At one point, I was living somewhere that had access to someone's C64 and I wrote a VT100 emulator in FORTH to access a remote VAX via 300bps modem into MeritNe

At one point, I was living somewhere that had access to someone's C64 and I wrote a VT100 emulator in FORTH to access a remote VAX via 300bps modem into MeritNet. Then I wanted to do graphics on the VAX and remembered the GiGi (which ran BASIC with DEC Regus graphics if booted in standalone mode) and began creating my own escape-sequences to draw. This led to discovering the NAPLPS standard and then to building my own backend BBS using 900 (reverse bill) numbers for C64 dialup users. Years later I saw the PRODIGY service at a Sears store and smirked.