Comment Re:About the timeline (Score 1) 179
Raph, briefly:
I did some research into this last year. Following Hunt the Wumpus (1972) and Adventure (1972 or 1976?), I haven't seen any evidence of graphical dungeons before about Summer 1975, on PLATO:
* The Dungeon (pedit5, Rusty Rutherford, development started August 1975 per pedit5 dates, released late 1975; later renamed The Orthanc Labyrinth, orthanc1, by Paul Resch et al.)
* The Game of Dungeons (dnd, Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood, begun "my guess...November, 1974" and released in 1975, per RW; later Dirk and Flint Pellett);
* The Mines of Moria (moria, Jim Battin and Kevet Duncombe, begun "sometime after Spring 1975"; 3-D maze sometime after Spring 1977, per KD, notesfiles)
This order could well be wrong, but the earliest documented date so far is pedit5. Until I dig up more, that is what we have. I have restored some backups and will do some more. What we can say from this is that the first graphical FRPs originated on PLATO in 1975, late 1974 at the earliest.
The next development was in 3-D display ("1st person") and robust interterminal capabilities (joining a team, fighting one another, exchanging items and gold, communicating). This seems to have started by mid-1977 and was fully mature in 1978. Popular games of this genre around this time were Futurewar (Boland and Witz), Oubliette (Schwaiger, Gaby, DeLong), and Avatar (Maggs, Shapira, Sides). This may not be the order of release, but all of them seem to have been in heavy development around Summer 1977, and they began releasing late in that year. More details are needed. But, in general, the earliest multiplayer and 3-D fantasies began to arrive around late 1977, again on PLATO.
In the 1970s, Chicago was still the electronic game capital of the U.S. PLATO, based in Urbana and with a major Chicago and Midwest presence, frequently cross-pollinated with the EE's and programmers who later moved into coin-op and PC games. All of the following people had formative experience on PLATO before 1980:
* Al McNeil (designed Berzerk, Frenzy at Dave Nutting, for Stern)
* John Haefeli (wrote Panzer, which became coin-op Battlezone)
* Silas Warner (wrote Wolfenstein for Apple ][)
* Jim Schwaiger (wrote PC Oubliette port)
* Larry DeMar (designed many coin-ops for Bally/Williams)
* Bob Woodhead (published Wizardry, Virex)
* Dan Lawrence (published clones of PLATO DND for DEC and PC)
* Mike Kulas (produced Descent)
* Bruce Artwick (wrote SubLOGIC Flight Simulator -> Microsoft)
* Dave Abzug et al. (BattleTech/FASA Interactive)
* Empire (Daleske and Battin) -> Netrek
I did some research into this last year. Following Hunt the Wumpus (1972) and Adventure (1972 or 1976?), I haven't seen any evidence of graphical dungeons before about Summer 1975, on PLATO:
* The Dungeon (pedit5, Rusty Rutherford, development started August 1975 per pedit5 dates, released late 1975; later renamed The Orthanc Labyrinth, orthanc1, by Paul Resch et al.)
* The Game of Dungeons (dnd, Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood, begun "my guess...November, 1974" and released in 1975, per RW; later Dirk and Flint Pellett);
* The Mines of Moria (moria, Jim Battin and Kevet Duncombe, begun "sometime after Spring 1975"; 3-D maze sometime after Spring 1977, per KD, notesfiles)
This order could well be wrong, but the earliest documented date so far is pedit5. Until I dig up more, that is what we have. I have restored some backups and will do some more. What we can say from this is that the first graphical FRPs originated on PLATO in 1975, late 1974 at the earliest.
The next development was in 3-D display ("1st person") and robust interterminal capabilities (joining a team, fighting one another, exchanging items and gold, communicating). This seems to have started by mid-1977 and was fully mature in 1978. Popular games of this genre around this time were Futurewar (Boland and Witz), Oubliette (Schwaiger, Gaby, DeLong), and Avatar (Maggs, Shapira, Sides). This may not be the order of release, but all of them seem to have been in heavy development around Summer 1977, and they began releasing late in that year. More details are needed. But, in general, the earliest multiplayer and 3-D fantasies began to arrive around late 1977, again on PLATO.
In the 1970s, Chicago was still the electronic game capital of the U.S. PLATO, based in Urbana and with a major Chicago and Midwest presence, frequently cross-pollinated with the EE's and programmers who later moved into coin-op and PC games. All of the following people had formative experience on PLATO before 1980:
* Al McNeil (designed Berzerk, Frenzy at Dave Nutting, for Stern)
* John Haefeli (wrote Panzer, which became coin-op Battlezone)
* Silas Warner (wrote Wolfenstein for Apple ][)
* Jim Schwaiger (wrote PC Oubliette port)
* Larry DeMar (designed many coin-ops for Bally/Williams)
* Bob Woodhead (published Wizardry, Virex)
* Dan Lawrence (published clones of PLATO DND for DEC and PC)
* Mike Kulas (produced Descent)
* Bruce Artwick (wrote SubLOGIC Flight Simulator -> Microsoft)
* Dave Abzug et al. (BattleTech/FASA Interactive)
* Empire (Daleske and Battin) -> Netrek
