And not only the beginnings of the CRPG. The 1977 PLATO game Oubliette definitely was the model for the 1981 Apple II/C64 (and later NES) gane Wizardry and the later games like The Bard's Tale and Might & Magic.
Well Wizardry was written by two PLATO gamers at Cornell, a university that had a PLATO terminal or two connected to the U of I system. Very much inspired by PLATO games like Oubliette and Avatar.
