Yes! Can you believe it? Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac 1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of its kind still in operation. At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitors and lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see it working, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletype and Bill's explanation of how it worked. About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and was fascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, can you blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgoole took him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out. A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using and learning about this system would be cool! So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made a C compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then they loaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on a machine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a series of common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games like Wordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let's go to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine! What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such a thing! But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! So they made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making a new innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn't believe it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes! So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the Vintage Computer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19. The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19. Take care! Jeff Brace VCF East Showrunner
Bill Dromgoole corrected me in that Duan Craps was a major contributor to the understanding, repair and diagnosis of this machine. I didn't mean to overlook his contributions. I was just focused on the new programming and not the original repairs and diagnosis, etc. On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 7:21 AM Jeffrey Brace <jeffrey@vcfed.org> wrote:
Yes! Can you believe it? Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac 1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of its kind still in operation.
At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitors and lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see it working, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletype and Bill's explanation of how it worked.
About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and was fascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, can you blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgoole took him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out. A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using and learning about this system would be cool!
So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made a C compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then they loaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on a machine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a series of common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games like Wordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let's go to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine! What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such a thing!
But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! So they made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making a new innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn't believe it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!
So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the Vintage Computer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.
The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.
Take care!
Jeff Brace VCF East Showrunner
Jeff gives me way too much credit for getting the Univac up and running. It could not have been done without Duane Craps.He is the most knowledgeable person on the computer and did most of the troubleshooting on it. We constantly consult with him on issues that we have difficulty with fixing.Bill DromgooleSent from my Galaxy -------- Original message --------From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 4/1/26 7:21 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Jeffrey Brace <jeffrey@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Doom on the Univac 1219B! Yes! Can you believe it?Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of itskind still in operation.At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitorsand lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see itworking, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletypeand Bill's explanation of how it worked.About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and wasfascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, canyou blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgooletook him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out.A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using andlearning about this system would be cool!So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made aC compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then theyloaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on amachine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a seriesof common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games likeWordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let'sgo to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine!What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such athing!But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! Sothey made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making anew innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn'tbelieve it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the VintageComputer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.Take care!Jeff BraceVCF East Showrunner
I for one am quite proud of everyone there. You must really have that Teletype buzzing drawing those rooms while playing Doom. b On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 1:53 PM drummy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Jeff gives me way too much credit for getting the Univac up and running. It could not have been done without Duane Craps.He is the most knowledgeable person on the computer and did most of the troubleshooting on it. We constantly consult with him on issues that we have difficulty with fixing.Bill DromgooleSent from my Galaxy -------- Original message --------From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 4/1/26 7:21 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Jeffrey Brace < jeffrey@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Doom on the Univac 1219B! Yes! Can you believe it?Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of itskind still in operation.At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitorsand lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see itworking, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletypeand Bill's explanation of how it worked.About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and wasfascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, canyou blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgooletook him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out.A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using andlearning about this system would be cool!So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made aC compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then theyloaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on amachine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a seriesof common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games likeWordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let'sgo to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine!What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such athing!But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! Sothey made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making anew innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn'tbelieve it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the VintageComputer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.Take care!Jeff BraceVCF East Showrunner
24 frames per day! On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 15:56 Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I for one am quite proud of everyone there. You must really have that Teletype buzzing drawing those rooms while playing Doom. b
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 1:53 PM drummy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Jeff gives me way too much credit for getting the Univac up and running. It could not have been done without Duane Craps.He is the most knowledgeable person on the computer and did most of the troubleshooting on it. We constantly consult with him on issues that we have difficulty with fixing.Bill DromgooleSent from my Galaxy -------- Original message --------From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 4/1/26 7:21 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Jeffrey Brace < jeffrey@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Doom on the Univac 1219B! Yes! Can you believe it?Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of itskind still in operation.At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitorsand lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see itworking, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletypeand Bill's explanation of how it worked.About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and wasfascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, canyou blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgooletook him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out.A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using andlearning about this system would be cool!So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made aC compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then theyloaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on amachine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a seriesof common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games likeWordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let'sgo to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine!What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such athing!But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! Sothey made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making anew innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn'tbelieve it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the VintageComputer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.Take care!Jeff BraceVCF East Showrunner
Yeah. They did have a laptop connected to it, but that was cheating, so they made a text based version of Doom so that it worked much better! On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 4:13 PM Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
24 frames per day!
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 15:56 Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I for one am quite proud of everyone there. You must really have that Teletype buzzing drawing those rooms while playing Doom. b
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 1:53 PM drummy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Jeff gives me way too much credit for getting the Univac up and running. It could not have been done without Duane Craps.He is the most knowledgeable person on the computer and did most of the troubleshooting on it. We constantly consult with him on issues that we have difficulty with fixing.Bill DromgooleSent from my Galaxy -------- Original message --------From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 4/1/26 7:21 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Jeffrey Brace < jeffrey@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Doom on the Univac 1219B! Yes! Can you believe it?Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of itskind still in operation.At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitorsand lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see itworking, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletypeand Bill's explanation of how it worked.About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and wasfascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, canyou blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgooletook him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out.A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using andlearning about this system would be cool!So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made aC compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then theyloaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on amachine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a seriesof common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games likeWordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let'sgo to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine!What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such athing!But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! Sothey made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making anew innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn'tbelieve it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the VintageComputer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.Take care!Jeff BraceVCF East Showrunner
Of course the Doom part was an April fools joke, but the rest is true. Come and listen to Nathan's talk on Sunday at 10AM it's called "Everything Runs on UNIVAC If You Try Hard Enough". He will tell you how did it all. You can also see the demos Saturday and Sunday from 1PM to 3PM in the VCF Museum. On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 8:18 PM Jeffrey Brace <jeffrey@vcfed.org> wrote:
Yeah. They did have a laptop connected to it, but that was cheating, so they made a text based version of Doom so that it worked much better!
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 4:13 PM Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
24 frames per day!
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 15:56 Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I for one am quite proud of everyone there. You must really have that Teletype buzzing drawing those rooms while playing Doom. b
On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 1:53 PM drummy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Jeff gives me way too much credit for getting the Univac up and running. It could not have been done without Duane Craps.He is the most knowledgeable person on the computer and did most of the troubleshooting on it. We constantly consult with him on issues that we have difficulty with fixing.Bill DromgooleSent from my Galaxy -------- Original message --------From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 4/1/26 7:21 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Jeffrey Brace < jeffrey@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Doom on the Univac 1219B! Yes! Can you believe it?Years ago Bill Dromgoole diagnosed, troubleshooted and repaired the Univac1219B that sits in the VCF museum. As far as we know the only one of itskind still in operation.At every VCF East for years he has demonstrated this machine to visitorsand lamented "I don't know what to demo". Everyone was happy just to see itworking, the blinking lights, the loud noise, the tapping of the teletypeand Bill's explanation of how it worked.About 4 years ago a young whippersnapper Steve Schivone came along and wasfascinated by this machine and wanted to learn all about it. I mean, canyou blame him? Learning to use a working mainframe computer? Bill Dromgooletook him in as an apprentice and he learned this system in and out.A few months ago Steven met some other "young" guys who thought using andlearning about this system would be cool!So they got to thinking. "What can we do with this system?". So they made aC compiler. Not satisfied, they created a BASIC interpreter. Then theyloaded the Oregon Trail. Imagine playing that on a teletype machine on amachine used for ballistics control on a naval ship! Next up was a seriesof common BASIC programs and games like Zork. And "modern" games likeWordle. All very cool. then they were like Light Speed is too slow, let'sgo to Ridiculous Speed. So they created a Minecraft server on the machine!What an incredible and fun feat! Who would have ever thought of such athing!But ... they were not satisfied. They needed to go to Ludicrous Speed! Sothey made Doom on this machine. Yes. Doom! The thing that everyone making anew innovative system uses as a test "Does it play Doom?". I couldn'tbelieve it was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes!So when you are at VCF East, stop by the Univac found in the VintageComputer Museum and play all these fun games! VCF East runs April 17-19.The demo will run Saturday and Sunday 1PM to 3PM April 18 & 19.Take care!Jeff BraceVCF East Showrunner
participants (4)
-
Bill Degnan -
Dean Notarnicola -
drummy -
Jeffrey Brace