Gauss! | Classic retro game for the Commodore PET Computer (1979)

GAUSS! simulates a binomial distribution experiment. PETSCII balls are released from the left edge of the screen and bounce randomly through a pegboard to land in one of the twelve containers on the right. The PET keeps track of the results. This simulation is slow: it runs in BASIC and the animations slow it down even more, so it runs at a rate of 1,000 balls per hour. If you want to see interesting results, you'll need to leave this one running for a while.

This program has sound, because, according to the flyer, a PET without sound is like a day without sunshine. GAUSS! uses frequency to represent the height of each ball with high and low beeps sounding every time a ball strikes a peg or lands in a slot. After a few iterations, the novelty of the sound effects wore off—to be brutally honest, I found the beeps annoying. Fortunately, Fisher provides a hotkey that mutes the simulation.