Post by Morreion on Sept 4, 2013 14:24:57 GMT -5
The Game Archaeologist: The PLATO MMOs, part 1 (Massively)
PLATO's mainframe time-sharing terminals were developed to provide computer education to university (and later, grade-school) students, and as such, connecting users became a goal as successive systems were created. The system quickly pioneered many technologies, including touchscreens (in 1972!), plasma displays, and interactive peripherals. In an era of punch cards, PLATO allowed its users quick input via keyboard and quick feedback via terminals. In 1967, Paul Tenczar created TUTOR, a special programming language for PLATO that made it scads easier for people to program highly interactive graphical titles. Like, y'know, games.
As the '70s progressed, more schools and universities acquired PLATO terminals, meaning two important components were in place for the growth of MMOs: Students were given the tools to write their own programs and the technology to communicate with other computers. Communities formed using PLATO's online communications, which included shared note files, instant messaging, and bulletin boards.
Before multi-user dungeons came along in the early '80s, amateur programmers on PLATO were already whipping up games that allowed several users to group up, explore virtual worlds, and slay the dragon. While none of these fit the modern definition of MMOs -- most notably lacking world persistence or truly "massive" numbers of online players -- the following games started the ball rolling in that direction. I think you'll be amazed with the ingenuity that this generation cooked up.
The Game Archaeologist: The PLATO MMOs, part 2 (Massively)
Moria (1975)
Do you recall the thrill that you had the very first time you grouped with other players in an MMO to conquer a dungeon? Take that feeling and magnify it to meet the "world first!" status when Moria came out in the mid-'70s.
Unlike dnd's top-down approach to dungeon crawling, Mines of Moria (or simply Moria) gave it a first-person perspective with simple 3-D pictures. Seeing where you were going and what monsters you were fighting was electrifying to the audience back then. Players could solo or group up to tackle an amazing 248 mazes, which was about 247 mazes more than J.R.R. Tolkien ever created in his Moria.
"Believe it or not we hadn't even heard of D&D until after we started the project," said Moria programmer Kevet Duncombe. "I hadn't read Tolkien at the time. The guys doing dnd seemed to be having a good deal of trouble getting the bugs out and I was curious what made it so tough. When I thought up the notion of generating the dungeon on the fly as you walk around, I couldn't resist and prototyped a 2-D, top-down version. That was the impetus. Before you know it Jim and I had turned it into a playable game, and we just kept adding features."
There were a few interesting concepts with Moria, such as the ability to create camps and leave behind "strings" to help you find your way back to a certain place. Yeah, it's a waypoint. In 1975. However, character creation and development wasn't as advanced as what came soon after.
