In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio • Hacker News Board

Re: In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

#151

Post by BrandoElFollito » Sat, Apr 05, 2025, 10:07 PM UTC

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #59

kragen wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBSes postdated internets (at the time often "catenets"), though only by a few years. They were just open to more people for a long time.

BBS had been available from late 70's - initially using acoustic couplers rather than modems. The internet (as distinct from ARPANET) wasn't created until early 80's, and what most people today think of as the internet - the WWW - wasn't publicly available until the early 90's.

I browsed the first web site (https://line-mode.cern.ch/www/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html) while at CERN in 1992.

I found it cool and then moved to something else. There are times I wonder why I was not more excited and I think it was because I could not see the potential if it goes worldwide. It did not seem "revolutionary" compared to other things you could see in terminals.

Re: In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

#152

Post by NikkiA » Sun, Apr 06, 2025, 1:07 AM UTC

metalman wrote: post #12

there was "live streaming" of concerts over special phone lines in the early/mid 1960's and sending photos over a dot matrix phone line system in the late 1940's first "drone" flight of an unmaned aircraft, steered by radio control was in the late 19teens old technical books and album covers, reveal the oddest stuff... so we are kind of living in an "alternate history" where everything that could of happened, actualy…

> and sending photos over a dot matrix phone line system in the late 1940's

Facsimile was actually invented in the 1840s to transmit images over telegraph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax

Re: In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

#153

Post by NikkiA » Sun, Apr 06, 2025, 1:07 AM UTC

Joeboy wrote: post #96

4ndrewl wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk thank you. My money is still on it being the Thompson Twins though - they were top 10 regulars and household names at the time. :)

My money says Frank Sidebottom (Chris Sievey's alter ego) probably has more cultural currency than The Thompson Twins in 202x. But obviously idk what they're thinking of.

I dunno, all of the Thompson twins are still alive, afaik...