[meauxdal]

PLATO computer system wikipedia entry

This was so far ahead of its time we have now officially arrived at "its time".

http://www.cyber1.org/

Go to the above link and sign up for a login (humans review login requests, so you may have to wait a day or two (I got accepted in like 24 hours)), download the Pterm PLATO terminal emulator, login, play old games like

Empire (1973) (one of the earliest networked multiplayer shooters)
Panzer/Panther (1975) (precursor to BattleZone, primitive polygon wireframe graphics)
dnd (1975) (really early dungeon hack)
Moria (1975) (ditto)
Oubliette (1977) (said to be a direct inspiration for the game Wizardry)
Freecell (1978) (the original windows classic's first digital implementation)
There are other games I've read about as well like pedit5, Avatar, Rogue, Dungeon, Airfight. Some of them are briefly detailed here

OK, so who wants to create a party in Moria or something. Let's do this.


(psst, this is what you'll get if you type orthanc1 when it prompts you for the lesson name)
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[Rei]

[Loki Laufeyson]

panther and empire sound interesting. i wouldn't have thought games this complex woul have even been possible in the 70s!
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[meauxdal]

Loki, you got to sign up and try this with me. I need people to help me map out the controls for these old, largely externally undocumented games


Empire title screen. Type empire on the lesson select screen to get to this game. Note the badassery here... 'cept I'm the only one playing currently (as a Romulan, no less)


Empire gameplay. This is zoomed out to the furthest scale, and planets in the system are visible here. (Shift-5, Shift-7, and Shift-9 to change view scale)
To get to Empire's notesfile (super early version of a messageboard), type empirenote into the lesson selection.


Avatar title screen. Type avatar in the lesson select (alternately, vavatar (current rules, resets every January), 2avatar (oldest rules), or zavatar (current rules, endless, default)) to get here.
zavatnote gets you to the notesfile.


Avatar in-game helpscreen (there is a manual as well, accessible from the main menu, called the "help lesson" which is at least 50 screens long - this is just the in-game refresher)


First page of Avatar's "help lesson".
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[dinopoke]

I signed up to cyber1 a while ago to play Empire but I never really had the chance.

[jjsimpso]

I just created an account and logged in last night for the first time. Interesting diatribe in the dnd history section. Sounds a bit like sour grapes, but there might be some reasonable complaints in there.

Mostly in this for the dungeon crawlers, so if anybody else is playing them, please post about them!
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