Table of Contents
Welcome to Rosencrantz!
Welcome to Rosencrantz (“Rosie”), a public access VMS system and community. Rosie is powered by OpenVMS V7.3 on a VAXstation 4000 Model 60 operated by the SDF Interim Computer Museum. This system is available for use to all interested in vintage computing. Personal login accounts may be requested by Bootstrap- (or higher) level members of the ICM. See our website (https://icm.museum/join.html).
History
Rosencrantz is currently on its third “incarnation” (host hardware):
I. 2010-2018
Rosie was initialized by the late Ian King for the PDP Planet project on a restored VAX-11/780-5 minicomputer running OpenVMS V6.2 (later updated to V7.3).
II. 2018-2024
After PDP Planet became Living Computers: Museum + Labs, Rosie was moved from the VAX-11/780 to a VAX 7000 Model 640 minicomputer by Josh Dersch and Stephen Jones in order to provide a nicer experience for Rosie's users.
III. 2024-
After the closing of LCM+L, Rosie was transfered to the SDF Interim Computer Museum in 2024. Providing the three-phase power required by the VAX 7000 proved to be uneconomical, so Rosie was moved by Stephen Jones to its current host, a VAXstation 4000 Model 60.
Basics
For an introduction to using OpenVMS, see the OpenVMS Survival Guide.
Communication
Rosencrantz has a variety of tools for communicating with other members of the community.
| FORUM | VAXforumII bulletin board system. |
| GRFFTI | Public graffiti wall. |
| Send and receive e-mail from other Rosie users. (Internet e-mail is not supported.) | |
| PHONE | Realtime text chat. |
| SHOW USERS | List currently logged-in users. |
Programming
The following programming systems are available on Rosencrantz.
| ADA | DEC Ada Version 3.4 compiler |
| BASIC | VAX BASIC interpreter and compiler |
| BLISS | VAX BLISS-32 V4.7 compiler |
| CC | DEC C V6.0 compiler |
| COBOL | VAX COBOL V5.5 compiler |
| FORTRAN | Digital Fortran 77 V6.5 compiler |
| LISP | VAX LISP Common Lisp Version 3.1 interpreter and compiler |
| HLISP | Hacker's LISP pre-Common Lisp interpreter |
| MACRO | VAX MACRO assembler |
| PASCAL | DEC Pascal V5.6 compiler |
| PLI | Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS VAX Version 3.8 compiler |
Games
The following games are available on Rosencrantz.
| ADVENT | Colossal Cave Adventure |
| DUNGEON | Predecessor of ZORK |
| EMPIRE | World conquest simulation |
| MTREK | Multi-player Star Trek |
| STARTREK | Protect the Federation from Klingons and Romulans |
| ZK | Adventure in the Digital Equipment Corporation Spit Brook Road facility in Nashua, New Hampshire (the birthplace of VMS) |