Break Into Chat

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

  • Seth Robinson talks LORD and Planets: TEOS with Matt Barton

    One of my favorite things since I started Break Into Chat has been interviewing BBS door game creators. So I really enjoyed watching Dr. Matt Barton of St. Cloud State University interview Seth Robinson. They talk about Robinson’s childhood, his favorite BBS door games, Legend of the Red Dragon, LORD II, and Planets: The Exploration…

  • One year of Break Into Chat

    One year of Break Into Chat

    Last week was a blur of activities starting with my tenth wedding anniversary, continuing through Thanksgiving, and culminating in Christmas tree hunting. Amid all the bustle, I almost forgot a milestone: Break Into Chat had its first birthday.

  • Happy birthday, Atari Jaguar

    Happy birthday, Atari Jaguar

    This week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the Atari Jaguar in San Francisco and New York City. Last year I wrote about Christmas 1993 when my parents surprised me and my brothers with an Atari Jaguar. Because the Jaguar wasn’t available nationwide yet, my parents teamed up with an uncle in California…

  • “On The Media” revisits a BBS “ghost town”

    As a journalist, I listen regularly to NPR’s On The Media program. Imagine my surprise and delight when a fellow journalist sent me a link to OTM’s TLDR podcast from yesterday in which one of the program’s producers revisits his old BBS stomping grounds. The board was M-net, a large chat system that’s still running…

  • Hollie Satterfield, creator of “Space Dynasty”

    Hollie Satterfield, creator of “Space Dynasty”

    What does it take to get published? How about a deranged TRS-80 Model I that has taken over a lunar colony? That did the trick for Hollie Satterfield in 1983, when 80 Micro magazine published his computer program “Attack of the TRS-80.” Afterward, he embarked on a career as a programmer analyst — and along…

  • Space Dynasty memories

    Space Dynasty memories

    They say first impressions are everything. That seems to have been true for teenage me when I tried Hollie Satterfield’s BBS door game “Space Dynasty” — and wrote it off. But first impressions are often wrong.



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