CONNECT
300 baud
Press Return?
Whoa! Is it 1984? I am from the generation of people that came before the Internet. It was an uncanny time ruled by analog modems and home-made serial cables. To us, being “online” was literally being on a phone line. US Robotics meant as much to people as Cisco does today. Social networks were barely even conceivable on the horizon of society. In my home town of Saint Louis, Missouri the geeks needed a way to find each other.
Dial-up BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) were the only real way to reach out and meet new people. And while you could download files, the excruciating time spent waiting usually made you think twice. Instead, people were truly focused on reaching out and sharing their interests with like-minded people. There were even chat-only based systems like CompuChat providing endless nights of entertainment.
One of my favorite systems back then was MTABBS (Mike’s Totally Awesome Bulletin Board System). It ran on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III and required less than 128k of memory! This marvelous piece of software really pushed the limits and ran such memorable places as Rolla Link in Exile, The Junk Drawer, and many more. The menus and messages were very simple and elegant. No wasted space for ANSI graphics or color codes. You could get in, scan for new messages and get back off very quickly thanks to clear logic and uncluttered navigation.
While many people believe that terminal-based methods of communication are of a dying breed, I like to think that there is still some hope. It may not support a media-rich experience as today’s powerful world wide web can offer. But with a little help, it can still reach out and provide services for today’s users.
It is my quest to bring the old-school way of life back to the world. Cafe Chaos will attempt to breathe life into the tools that brought my friends together originally. From emulating the MTABBS system to multi-line chatting reminiscent of CompuChat, I will do my best to bring these delightful and unique elements of decades ago to the modern world!
Stay tuned,
-Captain Chaos