When I was a kid, I remember going to my aunt’s house to play Zork on her Commodore 64.  I could play for hours and never tire.  Zork is a text-only RPG that was published by Infocom in 1980.

It has one of the most famous openings in video game history:

Zork was the first game in a trilogy and while I happened to play it on a Commodore 64, it was released on a wide range of computer systems.

I started to think about Zork yesterday, so I thought I’d see if there was anywhere online to play it.  Lo and behold, there is!  You can also download the trilogy here.

Thirty-Two years ago, on April 1, 1976, Apple Computer was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The first endeavor of their new company was to market and sell the Apple I PC. The Apple I computers were built by Steve Wozniak at the home of Steve Jobs’ parents. Its public debut was at the Homebrew Computer Club. A total of 200 Apple I’s were built over the course of time. It went on sale in July of 1976 at a market-price of $666.66.

The Apple I at The Smithsonian (Source: RebelPilot)

Apple Computer’s Very First Logo - Pre-1976

Apple Computer’s First Public Logo (The one most people will recognize) - Late-1976

I was rummaging around the office the other day, in an attempt to organize an electronics clean-up day, and found an original copy of Microsoft® Word 1.  Word 1, released in 1985, was the first version of Microsoft® Word for the Macintosh.  It retailed for a whopping $195.  The Macintosh version came one and a half years after the IBM PC DOS version and four long years before the first Windows version.

Word 3.0 for Macintosh was released in 1987, followed by Word 5.1 in 1992.  Word 5.1 was a very popular version due to its updated features and user friendly interface.  It was so popular, in fact, that the reporters, where I work, still use it!

You can read a fairly detailed history of Microsoft® Word on Wikipedia.