Break Into Chat
Josh Renaud’s blog about BBS history, retro computing and technology reminiscences.
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Kids drawing on computers, then and now
Today was “Parents get to watch dance class” day. In the afternoon my daughter Ludi and I went to see my oldest daughter, Jadzia. The “public” part of the class came at the end, so Ludi and I were waiting for a bit. During the downtime we played a few games on the iPad, and…
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Emulation is time travel
Some say time travel is impossible. But they are wrong. You don’t need Doc Brown and a DeLorean; all you need is an emulator. Lately I’ve been using DOSBox, an awesome cross-platform IBM PC emulator, to try some old BBS utilities from the 1990s.
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BBS door games + microtransactions = Zynga
It takes going back to BBS door games to make you realize that Zynga's whole empire is built on BBS door games with microtransactions. — Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) February 26, 2013
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Joel Bergen, creator of “Global War” and “Global Backgammon”
From paper tape to the BBS door game “Global War,” Joel Bergen discusses his history with computer programming.
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Global War memories
Though I had never played the board game RISK before, I discovered that I already knew, more or less, how to play. I had learned years earlier by playing a similar game for BBSes called “Global War” by Joel Bergen.
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Video: “The Joy of ASCII with Bob Ross”
This awesome new YouTube parody is like nostalgia squared. It imagines the late painter Bob Ross … if he had been an ANSI artist instead (though the video calls it “ASCII” art). If that whetted your appetite for more ANSI, then check out 8BitMUSH an intruigingly retro virtual world.
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