1976 Photo of the UT Austin DEC-10

This post is entirely about the images down below. Many are from the website AtariArchivesOrg. It’s highly recommended to explore the website, despite the ads. It turns out that there was a two page article about UT in a 1976 issue of Creative Computing magazine, including a picture of the DEC10 in 1975/1976. The article describes it as a recent acquisition, and it’s almost certainly the machine used to begin writing Decwar in 1978. Here’s a direct link to the Atari Archive source.

There's more context. Creative Computing magazine was the vehicle of David Ahl, who also published the Star Trek BASIC code repeatedly from around 1973 and is in some sense at the heart of the single-player Star Trek story that led to Decwar. In other words, Ahl published an article about the UT DEC10 a few years before it was used to create an ultimate version of the Star Trek game he was championing. In the early days of the microcomputer revolution, Creative Computing and BYTE were the two pillars of the industry. While they were friendly competitors, they served different niches and even collaborated occasionally before being absorbed by larger corporate entities. Creative Computing (1974), founded by David Ahl, is widely considered the first personal computer magazine. Ahl, a former DEC employee, launched it to focus on the educational and playful side of computing. BYTE (1975) was launched about a year later and quickly became the journal of record for the industry, known for its technical depth and massive, brick-like monthly issues.