Avatar (1979 video game)

Avatar is an early graphics-based multi-user highly interactive role-playing computer game, created on the University of Illinois' Control Data Corporation PLATO system in the late 1970s. It has graphics for navigating through a dungeon, and chat style text for player status and communication with others. It can currently be played online via Cyber1 or a simulation called Javatar. What makes Avatar popular is the high level of interactivity with other players and the sense of community that develops. Development on Avatar began on the University of Illinois PLATO system around 1977; the first version was released by Bruce Maggs, Andrew Shapira, and David Sides in 1979.

Oubliette was written by Jim Schwaiger and published on the PLATO system in 1977. It was so difficult that one could not play it alone; in order for players to survive, they had to run in groups. Following it, also on PLATO, was a game called Moria written in 1977, copyright 1978. Avatar was written between 1976 and 1979 by several students in an attempt to out-do Oubliette, and was released in 1979.

There have been many different versions of Avatar over the years, which are often referred to by the year they were released (or scheduled for release). Each version is a bit different from the others. The first version of Avatar was actually called 'Avathar', and only existed for a short period of time. Next came the 'Man 60' version (in this case the 60 does not refer to a year). Later came 'Avatar 84', which included many new features, and is arguably the most popular version. This version was followed by 'Avatar 90', an ambitious departure from previous versions. The game data in this version was considerably more extensive, and death was replaced by an 'afterlife' mode. The most recent version is 'Avatar 95', which has no afterlife, but introduced other features such as an Immortal class and a rich selection of items.

Currently, classic as well as modified versions of Avatar 84 are operating on Cyber1. Novanet hosts original versions of both Avatar 95 and Avatar 90. It is also possible to play versions of Avatar 84 and Man 60 Avatar on Novanet. These last two games operate with the old game data on the Avatar 95 engine, which is not quite the same as playing through the original engine.

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Wikipedia