Break Into Chat
Josh Renaud’s blog about BBS history, retro computing and technology reminiscences.
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Fidonet archive update
A couple updates with regard to the 300,000 FidoNet messages I archived. First, I have added my FidoNet message cache as a new Break Into Chat “Special Collection” (similar to the existing AtasciiTube, Door World Magazine, and BBS podcasts collections). I have included a lot supplemental material that adds context; as well as a Python…
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Gary Martin, creator of “TradeWars 2002”
Gary Martin created TradeWars 2002, “the granddaddy of all BBS games” which has been played by tens of thousands of enthusiasts around the world. In this interview, Martin discusses rocking the University of Kansas campus as a DJ, founding Martech Software, and running one of the biggest bulletin board systems. He also describes two tantalizing…
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Archiving 300,000 Fidonet messages
In 2015, I began looking for archives of networked BBS messageboards, hoping to find contemporary discussions of BBS door games from the 1990s. The best source I found was the fidonet.ozzmosis.com archive. The Ozzmosis archive is awesome — and it’s still active, archiving any new messages posted to Fidonet. (yes, Fidonet still exists!) But I…
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Using high res on my Atari ST with the CosmosEx and a wire
Throughout my Atari ST-owning life, I have only ever owned Atari’s color monitor, the SC1224. It can display two of the ST’s video modes: low resolution (320×200, 16 colors) and medium resolution (640×200, 4 colors). The Atari also had a 640×400 high resolution mode, but it required a different monochrome monitor. I never had a…
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Modding an iPod 3G to use a CompactFlash card
This year my family was planning to take a trip to South America. As we prepared, I was struck by the idea of fixing up my old iPod 3G so that the kids could use it to listen to music while we traveled. I’m talking about my 15-year old touch-wheel iPod 3G. The battery has…
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New ANSImation: Star Trek: The Trouble With The Rangifer Tarandus
In December, I created a new ANSI animation for the holidays called “Star Trek: The Trouble With The Rangifer Tarandus”, which was released in Blocktronics’ “Darker Image #2” artpack. Here’s a video version of the ANSImation: But (as always), the best way to view this is to use SyncTerm to connect to my BBS, Guardian…
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