pedit5
| pedit5 | |
|---|---|
| Senior Developer | Rusty Rutherford |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1975 |
| platform | PLATO |
| genre | Computer role playing game |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | keyboard |
| language | English |
pedit5 (actually The Dungeon ) is a dungeon crawler and one of the first surviving computer role-playing games , created in 1975 by Reginald "Rusty" Rutherford for the PLATO mainframe network .
Gameplay
pedit5 is loosely based on the role-playing set of rules Dungeons & Dragons and used basic elements such as character values, hit and experience points, monster levels and rewards in the form of treasures. Like all PLATO software, the game was carried out on a mainframe computer , but played on a terminal set up elsewhere. In the game, the player controls a character who is a mixture of fighter, cleric and magician. This can be saved and reused in a later session.
The game, which is actually called The Dungeon , is set according to the instructions in the year 666 in a land called Caer Omn and a dungeon called Ramething under the castle of the same name, near the city of Mersad (Persian for ambush ). The aim is to collect 20,000 experience points. The game begins with the rolling of the attributes strength, intelligence, constitution and dexterity as well as the hit points. With his character, the player then roams the dungeon, which consists of a level with 40-50 rooms. The playing figure can break in doors and, with a probability of discovery of 1: 6, hit secret doors when passing. The character collects treasures and fights against monsters. While the dungeon was always set up the same way, the monsters were placed randomly. They were created at the same time as the player character was created and recorded in the player character's memory entry.
If the player encounters a monster, he has the choice between fighting, casting a spell or running away. The spells are divided into cleric and magician spells, eight each and divided into two magic levels. They also have role models from the D&D set of rules. If the monster could not be killed or evaded by this action, the progress of the fight was automatically calculated by the computer at the end. There are 25 different enemy types that can have different character levels and differ, for example, in their hit points and the experience points awarded for killing. The player character himself can rise in five levels, he can improve among other things by finding new spells or better equipment (sword +1, sword +2). If the character dies in combat, it is game over . The ten best characters based on experience points are given out in the form of a high score list.
development
According to Rutherford, the game was created over a period of four to six weeks in the fall / winter of 1975. In the summer of the same year, Rutherford played in Champaign - Illinois with his friends Dungeons & Dragons . Rutherford was then working as a programmer for the Population and Energy Group (P&E) under Paul Handler, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . According to Rutherford, there were rumors about the development of dnd at this point , but the appearance of the game was considered unlikely for the system. Rutherford therefore decided to try to develop a corresponding program himself.
As a precaution, Rutherford's working group had five files available on the limited storage space of the PLATO system, which were named pedit1-5, for the development of P&E programs. However, the group only used the files pedit1-3, so that Rutherford could use the two remaining files for his game (pedit5) and instructions for it (pedit4). According to reports, the filename was retained to hide the fact that the program was a game. This should prevent the program from being deleted.
Rutherford faced a number of limitations in the development. Because of the limited storage space, the game had to be limited to a dungeon, for example. As the game became more and more popular, the limitation to a maximum of 20 saved characters turned out to be problematic. Originally, Rutherford wanted to continue adding a multiplayer component, but this was never implemented.
reception
Rutherford left the P&E working group in the spring of 1976, with the game initially remaining on the computing system. It was later deleted there, as computer games were considered a waste of scarce work resources at the time. However, although the game was short-lived, it was very popular and a copy was preserved. A revised and significantly improved version of pedit5 was revived by three other programmers as orthanc , named after a tower from the plot of the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings . The original version of pedit5 was revived as orthanc1 . Both orthanc and orthanc1 stayed on the PLATO system and continue to exist. They can be played on a PLATO (Cybis) or a corresponding emulator .
pedit5 is one of the oldest surviving computer role-playing games. Since the documentation of the earliest computer games is insufficient, there are contradicting assessments as to whether pedit5 or dnd is older. The developers of dnd , Ray Wood and Gary Wisenhunt, for example, cited pedit5 as the inspiration for the development of their game, which contradicts both their own statement about the release of dnd in late 1974 / early 1975 and Rutherford's statement about the roughly simultaneous development of the two programs. It can also be assumed that after the publication of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 there were several attempts to program corresponding games. However, pedit5 achieved greater popularity beyond the circle of creators and was retained. There are only reports about a possible earlier game with the title m199h , however, the game itself is considered lost. The presence of purely text-based role-playing games at an earlier point in time is also considered possible.
The British gaming magazine Edge led Pedit5 as one of the earliest examples of the use of randomly generated content to more varied design of the game.
Web links
- cyber1.org , a website dedicated to PLATO with emulations of numerous programs, including pedit5
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Rusty Rutherford: The Creation of PEDIT5 ( English ) In: Armchair Arcade . August 31, 2008. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
- ↑ a b c d e Chester Bolingbroke: Game 68: The Dungeon / PEDIT5 (1975) ( English ) In: CRPG Addict . December 29, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
- ↑ Michael J. Tresca: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games . McFarland, 2010, ISBN 0-7864-5895-X , pp. 102 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ A b Matt Barton: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983) ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . February 23, 2007. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
- ↑ Chester Bolingbroke: The Earliest CRPGs ( English ) In: CRPG Addict . December 24, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
- ↑ Carey Martell: Interview with creators of dnd (PLATO) ( English ) In: RPG Fanatic . Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ Games of chance: what does randomness bring to videogames? ( English ) In: Edge . Future, plc . Archived from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.