32 Years Ago on a Commodore 64
Does that beauty look familiar to any of you? Well it does to me, 32 years ago at age 13, I first went online on my Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem. Little did I know at the time, I was taking part in something that would change the world forever!
On my C64, my friend showed me how to log onto local bulletin board systems, also known as a BBS, it was primitive, text only, and you got color text on some boards if you were lucky! We were able to post messages, chat with the SysOp, and download software, whoever offered it on their board, and we were loving every minute of it. BBS' were pretty much underground and not too many people knew about them unless you were into computers bigtime, as most people were into the new Nintendo Entertainment System that just came out at the time.
I loved BBSing so much that I started my own BBS which got very popular, and when I was able to afford it from working my paper route, I bought a 1200 baud modem, and the first ever 3.5 floppy drive for Commodore, the 1581 it was called, and I had a whopping 1 Meg online just for downloads, and at the time, that was awesome.
During my early teenage years as I was running my board, a new national online service called Quantum Link, aka Q-Link hit the scene online, and it was all text, chat rooms galore, and message bases everywhere, it was unbelieveable how so many people from all over the country can be connected at once to chat, it got so popular, that over time, Q-Link transformed into what we call America Online today, or AOL.
There was no Internet access offered anywhere yet, I have heard about the internet in the 90's from reading about it and then finally in the early-mid 90's if I remember right, I was able to get TEXT ONLY Internet access and used a web browser called LYNX.
The World Wide Web started gaining popularity very quickly, and then they introduced graphics on the Web, this being now accessed with a PC, I had a lightning fast 486 PC at the time, then things started to get faster online, webcams came into play to use in chatrooms, and then one day the MP3 file hit the scene and people were amazed at how incredible they sounded, and a complete song at that!
After the MP3 file came about, the Internet just took off so much, the world was never the same after that. Things just got better and faster, online shopping came into play, online radio stations, anything you can think of more or less found a way onto the Internet.
Ok so why am I looking back on the "old days"? Probably because of alot of good memories growing up, and also appreciating the fact I got to be a part of it all firsthand as well. It also makes me now realize that me running and operating a BBS at age 14, was the absolute perfect early training in my life for creating and running a website, I was in training mode back then 31 years ago and didn't even know it!
So here it is, 32 years later after first getting online with my old Commodore 64, and now, building a website via Wealthy Affiliate and loving every minute of it! Running a website now, I feel like that 14 year old kid again running my BBS in my parents' basement on one dial-up line back in 1987. Wealthy Affiliate has been a godsend to me and I am very grateful for finding this amazing website and community online. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
And thank you for reading, I would love to hear anyone's comments about the good old days of going online on a Commodore 64. Magical time for sure!
Mike
Recent Comments
1
Commodore 64.... harumph.... TRS80 programming for me (but then again, I'm 10 years older than you are). I got my first email account on ARPAnet back in 1981. Used to be a guide on AOL in the early days ($10/hr prime time access anyone?)