4 ms·

That was such a mind blowing experience coming from a DOS background. It would split your terminal horizontally and you could see each other type in real time.

That was such a mind blowing experience coming from a DOS background. It would split your terminal horizontally and you could see each other type in real time. Before the days of SMS, and even before the days of instant messengers like ICQ and AIM, I taught the split-screen `talk` command to my girlfriend so we could chat while I was working. We've been married for 20 years now.

NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
"talk" was often bugged (and IIRC, used UDP) so it was soon updated by xtalk and then ytalk. ytalk was like the kitchen sink of talk, with a huge feature set and compatibility with everything that went before. Everyone had to get ytalk for sure.
- skykooler 4y ago
  I use ytalk on a VPS that me and a friend have ssh logins for. It's still a neat way of communicating that I don't think any modern chat apps do.
ww520 4y ago
The one program truly blew my mind at the time was Netrek - the first networked multi-player realtime graphical space fighting game. I've wasted so much time late into the nights playing the game in the lab instead of doing coursework. The admin came to the lab from time to time and said we're hogging the workstations with the game and banned the game during daytime.
- gwerbret 4y ago
  > The one program truly blew my mind at the time was Netrek - the first networked multi-player realtime graphical space fighting game. Anything like mtrek? It's still around [0], and even over telnet [1]. 0: https://mtrek.com https://mtrek.com 1: telnet://mtrek.com:1701
  - ww520 4y ago
    It's a fast paced multi-player space battle game with a top down graphic 2D view. It's like Command and Conquer, with each unit controlled by a different player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQkDhwo7qNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQkDhwo7qNQ
- BrandoElFollito 4y ago
  I remember ca. 2000 my best friend busting into my office, pushing me aside, logging in savagely to something and having a sight of relief. He managed to send back a fleet or something - it was a real time game where you needed to do stuff at the right time (after sometimes a few hours). I do not remember the name of the game but it was fashionable for some time (not sure if it was text based or not)
  - sdwr 4y ago
    Those games are still kicking around. Played Neptune's Pride a while back, would not recommend, seems designed to devour your waking (and what should be sleeping) life.
taneq 4y ago
Oh man, that brings it back! ytalk on the university student server was just about the first instant messaging system I used. My typing speed went way up after a few weeks.
DonHopkins 4y ago
Long before Unix talk, ITS (the Incompatible Timesharing System at the MIT AI Lab) had a program called UNTALK, written by a user named UNCOLA, that supported split screen text chat, back around 1992 or earlier. Incompatible Timesharing System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_Syste... Getting Started Computing at the Al Lab by Christopher C. Stacy. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY WORKING PAPER 235 7 September 1982: https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41180/AI_WP_235.pdf https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41180/AI_WP_2... >6.10.3. TALK >If you want to link to someone who is on another ITS machine, you can use the TALK program. The program is run by typing: >*:talk uname@host >To exit TALK terminating the conversation, the user who initiated TALK must type ^C. >This method of comlinking is less versatile than the backnext commands, and only works across ITS machines (not locally). >Another useful comlink program is UNTALK. UNTALK is similar to TALK but does not work across machines. However, on a display terminal, UNTALK splits the screen horizontally and allows the two people to type at the same time on their part of the screen. The "backnext commands" he referred to would actually let you not only perform a text chat link (albeit not split screen), but also take over another user's TTY, to type into and see the output of their DDT shell and programs. There was no security other than obscurity on ITS, and that feature of linking to and sharing another user's TTY was meant for collaboration, helping, and teaching people, and also initializing and configuring output-only serial devices like line printers. History of the Net is Important, by Keith F. Lynch: http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN8-1.pdf http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN8-1.pdf >[...] ITS stood for the Incompatible Time-sharing System, an obvious take-off on CTSS, the Compatible Time-Sharing System. (Just as Unix is a take-off on the earlier TENEX, TWENEX, and MULTICS.) >All four ITS machines also had UNTALK, a split-screen conferencing program similar to the later “talk” on Unix and PHONE on VMS. I was told it was written by a user whose ITS username was UNCOLA and who had committed suicide. I don’t know if it was the first program of that type, but it was the first I had seen. Even before that, ARPANET TIPs supported a low level way of text chatting (not split screen) called a "TIP to TIP Link" (documented on page 5-4 of the "Users Guide to the Terminal IMP") where each participant bounced their packets off of a port on some host, without actually logging in or going through the host. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13518273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13518273 Users Guide to the Terminal IMP (1975): https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_bbntipADA0eTerminalIMPAug75_2157363 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_bbntipADA0eTerminalIMP...
knorker 4y ago
I once talked to a somewhat famous hacker by logging in to an account he set up via SSH that spawned 'talk' as the shell. He didn't trust IRC and other chat systems. Is the end he got caught anyway due to sloppy opsec. Like many other hackers.

NoZebra120vClip 4y ago

"talk" was often bugged (and IIRC, used UDP) so it was soon updated by xtalk and then ytalk. ytalk was like the kitchen sink of talk, with a huge feature set and compatibility with everything that went before. Everyone had to get ytalk for sure.

skykooler 4y ago
I use ytalk on a VPS that me and a friend have ssh logins for. It's still a neat way of communicating that I don't think any modern chat apps do.

ww520 4y ago

The one program truly blew my mind at the time was Netrek - the first networked multi-player realtime graphical space fighting game. I've wasted so much time late into the nights playing the game in the lab instead of doing coursework. The admin came to the lab from time to time and said we're hogging the workstations with the game and banned the game during daytime.

gwerbret 4y ago
> The one program truly blew my mind at the time was Netrek - the first networked multi-player realtime graphical space fighting game. Anything like mtrek? It's still around [0], and even over telnet [1]. 0: https://mtrek.com https://mtrek.com 1: telnet://mtrek.com:1701
- ww520 4y ago
  It's a fast paced multi-player space battle game with a top down graphic 2D view. It's like Command and Conquer, with each unit controlled by a different player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQkDhwo7qNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQkDhwo7qNQ
BrandoElFollito 4y ago
I remember ca. 2000 my best friend busting into my office, pushing me aside, logging in savagely to something and having a sight of relief. He managed to send back a fleet or something - it was a real time game where you needed to do stuff at the right time (after sometimes a few hours). I do not remember the name of the game but it was fashionable for some time (not sure if it was text based or not)
- sdwr 4y ago
  Those games are still kicking around. Played Neptune's Pride a while back, would not recommend, seems designed to devour your waking (and what should be sleeping) life.

taneq 4y ago

Oh man, that brings it back! ytalk on the university student server was just about the first instant messaging system I used. My typing speed went way up after a few weeks.

DonHopkins 4y ago

Long before Unix talk, ITS (the Incompatible Timesharing System at the MIT AI Lab) had a program called UNTALK, written by a user named UNCOLA, that supported split screen text chat, back around 1992 or earlier. Incompatible Timesharing System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_Syste... Getting Started Computing at the Al Lab by Christopher C. Stacy. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY WORKING PAPER 235 7 September 1982: https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41180/AI_WP_235.pdf https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41180/AI_WP_2... >6.10.3. TALK >If you want to link to someone who is on another ITS machine, you can use the TALK program. The program is run by typing: >*:talk uname@host >To exit TALK terminating the conversation, the user who initiated TALK must type ^C. >This method of comlinking is less versatile than the backnext commands, and only works across ITS machines (not locally). >Another useful comlink program is UNTALK. UNTALK is similar to TALK but does not work across machines. However, on a display terminal, UNTALK splits the screen horizontally and allows the two people to type at the same time on their part of the screen. The "backnext commands" he referred to would actually let you not only perform a text chat link (albeit not split screen), but also take over another user's TTY, to type into and see the output of their DDT shell and programs. There was no security other than obscurity on ITS, and that feature of linking to and sharing another user's TTY was meant for collaboration, helping, and teaching people, and also initializing and configuring output-only serial devices like line printers. History of the Net is Important, by Keith F. Lynch: http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN8-1.pdf http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN8-1.pdf >[...] ITS stood for the Incompatible Time-sharing System, an obvious take-off on CTSS, the Compatible Time-Sharing System. (Just as Unix is a take-off on the earlier TENEX, TWENEX, and MULTICS.) >All four ITS machines also had UNTALK, a split-screen conferencing program similar to the later “talk” on Unix and PHONE on VMS. I was told it was written by a user whose ITS username was UNCOLA and who had committed suicide. I don’t know if it was the first program of that type, but it was the first I had seen. Even before that, ARPANET TIPs supported a low level way of text chatting (not split screen) called a "TIP to TIP Link" (documented on page 5-4 of the "Users Guide to the Terminal IMP") where each participant bounced their packets off of a port on some host, without actually logging in or going through the host. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13518273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13518273 Users Guide to the Terminal IMP (1975): https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_bbntipADA0eTerminalIMPAug75_2157363 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_bbntipADA0eTerminalIMP...

knorker 4y ago

I once talked to a somewhat famous hacker by logging in to an account he set up via SSH that spawned 'talk' as the shell. He didn't trust IRC and other chat systems. Is the end he got caught anyway due to sloppy opsec. Like many other hackers.