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Prestel was a Viewdata service over dialup modem (usually V.23 1200/75 bps ones). The screen rendering looks a lot like Teletext but fundamentally this is compl
by NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
Prestel was a Viewdata service over dialup modem (usually V.23 1200/75 bps ones). The screen rendering looks a lot like Teletext but fundamentally this is completely different technology.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoI recall a couple of things from 34 years ago: - If you used Micronet (a part within the broader Prestel system) between midnight and 8am, you weren't charged for the phone call [I guess this was easy to implement because BT ran both Prestel/Micronet and the phone system) - The phone number for 'The Gnome at Home' BBS was 888-8894 - A kind person I met on a BBS sent me a cassette in the mail that had software to upload data at 1200 baud (half duplex, as the modem couldn't do 1200/1200).
- NovemberWhiskey 4y agoI remember running up a bill for £27 playing Shades on Micronet; seemed like a lot of money back then.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoIt was a lot of money!
- petercooper 4y agoAha! I was only 5-6 years old, so my memory is probably fuzzy :-) I do remember it had a Teletext box like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro_expansion_unit#/media/File:BBC_Teletext_Adapter.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro_expansion_unit#/medi... .. I also recall he would issue commands by dialling up but then download software that came over the air. I did some Googling and it may not have been Prestel (which he did also use) but something called "Telesoftware" – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesoftware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesoftware – which involved software being distributed over Ceefax.