Hi Ripstick,

I have the GRiD Basic Reference Manual. So just drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send it your way.
I tried to do the sentry gun program in GRiD Basic but wasn't able to get the right fonts done and running. Also the graphics output is far too slow for what's needed.
So I scrapped the idea and had a look into doing the program in C or Assembler. I found the necessary info like graphics memory addresses in the kermit (no - not the frog but the terminal program) source code. However getting a suitable C compiler prevented me from doing more in that direction.

Cheers,
Stefan

Hey Stefan!

PM sent -- thanks!

You bring up some interesting questions regarding fonts and graphics rendering speed, so the first thing I'd like to do is back up and determine a sound starting point for this project again.

Was it ever determined for sure that the original Sentry Terminal programs were programmed in GRiDBasic running on GRiDOS? And if they were, is there a GRiDBasic compiler that would most likely correct the speed at which the graphics are rendered?

Since MS-DOS was also available on GRiD laptops in 1985, is it possible that the original Sentry Terminal programs were actually programmed in QuickBASIC? Microsoft released its very first version of QuickBASIC on August 18, 1985, so I know that would really be cutting it close as far as having something programmed to work in time to be filmed on time. I know many of the filming call sheets are floating around in private collections, so it would be very interesting to see if anyone has those particular sheets from the scenes including the Sentry Terminal GRiDs.

On the other hand, GW-BASIC was already available in 1983 -- however from what I've read, its programs too executed relatively slowly, because it was an interpreted programming language. Now I do have an original GRiD 3.5" 1.44 floppy disk with GW-Basic on it, but it's from 1990. It came bundled with an MS-DOS 3.3 floppy. Unfortunately since they are both 1.44MB versions, the 720KB drives in the older GRiDCases won't read them properly.

Questions, questions, questions.

What I wouldn't give to find out the name of the liaison between the Aliens production team and GRiD to learn how this all came together. With so much already known or discovered regarding the filming of Aliens, how is this small part still such a mystery?

_________________
Rick "Ripstick"
A03/TQ3.0.12142E1

Actually, everything regarding the sentry guns seem to be some kind of a mystery. There are only two behind the scene pictures and an early sketch of the sentry guns that I know of and that's it regarding actual production material.
I find this somewhat strange considering the fact that they were quite complex to build and operate (the turning and tilting mechanism was done with hydraulics!).
Might be that there was more material but it was dumped when the sentries didn't make it into the movie.

Cheers,
Stefan

Let's make this happen!

Maybe start a fund drive, and hire someone to do it?

I would try to keep it on DOS so the majority of us can use it.

I couldn't program my way out of a wet paper bag, but I'd donate to getting this done. I had "ideal specs" and
functionality/features in a previous thread on this subject.

Thanks for the additional pics Rick! (Grid whore.)

Russ

_________________
"A writer needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army." - Orson Wells.

http://www.rookscastle.com
http://www.alchemyarms.com

I came across this thread looking for dos 2.11 for a compass 1139, I have a basic sentry program done up running on a gridcase but before I fine tune it with better graphics and sizes I need to get it going on a compass, if anyone here has a image of any software for a compass that would be great as I would like to finish this program
thanks
rough version here http://klyball.com/Aliens/

There is a DOS version available. It runs on most any grid, but lacks functionality
such as count down shot counters and the like. I have dos 6.0 I believe running on
my grid, but then I have 3.5" floppy drives on my Grid, unlike the Gridcase II.

_________________
"A writer needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army." - Orson Wells.

http://www.rookscastle.com
http://www.alchemyarms.com

The compass uses a custom version of dos 2.11 this is what I am looking for then I can complete the sentry program

Thanks

You seek Ripstick or Bugstomper.

Send them a PM.

Great work so far! I've been waiting for years for this!

Resurrecting an old topic:

TL:DR - I helped resurrect the original GRiD-OS software development tools, and as a test case wrote a new version of the UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapon terminal display:

Well, I had to test the development environment, somehow!

(apologies for the audio, new filter chain, and I only had time to record this ONCE)

As part of @Ian Fi and myself rebuilding the GRiD Development Environment from batches of GRiD server hard drives, I needed something to test that the development environment that could compile Pascal, PL/M, Fortran, C and Assembler was working as expected. Then I thought about the sentry remote weapon system scenes that were cut from the theatrical release of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) film, which used GRiD Compass II 1129 laptops. GRiD had developed a set of working displays in GRiDBASIC for the film. These were never released, but now that the same tools are working again, I recreated them.

Video:
https://youtu.be/-hjH8cOvskk

GitHub Here:
https://github.com/tschak909/UA571C

Release with raw Hard disk image here:
https://github.com/tschak909/UA571C/rel ... A571C-V1.0

0:00 Intro
1:00 Scene from Aliens
2:27 GRiD Compass 1129
2:52 my GRiDCASE 1530, and booting into InteGRiD
4:35 UA 571-C DEMO
7:55 The GRiDDevelop Environment
8:07 The Development file
9:25 Showing PASCAL source, and talking about the code
12:30 Compiling modules
13:28 Linking UA 571-C
13:42 Testing

Good stuff. I think I was working on a python iteration and someone else was working on a python iteration. I still had findings to do to see what I could do to get it to run on Playstation and Xbox as a little widget, and android and IOS.

_________________
The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...