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Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

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Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#51

Post by Jemaclus »

throw0101d wrote: post #25

I also remember using the BlueWave offline mail reader: * https://en.everybodywiki.com/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) As well as the QWK and SOUP file formats (the latter when I started on Usenet as well): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070947/http://combee.tec... And Tradewars 2002 'door game': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars * https://breakintochat.com/wi…

Legend of the Red Dragon (LoRD), Solar Realms Elite and Barren Realms Elite, and Tradewars were the best.

When I want to learn a new programming language, I always try to recreate Tradewars in it as a language. I know Tradewars like the back of my hand, so it allows me to focus on the nuances of the language while I build it. Such a fun project. The only thing I never quite figured out were the economics mechanics (it technically works, but it's a bit more predictable than TW2002 has in practice) and the Big Bang algorithm (I came up with my own, it's fine, but it doesn't have quite the same feel to it).

Less often, I'll try to create SRE/BRE, which, again is very fun but hard to reverse engineer. Amit (creator) lost the source code years ago, but wrote up some notes here: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/Articles/SRE-Desi...

Funny, I just googled SRE/BRE to find the notes, and my last comment about it on HN was one of the top Google results... It's truly a lost art!

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#52

Post by qsort »

3form wrote: post #17
qsort wrote: post #14

It became famous in Italy even among non-techies because it was involved in a large scale police operation in 1494 dubbed the "Fidonet crackdown". https://www.wired.com/1994/08/hacker-crackdown-italian-style...

>in 1494 Boy, I suspected it might have been before my time, but not that much!

it's a typo, but you've gotta admit Lorenzo il Magnifico on a 90s BBS dealing with political scandal in a steampunk Florence is a sick premise for a novel.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#53

Post by roryirvine »

throw0101d wrote: post #25

I also remember using the BlueWave offline mail reader: * https://en.everybodywiki.com/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) As well as the QWK and SOUP file formats (the latter when I started on Usenet as well): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070947/http://combee.tec... And Tradewars 2002 'door game': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars * https://breakintochat.com/wi…

BlueWave had that annoying "Ride the BlueWave!" default tagline, though. It might have been the progenitor of the plague of "Sent from my Blackberry/iphone" spamminess a few decades later...

Becoming a point (or even a private node) was the more hardcore option - running a mailer and tosser to exchange bundles of mail with your upstream node using protocols like WaZoo and the gloriously-named YooHoo/2U2.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#54

Post by liveoneggs »

Jemaclus wrote: post #51
throw0101d wrote: post #25

I also remember using the BlueWave offline mail reader: * https://en.everybodywiki.com/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) As well as the QWK and SOUP file formats (the latter when I started on Usenet as well): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070947/http://combee.tec... And Tradewars 2002 'door game': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars * https://breakintochat.com/wi…

Legend of the Red Dragon (LoRD), Solar Realms Elite and Barren Realms Elite, and Tradewars were the best. When I want to learn a new programming language, I always try to recreate Tradewars in it as a language. I know Tradewars like the back of my hand, so it allows me to focus on the nuances of the language while I build it. Such a fun project. The only thing I never quite figured out were the economics mechanics (i…

I loved BRE and LoRD so much. I would dial into like five BBS to play my turns every day.

My first close friend group from high school were actually from BBS Meetups more than school buds. When we found a crossover it was really weird!

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#55

Post by roryirvine »

bluGill wrote: post #26
david_iqlabs wrote: post #16

[flagged]

One thing I miss about HN type forums is the "here is what you haven't read yet". When an article has 100 comments and I've already read 75 it is rarely worth my time wading through to see the new ones. Even though I know from experience that writing a good insightful comment takes a lot of time. Most of what I'm missing will not be very insightful, but I'm sure I'm missing some of the most insightful comments. It al…

lwn.net does that well, highlighting unread comments as a perk for higher-tier subscribers. I wish it was a more-widespread practice.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#56

Post by nickdothutton »

Given the high cost of professional textbooks and my modest means as a youngster, FidoNet and BBS provided me with access to a wealth of knowledge, software, and friendly expertise. Sometimes the first dreams of something new are the most vivid.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#57

Post by throw0101d »

roryirvine wrote: post #53
throw0101d wrote: post #25

I also remember using the BlueWave offline mail reader: * https://en.everybodywiki.com/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) As well as the QWK and SOUP file formats (the latter when I started on Usenet as well): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070947/http://combee.tec... And Tradewars 2002 'door game': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars * https://breakintochat.com/wi…

BlueWave had that annoying "Ride the BlueWave!" default tagline, though. It might have been the progenitor of the plague of "Sent from my Blackberry/iphone" spamminess a few decades later... Becoming a point (or even a private node) was the more hardcore option - running a mailer and tosser to exchange bundles of mail with your upstream node using protocols like WaZoo and the gloriously-named YooHoo/2U2.

I was a point in Net250 for a while. I was a private node on another network (whose name currently escapes me).

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#58

Post by Jemaclus »

liveoneggs wrote: post #54
Jemaclus wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legend of the Red Dragon (LoRD), Solar Realms Elite and Barren Realms Elite, and Tradewars were the best. When I want to learn a new programming language, I always try to recreate Tradewars in it as a language. I know Tradewars like the back of my hand, so it allows me to focus on the nuances of the language while I build it. Such a fun project. The only thing I never quite figured out were the economics mechanics (i…

I loved BRE and LoRD so much. I would dial into like five BBS to play my turns every day. My first close friend group from high school were actually from BBS Meetups more than school buds. When we found a crossover it was really weird!

Same!

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#59

Post by blast »

tclancy wrote: post #37
andsoitis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible. Their HN profile claims they’re Ray Ozzie, which I find hard to believe. https://keybase.io/rozzie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ozzie

Their account that has been posting for over 15 years and has made numerous comments with real insight into the times under discussion? I know it's necessary to have a healthy bit of skepticism when being on the Internet but I think we could agree this is one of the weirdest, longest, dumbest cons in the history of confidence games if this is not Ray Ozzie. HN has a fairly wide group of "famous" contributors like Woz…

When did Woz post here? I'd love to see that.
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