[Web4lib] PLATO?

[Ward Price]

We've been discussing gaming in libraries recently, which caused a
flashback.  When I was an undergraduate student at Indiana University,
perhaps around 1974-75, the University of Illinois had something called
PLATO, which was some kind of ancient Internet game or program running
at their campus in Urbana-Champaign.  IU students in Bloomington,
Indiana, would go to the library and log on via an Internet connection
(I guess they were telnetting) to UIUC to play the game.  I had no idea
what they were doing back then; the Internet was only about 5 years old
at the time, fifteen years before the World Wide Web.  The IU students
who were using it thought it was pretty cool.  I wonder what they'd
think about it now.  Anyway, does this sound familiar?  Does anyone know
what the heck I'm talking about?  Just curious.

 

 

Ward Price

Reference Librarian

The University of Texas-Pan American

Edinburg, TX  78541

wprice at utpa.edu 

(956) 316-7046