Early internet beginnings

[michaelrr1]

The below post was on a closed thread, so I'll start a new one about this part of the discussion.

This had me wondering if anyone else remembers the VAX at ISU in the early 90's. It was like a more primitive form of internet chats. I know the VAX could be used to chat with other students at ISU, but I can't remember if it also allowed worldwide chat. I know worldwide was also available, but can't remember if it was also a part of VAX or something else you had to sign on to. As I think about this, perhaps that was IRC.

It all seemed like such a wild thing when it was first starting up.

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Psyclone Re: CycloneReport.com shuts down free boards.... - Today, 09:45 PM



I don't remember the exact details, but Lynx or Links (forgot the spelling) was executed on the KU system. I think you had to FTP to the KU computer to login. Once logged in I think you had to run the program, then send DOS-like commands to navigate in a very crude and blind manner. Sportsline was an early site that I used to frequent, long before CBS bought it. The way I discovered how to do this was amazing in itself, and learning to navigate without being able to save any locations or ******* was only something a glutton for punishment would put themselves through.

I've tried to pinpoint just how long I've been "surfing" the Internet, but don't have a lot of mileposts. I know it was long before almost anyone in public life had heard of the Internet or the world wide web as it was called in those days. I remember pulling up stats from the Hoiberg/Michalik/Meyer era which was early 90's, but that doesn't seem that long ago. One point of reference is Mosaic which came along later (1993) and opened up a whole new world. It was unimaginable at the time how revolutionary that program was.

After writing the above, I looked up Links and Linx in Wikipedia to try to recall the correct spelling. Both spellings are listed, but the fact that Wiki says Linx was developed by KU may explain the reason I had to go to a KU computer to execute it. I never knew that connection to KU. Wiki says it was developed in 1992 which may have finally nailed down how long I've been surfing. Linx in 92 and Mosaic in 93 pretty much nails that down to 1992. Sure seems like it has been longer than 14 years. Netscape didn't come around until 1994 and the first "inferior" version of Internet Explorer in 1995.

With Linx there were no graphics. You could highlight and download graphical images, but that took a long time over a modem. Still it was a treat to do that once and a while, if you could stand to wait many, many minutes.

It was probably after Mosaic or later came out that I first found a sports forum and signed up. I think it was hosted in Texas somewhere. It seems it slightly pre-dated the Big 12, which was formed in 1994 and started competing in 1996. On that first forum, I tried the username Cyclone but one other Cyclone fan had found that place before me. So quickly I wanted a name that sounded like Cyclone and came up with Psyclone and it's stuck with me though many boards. I'm guessing the timeframe was 1995. In the early days there were many short-lived boards. I think it was the Fans Only board that really started a Cyclone community when the host from California came to tailgate with us for the TCU game. A game we lost, which was probably a bad omen for that site. That year was 1998. By then the Internet had been exposed to a large portion of the public. It wasn't limited to Geeks any more.

Sorry for my ramble, but I'm saving this so I have a record of my beginnings on the Internet. I wish I could locate that first sports forum.

[cyclonekj]

This had me wondering if anyone else remembers the VAX at ISU in the early 90's. It was like a more primitive form of internet chats. I know the VAX could be used to chat with other students at ISU, but I can't remember if it also allowed worldwide chat. I know worldwide was also available, but can't remember if it was also a part of VAX or something else you had to sign on to. As I think about this, perhaps that was IRC.

It all seemed like such a wild thing when it was first starting up.

I'm old enough to remember VAX and geeky enough to have used it-- barely. As someone outside of the computer science program, it was mainly a curiousity to me.

[C.John]

Anyone remember playing MUD games on the old VAX system. Muliti-User Domain games? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD I blame VAX for my present internet addiction.

[cyclonekj]

Anyone remember playing MUD games on the old VAX system. Muliti-User Domain games? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD I blame VAX for my present internet addiction.

I managed to avoid that time-waster (in favor of TV, sports, and drinking), but there were always dozens of gamers in every lab when I needed a terminal to work on a FORTRAN program that was due the next day. Some yelling at their work stations about the game. Crazy! Yelling about programming in FORTRAN makes perfect sense, though. Yuck!

[monkeybrow]

is anyone else contribute to Wikipedia?...I can be found there under monkeybrow

[C.John]

I managed to avoid that time-waster (in favor of TV, sports, and drinking), but there were always dozens of gamers in every lab when I needed a terminal to work on a FORTRAN program that was due the next day. Some yelling at their work stations about the game. Crazy! Yelling about programming in FORTRAN makes perfect sense, though. Yuck!

For about a month my Freshman year, I swear that half of my entire floor was playing those things...I think I may have spent a few hours trying to fit in with them but I soon gave up and went back to spending my nights at the REC playing b-ball. I agree with the labs always being full on Thursday and Friday nights, and the ruckus that would result.

[Balls]

Yep. I remember that. I bought a one piece PC at an ISU auction for like $10 that we hooked up. It had no memory but allowed us to chat. No graphics, just green screens. We upgraded the following year with a $2000 PC that today would cost pennies.