Break Into Chat

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

  • Kevin MacFarland, creator of “Assassin”

    Kevin MacFarland, creator of “Assassin”

    From writing tic-tac-toe in BASIC as kid to creating the classic BBS door game “Assassin,” computer engineer Kevin MacFarland remembers his past life as the “C Monster.”

  • Assassin memories

    Assassin memories

    A man cloaked in black approaches thee … “I see thou art new in these parts. Have ye come to join?” he asks. “Yes,” I answer. I watch as the man chants. Slowly the individual words flash on my screen: “Creare” … “an” … “vita” … “Irata!” And so another assassin is born.

  • More VT-52 demos

    More VT-52 demos

    Ever since I was made aware of the “Beat Nick Part 2” demo, I’ve been eager to find other Atari ST demos and animations that make use of the Atari’s VT52 text mode. This week I found three more. I made some video captures of these demos as they appeared in the Atari ST emulator…

  • Bolivia vacation: Photo and video editing choices

    Bolivia vacation: Photo and video editing choices

    For 10 years my family has traveled to Bolivia regularly to see family and friends. Last month we returned for a three-week vacation. As our family has grown, so has the expense of the flights. Consequently the interval between trips has increased as well. Our previous trip was in 2010. Planning for the 2013 trip,…

  • Visualizing 314: The directories, the data, and the caveats

    Visualizing 314: The directories, the data, and the caveats

    This is the final part of a three-part series. In this post I’m going to discuss Fire Escape’s BBS directory formats, the directory parser and the dataset; I’ll also give some caveats about this data.

  • Visualizing 314: The St. Louis scene in charts

    Visualizing 314: The St. Louis scene in charts

    This is the second part of a three-part series. It’s chart time! In this post you can explore several graphs that show facets of the St. Louis BBS scene.



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