Break Into Chat

Break Into Chat

Josh Renaud’s blog about BBS history, retro computing and technology reminiscences.

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 6: Legacy

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 6: Legacy

    This is the sixth part of a multi-part series. The Instant Graphics and Sound format reached its zenith in September 1991 when artist Steve Turnbull published two psychedelic animations on a messageboard on the CrossNet network for Atari ST bulletin boards. Both were built around large triangles: a pyramid in one, a volcano in the…

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 5: Point and click

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 5: Point and click

    This is the fifth part of a multi-part series. Thirty hours into his “world tour,” Jon Clarke was discombobulated. His business trip had begun on July 19, 1991, with a scary false alarm: during takeoff from his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, the oxygen masks had suddenly deployed. He spent much of the rest of…

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 4: The artist and the community

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 4: The artist and the community

    This is the fourth part of a multi-part series. Steve Turnbull’s world couldn’t have been more different from that of Larry Mears, creator of “Instant Graphics and Sound.” Mears was a shipping clerk in the Deep South. Turnbull worked in showbiz and lived in sunny Laguna Beach, California, in a yellow beach cottage with turqouise…

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 3: The adventure begins

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 3: The adventure begins

    This is the third part of a multi-part series. User groups were the lifeblood of any Atari community, bringing together hobbyists to have fun and help each other. Consider ST-JAUG, the “ST Jacksonville Atari Users Group,” a computer club full of active-duty and retired military in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. On May 21, 1988, many…

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 2: Larry Mears

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 2: Larry Mears

    This is the second part of a multi-part series. Larry Mears prided himself on living in “Rocket City” — Huntsville, Alabama, the home of the Marshall Space Flight Center — but lamented that his high-tech town had no Atari dealers. Mears was an Atarian from way back. Excited by the promise of home computers, he…

  • Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 1: Introduction

    Instant Graphics and Sound, Part 1: Introduction

    This is the first part of a multi-part series. “My God, what a fantastic program you’ve written! It’s astounding! I’m very, VERY impressed! This will change BBSing in the Atari world forever.” These words, written in February 1990, kicked off a gushing fan letter — the kind of feedback every hobbyist software developer dreams of…

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