An Early Danish Computer Game: The case of Nim, Piet Hein, and Regnecentralen
- Anker Helms Jørgensen
Research Output:
Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter
Article in proceedings
Peer-review
Open access
Publication Information
Output type
Research Output:
Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter
Article in proceedings
Peer-reviewOriginal language
EnglishPages from-to (Number of pages)
Pages 283-288 (6 pages)Publication milestones
- Published - 2009
Publication status
Published - 2009
Publisher
Springer, United States, GermanyBook series
- Book series name: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
Series number: 303/2009
ISSN: 1868-4238
ISBN (Print)
978-3-642-03756-6Host publication title
History of Nordic Computing 2Host publication editors
- John Impagliazzo
- Timo Järvi
- Petri Paju
Abstract
This paper reports on the development of Nimbi, which is an early computer game implemented at the Danish Computer Company Regnecentralen in 1962-63. Nimbi is a variant of the ancient game Nim. The paper traces the primary origins of the development of Nimbi. These include a mathematical analysis from 1901 of Nim that “killed the game” as the outcome could be predicted quite easily; the desire of the Danish inventor Piet Hein to make a game that eluded such analyses; and the desire of Piet Hein to have computers play games against humans. The development of Nimbi was successful in spite of considerable technical obstacles. However, it seems that the game was not used for publicizing the capabilities of computers – at least not widely – as was the case with earlier Nim implementations, such as the British Nim-playing computer Nimrod in 1951.
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Related Event
Title
History of Nordic Computing 2
Event type
ConferenceDate
21/08/2007 - 23/08/2007Location
TampereFinland