Did you use pre-internet online services like CompuServe or Quantum Link? How was your experience? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by connect@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Was it fascinating? Did it feel like the amazing future? Were you all too aware of the mounting cost relative to what you were actually doing?

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I first got online with CompuServe when I was just 7 (first online in 1992, just 1 year after the start of the World Wide Web going public) I was a weird kid that loved reading, and I had been reading my parents encyclopedia Britannica collection and found the entry for "the internet" and was instantly enamored with the idea and begged my dad to get it. I spent a lot of time in chat rooms, but I also played the Neverwinter Nights MUD.

It was great, to me being a kid. I'm sure it wasn't so great for my dad who had to pay for it. That shit was expensive back in the day! You had to pay the subscription itself and per minute on the phone, and the NWN game was a separate subscription! I was fucking spoiled when I look back at what I had and how much my parents had to have been paying for it all. 😭

I am still very much in love with the internet. Especially when it comes to chatting and gaming 😎

[-] connect@programming.dev 1 points 3 months ago

Was your family reasonably well-to-do?

I was half-expecting you to say they got the first bill and hit the roof because no one had really grasped what was going on.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 3 points 3 months ago

My dad was a software engineer at a silicon wafer manufacturing company back then.

this post was submitted on 31 May 2024

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