creativehum
SOC-14 1K
Just bumped into the term
Looked for source
Can't find anything
Where does concept first appear?
Looked for source
Can't find anything
Where does concept first appear?
Jump Tapes -- where does the concept first appear?
- Thread starter creativehum
- Start date
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Andre Norton's "Galactic Derelict" (part of the Time Traders series) uses the concept, and dates from 1959.
creativehum
SOC-14 1K
Thanks.
And in terms of Traveller game books, when do they make their first appearance?
I keep seeing people referring to them as part of the "original CT books."
And... Well, they aren't. (Not in LBB 1-3, TTB, or ST.)
So I'm curious when they got introduced.
And in terms of Traveller game books, when do they make their first appearance?
I keep seeing people referring to them as part of the "original CT books."
And... Well, they aren't. (Not in LBB 1-3, TTB, or ST.)
So I'm curious when they got introduced.
creativehum
SOC-14 1K
Great! Thanks!
I was searching using the word "tape" and couldn't find it.
I was searching using the word "tape" and couldn't find it.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
That's because they are not called jump tapes, they are called jump cassettes.
For some reason fanon turned that into jump tapes in the collective memory - it's one of my pet peeves
For some reason fanon turned that into jump tapes in the collective memory - it's one of my pet peeves
That's because they are not called jump tapes, they are called jump cassettes.
For some reason fanon turned that into jump tapes in the collective memory - it's one of my pet peeves
That is because, in the real world, technology marched on ... those cassette were replaced by 8-track tapes ... Yeah, Baby!.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
"Cassette" could actually mean something in the Far Future that doesn't seem archaic. According to Merriam-Webster.com, a cassette is a flat case or cartridge that can be easily loaded or unloaded.
So, this cartridge can be quite high tech. Maybe it's a cartridge of thinly cut crystal sleeves that swing out of the cartridge and insert into the Nav Computer, bringing data that way. Or, maybe they're just low range wireless little black rubber covered boxes, the size of a wallet, where the Navigator only has to have the thing close to the Nav Computer. The computer will scan and read the coordinates and instructions from the cassette, but the cassette is designed as a one-use only device.
If you go with Jump "Tape", then you're talking about some very low tech and outdated, unless there is some new high tech tape in the far future.
So, this cartridge can be quite high tech. Maybe it's a cartridge of thinly cut crystal sleeves that swing out of the cartridge and insert into the Nav Computer, bringing data that way. Or, maybe they're just low range wireless little black rubber covered boxes, the size of a wallet, where the Navigator only has to have the thing close to the Nav Computer. The computer will scan and read the coordinates and instructions from the cassette, but the cassette is designed as a one-use only device.
If you go with Jump "Tape", then you're talking about some very low tech and outdated, unless there is some new high tech tape in the far future.
epicenter00
SOC-13
Self-Erasing Cassettes containing a course to a nearby star system.
Seriously, self-erasing?
That has to be one of the monuments to Traveller's nearly vindictive levels of capitalism.
Seriously, self-erasing?
That has to be one of the monuments to Traveller's nearly vindictive levels of capitalism.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I think rather that it was designed as a low game goal for your initial trader/Scout to not be able to jump on it's own, but be motivated pretty quickly to make enough money for the Generate program.
A McGuffin to get you to take those adventure risks for the big payoff.
Near as I can tell the computer system is a stand in for all sorts of tweaks and upgrades to make your ship more powerful rather then a full engineering customization set of rules (beyond HG).
Or, a testament to the idea that Jump Coordinates are transient, sensitive, and tonnage dependent. The erase so that nobody can try and use them when the course plot is out-of-date or try to use them on the wrong size ship.
D.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
What gets me is that I would think courses would have to be made at a specific point in time. In space, everything is moving, and even though the ship does move into another dimension, it still has to deal with the gravity wells of massive bodies in this dimension. Jump space is supposed to be contemporaneous with real space, right?
So, it would seem that jump space trips would have to be computed using data about orbits: suns around suns, planets around stars, moons around planets, rings around solar systems, solar systems around the galactic core, etc.
It would seem that you could make jump coordinates for a future point in time, knowing the speed of rotation and direction of the various bodies that are avoided, but once that point in time is passed, the jump cassette would be no good.
Maybe that's why the jump cassette business didn't grow (We can assume that it was a "fad" for a while, then died out of use.) It was hard to predict useage, and the shelf live was limited.
A jump cassette could be called a "cassette" because it hold a number of jump coordinates for an entire day. A different set of pre-determined coordinates for your destination, one for every milli-second of a day. When the ship jumps, on that particular day, the exact jump coordinates are used for that exact moment the ship jumps. The rest of the coordinates are no good once the time to use them is gone.
Self erasing? They wouldn't need to erase if the data is no good and not safe after a certain point. Maybe it's a governmental edict that the tapes self erase so that some idiot doesn't try to use them even though he knows using old data has a high risk of failure.
I mean, hey, there are people who try to the low berth, too. Lots of idiots out there.
A neat idea to use in an adventure: You've got a sleazy port operator on some backward planet selling expired jump cassettes, altered to look new.
This would be a great excuse for a Ref to run a scenario with a mis-jump.
A way to make money? Could a crew use their own Nav computer to create coordinates to sell to others?
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Exactly - the target world is, like the originating world, orbiting around its star - the jump course takes you from 100d from the originating system to not a lot more than that from the target world.
Must merchant ships would be in trouble if they came out of jump on the opposite side of the target system's star than the world they were aiming for, so the jump course has to take into account the current location of the originating world and the location of the target world at the expected time of "drop-out from jump".
Not to mention the slower but still measurable relative motions of the two stellar systems themselves.
Thus, a jump course generated for a specific ship today will differ, sometimes significantly, from one generated for the same ship several months from now, even though the destination & target worlds are the same.
Must merchant ships would be in trouble if they came out of jump on the opposite side of the target system's star than the world they were aiming for, so the jump course has to take into account the current location of the originating world and the location of the target world at the expected time of "drop-out from jump".
Not to mention the slower but still measurable relative motions of the two stellar systems themselves.
Thus, a jump course generated for a specific ship today will differ, sometimes significantly, from one generated for the same ship several months from now, even though the destination & target worlds are the same.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Or it could be that since the systems move around in their merry dance around the galactic core the cassette is only good for a single use since the programmed parameters are only good for the jump window it is programmed for.
The cassette then self erases to prevent some idiot from trying to use it again and hence misjumping...
The cassette then self erases to prevent some idiot from trying to use it again and hence misjumping...
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
Patron Zero
SOC-13
Not to refer to a non-canon/non-Traveller source but in Star Trek:TOS, the small non-nondescript 'cassettes' used for entering data into the ship's computer were called tapes although showing neither spools nor ferrous ribbons.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Astrogation data should be fairly predictable after centuries and millennia of observations, since planets tend to stay in the same orbit at around the same velocity.
Except for Ceti Alpha V. And apparently VI.
Except for Ceti Alpha V. And apparently VI.
sure, if you're already a competent navigator and can make the calculations. navigation 0 skill is just asking for trouble.
personally I see navigation skill as including competence at nav calcs, plus familiarity with a given ship's and drive's idosyncracies, plus being able to incorporate immediate conditions in the originating system. if you take the attitude that "a jump is a jump, right?" and just plug in the old 8-track from three years ago, you might wind up in some oort cloud somewhere and spend two months getting back in-system.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
For new standard starships, before they are altered and aging and repairs make them idiosyncratic, performance and profile should be the same.
