4 ms·

Setting up and running the MAME emulation of the Minitel 2

52 points by jgrahamc 5y ago

jgrahamc 5y ago
Must be a slow Saturday if this is near the top of HN. But if you are interested in hacking the old French Minitel, you may enjoy my other two posts: Voiding the warranty on a 1993 Minitel 2 to run arbitrary firmware https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/voiding-warranty-on-1993-minitel-2-to.html https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/voiding-warranty-on-1993-minite... Using a Minitel 1B as a serial terminal https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/using-minitel-1b-as-serial-terminal.html https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/using-minitel-1b-as-serial-term...
- werber 5y ago
  I have pondered buying a Minitel at many a French flea market, this might turn that pondering into purchase, thank you!
  - JPLeRouzic 5y ago
    https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=minitel https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=minitel
    - werber 5y ago
      Funny story, well, funny to me anyways. I was living in Paris and dead broke after college. I had a steady cam system to sell, and obviously, I put it on leboncoin and went to deliver it near the Bastille. I went into the apartment with a dear friend, and as we sat down to do the sale, the purchaser pulled out a gun on me and asked if we could lower the price. I laughed, out of panic, and said something in French to the effect of, "Bitch, I'm from Detroit", I then realized, the gun was in fact a toy, and the purchaser relented. I gave them a 10 euro discount, and they made us both a nice proper pastis and we all eventually had a laugh. I haven't used the website since.
      - quickthrowman 5y ago
        “Bitch, I’m from Detroit” is the best possible response to that, even if they had a real gun they would’ve (or should’ve) relented after that response, lol.
        werber 5y ago
        It worked, another funny story, the last time I had a gun pulled on me it was a very real shot gun, in a very sketchy part of Detroit. My response, "Thank god the first time I had a gun pulled on me in Detroit was by someone Asian, I love representation and defying sterotypes!". They ended up buying me a schwarma and we had a laugh about it.
        aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
        Go on
        zxcvbn4038 5y ago
        Haha, reminds me of Casa Blanca, “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to invade.”
werber 5y ago
This is massively tangential, but stick with me. The book King Kong Theory (King Kong Théorie en francés), has a really interesting chapter about Minitel and how people were using it in the 1980s for prostitution. It's a small part of an amazing feminist text, and as a lifelong Francophile and Minitel fan it was eye opening. I highly suggest the book to anyone.
- touggourt 5y ago
  This book is a must read. It is a very good and short intro to must advanced feminist books. Above all, one can't read it without rethinking about ethics. Ethics was invented by men, not women.
  - werber 5y ago
    I had a john explain ethics to me when I was a 16 year old prostitute. Ethics is doing the right thing with information, whereas morality is doing what you're told. Like, killing a baby is morally wrong, but if you had a time machine it might be ethical to go back and shoot baby Hitler (terrible example). He ended up coming to my rescue when I was arrested a year or two later, and I got off with no record after breaking into an abandoned historical building, which is a whole other story. He died not long after in what appeared to be suicide. But that explanation has had an impact on me, I don't think I'm a moral person, I'm an ethical person. I take what information I have, for instance, King Kong Theory, and apply it to the choices I make in life.
    - touggourt 5y ago
      Yes morality is the right word, not ethic. King Kong Theory force its readers to rethink accepted morality. Are you saying that you are not a moral person because morality is defined by the society ? or because you feel guilty, you don't see yourself as a "good" person ? (Of course I ask because of KKT)
      - werber 5y ago
        This is horribly ironic. I was violently assaulted after writing the original comment, and raped. This time I fought back, I don't understand the universe. The first time I was violently raped it was 2007 and I was 17, it was an NYPD officer, and I screamed a bit, but eventually just went numb and let it happen. Saturday night I was raped by a cab driver, and I fought for my fucking life and he did not cum. I feel no guilt for beating the fuck out of him, I am not a moral person, because I am an ethical person. I do what is right in that situation. And right now, I am in a ton of pain, but I do not feel guilty for fighting back, I feel proud and strong. Rape is usually talked about as a women's issue (if you've read KKT,this is a major point), but I am a man, and I have been raped more times than I can count, and I fucking want to talk about it, and I want to fight it. And I think it's perfectly ethical to kill someone who is trying to rape you, and you should feel no guilt.
robotburrito 5y ago
I remember a TV show from the 90s that discussed minitel called Beyond 2000. As a young kid I loved that show as they always covered cool technology at the time.
azinman2 5y ago
I misread that title and thought it was running MAME ON a Minitel 2. That would be quite a feat!

52 points by jgrahamc 5y ago

Must be a slow Saturday if this is near the top of HN. But if you are interested in hacking the old French Minitel, you may enjoy my other two posts: Voiding the warranty on a 1993 Minitel 2 to run arbitrary firmware https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/voiding-warranty-on-1993-minitel-2-to.html https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/voiding-warranty-on-1993-minite... Using a Minitel 1B as a serial terminal https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/using-minitel-1b-as-serial-terminal.html https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/using-minitel-1b-as-serial-term...

werber 5y ago
I have pondered buying a Minitel at many a French flea market, this might turn that pondering into purchase, thank you!
- JPLeRouzic 5y ago
  https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=minitel https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=minitel
  - werber 5y ago
    Funny story, well, funny to me anyways. I was living in Paris and dead broke after college. I had a steady cam system to sell, and obviously, I put it on leboncoin and went to deliver it near the Bastille. I went into the apartment with a dear friend, and as we sat down to do the sale, the purchaser pulled out a gun on me and asked if we could lower the price. I laughed, out of panic, and said something in French to the effect of, "Bitch, I'm from Detroit", I then realized, the gun was in fact a toy, and the purchaser relented. I gave them a 10 euro discount, and they made us both a nice proper pastis and we all eventually had a laugh. I haven't used the website since.
    - quickthrowman 5y ago
      “Bitch, I’m from Detroit” is the best possible response to that, even if they had a real gun they would’ve (or should’ve) relented after that response, lol.
      - werber 5y ago
        It worked, another funny story, the last time I had a gun pulled on me it was a very real shot gun, in a very sketchy part of Detroit. My response, "Thank god the first time I had a gun pulled on me in Detroit was by someone Asian, I love representation and defying sterotypes!". They ended up buying me a schwarma and we had a laugh about it.
        aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
        Go on
      - zxcvbn4038 5y ago
        Haha, reminds me of Casa Blanca, “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to invade.”

werber 5y ago

This is massively tangential, but stick with me. The book King Kong Theory (King Kong Théorie en francés), has a really interesting chapter about Minitel and how people were using it in the 1980s for prostitution. It's a small part of an amazing feminist text, and as a lifelong Francophile and Minitel fan it was eye opening. I highly suggest the book to anyone.

touggourt 5y ago
This book is a must read. It is a very good and short intro to must advanced feminist books. Above all, one can't read it without rethinking about ethics. Ethics was invented by men, not women.
- werber 5y ago
  I had a john explain ethics to me when I was a 16 year old prostitute. Ethics is doing the right thing with information, whereas morality is doing what you're told. Like, killing a baby is morally wrong, but if you had a time machine it might be ethical to go back and shoot baby Hitler (terrible example). He ended up coming to my rescue when I was arrested a year or two later, and I got off with no record after breaking into an abandoned historical building, which is a whole other story. He died not long after in what appeared to be suicide. But that explanation has had an impact on me, I don't think I'm a moral person, I'm an ethical person. I take what information I have, for instance, King Kong Theory, and apply it to the choices I make in life.
  - touggourt 5y ago
    Yes morality is the right word, not ethic. King Kong Theory force its readers to rethink accepted morality. Are you saying that you are not a moral person because morality is defined by the society ? or because you feel guilty, you don't see yourself as a "good" person ? (Of course I ask because of KKT)
    - werber 5y ago
      This is horribly ironic. I was violently assaulted after writing the original comment, and raped. This time I fought back, I don't understand the universe. The first time I was violently raped it was 2007 and I was 17, it was an NYPD officer, and I screamed a bit, but eventually just went numb and let it happen. Saturday night I was raped by a cab driver, and I fought for my fucking life and he did not cum. I feel no guilt for beating the fuck out of him, I am not a moral person, because I am an ethical person. I do what is right in that situation. And right now, I am in a ton of pain, but I do not feel guilty for fighting back, I feel proud and strong. Rape is usually talked about as a women's issue (if you've read KKT,this is a major point), but I am a man, and I have been raped more times than I can count, and I fucking want to talk about it, and I want to fight it. And I think it's perfectly ethical to kill someone who is trying to rape you, and you should feel no guilt.

robotburrito 5y ago

I remember a TV show from the 90s that discussed minitel called Beyond 2000. As a young kid I loved that show as they always covered cool technology at the time.

azinman2 5y ago

I misread that title and thought it was running MAME ON a Minitel 2. That would be quite a feat!