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December 13, 2018 09:26 pm PST

Make this scale model of the Dr. Nim digital game

Dr Nim is a plastic, gravity powered computer from the 1960s that plays the game, Nim, against a human player. Recently Michael Gardi made a 3D scale model of Dr Nim, which you can download and print on a 3D printer.

The Amazing Dr. Nim is a toy invented by John Thomas Godfrey and manufactured by Education Science Research (E.S.R., Inc.) in the mid-1960s. It consists of a marble-powered plastic computer capable of playing the game of Nim. The machine selects its moves through the action of the marbles falling through the levers of the machine.

The "game board" is a based on the mechanical Digi-Comp II digital computer (also a Godfrey creation). It has memory switches that hold bits of data. The unit is programmed by lobed levers that affect and are affected by marbles that are released from the top of the game. Three of the levers set the start position. The fourth lever is the 'equalizer' option; if set, the player can win if they play perfectly. The last lever is used to indicate who's turn it is, the human or Dr. Nim's.

Game play is described in the manual that was bundled with the game and can be found here:

The Amazing Dr. Nim Manual

There are many good online references for the game. The following video is especially informative and entertaining:

The Unbeatable Game from the 60s: Dr NIM

And this article speaks to the relevance of a game like Dr. Nim in today's digital world:

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Dr.

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Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/sdSymDElpNU/make-this-scale-model-of-the-d.html

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