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Forming Interests
Peter Samson was born in 1941 in Fitchburg, MA. His father was a mill machinery repairman. A core memory from Samson's childhood was seeing the beginings of computer programming on WGBH. This overlap between science and machinery interested him deeply and he would go on to join science competitions with a deep appreciation for STEM. -
Attended MIT
Peter Samson attended MIT from 1958 to 1963. While enrolled, he would interact with notable computers such as the IBM 704, the TX-0, the PDP-1, aid in the founding of the Tech Model Railroad Club, and play one of the first video games, SpaceWar! While the TMRC was very curious, computers were extremely expensive and thus machines like the IBM 704 were guarded by members refered to as 'priests', people employed by MIT to repair and work with computers. -
Classmates and Professors
Who was in the room with Peter Samson in the TMRC? Notable figures that influenced the hacker scene with Samson included:
-Alan Kotok
-John McCarthy
-Steve Russel
-Richard Greenblatt
-Bob Saunders
-Peter Deutsch
-Bill Gosper
-Marvin Minsky
All these people would go on to write code, programs, software, and more. Ultimately, their dedication led to the science of computers to be academically acknowledged. -
TRMC
Samson wrote the first editions of the Tech Model Railroad Club dictionary. TMRC, a small group of boys who’s love of computers would accumulate and later evolve into its own branch of science. The small club would learn about such computers as the IBM 704, but always through supervision. Their interest in machinery led to the building of model railroads, as well as learning about the workings behind phone companies and their inner workings. -
TX-0 Take Off!
An unsupervised TX-0 would be Samson’s chance to learn in an unregulated environment. The TX-0 was one of the first transistor run computers. Jack Dennis and the group would learn and improve their coding skills, more specifically, systems programs as the machine had little software. While Dennis worked on software and debugging, Samson converted arabic numbers to roman numerals. Then, Samson began tampering with the code to synthesize music. -
New Arrival
A new computer was to be given to MIT, the PDP-1. In preparation, Samson, Kotok, Saunders, Wagner, and other members began creating software and debuggers. In a single weekend, surviving off Coca Cola, an entire assembler was prepared. For this, Jack Dennis had promised to pay them for their time, an estimated two hundred and fifty man hours.
This was significant not only for the future of the club, but to the Hacker Ethic in establishing its efficiency. -
PDP-1 Harmonies
Samson created the “Harmony Compiler” which made it possible to create his own musical pieces. While he originally started his program on the TX-0, the PDP-1 offered its own extended capabilities via a range of sound that the TX-0 was unable to replicate. Samson designed his program with a focus for playing classical music. Pieces by Bach and longer works such as all four movements of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Samson along with fellow TMRC member, Bill Ackerman. -
SpaceWars!
Steve "Slug" Russel created one of the first video games, "SpaceWars!" on the PDP-1. Peter Samson loved his classmate’s creation, but the randomness of the stars frustrated him. He borrowed a copy of an atlas of the universe, and plotted the correct constellations for the night sky down to the fifth magnitude. While showing fifty percent of the sky, Samson called this program "Shootout-at-El-Cassiopeia". -
TJ-2
Samson pushed on and created a page layout program under supervision from McCarthy and Dennis. TJ-2, or Type Justifying Program, was one of the first page layout programs that could predetermine margins, headers and footers, page numbering, along with other features such as page wrap. This program was created for the PDP-1, though Samson had created earlier versions, titled Justify and TJ-1. -
DEC Discoveries
DEC would later reach out to Samson. It is there he would contribute to the creation of the PDP-6, writing the FORTRAN compiler. While Samson never graduated MIT, he made headway in the computer business through this connection.
Pictured below is PDP-6, Gordan Bell, and an unknown female staff member fixing the machine's tape. -
Great Subway Hack
Samson's love of transferring data from analogue to digital systems was immense, and he used the PDP-6 to hack the biggest system he could think of, the New York City metro.
While the initial plan was to document the New York metro lines, he soon took it upon himself to create a route that was as fast as possible, hit every stop, and only required one coin to ride. -
Great Subway Hack ii
The team used a PDP-6 and a teletype and took to the subway, noting delays and updating them in real time. The event gained media attention. The point of conflict that Samson noted, was the inability to have the computer solely to one user. -
System Concepts
Peter Samson left DEC and got a job with System Concepts. While there, he earned the titles director of marketing, as well as director of program development. His cataloging of Chinese menus went on to help him with digital communication systems that featured Chinese characters. His years spent writing programs also helped in his creation of synthesizer hardware. -
NASA
Peter Samson also began working with NASA in San Francisco, focusing on the central memory subsystem which was then used within the supercomputer ILLIAC IV, at the NASA research center. NASA's research center had moved ILLIAC IV to Ames in 1970's, with the company deciding to move the machine due to backlash connected to key events such as the Kent State Shooting. Below the supercomputer is shown. It resided on a military base protected by marines. -
Autodesk, Inc.
Peter Samson then worked within Autodesk, Inc. and created programs for rendering and animation, and still carried out work in music synthesization. It would be during this time where Samson would put some of his work under patents involving anti-piracy and virtual reality. Autodesk's software has been used by notable animation companies, such as Pixar. While it is unlikely Samson worked directly with Pixar, his rendering software likely made an impact. -
Current Events
Today, Samson works with the Computer History Museum as a docent, his latest project being the full restoration of the PDP-1 which is displayed within the museum. Samson also was featured on a panel at the museum, “The Mouse that Roared”, which discussed early coding and programming undertaken at MIT by members of the TMRC. -
Sources
Levy, Steven. Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revolution. 25th ed., O’Reilly, 2010. “Peter Samson.” Peter Samson | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, Computer History Museum, 1 Jan. 2023, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. “Spacewar!” Spacewar! | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, Computer History Museum, 1 Jan. 2023, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/spacewar/.