Then years later, working on 802.11 radio drivers, I ran into John at a job. One of my youthful heroes! And a regular guy, plugging away writing software for industry.
Anyway, most folks who saw Plato were affected by it. Lightyears ahead of other text-terminal computers of the time.
PLATO definitely looked like an inevitable future. Unfortunately, in most places the educational establishment was not ready for it. Even 10-15 years later most people still wondered what use home computers could have. Recipes? Games? Tax returns? Anything else?
It was rather awesome esp when I discovered the games "directory" ... it had a asteroids clone.
