Indeed. If it wasn't for the success of D&D and AD&D in the 1970s and early 1980s, we would have been playing backgammon on line instead of DGate. I played the first time in 78 I think and I used to own several of the early manuals. What an imagination those guys had.

Here's a link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/obit.gygax.ap/index.html

And I hate the new boards.