Release Date: 1972
Platform: PLATO
Genre: Educational
Developer(s): Sharon Dugdale, David Kibbey, Barry Cohen, Helen Leung
Publisher(s): CERL
Time for the entrance of PLATO onto the video gaming scene. There's been a couple of PLATO programs on my list previously, but were either lost or multiplayer-only (you can't play most multiplayer games at all on PLATO alone.) So Darts here becomes the first PLATO game I'll be covering for this incredible system.
Before getting into Darts, if you'd like to try out PLATO, it's being kept alive by the small, dedicated team at Cyber1.org. It's free to sign up, and they also provide PLATO emulators. I use Pterm, which is considered by Cyber1 as the best option. If you'd like to know more about PLATO, I'm currently in the process of writing an overview article, which I'll link here once complete.
In doing research for Darts, the most exciting thing about it for me was not actually the game itself, but rather the existing documentation and information available for it. It's a relative treasure trove compared to the games I've been dealing with up to now, for the most part.
What doesn't excite me, however, is the fact that two versions of this game exist on the Cyber1 system, one titled Darts, and the other Decimal Darts. The existing documentation provides absolutely no details as to why this is the case. I could not find anything online to help me decipher this strange riddle, meaning I had to make a decision on what to do. Which version do I play? Or do I play both?
Before getting to that question, I'll treat both games as one for the development history section of the blog, as it's largely unaffected by the existence of two versions of the game.
Darts is a game (or "lesson," as the game calls itself) that's in line with the original spirit of PLATO - a computer system for education. It's a mathematical game designed to teach younger children basic fractions.
Naturally, then, Darts was developed by individuals with an education mindset. It comes to us from Sharon Dugdale and David Kibbey, research assistants at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL), stationed at the University of Illinois - the very same place PLATO was created. The game is part of a larger "Fractions Curriculum" Dugdale and Kibbey developed as part of an even larger "PLATO Mathematics Project" which was being developed after the PLATO IV system was introduced in 1972. The game has a handy information page where much of this background information comes from. Both versions of the game have an additional credit - Barry Cohen for Darts, and Helen Leung for Decimal Darts. Both were also part of Dugdale and Kibbey's team, and are given special thanks in both versions of their curriculum as having programmed games for it.
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| CERL's Darts write-up. |
Dates for Darts get rather complicated at this juncture. According to Brian Dear's book, The Friendly Orange Glow, the game was one of Dugdale and Kibbey's "elementary math project" team's (which included Cohen and Leung) earliest games, which may have been developed as early as the Summer of 1972. However, the information and credits pages in-game have different years listed. The first edition of Dugdale and Kibbey's curriculum was published in 1975, with the second edition following in 1980 (both versions of the curriculum feature the exact same screenshots of Darts), and both dates are listed in-game. Even more confusingly, both games are copyrighted to Control Data Corporation, 1980. Darts, the only of the two to include a credits page, notes that a revision of the program occurred in 1993, attributed again to Control Data Corporation.
What exactly is going on here? How do these pieces fit? The CDC attribution is simple to explain. CDC had taken a keen interest in PLATO early on, and had purchased the rights to make PLATO a commercial product in 1976 (which didn't exactly work out, by the way). With the second edition of the curriculum being published in 1980, we can put these pieces of the puzzle together.
However, there's still no explanation for the two versions of Darts. All there is are theories, of which I have one.
Based on the differences between Darts and Decimal Darts, it can be reasonably assumed that Decimal Darts is the later version of the two. It has more content and is far less buggy than Darts. In fact, Darts is a buggy mess and seems to be more of a first draft than a complete game. It always starts you at level 3 instead of 1, and the graphics often won't load properly, leaving you literally shooting in the dark. Decimal Darts seems to me the "complete" product, for lack of a better term. The difference in credits would suggest that Barry Cohen may have contributed the "first draft" of Darts, which makes sense as Brian Dear notes that Cohen was unfamiliar with computers upon his joining the Fractions Curriculum. Helen Leung perhaps came to Cohen's game afterwards, fixing the bugs and turning it into a more complete game. When all these things occurred, I have no way of knowing, unless I were to contact people directly - provided they're still alive, of course. I don't exactly think I have the clout to consider doing so yet. I'm still small fry when it comes to video game blogging.
The differences in the games, especially after testing them, enabled me to come to a rather simple conclusion regarding how I'd be approaching this particular blog. The Cohen Darts is clearly incomplete, therefore I'll be playing the complete Decimal Darts for this blog. This choice will also be reflected in the Master List, where I'll be changing the main title of the game to Decimal Darts (for those coming later, the original title of the game was just Darts).
We need to talk about some of the formalities of running PLATO games prior to actually playing Decimal Darts. As it exists, to run a game in PLATO after signing on, you need to do one of two things:
- Type in the lesson code at the "Author Mode" screen, or
- Type in "bigjump" at the Author Mode screen, which will open to a list of all the available programs, all keyed to a number. Find the lesson you want to run, press J, then the program's number code.
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| How to load Decimal Darts in PLATO. |
Darts and Decimal Darts sit next to each other in the bigjump list, at 32 and 33, respectively. Darts' lesson code is simply "darts", whereas Decimal Darts is "0ddarts". There's an added step if you type the lesson name in, as shown in the screenshot above - you'll have a screen asking you if you want to play or edit the lesson. Simply press Control-D to run the lesson on this screen.
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| "DATA" is keyed to Ctrl-D" |
After doing all that, the game itself will finally get going. It asks first for your name, then the part of the lesson you want to play, and lastly asks if you want to include negative numbers. This is the game's one customisation option, and partly functions as a difficulty option, as including negative numbers makes the game slightly harder.
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| My initial settings. |
Once all these choices are made, we're brought to the title screen, featuring a balloon being popped by a titular dart.
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| Welcome to the game. Finally. |
From here, there are two choices, both with the same final destination. Pressing NEXT (Enter) will take you straight into the game. Pressing DATA (Ctrl-D) will take you to the game's credits and information page, from there you can press NEXT to go straight into the game. There's no way to go backwards in these programs - your only choice is to press the SHIFT-STOP (Shift-F10) button combination to exit the game, requiring you to reload the game completely. It's a rather cumbersome system in that regard.
The information page provides some brief background information on the game's development. I won't go over it again, as I already covered it at the start of the article.
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| The history straight from the horse's mouth. |
Beginning the lesson proper, we are greeted with a tutorial screen explaining how the game works. There's a slight typo here - the opening line incorrectly calls the game Decimals Darts. A very minor mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.
Now this is an interactive tutorial, too. It explains how to write fractions in game, and then expects you to show your understanding in a very simple manner. You're not allowed to use the "?/" key, so you must write fractions using decimal points instead. I must point out that this contradicts the Darts write-up in the CERL Fractions Curriculum (both versions), which show that the game does accept proper fractions. Or rather, that it used to. If you try to use the "?/" key, the game will tell you off. More evidence that Decimal Darts is a later revision.
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| The official curriculum says otherwise. |
After completing the tutorial, the game starts in earnest. There are 8 levels in Part 1 of Decimal Darts, increasing in complexity as they go along. I think this may be the very first game to use level-based gameplay. It's the most logical choice for this type of educational game, but is still groundbreaking if my belief is correct.
Each level presents you with a vertical number line, on which there are cute, styled balloons. Your aim is pop the balloons with your darts by guessing where on the number line the balloon sits, and inputting that guess as a decimal, as shown in the tutorial. The game doesn't actually tell you what the objective is, but it's made obvious enough from the title screen and tutorial.
Level 1 starts you off as simple as can be: 3 balloons sitting on a number line that starts from the bottom at 0 and ends at the top at 1. It's always this setup for level 1, though the positions of the balloons are random, as is the case for all levels. They all sit at tenth intervals here - this won't always be the case, however. My level 1 had the balloons sitting at .1, .2 and .4.
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| Starting you off nice and simple, with cute and friendly balloons. |
Level 2 also had 3 balloons, however the number line went from 0 to 2, with a point for 1 in the middle. An incremental step in complexity - it's slightly harder to judge where the balloons sit, bit still not particularly challenging.
Level 3, on the surface, seems to be a step backwards. It reverts to Level 1's layout, but upon playing it, I realised it wasn't what it seemed. The first two balloons went down simply, but when I went for the balloon nearer the top of the number line, something interesting happened. I went .8 first - missed. Must be .9, then? Missed. The balloon was in between .8 and .9 - .85. Level 3 introduces more precise fractions, and does so in a wonderful manner - through making an unassuming mistake. The first two levels and tutorial train your thinking to only input tenth decimal points. Then, level 3 comes along. You do what you've been taught, only to find out that there's more to the game than you expected. It seems obvious that the game would do this, in hindsight, but in the moment it's rather exciting to make an unexpected discovery.
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| D'oh I missed... |
What happened next was something I only noticed upon reviewing my footage: I was playing level 3 again. Hmm. It would seem that the game will have you replay a level if you missed enough times on the first go around. To my memory, this never happened again in any of my subsequent playthroughs.
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| Strange Deja Vu. |
I understand this kind of design from an educational standpoint; if a student is struggling to grasp a lesson or concept, you'd have them try it again. However, it doesn't really work the same way in this game in particular. Figuring out where the balloons are is 90% guesswork. There's no certain way of knowing where exactly the balloon is unless it's right on a whole number (which does happen in later levels.) While it does take practice and repetition to make better guesses, that's actually having you learn the game, not so much fractions. It's the game's major fault as a whole - it's not really teaching fractions at all, merely number lines.
Anyway, I didn't miss on the second go around. On to level 4. This level ups the complexity once again, having five balloons now. They're also smaller, making them harder to hit. Each balloon has its own unique graphic - they're much less detailed than the larger balloons, but are still distinct.
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| More balloons, more trouble |
I also noticed a graphical glitch occur during level 4. If a balloon is too near the top of the screen, when you hit it it will cause the level text to mostly disappear. I could still see the tops of the letters, but the rest had been erased like a dodgy MS Paint job. I'm guessing it has something to do with how PLATO draws its graphics. It's a rather distracting visual bug.
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| What level is it?? |
Level 5 reverts to three balloons again, only this time the number line goes from 0 to 3, making it once again harder to precisely determine what points the balloons are at. It's not too difficult, and I didn't miss once.
Level 6 is the same as level 5, but with five balloons. This one was pretty easy for me, as all the balloons were on tenth decimals.
Level 7 introduced negative numbers - if selected at the beginning of the game, of course. The main challenge with them is that the number order is essentially reversed - -0.1 is in the same relative spot as 0.9. I regularly got disoriented by this small detail.
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| Don't be a negative nelly. |
I didn't have any issues with the negative numbers this time around. So, on to level 8, right?
Wrong. My game ended right there and then, without even going to level 8. I initially only noticed this occurring in Part 2, but not here. Part 2 has 10 levels, but the game would always stop me at either level 7 or 8. I replayed both parts several times to see if I could get to these other levels, but had no success. My original thought was that the game would end early if you were doing poorly on the previous levels, but now I'm not so sure.
While it's typical game design for a game over to occur if you're doing poorly, Decimal Darts' major issue is that it gives you no indication for if/when that'll happen. There's no real feedback - no lives, no scoring system or any other clear indicators. Yes, the game occasionally has you replay a level, but it still doesn't clearly indicate to you why it's doing that. That is, of course, if it's not just a programming error. For me, at least, there's no way of knowing.
So, we move on. Completing Part 1 ejects you out of the game back to the lesson selection screen, which is rather annoying. Having to type in the lesson code every time wears thin after a while, especially considering how many times I actually played through the game.
This time, I select Part 2, and include negative numbers once again. The title screen is the same between parts, but pressing NEXT jumps you straight into the game, rather than the tutorial.
Difficulty wise, Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off - or even slightly ahead. Level 1 starts off with five balloons, but the number line is even more precise - starting at .0 and ending at .3.
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| Diving into the minutia now. |
Functionally it's not all that different to the previous levels. The only difference is that all the numbers are behind the decimal point. I had no trouble with this level.
Level 2 reverted back to three balloons, and the number line was only between .2 and .3. This seems far easier than level 1. It asked for a little more precision, as one of the darts sat at .265.
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| Easier or harder? |
Level 3 is a more difficult version of level 2. Same concept, with the number line being between only .0 and .1, but with five balloons instead of three. All of mine were in the top half of the line, and I could instantly tell more precision was being required of me. After hitting the first balloon at .09, I saw that the game wanted me to move away from the multiples of 5 I had been sticking to thus far.
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| More accuracy required. |
I fumbled around with my next couple of throws before figuring out where I needed to aim. I then discovered that it was possible to take out two balloons with one dart (don't think that'll become a new metaphor any time soon), provided I was precise enough. The two middle balloons in the above picture both popped at .075. Neat.
Level 4 then reverted to level 1's style. The number line for this one was between .6 and .9. Nothing crazy going on here, a very easy level.
Level 5 was back to three balloons, and whole numbers returned. The number line was 7.0 - 7.2. This was also a very easy level. Kind of strange that levels 2 and 3 were harder, requiring more precision from the player.
However, level 6 changed things up a bit. While the number line was small, .0 - .2, there was no middle point at .1 present. Now things are getting more challenging!
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| But... where the middle point? |
The first part of the level wasn't too bad, with only one of the bottom-half balloons being off of a tenth point. Hitting the top balloon was more of a stab in the dark, as my reference points from the bottom half weren't all that useful. It took a couple of darts to get it.
Level 7 seemed like a backwards step. It was like level 5 - only three balloons and a small number line, 7.8 - 8.0. However, I could immediately tell this level wanted more precision just from how the middle balloon was positioned ever so slightly under 7.9.
This resulted in what I can only describe as a "happy accident," as this level was wanting even more precision than I first thought. I figured that the middle balloon was at 7.89, considering its proximity to 7.9. But, it was probably more like a 7.899, as inputting 7.89 resulted in me taking out the two bottom balloons at once. I mean, I'll take it, but that wasn't exactly what I meant to do.
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| Popping two balloons with one dart... why does that sound familiar? |
And then... the game ended. Again. Despite the game saying there's 10 levels, it ended in the same manner as Part 1 - after level 7. Now that's really strange. After I finished recording, I had a few more goes at Part 2 to see what happened. Interestingly, I sometimes got to level 8 (as in my YouTube run), but no more. Part 2 would always end either at level 7 or 8 for me.
Another oddity I noticed was that in my first recorded playthrough, no negative numbers appeared - despite me selecting to include them. Subsequent playthroughs did have negative numbers appear, so it must've been the luck of the draw not seeing them.
I wanted to see if there was any gameplay on YouTube of Decimal Darts that might help me solve this missing-level phenomena, but had no success. Any search of "PLATO Darts" comes up with hordes of videos about this hokey-looking mobile game literally called Plato Darts. I thought "You must be joking??" Talk about frustrating. No other search parameters worked, either.
Anyway, there's one more part of Decimal Darts, and that's the "Decimal Darts Checkup" segment.
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| I'm here for my yearly checkup. |
The checkup is basically a practice mode. It gives you two rounds of balloons on random number lines, and counts your hits and misses. It would've been nice to have this feature in the main game, as it might enable me to test more fully what's going on with those missing levels.
These checkup sets can be quite tricky, as I didn't do too well with them the first time around. They're functioning at the back-end of Part 2's difficulty level for sure.
At the end of the two rounds, the game will grade your performance. If you do poorly, like I did, the game certainly lets you know about it.
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| Thanks for the encouraging words... |
I tried the checkup again and got a much better result the second time around. Several more playthroughs of each part followed, mostly because I wanted to see if I could access the missing levels (as I've already detailed, it didn't work.)
Right, so with all that said and done, it's time to score Decimal Darts.
Gameplay: 9/20
Controls: 6/10
Visual: 7/10
Functionality: 4/5
Accessibility: 4/5
Fun Factor: 8/20
That marks the last game of 1972! There's one more item to cover for 1972, which is the PLATO computer system itself. I've decided to scale back production on the blog, so there'll only be one article a week for the foreseeable future. This article took much longer to complete than anticipated due to Decimal Darts having a lot more content that previous games, and the content levels are only going to increase from here. The timeline is that the PLATO overview will be next Saturday's feature, and the following week will have no article, as I'll be planning and preparing for 1973's coverage, as well as having my mum visiting for the week, meaning much of my time will be focused there instead.
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