First Female Video Game Designer
October 28, 2017 7:56 AM   Subscribe

 
This is very cool. I have friends who revere Joseph Weisbecker and his work, and it's great to find out about Joyce's development work too.

The 1802 is one very special chip. It's one of the few 8-bit microprocessors (as opposed to microcontrollers) still available new. It's fully static, so you can stop the clock or run it at anywhere from 1 Hz to full speed. It's got a super-simple DMA loader mode that will load memory from any bits fed to it, then restart code at address 0 when requested. If you ask nicely (and have the requisite $1000 or so per unit) you can get a rad-hardened Silicon-on-Sapphire version that will keep your space probe running to the stars. The one thing the 1802 isn't, though, is fast.
posted by scruss at 9:01 AM on October 28, 2017 [8 favorites]


It's one of the few 8-bit microprocessors (as opposed to microcontrollers) still available new.

... And that you (yes, you) can still build a computer around.
posted by multics at 9:16 AM on October 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Very interesting. It's so weird—and shameful—how certain jobs become "male" or "female" in our world. Hell, it even seems like computer programming is like traditional stone age "women's work"— as in, creating fabric, processing food, teaching children, language development, etc.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:09 AM on October 28, 2017


Computer programming actually was women's work during the very early era of computing, when it was considered low-status and almost clerical. There were still a fair number of women computer programmers until the 1980s, when everyone started to realize that computers were going to define modern life and that software was going to be as important as hardware. At that point, programming became a high-status, highly-compensated profession, and the percentage of programmers who were women plummeted.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:29 AM on October 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Glad they dug up this piece of history so it didn't get lost to time. (Drives home how many stories have been lost over time for people not caring, for not fitting the narrative, etc)
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:31 AM on October 28, 2017


It looks like Joyce also wrote a few games for CHIP-8, the 1802-based VM that was a huge influence on tiny-game-system-du-jour PICO-8 . Can't find an online Chip-8 emulator, but the games are here: dmatlack/chip8

  And that you (yes, you) can still build a computer around

Lee Hart, who makes these kits, is usually pretty careful to use old components. You'll get a real RCA chip with his kits, no Harris or Intersil rubbish. I have his 6502 40th Anniversary Computer Badge, and mine rocks a 1993 Rockwell 65C02.
posted by scruss at 4:01 PM on October 28, 2017


Wow, thanks for this. I spent many hours programming, modifying, and playing with my Cosmac VIP, hence my username...
posted by cosmac at 4:28 PM on October 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Computer programming actually was women's work during the very early era of computing, when it was considered low-status and almost clerical.

I hadn't known of Pickering's harem until reading this entry of Women in computing [WikiPedia]

Looking back, Joyce Weisbecker does not particularly want to be known as the first female video game developer. To her, that is merely a coincidence. Instead, she considers herself possibly the first “indie” video game programmer, since she was an independent contractor and not an employee of RCA.

Integrity and objectivity is uncomplicated, yet exceedingly rare.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 4:33 PM on October 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


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