Plato terminal

From: Claude.W <claudew_at_videotron.ca>
Date: Thu Aug 1 21:18:00 2002

Id love to see the old Plato running again.

Does anyone here know anyone that worked or was involved in Plato closely
and might be able to get some kinda "emulator" project going off the ground?

Writing up a terminal emulator might not be dramatic but emulating the
cybers that ran plato might be more of a challenge...

This would be totaly wild and while I dont have a lotta time for stuff like
this...this one would probably get some attention from me...

And if I could find listing of some games I had written, Id go totaly
wild...SPACE ATTACK was one of them.

Seems TELUQ (Tele-Universitee here in Quebec) was very involved in Plato.
But I have yet to find some people from "back then"....

Claude

----- Original Message -----
From: "Curt Vendel" <curt_at_atarimuseum.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: Plato terminal


> Doug,
>
> Besides collecting it, is there anything you can do with it??? Has
anyone
> found any of the original CDC Plato servers and been able to restore them
to some
> functionality so that Plato terminals could be connected and tried out???
>
> I own several of the Atari 800 Plato carts that turn an Atari into a
Plato
> Terminal using the Graphics 8 mode with animated graphics. I remember
first
> signing up and trying it out in 1984-85 or so I was was amazed at the
speed in
> which code was sent to the computer to draw graphics, create animations
and so
> forth.
>
>
> Curt
>
>
> Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
>
> > > 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 Aug 01 2002 - 21:18:00 BST