Hmmm Plato, didn't know what that was until I stumbled on this link
========================
Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
========================
PLATO has always fascinated me. I never had first-hand experience with it in its prime, unfortunately, but I slowly learned about it when I got into heavy-duty collecting. Interestingly, after long being a mainframe platform and having countless hundreds of educational (and a few game) modules written for it, it was decided by Control Data to have PLATO appear in the burgeoning home market in the early 80's. As fate would have it, the company chose the TI-99/4a as their marquee platform. Unfortunately, there were some delays and by the time the micro version of PLATO was released on the TI-99/4a, that platform dying, with Texas Instruments obviously soon pulling out entirely. For PLATO to work on the TI, you needed the interpreter cartridge and then the individual modules came on disk format (something the TI didn't have a particularly high user base for). After TI pulled out, Control Data bought up some of the remaining TI inventory of the late model beige TI-99/4a's and put a Control Data nameplate over it and made a small change to the boot-up BIOS. They sold these systems to educational facilities for a short time. As it stands now, the PLATO interpreter cartridge is fairly valuable as such things go, with a loose cartridge commanding $35 - $50 on the open market. Individual PLATO lesson modules are rarer still, though I don't have enough data to judge their worth. I got lucky and got a PLATO interpreter with a large bundle of module disks for about $85 - $90 if I remember correctly. A branded Control Data TI-99/4a commands a fairly pretty penny loose, around $80 itself, which is quite a bit more than a TI branded model.
Obviously the micro version of PLATO was released for other platforms concurrent to the TI. I believe there were Apple II, Atari 8-bit and IBM PC versions (I could be wrong on the latter). Since the original mainframe version featured such a high resolution, I believe each of the micro versions had to make certain concessions, be they scrolling or color depth (for instance there's a hi-res monochrome mode in Atari 8-bits that I believe was an option).
The educational value of the mainframe and micro versions (I believe the micro versions of the interpreter pretty much took the same module code) is immense and it's a fascinating subject all the way around. It was definitely underappreciated by those who didn't have full use of the mainframe versions (I don't think any of the micro versions caught on much). Part of the problem with the micro versions was problem the high cost of entry.
In any case, this is all from memory. I absolutely plan on revisiting PLATO in the future on AA and will be aggressively targeting my own micro PLATO collection for the TI as the basis (and fingers crossed that some of the games are on there). This is the kind of thing that really should be made known to as many people as possible and one good way to do that is through a really interesting feature article.
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Hmmm Plato, didn't know what that was until I stumbled on this link
========================
Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
========================
PLATO has always fascinated me. I never had first-hand experience with it in its prime, unfortunately, but I slowly learned about it when I got into heavy-duty collecting. Interestingly, after long being a mainframe platform and having countless hundreds of educational (and a few game) modules written for it, it was decided by Control Data to have PLATO appear in the burgeoning home market in the early 80's. As fate would have it, the company chose the TI-99/4a as their marquee platform. Unfortunately, there were some delays and by the time the micro version of PLATO was released on the TI-99/4a, that platform dying, with Texas Instruments obviously soon pulling out entirely. For PLATO to work on the TI, you needed the interpreter cartridge and then the individual modules came on disk format (something the TI didn't have a particularly high user base for). After TI pulled out, Control Data bought up some of the remaining TI inventory of the late model beige TI-99/4a's and put a Control Data nameplate over it and made a small change to the boot-up BIOS. They sold these systems to educational facilities for a short time. As it stands now, the PLATO interpreter cartridge is fairly valuable as such things go, with a loose cartridge commanding $35 - $50 on the open market. Individual PLATO lesson modules are rarer still, though I don't have enough data to judge their worth. I got lucky and got a PLATO interpreter with a large bundle of module disks for about $85 - $90 if I remember correctly. A branded Control Data TI-99/4a commands a fairly pretty penny loose, around $80 itself, which is quite a bit more than a TI branded model.
Obviously the micro version of PLATO was released for other platforms concurrent to the TI. I believe there were Apple II, Atari 8-bit and IBM PC versions (I could be wrong on the latter). Since the original mainframe version featured such a high resolution, I believe each of the micro versions had to make certain concessions, be they scrolling or color depth (for instance there's a hi-res monochrome mode in Atari 8-bits that I believe was an option).
The educational value of the mainframe and micro versions (I believe the micro versions of the interpreter pretty much took the same module code) is immense and it's a fascinating subject all the way around. It was definitely underappreciated by those who didn't have full use of the mainframe versions (I don't think any of the micro versions caught on much). Part of the problem with the micro versions was problem the high cost of entry.
In any case, this is all from memory. I absolutely plan on revisiting PLATO in the future on AA and will be aggressively targeting my own micro PLATO collection for the TI as the basis (and fingers crossed that some of the games are on there). This is the kind of thing that really should be made known to as many people as possible and one good way to do that is through a really interesting feature article.
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.