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Born
Samson was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. -
TMRC
During his time at MIT, Samson was involved with the Tech Model Railroad Club, working on the computing side of the TMRC. He programmed the trains and made sure they ran right, but this was where they first got to play on the PDP-1. (Levy) -
Period: to
Went to MIT
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TMRC Dictionary
In 1959, he wrote the TMRC Dictionary, which was the dictionary of all the verbage the TMRC used. Samson, Peter R. “TMRC Intro.” tmrc_dictionary_intro, www.gricer.com/tmrc/tmrc-dictionary-intro.html. -
Type justifying program
Wrote the TJ-2 writing program which was the predecessor of the TYPSET and RUNOFF programs. The TYPESET and RUNOFF programs are better writing programs, which built off of the TJ-2. “Peter Samson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Samson. -
Spacewar
Was the first multiplayer game on the computer that Peter Samson helped design. It was designed with two spacecraft, and you had to use the spacecraft to move around and destroy the other persons. -
DEC
He joined the Digital Equipment Corporation and helped develop architectural concepts for the PDP-6 computer. -
New York Subway Race
Peter Samson and his friend Mr. Arnold collaborated together and made a computer program that would help them to figure out how to ride the subway the fastest. The rules were, they had to ride every line and that they had to go to each stop on the way. -
Systems Concepts Inc
He became the Director of Marketing and Program Development. He made the Samson box here and was in charge of ordering and making things for NASA “Peter Samson.” Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. -
NASA
He was in charge of the manufacturing of hardware products at SCI, and oversaw the manufacturing of the hardware that NASA would use. -
Samson box
He made a box that worked so it would play musical tunes. -
Period: to
Samson box
The Samson Box was a box that made musical compositions. It was used during this time for experiments with making music. Di Nuzio, Alex. “Samson Box .” Musicainformaticaorg, 2013, www.musicainformatica.org/topics/samson-box.php. -
Autodesk
He helped make software that would form the basics of Autodesk. “Peter Samson.” Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. -
The Computer History Museum
He is now a member of the Computer History Museum PDP-1 restoration team and a docent at the Museum.
