Internet History

[Atari-Jess]

Hey everyone, I'm working on a secret secret project and I need peoples help.

 

What I am looking for is information.

 

Here is what I need:

 

I need stories and descriptions of the "internet" back from around 1986.

that is information using BBS systems.

 

Connecting to networks using terminal emulators

 

everything and anything about what the internet (term used very loosely)

was like in 1986 on the following systems:

 

IBM XT/AT line

Commodore 64

Atari 8-bits

Atari ST line

Amiga 1000

Apple Macintosh

Apple II

DEC VAX

 

I realize that certain things did not exist at this time ie IRC, websites etc

I am not looking for a history lesson being "they did this, then made this"

 

I am looking for specifics on things like chat like things, dialing into BBS's

dialing into vaxen and such like this. Anything and everything you could

do with a computer and a modem at the time.

 

It doesn't matter if you were only little when you did this or if you were 40+

 

I want stories, I want explanations I NEED this stuff.

 

When this project is released those who helped particularly will be credited

this project is something very large that is going to take a lot to plan and

needs a lot of information. Please send information through PM's and emails.

 

Be as lengthy and as boring as you want!

 

Anyone who ran large multi user machines or BBS's or at the very least

just used this stuff a lot back at home back in college/uni etc.

 

It is important that the cut off date is very late 1986. That is to say, just

before the great USENET renaming.

 

Note to Mods: I'm sorry if you see this thread in a couple of places...

[Breakpack]

 

Note to Mods: I'm sorry if you see this thread in a couple of places...

talk about overkill....

[Goochman]

Heres my random thoughts:

 

My BBS experiences -

 

Atari 800 years

 

Even though folks primarily livedin the same area it was the place to chat about your computer and other things. LD dialing out was not affordable. BBS's were also the place for games - The most popular BBS's were the pirate ones and to get high access required alot of time or knowing the right people. Many BBS's wanted their msg boards to be a lively place therefore more postings got you higher access - Others wanted files, so if you didnt upload you couldnt download and the ones with the best connections had all the games so usually those you had to pay $$$ to get into. The more popular ones also had the busiest phone lines so 'war' or 'auto dialers' come into play here. The modems back then were very simple so software controlled all of this.

 

Like todays internet most of the chat was kids stuff with flame wars and such. It wasnt unusal for crank calls arising from folks who got po'd at each other so hiding ones true phone # was a challenge since most BBS's required it. Later on the BBS software rquired a callback prior to registration. C64 users would flame on Atari BBS's and vs versa - was an interesting time.

 

Another facet of this time was waiting - Most folks had 300 baud modems so event the smallest file could take a long time to download. Also the Forum software could only manage a certain amount of msgs therefore every so often after posting you had to wait for the BBS software to purge old msgs - this truely sucked and could take 5 mins before getting back to the BBS.

 

Later BBS software introduced some simple games which allowed you to compete with other BBS users. One I remember was a dragster game where you could eliminate other players while they were not connected

 

One last note on the Long Distance issue - The BBS software also got sophisticated enough that it could communicate with other BBS"s across nodes - It was therefore possible to chat with folks across the country (albeit slowly) and also to get new warez

 

Last tidbit on the 800 years - Some Atari BBS's got into 'ATASCII' movies. These were the special characters on the Atari which allowed some simple shapes to be drawn. These movies were actually pretty good and entertaining and can be seen on the interenet somewhere still.

 

XModem, YModem and ZModem were all my friends

 

Atari ST

Now I entered teh 2400 baud world which didnt matter much since the file sizes were 4x vs the 800 files. Again chatting and files were the primary purpose but now in 80 columns the data seemed more rich. With 2400 baud it was now possible to intereact with school VAX systems to actually do school work from home - this saved alot of time not traveling to the computer lab and such

 

The forum software became a bit more sophisticated but overall it still had the same feel to it. The ST allowed me to transfer content and still work on a document at the same time which was nice, but not much advanced for me.

 

Once I got a PC (1994) my 9600 baud modem was used to connect to work computers. I think the BBS world was starting to slow down, but maybe that was just me instead. I used my old 1030 modem to transfer Atari software to my PC (Zmodem, hello old friend) to play on an emulator - what a waste of time

[+davidcalgary29]

I recall my earliest exposure to the "internet" (as it was then) being through a series of VAX computers at computer camp in 1982. Though they were supposed to be used for "serious applications", I recall spending most of my time downloading ASCI pix of the Star Trek crew and playing on-line adventure games.

[Susuwatari]

One last note on the Long Distance issue - The BBS software also got sophisticated enough that it could communicate with other BBS"s across nodes - It was therefore possible to chat with folks across the country (albeit slowly) and also to get new warez

 

Some years ago, one of my cousin claimed he dialed around the world by connecting BBS to BBS across. Whether his modem has sticker from every country is debateable but it could be done back then. IIRC that practice was blocked some years ago to hold down the cost.