There are many versions of Avatar on the web (Cyber1, Nova Net). Most represent an evolution of the original D&D game. Avatar was originally a very carefully thought out and balanced D&D game at the University of Illinois. Today, we have many versions. All but a few, reflect changes that the various "improvers" added. At this site, we have the information of a very early version of the game. Even many early Avatar game players don't even recognize this version. It predates almost all the others. You can enjoy this very early version as "2avatar" on the Cyber1 site. Other than a few "recovery" corrections to the code, it represents one of the earliest copies of the code.

The original University of Illinois and Control Data Plato systems basically permitted one sign on at a time. The Plato terminals were hard to come by and there was no such thing as "multi-windowed" software. As a result, the early versions of Avatar required cooperative efforts by groups of individual players. I can remember groups, containing fighters and spell checkers, attacking peaced dungeon level 15 critters with the thought of "let the fighter swing and then the spell chucklers can use their big stuff" (those spells are usually not castable against "peaced" monsters). It generally was very effective.

With the advent of windows systems and the "Nova Net" Non-Prime-Time group (NPT), which permitted multiple sign-ons, the game changed. Some players started to run large groups of characters in the game at the same time. Some carried "deaders" and dropped them on quested monsters (to freeze the re-pop) for later claim by their non-playing characters. In general, the use of large character groups, under the control of one player, reduced the challenge and hence the fun of playing the game. Interestingly, if one tries to get NPT Avatar players to play the Cyber1 versions, the first comment that you will receive concerns how many characters that they can run at one time.

Avatar, in whatever form, was one of the basic goals of the Cyber1 organization. Mike originally permitted two sign-ons to anyone that wanted them. This was for Cyber1's later version on Avatar (zavatar). Eventually, Mike added his own version, "vavatar". Since it was a "non-pure" version, anyone could obtain two additional sign-ons to play this specific version. With the 2avatar version, running a group of four characters at one time is permissible. You can always keep a "Zoo" of any number of characters on other "non-existent" sign-ons. (Just be sure to refresh them occasionally). Having a Zoo is great, if you get tired of running a certain group, just try another. Personally, I have about 3/4 of the guild characters in every game version (with the exception of the "vavatar version, I gave up on that one). It keeps things interesting. It is a mental challenge, not only does one have to keep track on all the rooms in the cube, one has to remember every character's abilities.