The first commercial version of MUD1 opens on Compunet in the UK.
Island of Kesmai launches ($12 an hour !).
AUSI, a predecessor company to Mythic Entertainment, forms and launches Aradath for $40 a month.
Atari finally puts PLATO on eight bits. It has a $5/hour connect fee.
Minitel goes live. A detailed history can be found at: http://appli1.oecd.org/olis/1997doc.nsf/a0c602508a90ce004125669e003b5adf/a8093b855bd4ea32802566ad0056749d/$FILE/10E87215.ENG.
Sometime prior to 1984, John Sherrick writes Tradewars ( TW ). It's similar to Star Trader , written in BASIC, and is for BBSes.
"It's not known whether or not Sherrick was inspired by Star Trader , but I suspect this to be the case since they were both written in BASIC. Sherrick's TW is developed in BASIC until December 1989, when it is ported to C. I believe that Sherrick's earliest work was freeware, without any restrictions. It is because of this public-domain code, and the Star Trader code, that so many TW variations have been and continue to be written. At some point, Sherrick closed his code, releasing it under the new name of TW II . His version continues to be developed by John Morris, I am told."
” John Pritchett , TW history
"Another BBS door game. This is such an influential game, at least to me. This was a multiplayer turn-based space-trading game with a bit of combat thrown in. You couldn't actually play this at the same time as another player. You had X amount of moves per day. When your moves ran out, somebody else got a turn . Yes, it was persistent as your merchant and fleet were left in the game for other players to destroy or destroy them if they found you."
” Jon Lambert
Neuromancer is published, and the word " cyberspace " is coined.
