''CARMONETTE'' (Combined ARms Computer MOdel) is a 1953
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
simulation developed by the US
Operations Research Office
The Operations Research Office (ORO) was a civilian military research center founded in 1948 by the United States Army. It was run under contract by Johns Hopkins University and is regarded as one of the founding institutes of operations research ...
(ORO). While the first computerized simulation of conventional combat was "Air Defense Simulation", developed by the Army Operations Research Office at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in 1948, the Carmonette series was a later variant of the genre, featuring
ground combat
Land warfare or ground warfare is the process of military operations eventuating in combat that takes place predominantly on the battlespace land surface of the planet.
Land warfare is categorized by the use of large numbers of combat personne ...
at the levels of the individual soldier and company. The principal architect of Carmonette was Richard E. Zimmerman.
It was followed by ''CARMONETTE II'' which included
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
(1960–1965); ''CARMONETTE III'' which added armed helicopter support (1966–1970); also CARMONETTE IV added communications and
night vision
Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night vi ...
.
Piero Scaruffi
Piero Scaruffi (born 1955) is an Italian-American writer who maintains a website on which his reviews of music, film, and art are published. He has created his own publishing entity called Omnipublishing, that exclusively releases his books abou ...
described it as the first digital computer game.
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.scaruffi.com/science/elec3.html, title=A Brief History of Electrical Technology, website=www.scaruffi.com, access-date=2019-09-05]
References
Mainframe games
Military combat simulators