Saturday, April 30, 2011

OD&D Origin of THAC0 in 1978

Believe it or not the UCLA Computer Club had a D&D 'zine in the late 1970s called ANYONE WANT TO BUY A COAT OF MITHRIL? Here's an interesting excerpt I found in issue #4 from April 1978:

"One of the devices we use is THAC0 (To Hit AC 0). This is a composite of the character's type, level, strength, weapon, and other bonuses. THAC0 must be recomputed when any of this changes. THAC0 itself greatly speeds things up all by itself".

I guess this settles it. THAC0 is totally old school!

Oh yeah, the last line of the 'zine says: "THE UCLA COMPUTER CLUB MEETS FOR D&D SATURDAYS AT 2:00 IN 3514 BOELTER"! Cool!

This is probably the nerdiest blog post I've ever made. I think like 4 people might be interested in this...
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Posted by Bob Reed at 1:20 AM
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21 comments:

  1. KilsernApril 30, 2011 at 1:36 AM

    1 of 4 here.

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  2. The Jovial PriestApril 30, 2011 at 2:37 AM

    2 of 4

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  3. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 3:16 AM

    3 of 4! Wow, nice find.

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  4. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 5:13 AM

    I am #4 (I think) and that is totally Old School Geekiness! awesome

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  5. MalcadonApril 30, 2011 at 5:27 AM

    Dammit! I hate being the 5th wheel!

    The Computer Club game is ether happening right now, or I will have to wait for the next day, afternoon. :P

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  6. christianApril 30, 2011 at 8:28 AM

    2pm? I am so there!

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  7. Dr RotwangApril 30, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    I am #23. Hail Eris.

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  8. HiggipediaApril 30, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    That's old school enough that there was a club for computers...

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  9. Matthew SchmeerApril 30, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    I just want to find out where you got your hands on the issues of the zine! Anyone know where an archives of scans can be found? Anyone?

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  10. AlexeyApril 30, 2011 at 11:11 AM

    Apparently I'm not supposed to like this (as the quota is already filled) but for some reason I really feel like I do!

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  11. -CApril 30, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    No art? No download?

    Everyone will totally be into it. :-)

    (J/K, I've been reading old White Dwarf and Wiznews myself)

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  12. Matt FinchApril 30, 2011 at 12:48 PM

    Counting myself, there's a metric "more than four," although I'm not sure if there's a full Imperial "more than four," because I think the Imperial system uses a different 4, based on the size of a 1 instead of the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

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  13. TreyApril 30, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    Whoa, the computer club plus D&D? Some serious geekionic radiation must be coming off that 'zine.

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  14. MacApril 30, 2011 at 2:09 PM

    I remember being a kid in the 70's playing Zork there. One of my D&D friends had a big brother in the club. I have dim memories of playing D&D there too. They still do it there, eh? Nice.

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  15. Bob ReedApril 30, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    2pm? I am so there!
    They still do it there, eh? Nice.

    Hold your horses fellas! That was the last line from the 'zine. You'd be about 33 years late to the game!

    I rephrased the post to make this less ambiguous... Sorry about that!

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  16. Nicolas DessauxApril 30, 2011 at 5:32 PM

    Very nice find!

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  17. Bob ReedApril 30, 2011 at 5:34 PM

    I just want to find out where you got your hands on the issues of the zine!

    eBay

    Anyone know where an archives of scans can be found?

    Hahaha! I wish! These old 'zines are super rare and are way under the radar of most of the "collectors" who focus on common material from major publishers like TSR and Judge's Guild. 70s 'zines and small-print publications are incredibly cool and I'm lucky to have a nice little collection of this kind of stuff. I'd like to make more scans and posts, but it's hard to find the time.

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  18. Theodric the ObscureApril 30, 2011 at 6:27 PM

    Well done! THAC0 makes sense and takes up a lot less room, so I'm not surprised one of our sharp co-gamists thought of it in 1978.

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  19. jkovesiMay 4, 2011 at 2:17 PM

    I don't understand why used they a whole table instead one value.

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  20. migellitoMay 7, 2011 at 5:54 PM

    Very cool stuff Cyke :)

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  21. EveMay 31, 2012 at 1:14 PM

    I was there--we played D& D in an old computer storage room. I was a geek!

    ReplyDelete

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