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
Yawn. Slashdotters get bug up ass, waste precious bandwidth. Story at 10. Let me see if I can clarify what just happened here with a synopsis of events:
~01/1994 Project Gutenberg volunteer types in the text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in ASCII.
~06/1998 I snarf the text and use it over the next several weeks to recreate a precise replica of the original 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as a VolumeOne print-on-demand classic. Of course, I had a long chat with Mike Hart at PG about how to deal with the rights. Mike is very laid back about it, and so am I. (Q1: Of what musical genre is Mike a connoisseur?)
~07/2000 Several companies, including Glassbook, BookVirtual, and Adobe, ask to use my typeset version of the book. See my eBookNet column which started it. (Q2: What major technology-related accomplishments distinguish the founders of Glassbook and BookVirtual from the rest of us weenies?)
~10/2000 Glassbook chooses to flip some weird PDF bit which describes reading aloud, probably a meaningless, never-to-be-used flag which can be ignored by most and hacked around by those of us who care. (Q3: What was Adobe Acrobat's original name, circa 1991?)
~12/2000 Now that the election business is laid to rest, wAr3Z punks and EFF-style maniacs focus on the next thing. They assume the free world is ending because they see a single bit flipped in an obscure Internet file. Sane but technologically unsophisticated human beings read this as Constitutional armageddon. Peter Zelchenko's e-mail spool fills up. (Q4: What two typographical errors did Peter leave in the typeset work, and why?)
My take: The VolumeOne edition of Alice, the first true typographically accurate replica, may be freely read, printed on your laser printer, pumped through a synthesizer, or whatever, as long as you're not making a profit doing it. The creative effort that went into my edition was major; it is the first of its kind in 135 years. Any derivatives of the work, including the ones at the Glassbook, BookVirtual, and eBookNet sites, should also be open for free access.
A1: Mike Hart is an old-time folk music aficionado of the Chicago School (think Old Town School of Folk Music, Earl of Old Town, Gate of Horn, Bonnie Koloc, etc.).
A2: Len Kawell of Glassbook was one of the three original authors of Lotus Notes, which itself is based on the venerable PLATO mainframe product, vintage about 1973. Patrick Ames of BookVirtual was Adobe's first evangelist for PDF. He wrote and designed the classic Beyond Paper manifesto for Acrobat.
A3: Acrobat was originally called Carousel.
A4: I won't tell you. But my original offer remains: the first person to find and report these errors will receive a free print-on-demand edition of this classic and my deep respect for life.
Slashdot Mirror
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
Yawn. Slashdotters get bug up ass, waste precious bandwidth. Story at 10. Let me see if I can clarify what just happened here with a synopsis of events:
My take: The VolumeOne edition of Alice, the first true typographically accurate replica, may be freely read, printed on your laser printer, pumped through a synthesizer, or whatever, as long as you're not making a profit doing it. The creative effort that went into my edition was major; it is the first of its kind in 135 years. Any derivatives of the work, including the ones at the Glassbook, BookVirtual, and eBookNet sites, should also be open for free access.
Don't like the Glassbook edition? My computer can't even read it. Try my original PDF at eBookNet.com.
A1: Mike Hart is an old-time folk music aficionado of the Chicago School (think Old Town School of Folk Music, Earl of Old Town, Gate of Horn, Bonnie Koloc, etc.).
A2: Len Kawell of Glassbook was one of the three original authors of Lotus Notes, which itself is based on the venerable PLATO mainframe product, vintage about 1973. Patrick Ames of BookVirtual was Adobe's first evangelist for PDF. He wrote and designed the classic Beyond Paper manifesto for Acrobat.
A3: Acrobat was originally called Carousel.
A4: I won't tell you. But my original offer remains: the first person to find and report these errors will receive a free print-on-demand edition of this classic and my deep respect for life.