Procedure For Connecting To The 'net Circa 1978

[Eric F.]

Bill Sudbrink wrote:

... <snip> ...

 > 8) Once the @ character is echoed, press enter.
 > You should get an error message (I no longer
 > remember the text).  Now type "@O 77<return>".
 > This instructs the TIP to connect you to the
 > MIT-DM (Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
 > Dynamic Modeling) computer.

Nitpick: IIRC, I believe MIT-DM was "@O 70".

I also connected to 3 other MIT machines back in the day:

MIT-ML was #198
MIT-AI was #134
MIT-MC was #236

I connected up through the RAND-TIP, which was limited to 300 baud. There 
was also the USC-TIP, which supported 1200 baud, but my bank account 
couldn't support a 1200 baud modem at the time.

All 4 of these machines were running ITS on PDP-10s or an SDS/XDS Sigma 7 I 
believe. "Tourists" (guests) were given free accounts.


 > 11) I no longer remember how to start up Zork or
 > some of the other programs... anyone feel free to
 > provide details I'm missing.

I think it was as simple as running the command

:ZORK


...but it has been so long since I've muddled around with ITS, DDT, etc.

Speaking of muddle, I still have my MDL programming manuals around here (of 
which ZORK was composed in, originally.)


Eric F.