[Guest Post by my friend and game buddy, Steven Clark]
I've spent the past two weeks exploring an old
PLATO mainframe that is publicly run, called "cyber1". Not sure if any of you are familiar with these, but these system were created in 1960, and widespread through Universities throughout the 70's. They finally went away sometime in the late 80's.
Why you might be interested in getting a log-in and trying out this system is that some of the
earliest D&D games were written for them starting in 1974, up until about 1984. The graphical simplicity hides some pretty complex and deep simulations going on as well; and the way these games approach their subjects is novel in many of the same ways as
OD&D is novel compared modern RPG's; the most successful elements have been rehashed and reimagined to death in modern games, but there is some true creativity in this old stuff.
I made a
video on PLATO Terminal to pique interest.
The mainframe functions much as a BBS would; the "notes" lesson (program) is used as a bulletin board. It can be access through the internet via a
PLATO terminal emulator.
Steven Clark