Anyone remember Prestel & Micronet?

[guest5190]

It was a service operated by BT around late 80s early 90s and a kind of precursor to the modern Internet.

You paid a monthly subscription to BT, PLUS phone call charges to connect your 8bit computer to a Viewdata style bulletin board through a basic modem.

I even remember being charged 1p per email!

A great service, but the phone bills were massive!

[TL]

I remember it, but I never got to use it sadly.

Although I do remember using a super slow modem on the BBC Micro at school.

[zapiy]

Its a new one on me mate.. Interesting stuff.

[kapturerelease]

Remember uk mike doing a section on the on the retro gaming roundup podcast. Was very interesting.


Sent from The Monolith using Tapatalk.

[guest5190]

Further reading:

Prestel Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

Micronet Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronet_800

[Cryptic33]

I haven't looked at the links you posted so I can give an honest reply from memory.

I remember Prestel. More specifically, I remember computer clubs using bulletin boards (like bog standard forums today) and I saw this set up at a computer show. It was impressive at the time but I remember thinking it was a bit geeky.

Again, from memory, this feature was very well illustrated in the film War Games where a boy used a modem to connect to NORAD. The principle was the same.

[Carlos]

I think you will like this page.

http://www.retrocomputers.eu/2013/11/18/lets-take-a-look-at-viewdata/

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

No but in dullest fact of the day I followed that link and found out the Nottingham Building Society did the UK's first online banking service via Prestel.... Yeah

[guest5190]

I think you will like this page.

http://www.retrocomputers.eu/2013/11/18/lets-take-a-look-at-viewdata/

Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing.

[zapiy]

Nice one Carl..

[Carlos]

I wish it were that basic still. 

[TL]

[align=center:1f0q8vs4]Connect an Atari 800XL to a dial-up BBS in 2014! XM301 300 baud modem XE TERM LORD[/align:1f0q8vs4]

[Katzkatz]

Yep - I remember it, but sadly never got to use.  I seem to remember it being mentioned on the TV news.  It was in the pre-internet days - and also BBSs were all the range - that is if you had a modem and could afford the phone bill!   Not me - as I was only a youngster then.  Although I do remember my Dad having to use a modem and a computer for his Open University work one time.  It cost a fortune with the phone bill. 

Those old BBSs had graphics that looked like Teletext.  Does anyone remember CIX as well?  They were a commercial service and offered things like email and Usenet.  It got mentioned a lot in the 16 bit era(in the magazines). 

I do remember reading that one Sysop ran a BBS on an Amiga 500 with 1 Mb and 2 floppy drives(and modem of course).  I remember reading about that in the magazines at the time. 

I was always curious to try that out - but sadly not having a modem and I don't think that my parents would not be too pleased with hogging the phone line(let alone paying the bill). 

[dougtitchmarsh]

I remember the Micronet and Prestel ads in magazines, and even at one point considering using them, I never tried them but still find it interesting that it was possible to communicate over computers even back then.