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Born
He was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts as a "wiry, curly-haired redhead" who was the son of a mill machinery repairman. He loved systems, trains, pranks, hacking, and much more. From the moment he witnessed the computers in MIT, he aspired to join it (Levy 4). -
Massachusetts Institution of Technology
During this year, he became a freshmen at MIT, where he would soon join the The Model Railroad Club (TMRC) and be introduced to " the wonders of TX-0 and PDP-1 computers" as one of the first hackers of MIT ("Peter Samson"). -
Tech Model Railroad Club
During the fall of 1958, he finally joined the TMRC and entered his first meeting (welcoming lecture). Here, he developed software for a digital music synthesis for computers, and helped write Spacewar!, including "expensive planetarium,” the star display for Spacewar! ("Peter Samson"). -
TMRC Dictionary
According to Mr. Samson, this was the time when he created his first edition of the TMRC Dictionary, while creating a second edition around a year later. It was a dictionary of TMRC words with definitions that were intended to be humorous with "the puns, irrelevant reflections of on TMRC culture, and a few are more or less straight definitions that seemed amusing to [him] in their own right" (Samson). -
Type Justifying Program
He wrote the TJ-2 that preceded to becoming the troff and nroff page layout design for the PDP-1 ("Peter Samson", Wikipedia). -
Spacewar!
This was a game originally written by Steve Russell, but improved on by Mr. Samson in 1962 as it became regarded the first ever multiplayer game for a digital computer ("Steve Slug' Russell"). -
Digital Equipment Corporation
This was when he joined DEC and contributed to the development of architectural concepts for the PDP-6 computer, along with creating the first FORTRAN compiler for it ("Peter Samson", Wikipedia). -
New York Subway Race
During this time, he and a man known as Mr. Arnold collaborated on official rules and began to have a computer driven train race for the shortest time, laying out the route based on train scheduling and transferring, with 15 other people joining as well (Roberts). -
Systems Concepts, Inc.
In San Francisco, he joined System's Concepts Inc. where he would "program the first Chinese-character digital communication system, designed the Systems Concepts Digital Synthesizer, the world's largest/most capable music synthesizer, which served for more than a decade as principal synthesis engine for the computer music group at Stanford University (CCRMA)" ("Peter Samson", Computer History Museum). -
NASA
Aside from being the Director of Marketing and Director of Program Development for Systems Concepts, he was also in charge of manufacturing for many hardware products, such as "the Central Memory system for the ILLIAC IV supercomputer complex at the NASA/Ames Research Center" ("Peter Samson", Computer History Museum). -
Samson Box
The earliest music synthesizer that he came up with that focuses on the audio for computers, designed for use by student composers. This is an example of how it is:
https://youtu.be/_p4DGE5t3x0 -
Life and Times of the Samson Box
From 1978-1992, the Samson Box was used for musical research and even ended up developing 100 finished works of music, with many of them being widely performed and awarded prizes (Loy). -
The Rise and Fall of the Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee
This was a journal written by Mr. Samson about his experiences in 1967 on the New York subway, including events that occurred, notes of how the train social quo operated, and pictures with descriptions of the operations manual, as he tried to find the fastest time to ride the subway. -
Autodesk Inc.
After working with NASA, he moved to work for Autodesk Inc., helping to create modules for animation, scripting languages, and such, as Autodesk Inc. was founded in 1982 by John Walker and became known for its rage of software for design, engineering, and entertainment ("Autodesk"). -
The Computer History
Currently, he is now a member of the Computer History Museum PDP-1 restoration team and a docent at the Museum, where he is in charge of restoring the PDP-1 computer ("Peter Samson", Computer History Museum).
