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Gromit posted:That would have been horrifying. I worked at a pawn shop that used VHS tapes for backup (from a PC).
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May 16, 2014 12:58
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Tricky Ed posted:I had friends with 5 digit ICQ numbers. I didn't sign up then because the internet was billed by the minute but local calls weren't. You don't get to be all "I'm old you noobs  " about ICQ. By the time ICQ came out IRC had already been around for years. ICQ (and everything like it) just seemed obsolete when it came out so no-one (sane) who'd been on-line for some time then ever bothered with it.:thesmuggestnerd:
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May 16, 2014 14:47
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Tried logging into my 8 digit icq account that I somehow still remember. Contact list says Derek Smart is available
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May 16, 2014 14:55
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DarthBlingBling posted:Tried logging into my 8 digit icq account that I somehow still remember. Contact list says Derek Smart is available I think I have a big-box copy of Battlecruised 3000AD. Talk about obsolete.
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May 16, 2014 14:59
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p-hop posted:That reminds me of a short story (fiction) about a guy who could never beat some DOS text adventure game from his youth. It was unfinished and impossible to beat, but he had dreams of the game's ending. The guy that made the game cut all ties with society and became a hermit living in his parents' house or something (???) and the narrator went to meet the guy in person. The guy gave the narrator an old school floppy or Amiga tape that had the finished game, I think. He beat the game and it had some kind of twist or revelation. Can't remember. Tangibly related, but I never could finish Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that poo poo haunts me to this day. I think I screwed up some steps and got stuck literally probably 5 minutes from the end. Mister Kingdom posted:I worked at a pawn shop that used VHS tapes for backup (from a PC). My idiot uncle started backing up all his music to VHS because you could fit 8 hours on a tape and it was High Fidelity.
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May 16, 2014 16:18
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Krispy Kareem posted:Tangibly related, but I never could finish Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that poo poo haunts me to this day. I think I screwed up some steps and got stuck literally probably 5 minutes from the end. I couldn't finish HHGTTG either. I couldn't get off the ship. Oh well. I knew of people who would record mixes to VHS. And it was analog. Not ADATs. ADATs are definitely obsolete. Phone posting so I can't elaborate more. Maybe later I can add them to the thread.
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May 16, 2014 16:25
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Krispy Kareem posted:Tangibly related, but I never could finish Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that poo poo haunts me to this day. I think I screwed up some steps and got stuck literally probably 5 minutes from the end. If you didn't grab the mail out of your mailbox, at your house on Earth, you couldn't finish the game.
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May 16, 2014 17:38
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Could never get that damned fish in my ear.
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May 16, 2014 17:46
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Johnny Aztec posted:If you didn't grab the mail out of your mailbox, at your house on Earth, you couldn't finish the game. I got through the Babel fish. I think I missed something when you plug in the tea machine and become a whale. Speaking of obsolete technologies (that aren't text games) I used to call Infocom's 1-900 number for hints. Eventually I learned my lesson and purchased the hint book with the game (via mail order). Boy, waiting 3 to 6 weeks for my new game was awesome!
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May 16, 2014 17:50
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p-hop posted:That reminds me of a short story (fiction) about a guy who could never beat some DOS text adventure game from his youth. It was unfinished and impossible to beat, but he had dreams of the game's ending. The guy that made the game cut all ties with society and became a hermit living in his parents' house or something (???) and the narrator went to meet the guy in person. The guy gave the narrator an old school floppy or Amiga tape that had the finished game, I think. He beat the game and it had some kind of twist or revelation. Can't remember. I'm 90% sure this is it: http://boingboing.net/features/nomenludi.html
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May 16, 2014 20:15
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Krispy Kareem posted:I got through the Babel fish. I think I missed something when you plug in the tea machine and become a whale. Oh man. I used to call the Nintendo Power Help Line for that kind of thing.
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May 16, 2014 20:37
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Johnny Aztec posted:If you didn't grab the mail out of your mailbox, at your house on Earth, you couldn't finish the game. Oh jesus, the same sort of thing happened to me near the end of Return to Zork, where you're supposed to throw all your poo poo into lava or something like that. I'd forgotten something, somewhere, sometime, and 12-year-old me was so perplexed as to WTF I was supposed to be doing, I just gave up and went back to playing Mechwarrior 2. But that's more like (thankfully) obsolete and failed game design.
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May 16, 2014 21:50
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Sagebrush posted:
I know this is a year and a half later, but that book pissed me off as a kid because I found it in the nonfiction section of the local library, so I assumed it was nonfiction. And I got REALLY mad when I found out. I trusted you, local library. I TRUSTED YOU! I'm still a little ornery about it actually...
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May 16, 2014 23:51
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I loved that book.
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He Who Wears Pants posted:Oh jesus, the same sort of thing happened to me near the end of Return to Zork, where you're supposed to throw all your poo poo into lava or something like that. I'd forgotten something, somewhere, sometime, and 12-year-old me was so perplexed as to WTF I was supposed to be doing, I just gave up and went back to playing Mechwarrior 2. Yeah Return to Zork was almost completely unplayable without outside help. And unfortunately it was from a time when it was really hard to find that help, so I gave up as well. Stabbing the blacksmith was always fun, though.
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May 17, 2014 00:11
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Krakox posted:I'm 90% sure this is it: Yes, that's the one! If you like posting or reading about 80s computers/text adventure games in this thread check it out. It perfectly describes that weird mix of nostalgia and "trying to remember that dream you had last night" feeling that I get when my brain only recalls bits and pieces of some videogame from my childhood. Really well done.
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May 17, 2014 00:46
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DarthBlingBling posted:Tried logging into my 8 digit icq account that I somehow still remember. Contact list says Derek Smart is available 16825610 HOW DO I STILL KNOW THAT
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May 17, 2014 00:51
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Ishamael posted:Yeah Return to Zork was almost completely unplayable without outside help.
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May 17, 2014 01:44
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Imagined posted:Can we please keep talking about vi and emacs for like five more pages oh yeeeaaah. It's a pity you aren't in Australia. I have several hundred films you could use with that. (buy my stuff)
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May 17, 2014 02:36
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I too remember my 6 digit ICQ # as well as my 5 digit TSN/INN mailbox number. That's from...1993/1994 I believe.
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May 17, 2014 03:19
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10608709 --- I still remember the password to go with this as well. This was my second number as my first number in the 5 figures was hacked by russians.
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May 17, 2014 04:07
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JPrime posted:I too remember my 6 digit ICQ # as well as my 5 digit TSN/INN mailbox number. That's from...1993/1994 I believe. The good old Imagination Network. I miss those simpler days.
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May 17, 2014 04:18
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p-hop posted:That reminds me of a short story (fiction) about a guy who could never beat some DOS text adventure game from his youth. It was unfinished and impossible to beat, but he had dreams of the game's ending. The guy that made the game cut all ties with society and became a hermit living in his parents' house or something (???) and the narrator went to meet the guy in person. The guy gave the narrator an old school floppy or Amiga tape that had the finished game, I think. He beat the game and it had some kind of twist or revelation. Can't remember. Krakox posted:I'm 90% sure this is it: This was a cool read and does indeed remind me of my dumb rear end software dreams. Thanks for sharing.
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May 17, 2014 05:07
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I still remember 71114,2750
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May 17, 2014 05:57
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JPrime posted:I too remember my 6 digit ICQ # as well as my 5 digit TSN/INN mailbox number. That's from...1993/1994 I believe. I was going through old papers and came across a letter from Sierra inviting me to join, I can remember me pleading with my parents to let me sign up, but I never got to. How was it?
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May 17, 2014 13:04
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JPrime posted:I too remember my 6 digit ICQ # as well as my 5 digit TSN/INN mailbox number. That's from...1993/1994 I believe. I'm pretty sure if I knew what the internet was or had a computer in 93/94 my little brain would have exploded. I had a grand total of 2 TV channels to entertain me at this time. I actually remember having to fake it when it came to talking about The Simpsons episodes from the night before 
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May 17, 2014 13:27
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Lowen SoDium posted:The good old Imagination Network. I miss those simpler days. I don't, because I used to be the tech support supervisor.
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May 17, 2014 14:12
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I used to be on Kali all the drat time back in 94/95 playing Duke 3D.
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May 17, 2014 14:26
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I used to dial into a BBS to play 4-person Doom deathmatch. I don't even remember what the software was called. It wasn't DWANGO.
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May 17, 2014 14:39
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ok, so who remembers their old prodigy number? i think mine was thkm51b
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May 17, 2014 14:47
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Dick Trauma posted:I don't, because I used to be the tech support supervisor. Have any interesting stories or insights? Lowen SoDium has a new favorite as of 17:14 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 17:02
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PatrickBateman posted:ok, so who remembers their old prodigy number? i think mine was thkm51b Oh yeah I remember the accounts were intended for families, with the "a" account going to the parents, so like thkm51a was supposed to be your parents and then the accounts ending in "b" or "c" or whatever were for the kids. Except my mom didn't know poo poo about computers so I ended up setting up the "a" account and then when I tried to check out some teenager chat area it wouldn't let me in because it assumed that I was some creepy old fart rather than the bored 14-year-old I was.
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May 17, 2014 17:15
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I still remember my Fidonet point number. 
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May 17, 2014 17:33
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Collateral Damage posted:I still remember my Fidonet point number. And yet, I could barely remember my phone number yesterday. I never call anyone or get calls so in a way my phone number is obsolete.
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May 17, 2014 17:36
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I almost remember my Geocities address /mesa/baja/3415 or something
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May 17, 2014 17:48
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My folks were sysadmins on Compuserv. Good times.
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May 17, 2014 17:48
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Lowen SoDium posted:Have any interesting stories or insights? Sierra was committed to TSN but they weren't making any money and there was alot of pressure to get profitable. When AT&T jumped in things immediately started to go into the crapper with development and support budgets getting chopped. The primary Sierra people were trying to get away from the project as quickly as possible and the support group became a sort of hot potato bouncing between Sierra, AT&T's people and the call center company. When AT&T finished their buyout the support group was quickly thinned out as if cutting our tiny staff would somehow make up for all the money they were bleeding. We were tagged for input on the new Cyberpark plan to keep INN competitive with the early internet based offerings but it was too little and too late. Saw some really cool concept art though! AOL was rumored to be buying the whole shebang and their advance people said that there would be a fresh injection of money and that we should all stay on so we could ride the New Wave of Prosperity. Thank god none of us believed it and all bailed out for other projects because AOL shut almost everything down as quickly as they could. It was a wild ride to do tech support for an online service during the transition from DOS to Windows 95, especially in an era where there were about a million different companies making PCs, various flavors of DOS, endless modem brands and initialization strings. It's where I cut my teeth in the I.T. world and even today I'm still using those skills when I'm doing phone support, although with remote access software it's a whole hell of alot easier.
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May 17, 2014 18:28
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All I know is that my dad at one point secured for me "batman@yahoo.com", but I never used it (being, like, six) and someone else has it now. My greatest shame.
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May 17, 2014 18:31
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DoctorWhat posted:All I know is that my dad at one point secured for me "batman@yahoo.com", but I never used it (being, like, six) and someone else has it now. I have the greatest email address: looking@goatse.cx
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May 17, 2014 18:52
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Phanatic posted:I used to dial into a BBS to play 4-person Doom deathmatch. I don't even remember what the software was called. It wasn't DWANGO. Hey I did the same thing on a local BBS. It was a software add on to the MajorBBS BBS system. (Possibly SirDOOM?) We used to be on a 16 line BBS and played the poo poo out of DOOM on there. Then, the BBS got MajorMUD, and everyone ended up doing that forever.
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May 17, 2014 18:58
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GreenNight posted:I used to be on Kali all the drat time back in 94/95 playing Duke 3D. Which was released in 1996, so no you don't.
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May 17, 2014 19:17
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