The Internet History

There once was a time when Netscape ruled and corporations and advertisers had no idea what it was, this thing that was forming up (Small slow server so be patient) that became known as the Internet.


For millions of people around the globe, the Internet is a simple fact of life.

We take for granted the invisible network that enables us to communicate, navigate, investigate, flirt, shop, and play.

 Early on, this network-of-networks connected only select companies and university campuses.

Nowadays, it follows almost all of us into the most intimate areas of our lives. And yet, very few people know how the Internet became social.

Perhaps that’s because most histories of the Internet focus on technical innovations: packet switching, dynamic routing, addressing, and hypertext, for example.

But when anyone other than a network engineer talks about the Internet, he or she is rarely thinking about such things.

For most folks, the Internet is principally a medium through which we chat with friends, share pictures, read the news, and do our shopping.

Indeed, for those who’ve been online only for the last decade or so, the Internet is just social media’s plumbing—a vital infrastructure that we don’t think much about, except perhaps when it breaks down.

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/340587/the-forgotten-world-of-bbs-door-games

http://textfiles.com/

http://bbs.ninja/

Every so often I find a BBS still in operation over telnet, and log in to play Usurper.

 For those who didn't play it, Usurper was a D&D-style RPG that had a little more in it to do than the better known Legend Of the Red Dragon (LORD).

 A while back the source code for Usurper was released under GNU by the original author [dangarden.com].

 This also reminded me of an even more complicated game called Exitilus.

 According to at least one group, the code for this is lost to history, as it the original author of the game. [exitilus.com]