  drslashGoya AsmaPremium
join:2002-02-18
Marion, IA | 300bps modems 300bps modems and the CB chat channels.
/nostalgia | |
|
 |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: 300bps modems I never had a CompuServe account, but knew a few people who did.
First service I had was Prodigy..... It was cool, but I was in college and money was tight and I shut it off.
Later I got Sierra Online right as it relaunched as the INN "The ImagiNation Network".... Anyone remember that? One of it's highlights was you could play the game "Red Baron" online. Boy you guys think lag is bad these days.... LOL.....
I think that was the beginning of "online gaming". I had it maybe 2 years and then I got my first dial-up Internet account. I still remember when KALI came out and I could play Warcraft, Warcraft II, DukeNukem 3D etc online. 
/nostalgia
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
| |
|
| | KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | Re: 300bps modems i had Descent II and it had KALI support though i had no clue what it was at the time lol.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
|
| | | | | Re: 300bps modems Descent II was my first online gaming experience... I think I paid 20$ for a "lifetime" membership to KALI. Seems so long ago.
--
"Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now." | |
|
| |  tim_kButtons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow, KaseyPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA
kudos:13 | said by KrK:I never had a CompuServe account, but knew a few people who did. First service I had was Prodigy..... It was cool, but I was in college and money was tight and I shut it off. Later I got Sierra Online right as it relaunched as the INN "The ImagiNation Network".... Anyone remember that? One of it's highlights was you could play the game "Red Baron" online. Boy you guys think lag is bad these days.... LOL..... I had CompuServe for a couple months, I couldn't justify the price and dropped it. I did have Sierra Online. During the special pricing I think it was something like $15 for 30 hours/mo. I was in a Red Baron squadron, but didn't play it too much, lag caused too many problems. I also think in those days you paid extra if you used a 2400 baud modem. To this day, the best game of Hearts I ever played was on Sierra. There were some expert card players there. After the special pricing, I went with the cheapest plan since getting 30 hours was way too high. But I worried so much about going over my limit, which was just a handful of hours per month, that I dropped it.
--
RIP my babys Buttons 1/15/94-2/9/07 & Beamer 7/24/08, Buttons, Buttons video, Beamer
| |
|
| | | | First online game?
Apple IIe, America's cup.
Beat that bro. A sailing simulator played against another person via a 300BPS Hayes modem.
If you mean more than one person, you are probably right. | |
|
|  AkumalDaveLife's A BeachPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-20
Minneapolis, MN
1 edit | quote:
300bps modems and the CB chat channels.
I didn't jump on board until the 19.2k modems. What a great source of info those forums were! Heavily moderated to assure civility and quality of content. I later was invited to join the SysOp staff on a couple of travel-related forums.
Internet passing it by aside, it was sad to see the steady erosion from the MCI / Worldcom / AOL / Netscape influences (sigh).
Dave (a.k.a. 76711,2111)
EDIT: modem speed and CS number
--
"...enjoy every sandwich..." Warren Zevon 1947-2003 | |
|
| | Wow Didn't know they still existed in any form.
That was my first online experience. Followed by GEnie yea the good old days. | |
|
 banditws6Shrinking Time and DistancePremium
join:2001-08-18
Frisco, TX
 ·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | Farewell Guys I used CompuServe for a number of years beginning back in 1993. Spent most of my time on the ACTION and APOGEE (later REALMS) forums talking about Doom, Wolfenstein and all those other action games of the day. Was up late at night there chatting with the 3D Realms crew as they were releasing Duke Nukem 3-D shareware in January of 1996.
There's really no reason for anything like CompuServe to exist today, but back in the day, I couldn't live without it.
I wouldn't say I'll miss CompuServe, but I'll remember it fondly.
Edit: As an example of the near-endless lifespan of things you put on the Internet, I just Googled my old CompuServe ID (the comma-separated numeric, before they went with real usernames) and found some PC game cheat codes I submitted to a forum in 1994 posted on some Russian website. ...Whoa. | |
|
| | | Re: Farewell Guys Yea I share the same nostalgia for Prodigy. | |
|
| |
|
1 edit | said by banditws6:I just Googled my old CompuServe ID (the comma-separated numeric Dot separated, otherwise known as a PPN or Project Programmer Number. An artifact of the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) computers originally used to host the Compuserve software. Not Vaxen, but Dec10s and Dec20s. And if memory serves, they converted over to OS2 based systems at one point, at least for the forums.
People forget how powerful and useful forums were at the time. The only competitor was The Well out of San Francisco, but they were a bit esoteric even for the geeks of the time and never broke out of their niche.
I recall talking to an upper level manager at Compuserve once to see if I could arrange to license the forum software for an internal company project. He literally laughed out loud and said they would never do such a thing. If we wanted to use that software it would have to be as a private forum hosted on their computers.
And my CIS PPN is also still floating around in a lot of places.  | |
|
| |  DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2
·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Farewell Guys said by travelguy: And if memory serves, they converted over to OS2 based systems at one point, at least for the forums. People forget how powerful and useful forums were at the time. The only competitor was The Well out of San Francisco, but they were a bit esoteric even for the geeks of the time and never broke out of their niche. I recall talking to an upper level manager at Compuserve once to see if I could arrange to license the forum software for an internal company project. He literally laughed out loud and said they would never do such a thing. If we wanted to use that software it would have to be as a private forum hosted on their computers. It was NT, not OS/who. I was a consultant to the database design team, trained most of their programmers in the ways of things NT, and led the software quality review process. I also was the father-confessor/sensei for the WinCIM development team.
You really wouldn't have wanted the old forum software from the DECen. While on the surface it was a model of "elegance in simplicity," under the hood it was literally held together with prayers and the programming equivalents of baling wire and duct tape. Forum traffic and data storage demands were causing behind-the-scenes calamaties on a daily, and eventually hourly basis.
They had originally wanted to go to OS/2 in 1989, but a holy war broke out between the entrenched DEC camp and the Blockheads who wanted to bring in IBM. The matter was finally decided after the IBM/Microsoft break-up and MS dispatching Dave Cutler as an emissary to win over the hearts of the DEC boys.
RIP my dear, old friend.
Love,
72331,2600
70011,032
--
There is no giant fur-bearing trout. | |
|
| | | efrem
join:2002-04-03
Westport, CT | Re: Farewell Guys
WinCIM 2.0.1 |
| |
|
| | | | DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Farewell Guys said by efrem:Ok, here is more food for nostalgia. I had to boot up an old Win'95 box for this.
There was a heated debate that raged for months about the graphics used in WinCIM. The ultimate selection of what shipped pretty much sealed the fate of "professional" CompuServe. The Blockheads were hell bent on keeping people from defecting to AOL, and one of the big reasons cited for people cancelling was "it's too hard for non-techies to understand." (Another was that the long-established community etiquette and forum conduct policies made people who didn't have good writing and interpersonal skills unwelcome.)
WinCIM was considerably more functional than the traditional TTY comm package used by most people, especially with the TapCIS-like features. However, the dumbing-down of the UI universally insulted and offended the long-time user population. The UI team went so far as to drop beta testers who submitted negative feedback about the cartoonish graphical elements, and regularly purged unflattering remarks from the WinCIM beta and support forums. (This attitude was a key reason I declined to extend my consulting contract with them.)
Management was also uninterested in stemming the exodus of vendor-sponsored support forums to the Internet. The attitude was basically denial and "they'll be back!" One of the marketing execs I frequently dealt with in 1994 brainwashed most of the decision makers into thinking the Internet was "no different than BBSes of 10 years ago, and people didn't care much for those because they had to call each one separately." He literally laughed me out of a meeting where I suggested exploring creating gateways or getting in on hosting those websites as a way to stem defections or revive relationships and keep the brand relevant. Oh, well. What would I know about stuff like that?
--
There is no giant fur-bearing trout. | |
|
| |  RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY | said by travelguy:said by banditws6:I just Googled my old CompuServe ID (the comma-separated numeric Dot separated, otherwise known as a PPN or Project Programmer Number. It was comma separated BUT you are also right about the dot since if you used Internet Email, the UserID had the period (ie: xxxxx.xxxx@compuserve.com). | |
|
| | | | | Re: Farewell Guys That's what it was! Geez - talk about dusty recesses of the mind... | |
|
| | | LOL, nice. About the same for me...though haven't touched it since probably 1996. | |
|
|
1 edit | said by banditws6:I used CompuServe for a number of years beginning back in 1993. Spent most of my time on the ACTION and APOGEE (later REALMS) forums talking about Doom, Wolfenstein and all those other action games of the day. Was up late at night there chatting with the 3D Realms crew as they were releasing Duke Nukem 3-D shareware in January of 1996. As one of those guys, here's a wave back! My job was representing 3D Realms online from the time I was hired in Dec 1992 through the time all of us were laid off in May of 2009. I remember well the release of Duke Nukem 3D.
»www.3drealms.com/gallery/main.ph···mId=5564
There's George Broussard of 3DR pointing to my computer at the time, which was uploading Duke3D shareware to Software Creations. Right after there I would have hit Compuserve.
But yeah, I remember Compuserve well. Although today I can't recall my old Compuserve account number. I do remember it starting with 74, but the most I can remember is 74???,???..
I remembered it. 71540,306 was my number - it was a 5x3 account, which became more rare as CS rolled along.
And to whoever posted it above, I do remember TapCIS. | |
|
| |  JoeG4
join:2001-12-16
945941 | Re: Farewell Guys Aww how sad to hear this, I remember those days! What a time! lol.
--
VGMasters my video game forum | |
|
| | |
| |  tapeloopNot bad at all, really.Premium
join:2004-06-27
Airstrip One
kudos:1 | A bit hard to make out, but is that the Zmodem protocol I see?
--
"I love mankind. It's people I can't stand."
--L. van Pelt | |
|
 ahulettLife Without WallsPremium,VIP
join:2003-02-02
Bellevue, WA
kudos:2 | So long, and thanks for all the fish. I still remember my ID: 70413,2707
and my password (no, you're not getting it).
Bye CompuServe...
GO HISTORICALLY | |
|
| banditws6Shrinking Time and DistancePremium
join:2001-08-18
Frisco, TX Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish. Nice.
--
"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent | |
|
|  syslockPremium
join:2007-02-03
Ann Arbor, MI | The free-demo account was great.
Wrote some code to suck the current weather report
for my PCBoard BBS each hour back in the day.
Thanks for the use of the system!
| |
|
| | jdmatl
join:2000-04-27
Deerfield Beach, FL | Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish. Former PC-Board BBS Sysop here also. Ran my 2-node on a 386/16mzh with 1meg ram using DesqView as my multi-tasker. Windows 3.1 had issues with serial ports in DOS windows, hence the DesqView WITH QEMM memory manager. | |
|
| | | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish. said by jdmatl:Former PC-Board BBS Sysop here also. Ran my 2-node on a 386/16mzh with 1meg ram using DesqView as my multi-tasker. Windows 3.1 had issues with serial ports in DOS windows, hence the DesqView WITH QEMM memory manager. You're talking my language here. 386-SX16, 1MB RAM, Desqview, QEMM, a Seagate 4096 MFM hard-drive (Yes, it was used).... I looked at PC-Board but ended up running RemoteAccess..... I THINK but I'm not sure that I ran it on a 2400 bps modem and then went to 14.4k (I remember jumping over 9600).
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
| |
|
| | | | Zach 58Premium
join:2006-11-26
NW Minnesota | Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish. Wow this thread brings back the memories. Ran EZ Comm and then Wildcat! software here. One of the first locally to offer Usenet newsgroups and freeware/shareware feed via Planet Connect. I was also on FidoNet running FrontDoor. Got to learn all about routed Netmail and file attachments when the phone bills arrived. Ah yes, the days of LD calls to region in Mpls.  In retrospect, it sure was an expensive hobby but some of the folks I met back then I still keep in touch with today. | |
|
| | | | syslockPremium
join:2007-02-03
Ann Arbor, MI Reviews:
·Comcast
| After you went mad setting it up, Desqview and QEMM were the bomb back then for multi-tasking.
Had 6 lines with USRobotics modems hooked to 3 worstations, and a Netware 3.12 server in the background hooked up via 10BASE2 thinnet coax. Lived in a unique calling area and later used the phone lines to run a POP for an ISP.
Made some great friendships back then that are still Strong today. It was great to help other sysops in the area work out their issues or chat about their mutual problem children users..... Lots of work, but a lot of fun as well. | |
|
jacourPremium
join:2001-12-11
Matthews, NC Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
·SureWest Cable
·AT&T Southwest
| Fond memories I used to travel internationally, a lot, and Compuserve used what I think is now the UUnet backbone. I could get connected from any city in the world and it was great!
Broadband is wonderful but I miss listening to my creaky old dial-up handshake. RIP. | |
|
| CorydonCultivant son jardinPremium
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO | Re: Fond memories Just for you:
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgqEIp2Y···out.com/
(And yes, there was something very cool about listening to the handshake as you jumped on your favorite BBS or connected to your shell account at the local university to see what was up on USENET)
--
"Religion allows people who would otherwise be arguing about whether the Death Star could beat a Borg Cube to have a place of respect within society." | |
|
| | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: Fond memories Heh, I've hopped onto dialup several times in the last 24 hours. Some of the numbers I used had the short handshake, but others have the whole darned thing Except today I'm using TOAST.net's dialer (they have access to all the major dialup networks, including the excellent AT&T WorldNet one) with my mom's laptop's softmodem. Golly dang that thing can dial quickly
Never had a Compuserve account, and I started messing with AOL in the 9.0 Blo...er...Optimized era. However the family Juno e-mail account still works, est. 1995. Ah, the days where we'd dial long-distance (local phone co-op had, and still has, a ridiculously small calling area) to grab our e-mail, most of which was advertisements. | |
|
| | RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY | said by Corydon: yes, there was something very cool about listening to the handshake as you jumped on your favorite BBS or connected to your shell account at the local university to see what was up on USENET) We used to refer to it as the Mating Call of the Lovesick Modem. I loved that YouTube Cartoon. | |
|
|
|  koitsuPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
kudos:14 | Re: *Sniff* *Sniff* I mirror your sentiments, although I was more familiar with Prodigy. Ahh old times... | |
|
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Pleasant Hill, MO | Ahhh nostalgia....... I remember when I started using them, in 2000..... Weren't too bad for dial up back then. Ahh memories. | |
|
| | Re: Compuserve Classic Says Goodnight Definitely the end of an era long past. I was a Compuserve member a long time ago. It and Q-Link (the old Commodore BBS) were two of my favorite haunts back in the early 80s. | |
|
approval from:
MTBikerChris 
| My ISP is trying to preserve history Not to worry, billing by the unit is coming to an ISP near you! | |
|
| | | Re: My ISP is trying to preserve history Too funny! | |
|
| |
| Rob_Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL | Re: My ISP is trying to preserve history it won't work, there's stuff in the works in congress which will outlaw that. | |
|
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
kudos:1 | I did not know they still offered service.  I remember using Compuserve from 1984 until 1992 to obtain price quotes for Telephone Systems from our suppliers. It was a big day when they upgraded from 1200Bps to 2400Bps modems. | |
|
| | $300 bill! Will not miss the $300 bill I got in 1995 or so for various parts of compuserve on my 9600 bps modem! (I had a 300 bps modem too. I wonder what happened to it)
--
KieranMullen »360oregon.com
| |
|
| | | Re: $300 bill! Another fond memory... A CS instructor at a local college said I could use the school's terminals to dial in to CIS. This would have been the late 70s and they didn't have a local access number at the time and in state long distance wasn't cheap. When she got the first phone bill to her department I had to promise to repay the bill. It took several months at student worker wages. | |
|
Mark HPremium
join:2008-05-18
Sterling Heights, MI | Long time ago ... There was even a magazine out there called Boardwatch.
What ever happened to it? | |
|
|  cdruGo ColtsPremium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:5
 ·Frontier FiOS
| Re: Long time ago ... said by Mark H:There was even a magazine out there called Boardwatch. What ever happened to it? The magazine died in 2002 after changing names to ISPWatch since by then ISPs and the internet made BBSs largely irrelevent. An online incarnation was ISPworld.com which looks like it's now LightReading.com. | |
|
 dathing
join:2002-01-09
Sykesville, MD
1 edit | Byte Magazine Fun to remember. I still have a pile of Byte magazines from the same period. I was just clearing out the basement the other day and couldn't bring myself to throw them all out. I wound up saving the cover page artwork of each issue. | |
|
adrmanPremium
join:2007-08-23
New York, NY | TapCIS Anyone remember the old dos program TapCIS? It must have saved me a small fortune in Compuserve charges. | |
|
|
See 9 replies to this post |
|
| | I met and made some WONDERFUL Friends That I still am friends with... had more fun and will never forget all the crazy things I did!!!! TNBunny | |
|
 WiFiguruTo infinity... and beyondPremium
join:2005-06-21
Los Gatos, CA
·Verizon Online DSL
| CompuServe Wow, I remember CompuServe!
I bought a Packard Bell computer back in the day, 233Mhz processor, 128Mb of ram, Windows 95, it was rockin!
I had CompuServe for a while, then switched to Prodigy.
Those were the days!
ICQ was really popular then too! | |
|
 simplykristiCancer SucksPremium
join:2001-11-28
Blue Springs, MO | Thought it was gone.... I thought that CompuServe went away a long ago when it hooked up wit AOL. I did not think it was still around.
--
My Photo Gallery: »www.simplykristi.smugmug.com/ | |
|
| | | Re: Thought it was gone.... quote:
I thought that CompuServe went away a long ago when it hooked up wit AOL. I did not think it was still around.
It was not that merciful.
The geniuses had to destroy it first. | |
|
 nc1165
join:2001-04-10
Delray Beach, FL | pfft... I had it once upon a time. Goodbye and good riddance. They should have driven a stake through that company years ago.
--
Even if it spits in your face, a camel is still your best friend when crossing the desert. | |
|
 legendNYCTo Be OverPremium
join:2003-06-04
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1
·Verizon Online DSL
| Magazines
Todd |
"the net" magazine had a great article by Blue Grrl (Shel Kimen) about how to use Compuserve to get on the Internet.
Good times!
76206,3036 | |
|
| | former sysop Nostalgia night on dslreports, eh?
I helped run the Journalism Forum for many years as 76701,13.
It was a freebie account, but oh my god the phone charges nearly killed me.
JForum was head and shoulders above much of what passes for intelligent conversation on the Interwebz today - present company excepted, of course [g].
-dan | |
|
| | | Re: former sysop 'fraid so... And another CIS story. On one of the PC forums, a female forum member was complaning about not having received a mail order PC she had ordered from some guy going to school in Austin, TX. A half dozen or so forum members got together and drove over to the school and straightened the seller out.
His name? Michael Dell
True story. | |
|
| | | Then you must remember sysop Jim Cameron, who just chimed in with a comment to my blog, which is the one cited at the top of this thread.
The old JFORUM was a fun and useful place. And the commentary and debates were very spirited and usually pretty civil. You folks ran a nice show while it lasted.
- - -
The Paper PC: CompuServe Classic: So Long, Old Friend
»paperpc.blogspot.com/2009/06/com···end.html
or
»tinyurl.com/mrnxeo | |
|
|
|
Remember getting bills some months of $100 or more. Ack!
