Lebling and Blank start work on Zork on the PDP-10, inspired by ADVENT . They form a startup with some friends , called Infocom.
"The original Zork , started in 1977, was written by me, Marc Blank (note spelling), Tim Anderson, and Bruce Daniels. Infocom wasn't founded until 1979. One source for Zork is that I was in the game D&D group , which was mostly BBN people, that Wil Crowther was in. Not at the same time, though; I think I actually replaced him when we dropped out. Zork was 'derived' from ADVENT in that we played ADVENT , liked it, wished it were better, and tried to do a 'better' one. There was no code borrowed, or anything like that, and we didn't meet either Crowther or Woods until much later."
” Dave Lebling
A new version of D&D with simplified rules, later to be called Basic Dungeons & Dragons ( BD&D ), is published. It contains the first known use of the term "role-playing game."
The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual is published.
Kelton Flinn works on "the text-based amoeboid-like ancestor " to Air Warrior , called AIR , between 1977 and 1979.
"If Air Warrior was a primate swinging in the trees, AIR was the text-based amoeba crawling on the ocean floor. But it was quasi-real-time, multiplayer, and attempted to render 3D on the terminal using ASCII graphics. It was an acquired taste."
