The Thunderbirds
Already as a young boy I played with models of "The Thunderbirds".
This is a puppet series made in the UK.
The Tracy family live on a small
island, of which nobody knows the location, and they are "International
Rescue".
To pick up distress calls anywhere on Earth, Thunderbird 5 orbits the Earth.
Depending the nature of the distress situation, certain models of Thunderbirds
are directed to the disaster location. Of course, they always succeed in their operation.
After watching an episode on television, I often went to the attick to kludge
something together with switches, lamps and batteries.
Star Trek
Although the original Star Trek series aired in the United States in the period 1969-1971,
as far as I remember, I saw it on Dutch television somewhere around 1974. I have always liked this
series, and never missed an episode.
In 1982, I got a copy of the book 'Star Ship Simulation' by Dilithium Press.
My own starship ideas started to 'materialize'...
About the Book
I found a copy of this book in a local electronics shop where I used to buy my
resistors, transistors, IC's and all the other stuff. I even worked there on
Saturday selling components. Although I watched the StarTrek Original Series on television in
the early 1970's, I guess this book started a serious infection.
I wanted to create my own Space Ship Simulation, but I did not want to build it like a 'simple'
game. Remember, the Personal Computer was not around until 1981!
My 'game' should not be played sitting in front of a monitor, entering commands with a keyboard.
No, I wanted the 'real' thing. Lots of meters, buttons, switches, displays, etc.