banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL
 ·Comcast
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. |
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Justin024
@bankofamerica.com | Yea I share the same nostalgia for Prodigy. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| reply to banditws6
I used both Compuserve & Prodigy. Both predated the World Wide Web.
Here are all the online service prior to WWW becoming an acronym everyone now knows:
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:P···services
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page |
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travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Santa Fe, NM
1 edit | reply to banditws6
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.  |
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FrostyMelon
join:2006-02-06
Colorado Springs, CO | reply to banditws6
LOL, nice. About the same for me...though haven't touched it since probably 1996. |
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DC DSL
Stays crunchy even in milk
Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
 ·Covad Communications
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to travelguy
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
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There is no giant fur-bearing trout. |
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RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| reply to travelguy
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). |
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travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Santa Fe, NM | That's what it was! Geez - talk about dusty recesses of the mind... |
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efrem
join:2002-04-03
Westport, CT
| reply to DC DSL
WinCIM 2.0.1 |
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Joe Siegler
join:2008-10-08
Garland, TX
1 edit | reply to banditws6
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. |
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JoeG4
join:2001-12-16
945941 | Aww how sad to hear this, I remember those days! What a time! lol.
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VGMasters my video game forum |
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banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL
·Comcast
| reply to Joe Siegler
Hey Joe! Had no idea you posted here. Yep, those were the days...when people on forums were mostly civil! 
The Duke3D shareware release night was nuts. George was on the forum as well as possibly Levelord (can't remember for sure -- it might have had a separate chat with him on another occasion). I remember George snarking about you cursing up a storm because of an issue with the upload, and it was late enough that nobody wanted to think about anything except getting the upload done and going to Whataburger.
I had a 5x4 ID that started with 7. The 5x3 ID numbers were getting rare by my time as well; you could usually gauge the seniority of a user by their number. When the 10xxxx users started showing up, we all knew who the newbs were.
I was really bummed to see you and the other 3DR guys let go last month when the crap hit the fan. Hope you all find new workplaces to call home, doing the stuff you love.
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"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent |
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DC DSL
Stays crunchy even in milk
Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
·Covad Communications
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to efrem
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?
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There is no giant fur-bearing trout. |
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tapeloop
1959. I try to kick the ball. I miss.
Premium
join:2004-06-27
Airstrip One
| reply to Joe Siegler
said by Joe Siegler :» www.3drealms.com/gallery/main.ph···mId=5564There'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. A bit hard to make out, but is that the Zmodem protocol I see?
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"I love mankind. It's people I can't stand."
--L. van Pelt |
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