History: Old Computers and Prehistoric URI Message Boards

[Puck Frovidence]

I read Clive Sinclair passed away. Old computer people and retro game enthusiasts might recognize him as the man behind the UKs Sinclair computers in the 1980s, specifically the ZX81 which was sold in the US as the "Timex Sinclair" and the ZX Spectrum which was basically the British equivalent of the NES in terms of popularity for gaming.

Anyhoo it got me wondering if any of the older posters here had an equivalent American machine back in the day like a Commodore 64 or the like. Were there Rhody Basketball BBSes back in the 80s for microcomputer users? I'd be interested in hearing any info/stories from the time.

[SGreenwell]

I'm only 37, so maybe someone older can chime in, but... In my youth, we had an IBM PS/2 with a 2400 baud modem. Because we were in South County, practically the only local one was Drop A Line BBS in South Kingstown. (Back then, it still cost money to make long distance calls.) This was probably in the 1995 to 2000ish range, since the Internet basically killed BBSes. I think Drop A Line had like a dozen or so active users, and not a ton of sports fans. People mostly talked about computer stuff and video games. The same thing with Thanos BBS, which was based in Westerly. This site has a good list of 401-based BBS.

When it comes to actual URI sports discussion on the Internet... I don't think anything major comes before the URI Projo boards, which most of us stumbled upon in some form. That probably exists in some form on the Internet Wayback Machine. It's pretty on-brand for a 2000s era newspaper to have gotten a rush of users from that, and then, do nothing to retain them, and see them scatter to Scout and user-based message boards over time.

[Rhody74]

I started a BBS and then an Internet company on the 90s. Before that there was Compuserve, AOL and the kind. However the first URI basketball board I recall was the old ProJo board. Newspapers had no idea what to do online and the ProJo reached out to me (and other ISPs no doubt) to create partnerships with the ProJo as the front end. It never quote worked out and small ISPS like eventually were buried by Cox and the telcos.

Geez that was almost 30 years ago. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

[SGreenwell]

I started a BBS and then an Internet company on the 90s. Before that there was Compuserve, AOL and the kind. However the first URI basketball board I recall was the old ProJo board. Newspapers had no idea what to do online and the ProJo reached out to me (and other ISPs no doubt) to create partnerships with the ProJo as the front end. It never quote worked out and small ISPS like eventually were buried by Cox and the telcos.

Geez that was almost 30 years ago. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Ha, was it Netsense? I remember my mother getting that, after getting fed up with AOL. We had it for a couple years, before she got hired by URI, which provided free dial-up at the time.

[Rhody74]

I started a BBS and then an Internet company on the 90s. Before that there was Compuserve, AOL and the kind. However the first URI basketball board I recall was the old ProJo board. Newspapers had no idea what to do online and the ProJo reached out to me (and other ISPs no doubt) to create partnerships with the ProJo as the front end. It never quote worked out and small ISPS like eventually were buried by Cox and the telcos.

Geez that was almost 30 years ago. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Ha, was it Netsense? I remember my mother getting that, after getting fed up with AOL. We had it for a couple years, before she got hired by URI, which provided free dial-up at the time.

No, it was RIconneCT.

[Puck Frovidence]

This site has a good list of 401-based BBS.

Hey Greenwell, looking forward to the 2021 Sweeties breh.

But yeah I've searched that in the past but had only found one thing that sounded Rhody specifc: It was run by someone named "Jay Carter" in NK and was called "Ram Wasteland", although it could've just been talking about dead SIMM chips AFAIK. There do seem to have been a handful of sports-specific boards, although I don't know how much of a URI focus they would've had.

One thing I was surprised by is how many of those BBSes were listed as running in the mid and late 90s. I kind of thought the BBS heyday was earlier, like in the 80s. I always think of 90s internet discussions as having lived on early internet forums or usenet. I'm only a little younger than Steve, and our first computer that I remember was also an IBM 386 but I didn't really become aware of BBSes until later. We definitely also started out with a local ISP though.

Has anyone heard of "Ram Wasteland"? Also does anyone want to drop some science about the early days of the Projo board: when/how it was started, what it ran on, who was there, what the experience was like, etc? I'm sure it bores some people but I find this stuff really interesting.

[PeterRamTime]

This site has a good list of 401-based BBS.

Hey Greenwell, looking forward to the 2021 Sweeties breh.

But yeah I've searched that in the past but had only found one thing that sounded Rhody specifc: It was run by someone named "Jay Carter" in NK and was called "Ram Wasteland", although it could've just been talking about dead SIMM chips AFAIK. There do seem to have been a handful of sports-specific boards, although I don't know how much of a URI focus they would've had.

One thing I was surprised by is how many of those BBSes were listed as running in the mid and late 90s. I kind of thought the BBS heyday was earlier, like in the 80s. I always think of 90s internet discussions as having lived on early internet forums or usenet. I'm only a little younger than Steve, and our first computer that I remember was also an IBM 386 but I didn't really become aware of BBSes until later. We definitely also started out with a local ISP though.

Has anyone heard of "Ram Wasteland"? Also does anyone want to drop some science about the early days of the Projo board: when/how it was started, what it ran on, who was there, what the experience was like, etc? I'm sure it bores some people but I find this stuff really interesting.

Bump! Would be cool to hear about this!

[theblueram]

My early experience with internet was a friend started a company called Edgenet. Dial up service for Aquidneck Island. I believe he sold it to Tower Stream. Friends of mine worked for it and would sleep at his house to provide 24 hour service. I joined the Projo board I think in 2007-8, so not sure how it was started.

[ATPTourFan]

I had Edgenet, too! I'm 41 so I remember a world without a computer and certainly without internet.

When my parents upgraded the old Apple IIgs to a shiny new Mac Performa 575, it came with a 2400bps modem and an AOL install CD. This was my first online experience, and also where ATPTourFan@aol.com originated. My best friend's dad had gotten a new kind of "real" internet connection via Edgenet -- PPP dial-up via the BBS system. We would browse the web with Netscape Navigator outside the confines of AOL for the first time -- with a 56k modem. I had the atptourfan@edgenet.net email address.

While we had the direct PPP internet connection via Edgenet, I do remember experimenting with logging into the old BBS interface to see what was there. I learned what sysop meant. I tried loading some web pages with Lynx (that was a miserable experience which cemented my Netscape fandom).

We lived in Warwick which was one of the first communities in RI to have the old Dimension analog cable TV system rebuilt into a modern HFC (hybrid fiber-coax) network by Cox which enabled digital cable TV and cable modems for true always-on high speed internet. 5 Mbps was an amazing speed - just magic at the time.

I don't think I found the Projo board until 2004. I certainly remember the process of migrating off the Projo just weeks/days before the boards shut off without warning. Steve was instrumental in developing our escape plan!