As a fellow child of the 80's I totally get what you mean, but you still can't really do that. You can get close with a simulation inside a closed roadway, I guess. People would probably pay for that experience, actually. Hmm.

Yes, lower right pane contains the source code for the version of the game on the left. Very, very cool. It’s essentially an interactive debugger; I assume Zarf compiled Zork I from the source using ZILF and somehow got a symbol table out of it, to support the interactive features, but I don’t know.

Also, Apple could have developed a fully in-house AppleSoft replacement by 1985; It’s unfortunate Sculley was not in a position — or did not realize software could be developed — to call Microsoft’s bluff.

Still wonder how different the world might have been if there had been an excellent Mac-native BASIC available early on.

Microsoft’s BASIC was garbage on the Mac for a long, long time; it didn’t support the toolbox properly until very late, and when it did it was still kind of unpleasant to use.

The Apple TV+ Tetris movie mentioned in the article is quite good, and -- while intentionally highly fictionalized -- is somewhat accurate!

I mean, it probably has more exclusive games than either of them

Not sure if it's important, but Windows 2 is still fundamentally a graphical shell on top of DOS. I think the Unix parallel would be: is the X Window System an OS?

Probably worth mentioning that PNG was created to attempt to sidestep the GIF patent mess.

Hated those caddies -- they were a lot more delicate than the CD-ROMs themselves. Trays were a big improvement.

Folks interested in PLATO should read Brian Dear's definitive tome: The Friendly Orange Glow.

http://friendlyorangeglow.com