Plato terminal

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Thu Jul 12 07:00:45 2001

> This is two years late, but the terminal the original poster describes
> sounds like an IST (model 1), a CRT-based CDC product, vintage about 1978.
> There was a later edition called the IST-II, also CDC. It had two 8" drives
> and a Z-80 CPU, as well as connectivity to CDC PLATO mainframe systems,
> either by dialup modem (1200 bps) or multiplexer.

Actually, I was the original poster; a reply to me mentioned the
terminal you're describing.

> The IST is not the oldest PLATO terminal, but it is the oldest that CDC
> manufactured, I suspect. Even my PLATO IV (Magnavox, 1971) is not the
> oldest, but only the first mass-produced machine. The earliest ones date to
> about 1961 and there are probably only two or three still in existence, if
> we're lucky enough to have that many. A precursor to these would be Norman
> Crowder's Auto-Tutor, vintage about 1958, which has characteristics very
> similar to the PLATO terminals (though it is not a computer terminal, it
> operates on filmstrip media), and PLATO's mechanisms are said to have been
> influenced by this machine.

It's one of the mid-70s Magnavox plasma displays I'm looking for...

Say, are you able to connect to NovaNET with the magnavox terminal? if
so, we should meet for a game of Empire or Avatar some time (although
I'm sure you'll wipe me out).... or maybe a more civilized game of chess...

Regards,
-doug quebbeman
Received on Thu Jul 12 2001 - 07:00:45 BST