The Plato Network (and how to use it from Atari Machines)

Carsten Strotmann

Created: 2024-12-04 Wed 14:50

P.L.A.T.O.

What is PLATO?

  • PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations)
  • A central computing system originally designed for schools and universities
  • A "ahead of its time" network system
  • TUTOR language allows "teachers" to create interactive content
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

Origins

  • USA was pushing computers into the school system to create an engineering advantage over the Soviet Union
  • First release in 1960
  • Centralized System running on CDC Mainframe machines
  • Main use between 1970 and 1985
    • Atari released an official PLATO Terminal Cart

Sweetwater vs. Saltwater Networks

  • PLATO was created at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
    • Located at the great lakes = Sweetwater Network
  • ARPAnet (TCP/IP, the Internet that we know today) was developed at the east- (MIT, Boston) and westcoast (Stanford, Berkeley = California) = Saltwater Network

PLATO Innovations

  • Diskussion Boards (Forums)
    • later morphed into Lotus Notes
  • Flat Plasma Display Screen
  • Vector Graphics Screen
  • Touch Screen
  • Sound Synthensizer
  • First networked multiplayer action game (Empire)
  • First First-Person-Shooter Games

PLATOs demise

  • UIUC Rights sold to CDC (1976)
  • CDC tried to sell access to the system for (too) a high price
  • The emerging "Internet" (aka TCP/IP) was "open source" and "free" (including the OS to run the server software - BSD Unix)
  • PLATO died with CDC

PLATO today

  • Retro Computing geeks run PLATO on emulated CDC mainframes reachable over the Internet

PLATO Atari Machines

Atari 8bit

  • Thom Cherryhomes (and team) created a PLATO-Term for the Atari 8bit
    • written in C with Assembly
    • 16K cartridge version or disk version
    • Supports FujiNet TCP/IP over WLAN
    • Can be loaded from FujiNet TNFS Server

Pointing Device Support

  • Atari Mouse
  • Amiga Mouse
  • CX80 Trackball
  • Joystick
  • Koala Tablet

Download

PLATO from Atari ST

PLATOTerm-ST

PLATOterm-ST.png

PLATOTerm-ST (Setup)

PLATOterm-ST-setup.png

PLATOTerm-ST (Dial-in)

PLATOterm-ST-dialing.png

PLATOTermST

  • Version 0.8, feature complete but needs some "developer love"
  • Written in C
  • Internet connection with WIFIModem

Source / Binaries

PLATO from Atari PC

PLATO from Atari PC

  • PLATOTermPC supports different graphic cards
    • CGA (640x200x2 or 320x200x4)
    • EGA (640x350x16)
    • Hercules (720x350x2)
    • MCGA (320x200x256)
    • VGAMONO (640x480x2)
    • VGA (640x480x16)
    • SVGA (640x480x256)

PLATO from Atari Portfolio

  • Currently no PLATOTerm available
  • A port of the PLATOtermPC would be cool

PLATO WebTerminal

  • Universal Access to the PLATO server(s)

PLATO in a browser

PLATO-web-term.png

PLATO in a browser

Other PLATO Terminal options

More PLATO Terminal Options

  • C64 / C128
  • ZX Spectrum
  • TI 99/4A
  • Apple II
  • Amstrad CPC
  • MSX

even more PLATO Terminal Options

  • Amiga
  • Windows / macOS / Linux (PTerm)
  • Android (Smartphone / Tablet / Car)

What to do on PLATO

Activities

  • Exploring the system
  • Atari and Retro Computing Discussions
  • Chat
  • Games
  • Writing new TUTOR content
  • Hacking PLATOTerm source
  • Porting PLATOTerm to new machines

More about PLATO

Fin

  • Now start your PLATOTerm and get online!
  • I have a couple of FujiNet (Atari 8bit) and WiFi-Modem (AtariST/PC) and PLATO Logins to play with