Slashdot Mirror
A 1974 Review of D&D
CleverNickName writes "Boing Boing pointed me to this 1974 review of the 'new' Dungeons and Dragons game. Some highlights: D&D was subtitled 'Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargams Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures.' The reviewer concludes, 'In general, the concept and imagination involved is stunning. However, much more work, refinement, and especially regulation and simplification is necessary before the game is managable.'"
I know Slashdot is renowned for posting news thats weeks or even months old, but *this* is just stupid!
Does it *get* more geeky than a story about D&D sent in by Wil Wheaton? I can't see how it possibly could.
If the review were more vehemently negative, the celibacy of thousands could have been averted.
And 19 years and dozens of rule books later, the quest continues..... :-)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
I've never played D&D - doing so required friends (which I'm already out of the running) that liked the game.
Still, I did collect a large number of AD&D cards, though I lost those after some water damage.
I've played Baldur's Gate, and it's pretty decent, but how much better is an actual D&D game?
The optimum solution seems to be play by phone, or when distances are too great, play by mail.
Oh I can see this working. "Hey, Fred, did you get my letter I mailed last week? You know, the one where I rolled a 20? I haven't heard from you yet. Did we kill the sucker or not?"
It was a cool book, a Dungeons and Dragons book. The adults told me that it was bad and made people act out elaborate fantasies and commit violent crimes. So I gave it up before ever actually playing it in the classic sense. But when this game for the Nintendo came out named "Dragon Warrior", I pounced on it. In a way, it a was a video game representation of what I loved about that book. I have since been a avid RPG video game player since.
...the Acolyte Dorn from the village of Thane ventured into the ruins of Takator...</from the article>
Whoa! Michael Dorn played D&D?? Coincidence that Wil Wheaton posts this story...I think not.
I am a meat popsicle.
We recently got an email from a guy in Finland that he's going to duplicate a Unix box on commodity hardware! If you would like to give a hand, Send the person, Linus Torvalds an email or post on comp.os.minix ! He really needs your help.
I'm especially amused at the bit about $3.50 apiece (or $10 for the whole set) being expensive. And here I paid sixty bucks for the three core D&D3 books and felt like I was getting a deal. I won't even start on how much all the other accessory books I've bought have set me back.
That said, D&D has come a long way from its roots. I've never played 1st edition, but I played a lot of second, and it in comparison to 3rd, it feels at the same time far too limiting and overly complicated. I was surprised how much they managed to simultaneously simplify the game and allow for so many more options.
Out of curiosity, those of you who have played all three and a half revisions of D&D, which one did you like the most?
It's fascinating to read this. By the time I was a nerd, AD&D had taken over, and had certainly corrected enough of the deficiencies to make it playable.
But what makes this so interesting is that so many of todays PC RPGs have their basis in D&D rules. Sure, they've evolved significantly and taken different directions in different games, but the fact remains that most RPGs have their battle decisions based on complex mathematical rulesets, and D&D basically introduced these. (Orc attacks with 3d8, beating your 2d10 defence and inflicting d8 damage.)
Early computer 'RPG' were very simplistic in their battle rules, rarely better than 'attacker wins', but by the time that home computers advanced enough to support better rulesets, there was a very advanced 'template' for developers to start from.
The strange people who played this all night long in the lounge.. As far as I know they all are still virgins.
Get a free ipod.
How the hell is the DM supposed to physically abuse the players if we did that?!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Here's an interesting story....
My father's family ran a small printing business in Twin Lakes, WI (not too far from Lake Geneva). Back in the early 70's, these two guys from a small company came to my dad needing booklets to be printed for a new game. He and his brother decided against taking the risk of doing this large job and turned them down. It turns out that they were from TSR, trying to get D&D printed. Doh!
ÕÕ
michael, don't you realize that Dungeons & Dragons is a tool of The Devil? Satan uses D&D to warp and manipulate young minds into doing the will of darkness! How dare you use such a popular forum for advocating and informing people of this horror. D&D is nothing but suicide, sex, drugs, and evil! Burn it!
Oh wait a minute, you mean it's just a game? Sheesh!
Why bother.
"The scope is too grand, while the referee is expected to do too much in relation to the players ..."
The beauty of D&D can be boiled down to two propositions:
1. Anything can happen.
2. The Dungeon Master is God (and a capricious one at that).
This is why computer rpg's are, at best, pale imitations of a good pen and paper game.
I have a friend that has been DMing and playing since D&D first came out, and he still uses the original booklets as his world basis. I've read them, they're awesome compared to the shallow crap that TSR releases now.
I disagree, I'm currently playing under the best DM I (or anyone else in the group) has ever seen, and he plays by the rules all of the time.
When you stick with the rules you end the session knowing deep down inside that it was some delicious mix of skill and luck that lead you to success, not some desire on behalf of the DM to make it all more dramatic.
A skilled DM works with the rules, not around them.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
Well....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You cannot use about 75% of the spells,
and god forbid the combinations
They are too abstract to emulate in a PC game
Best example is a "Wish" spell, mostly the
PC games are all heal, damage, or enhance
There were alot of creationist spells in the
pencil and paper game
Then there is all the subtlety of playing a
thief, or even subdual combat
The intrigue, and deception, and mystery, and
owning of property, building your castle,
town , fortress, etc etc
Building a fleet of ships on the grander scale,
or the low level beginenrs using small sacks
of flour to see the invisible monsters
So many subtle nuances not available in the
world of the PC . Some I have not even listed
out of the cob webs of my mind and they are
long forgotten
I have been with Ad&d since 1978, not much
of lately but I miss it dearly and have
seriously considered getting back with some
old school gamers and doing some good
old quality gaming on a epic scale similar
to Tolkien, Robert Jordan, or Stephen Donaldson.
The good ol' days, hehehe
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
I wasn't playing in 1974, but, in 1979 (I think) I won a gift certificate from my toy store down the street and spent about half of it on a box with a dragon on it. Everyone in the thread is talking about a white box, but I specifically remember it being blue, with a blue book (same dragon) maybe 60 pages long. I had no idea what an RPG or even miniatures were, and this book was still big on miniatures. At 11 years old, and never having played anything but cards and board games, I read it maybe seven times before something clicked and I got this rush of excitement as I realized that is was so much more of a game than I had ever dreamed of.
I made my mother sit down and play it with me (she hated it). I found some friends at school and convinced them to play, but no one could really get the hang of it. I wasn't any kind of DM, either.
It took about another two years of me trying to find people to play begore I hit the jackpot, and by the time I gave it up at 17 years old, I had amassed 30 different boxed set games, all of whigh I donated to the gaming club of my university when I went.
I recently found some interest in playing again, and happened across a Open Documentation license game, here
If anyone can tell me what kind of edition that blue box was (D&D, not AD&D), I would appreciate it.
Put identity in the browser.
Should you decide to play, have fun with it and keep an open mind.
That having been said, you should:
Oh yeah, get some dice. A nice big set of "matching" dice may look nice, but the favorites become those sets that are a hodge-podge of dice bought here and there. ;)
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Ahhh D&D - the lost hours of Jr High, High School and parts of College. The ONLY place you could get it in NYC was "The Complete Strategist" - Played EVERY Saturday for something like 7 years - 6 hours at a time. My best friend brought a childhood family friend along one day, and she joined the group. That must have been 1978. In March of 1980, she made it clear she wanted to be my girlfriend
We'll be married 15 years this summer. I still see the friend that introduced us all the time (we're God Parents to each others children)
D&D brings back memories
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Jeez, I was the one who submitted this story to Boing Boing. I never thought Slashdot would go for it. I keep missing so many Karma opportunities....
What I said in the Boing Boing submission that Wil didn't repeat here is, the 1974 review is by a gamer named Arnold Hendrick. Hendrick went on to run Heritage Miniatures and to design some cool boardgames for Heritage's short-lived Dwarfstar game line. Later Hendrick went into computer games, working for Microprose and others; he helped design or develop many of Sid Meier's best-known titles. Hendrick's best-known work as sole designer is probably the 1992 Microprose fantasy game Darklands. Here's his MobyGames rap sheet and a Darklands FAQ.
What I learn from this: Be bold! Despite all qualms, submit to Slashdot!
It wasn't actually D & D, but a similar game called Dragonquest. Me and my friend Dave played two brothers named Norbert and Ignacio Gleeps. We'd been playing these characters for a while and they were badasses. Mike (our DM) had been trying to kill one or both of us off for a while because we were getting too powerful. One day Norbert got captured by the good guys and was going to be hanged the next day. I don't recall what it was we did to deserve this, but I'm sure that it was a just punishment. Regardless, I had to find a way to spring my brother out of the pokey.
I tried a few things that night, but it was just a few of us against an army. I could never get close to where they were keeping him. The next day dawned and Norbert was carried out to the gallows while I watched from behind a nearby hill. I was going crazy! I couldn't think of anything to do, but I couldn't let them hang my brother! In desperation, as they fitted Norbert's neck into the noose, I notched an arrow into my big composite bow. Mike asked me what I was aiming at and I said "the rope". He laughed and said if I rolled a 01 (out of 100) I would hit the rope. Sure enough I rolled the first number....0. Then the second number came....1!! The arrow pierced the rope just as the trapdoor opened and Norbert fell to the ground trying to figure out why he wasn't dead. I stood, notched another arrow, took aim at the leader of the troops and nonchalantly asked, "Ok, who's next?" Nobody even twitched as Norbert hauled ass up to the hill where we were. We got the hell out of there before they could get their shit back in their socks.
Poor Mike....never did kill those characters off.
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
i really wish mainstream news would do this as well. i'd really appreciate a "how did we get here" column every once in a while, and i'm sure it would teach a lot of people on both sides of the political line a lot.
In the review, it talks about "ChainMail" - which is a fairly meaningless comment for modern readers unfamilar with the context.
"ChainMail" was an earlier set of wargame rules for large scale battles between medieval armies. As I recall, it had a brief appendix covering some add-on rules to allow wizards, orcs, dragons and such like to be added into the battles as a bit of a laugh.
Using the ChainMail rules for purely fantasy warfare became very popular - probably more so than the non-fantasy aspect of the rules. That (I suspect) is the reason that D&D came into being.
The reason the original D&D rules seem confusing is that they assume full knowledge and applicability of the ChainMail rules.
Steve - Chaos/Cleric/Hobbit 19th level - circa 1982.
OK - I'm about geeked out now.
www.sjbaker.org
I know that there are quite a few gamespy-haters on slashdot, but last night gamespy hosted a chat with Gary Gygax. A few interesting questions were asked. I captured a log of the interview for your reading pleasure:
/msg Cobby question and we will post on your behalf (time permitting)
....
/msg Cobby your question and we'll ask it for you, time permitting
:-)
:)
:)
:)
:-)
:)
:D
I'll let Spiff take care of the intro's
To ask a guestion, please type
Drum roll please
I'd like to welcome everybody to today's special subscriber only Arcade event!
This is the very first of its kind for Arcade, and we hope to do more such events in the future.
To kick them off, though, we've got a doozy for you -- an exclusive chat with the *original* Dungeon Master himself, Mr. Gary Gygax
Home: Join us for a chat with Dungeons & Dragons inventor and RPG guru Gary Gygax on Fri., Feb 21st at 3 p.m. PST 6 pm EST 11 pm GMT right here in the Arcade Subscriber's lobby! Lobby moderated - to ask a question type
Ahem.
As the topic notes, Mr. Gygax is one of the developers of the original Dungeons and Dragons pen & paper role playing game
A game that sucked away hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of my life away
Would you believe the author of same? (^_^)
I would!
Heh...
Ok are we ready to get started?
His influence can be not just on RPGs, but on the world of computer games that we've all come to know and love.
So, warm up your brains, and lets get some questions going!
Here we go:
*Ganja-Hamster* Did you expect your creation to get as big as it has and develop such a large following?
for those wanting add me to their lists, sorry, but I need to concentrate on the questions. I'm a slow typist.
When i wrote the D&D game computer's werenot uced by regualt peolle, I thought the D&D gtame would appeal to wargamers and SF fans, so counted on about 50K sales only.
when you're done answering, please add so I know to post the next Q
*FireBall{2}* can you ask him for me how long it took to make the game and how many people were involved in the development of the game?
It took me two weeks to write the first 50 pp ms. for D&D. The play-testers for that period were my son Ernie and daughter Elise
We then added several other persons to the game--Don Kaye, rob and Terry Kuntz. that was befroe the two weeks were up and the rules actually on paper
From their input and thst of about a dizen gamer friends at various colleges, I expanded the rules to 150 pp in the spring of 1973. That ms, was published as the D&D game.
*KungFooFairy* *Do you regret selling the rights to D&D?*
Yes, but I was fed up with the crap at TSR, so i wanted out of that mess. I should not have divested the rights, clearly. But what the heck, Istill love gaming and writing new material, so it isn't that sad a thing...
*{pDs}The_Spaniard* I am not familiar with the D&D universe but I have a basic idea how would you explain it to someone who has never heard of it before?
Sure:) the game is a class-based one in which palyers create a character to "adventure" in a quasi-medieval setting. They meet NPC and monsters, solve problems, explote, and gain experience to become more able. that cover it?
yep
*crt* Have you played Neverwinter Nights? What do you think of their implementation of "live" online dungeon masters?
I must confess to being such an addict of online and computer games that I do not play them. No work gets dne for weeks or longer if I so much as start. From what I have been told, though NWN is pretty close to the paper game experience.
BTW, a game of mine is likely to come up as a MMPO RPG in some months, so then I'll have an excuse to play:)
*xPLASMAx* do you think the rules for D & D work for PC based games aswell as the original game ????
that's hard for me to judge, buy in general I know that the computer frmat requires some considerable change in rules and mechanics from the PnP version. In all, though, the latter rules form a good basis for developing a computer game certainly,
*painartist* Why CRPG's now, what makes this the right time for you to make the transition from Pen and Paper?
Heh! The majority of the RPG audience is playing online and CRPGs, and I took a foray into the latter field back in the early 1990s. three games optioned, and all canned for no fault of the game:( SO I wnet back to PnP, did a new RPG i loved, and figured it would serve as the basis for getting into the computer game field as well,
*KungFooFairy* *How do you see the future of Pen and Paper games faring against todays and tomorrows MMORPG's?*
PnP RPGs will remain the finest esperience--untik the holodeck of the Star Ship enterprise can be created. I think of them as anolagous to Broadway theater, the MMPO game as TV, and the CRPG as a motion picture:)
*StoneRook* "of all the D&D movies/show made - which one do you think was true to your vision?
Gah! The lotR films are good, more like a D&D film than others. Big Trouble in Little China came close in a modern setting. I really liked the first "Harry Potter" movie two, but the second one was a letdown.
*ColdAsIce_* What first gave you the idea to create D&D and have you follwed the examples of some great RPG's we''ve seen over the last year or so?
that question requires an essay length response, going back through my childhood. the most immediate inspiration for the D&D game came from the "Fantasy Supplement" in the CHAINMAIL miniatiures rules that I wrote and was published in 1971.
*{10th_Mtn}AlienHead_* will Mr. Gygax be working with any game developers personally on any rpgs in the future?
I am booked for some time doing paper game products, but if the lajendary adventure mmp GOES FORWARD, LIKELY THERE WILL BE crpg DEALS THAT i WILL BE INVOLVED IN.
*DJO_BrYaN_USMC|NOVA|* What are you doing now a-days? Job? etc....
Oops, didn't mean to shout...
I am very busy writing PnP game material. Besides stuff for the new FRPG system, I have a line of generic d20/La game reference books, and several adventure modules out or about to hit.
*Lokust* (question for Gary): Mr. Gygax, some consider you the largest single influence on fantasy gaming as we know it today. Do you feel that assessment is accurate, and is it a humbling feeling? Or do you feel that fantasy gaming would have evolved as it has without your work on D&D?
Well, that's a tough question, in part. I'll do the easy stuff first. Yes, no question most PRG around sprang from my D&D/AD&D work, and yes, I feel rather humbled by it. Now, as to it coming into being without CHAINMAIL and D&D, who can say? given time, possibly something would have emerged--maybe more influenbtial, maybe a bomb. Look at the D&D film as an example. think of a game as bad as that movie...
*DS-ManiacCop* "were you in any way influenced by J.R.R.Tolkin and how?"
I was mainly influenced in regards marketing. Having been a fan of F&SF since 1950, read back in the genre all the way to 1940, his work was nothing new to me. When isaw so many people taken by the Rings Trilogy, Iadded as muchg as possible of it into CHAINMAIL, then more into the D&D game. I am a great fan of THE HOBBIT, admittedly, and read it aloud to all of my children--three times through the book that way;)
*Behumat* how did you arrive at the name Dungeons and Dragons? And were there any other cool or funny titles you considered?
There's some wrong information about how the title came to be. What happened is that I wrote two lists of names for a potential title, each one word, and had them in two columns. Then I polled my fellow gamers and family as to which they liked best. When my daughter Cindy, then a little girl, jumped up and down at hearing "Dungeons & Dragons," I was decided. It had been my favorite, but one never knows...
*USMC_3rd_Battalion* What was the first monster you created in D&D?
I took all the monsters from CHAINMAIL. then I added some new ones.
Can I ask a quick follow-up?
sure
What was the first monster you created for CHAINMAIL?
the first monsters for CHAINMAIL were a red dragon, a giant, a troll, ogres, and orcs--as well as elementals. I think that was the first roster anyway;)
*KungFooFairy* *Do you prefer class-based leveling as opposed to skill-based leveling and why?*
My current preference is for skill-based RPG.
I don't usually listen to anything but the whining of my players when I am GMing;)
*crt* how often do you play PnP D&D games these days? I assume you have a regular group you play with?
out of order, sorry. I play D&D seldom any more. I have run a regular LEJENDARY ADVENTURE game campaign for almost seven years now, and we have a weekly session on Thursday nights here at my house--7 or 8 regulars currently. I do DM some OA/D&D games now and then at conventions, of course.
*_-{12thMarines}-1Lt_* How did you think of the whole concept and what was the most satisfying part of creating D&D?
Oops! the essay-length query again. See above.
whoops!
*RT_Riyker* Is there any other type of game genre you enjoy other than RPG that wouldn't be too embarrassing to admit?
the most satisfying part of creating D&D was having fun DMing, playing, and knowing that so many of my fellow game fans were likewise enjoying the experience. Greatest thing of all, that!
*Hook{1}* Were your parents supportive of your work, or did you often hear the question, "When are you going to get a real job?"
Heh, by the time I wrote D&D I was in my early 30s and my father, rest his soul, was deceased. My mother and then-wife were somewhat concerned that I had left a career in insurance to be a game designer. They had some reason to worry, too, as I starved for about four years, eeked out a living doing other things while writing about 30 hours a week.
that should be "eaked" of course:(
*WiKiD-paybak* What is his opinion to those against D&D Like the Fundamenatlists out there who think its Demonic etc? ( Their all dumb in my opinion)
The critics seem to have a problem distinguishing fantasy from reality, bvetween game play and actual behavior in life. this is mostly due to ignorance and/or prejudice, encouraged by media of sensationalist sort.
*Avatar* You mentioned the Enterprise- Are you a big Star Trek fan?
While I can't say I am a Trekkie, yes. I do enjoy the STAR TRECK programs and the movies. I am not a Shattner fan, though.
*DirectX* is thier a time in your life when you will give all this up
Sure. when I am no longer able to write. Until then, though, I am enjoying the "work" too much to want to stop.
*KungFooFairy* *Do you believe that the playing of RPG's can have a positive influence on humanity as a whole?*
I know from countelss fan letters and emails that RPGs have had a very positive effect on about 99% of those who played. If that can translate to humanity at large, I suppose they can. right now I'd estimate the number positively impacted in the low millions, though.
We only have time for one more Q..
*DJO_BrYaN_USMC|NOVA|* Is there a website were we can stay up to date on your projects and find more info on you?
sure, lots of them, sorta...
My homepage is www.gygax,com My webmaster and host are currently readying an update that will have all that information on it, and my long biography too.
In regards to the LA RPG there is the PnP website www.lejendary.com
For the LAO game its www.LejendaryAdventure.com
www.dragonsfoot.org has a LA game section
I have a long pair of Q&A threads up on the boards at EN world--sorry can't recall the URL.
Anyone can email me at ggygax@genevaonline.com as well;)
Gary -- thank you SO MUCH for dropping by to chat with our subscribers.
Thanks for taking time to be here with us!
We -- and they -- appreciate your time.
Thanks too to all the subscribers who turned out for the event!
Hey, my pleasure to be here, and i consider it an honor to be asked, and to all the audience here I say "Thanks a lot!"
So you are totally socially inept, spend much of your time doing things that most would condider nerdy and haven't gotten laid in a very long time or probably never.
There are actually a lot of girls JUST LIKE THAT. Right now! On your campus! Attractive ones! In fact, even basic statistics and probability (and I know you're down with statistics and probability) tells us that some of them would willing, hell, even _excited_ to FUCK YOU!
Think you're insecure? Guess what? Girls are actually worse. WAY worse. Even the pretty ones- hell ESPECIALLY the pretty ones. Watch TV some time and look at the way women are still portayed, even in this day and age. Many, if not most, girls feel uncool, unsexy, and out of place a MILLION times a day and they actually prize above all else in a relationship is to feel like they are actually worthwhile _people_ and not maids, bitches or fuck toys.
YOU, a geek, nerd or dork can actually give them this feeling by doing nothing more than BEING YOURSELF. Feel unattractive? You can do a surprising amount to fix this. Loose weight! spend an extra 10 bucks on a haircut! Get a decent wardrobe that can STILL INCLUDE ANIME T-SHIRTS! Moisturize! Most girls are good at improving a persons looks. Ask one. She will probably love to help you.
Why are they so hung up on it? because our society tells them that they HAVE to be attractive while NEVER allowing them to live up to its standard of perfection. But you know what? Maybe they've learned something but you don't even need to be a chiseled slab of beef. Shocked?? Read on!
What you learned in high school is now WRONG! YOU CAN get a wonderful, even SEXY girl simply by NOT treating her like a SEX OBJECT and choosing NOT to be a FAKE ASS PLAYER! Believe it or not people just as nerdy as you have gotten HOT, smart, wonderful girlfriends by simply being loving, _attentive_, down to earth (like the way you are with your friends) people and also NOT DATE RAPING THEM!
No, you won't hit it off with every girl, but you are picky too remember? Find one that is like you. You have a star wars figure collection? Well your girl might have a collection of plastic horses from when she was twelve that she was TERRIFIED of anyone finding out about in high school. You will be able to relate a hell of a lot more than you expect. She might even love computers! She might even love linux! There's more and more every day! No, she's not Natalie Portman, but you know what? You won't care!!
You are, smart, well-educated, compassionate and a nice guy (or girl)-- in addition to being sexy (you are sexy right? If not, see above.) You are willing to be a good boyfriend instead of just a dick delievery service. YOU ARE A DAMN GOOD GUY (or girl). So stop whinning and get to work!!!.
GEEKS OF THE WORLD- YOU WILL GET LAID!!!!!
/robbins>
Note: Does not apply to those currently in or about to enter high school. You are all still shit out luck for a few years. Don't cry, we all had to be patient too.
(And I am absolutely serious, guys I kid because I love, and I been there, I am not trying to troll.)
Also: Go to a doctor and get treated for your depression/anxiety/bi-polar/ADD etc if you think you have it. Don't be ashamed, just fucking do it. Some (not all or even a whole lot- don't flame me) of you out there have some of these and they will fuck with your life until it gets fixed. Be brave. They are wonderful people and they can work miracles now days. They really can. Dealing with women is, as you know, very hard psycholoically at times. Especially meeting them.
We used to cast them out of pot metal. You know that soft, mostly-aluminium alloy that loads of things are made of? Some friends and I "acquired" a crucible from the school metalwork department, and melted down things like washing machine motor casings, and old carburettors and stuff in a small forge, fired by barbecue charcoal and a blower from a hot air paint stripper. Then we used clay to take moulds of existing D&D figures for casting.
Yes, this was all as dangerous as it sounded.
Ahh yes the good old days. I started with the silver chain mail rules oh so many years ago. Back then you could pick up the phone, call up and talk to Gary Gygax in person. I had a 30 min. long distance conversation with him over some rules. Hell, dad busted my ass for that one.
Anyway, computer games have a long way to go before they can catch up with pen and paper. Neverwinter Nights seems to be the cloest they have came. But still have a long way to go.
TSR did do one thing I liked, they released just about everything 2nd edition to pdf format. I don't play 3rd editon and have 6 gigabytes of 2nd editon in soft format. When I do have a game I just toss everything on to my laptop and off I go.
Every thing is cross referenced and indexed in acrobat. That to me is the best use for computers in AD&D. I also have the Core Rules software and that can be useful.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification