PLATO PC floppy

[Jim Brain]

On 7/16/2016 12:54 AM, Jason T wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 10:12 PM, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
>> I so wish I could find my copy of the PLATO client for the Commodore 64
>> (yep, it actually existed, I did some of my Physics 107 labs on PLATO from
>> my room with my C64 and my 2400 bps modem (333-1000, 217 area code, to get
>> to the terminal server(?) at the home of PLATO, UIUC.
> I didn't know they had dial-in for PLATO there.  Here's a 1991-era
> card with two similar termserv numbers:
>
> http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/content/computing/UIUC/UIUC_NewAccountCard1991.pdf
>
> I have somewhere the PLATO cartridge for Atari 8-bit but I've never
> seen the C64 client.  I'd love to try to use it with cyber1.org.

It was interesting.  It managed to squish the 512x512 into a 320x200 
somehow.


I had one of those cards as well.  jlb31348 at usa.cso.uiuc.edu. 1989, I 
believe.


It might have been 4000, 1000 might have been the UIUC general help 
line.  It's been almost 30 years, the memory, she did not keep all of 
that info handy, as I never thought it would be useful.


PLATO was such an interesting thing at the time at UIUC.  It was 
considered "old" tech, and "HyperCard" for the Macs were the new way to 
do lessons.  THose wooden cases and orange screens were an interesting 
sight.

I always knew there was a huge community on the PLATO machines 
(University HIgh School in Urbana had them, as did other schools), but I 
never got into it.  IRC and USENET demanded my time (feel free to search 
for jlb31348, I am sure there are plenty of horrid postings on 
comp.sys.cbm and sci.virtual-reality from my days there).


Jim


-- 
Jim Brain
brain at jbrain.com
www.jbrain.com