixel ratio is 1:1, so it is not a VIC screen, which does not have 1:1 ratio

128x128 vacuum flourescent screen.  Characters are bitmapped onto the 
screen, as the character lines do not match up to the 16x16 matrix, and 
adding the longer descender space also does not match up. 

I cut out an 'E' and pasted it alongside the screen capture to count the 
lines and positions to verify.

bitmap available on request.

Jim