I got a tip that there actually was a version of Internet Explorer 3.0 for the MIPS. I was thinking there was no way, as there was no mention of this thing as IE 3.0 came out after the MIPS had been dropped from the roster.
Well luckily it turns out to be true.
The original download link is here, and I’ve mirrored it here.
Who knows what other things are out there for the MIPS?
I have to say I’m really quite impressed! Â It’s quite playable, the sound is great and well it’s all around awesome! Â And yes it’ll even play original gameboy files!
Unlike most ‘web’ based javascript this one can play local files.. Perhaps it’s something worth looking at modifying existing stuff for that kind of options?
At any rate be sure to check it out here.
It’s amazing how javascript is really becoming a contender now that browsers are basically compiling it. Â It’s very cool!
It finally happened, well 30 years ago.
Message-ID: <[email protected]> Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Path: utzoo!duke!cincy!chris Date: Mon Jun 8 11:06:47 1981 Subject: Save Officer Spock From: chris X-OldUsenet-Modified: added From; converted from A-news; fixed Message-ID; added Xref Xref: dummy dummy:1 Perhaps you are not yet aware of it, but a new Star Trek movie is in the making this summer. While that is all well and good, there is a problem with it. It seems that Leonard Nimoy will no longer be available for the role of Spock after this movie; thus they are killing him off. Loyal trekkies here have taken great offense to this, as well they should. There are much better ways to remove the necessity of having the character present. A local radio station has begun a campaign the call SOS (see title). They are encouraging letter writers, and wil forward the mail they collect to the producers of the movie. If you would like to write, or contact them and start your own movement, here is the address: SOS WVXU-FM Xavier University Cincinnati, OH 45207 Live Long and Prosper!
From what I recall the breaking story of how Spoke died in Star Trek II was one of the first ‘big’ nerd crisis on usenet. I’m sure it has more to do with the date of when usenet started to get popular vs other big ‘shocks’ of the time like Empire Strikes Back. The old usenet archives sure do provide an interesting ‘view’ into our past, of even 30 years ago. I’m out of town for the next few days so … no big stuff coming up but I thought this was worthy enough to post.
Check out this amazing site, olduse.net!  It’s really amazing!  What Joey Hess has done, is get a copy of the old USENET archives from the UofT, and parse out all the dates, set them in the right format for a news server, then stream them in ‘real time’ as it was, back in 1981.
That is right, it’s August 6th 1981. Â Star Trek II still hasn’t happened yet, can you wait for the hype and the build up for the biggest geek movie since.. well when everyone found out last year (1980) that Vader was Luke’s father?
News/2
What is also cool is that you can take any news reader (even News/2) and point it to nntp.olduse.net and read away!  And not to mention the incredible setup with a telehack like interface to a news reader.
Now I’ll just have to figure out a way to stuff USENET into Synchronet 2.. (I’m sure Synchronet 3 will/would be way easier, but heh you know, OS/2 …)
Oh and here is a timeline of things to look forward to. Â But I guess being a ‘time traveler’ kind of takes the fun out of it.
feelies!
Did you ever love Zork? Â Personally I was into Planetfall. Â And what made Infocom cool was the ‘feelies’. Â I guess it’s pretty obvious that if you found me here, then you know all about the rise and fall of Infocom, and how it was how they wanted to diversify into business applications… And their portable strategy backfired big time.
But back to the games. Â While talking to someone and the topic of Infocom came up, I had to see how many I had as I’d managed to buy one of the ‘collection’ sets of Infocom games. Â Sure I felt like “I had them all” but after finding accardi-by-the-sea I found out that not only was I missing some, but they actually had every version of these games that had been released!
Talk about an exceptional collection!
And if you love all the packaging, check out here & here.
No really this isn’t some cheezy ad for ‘internet poker’. Â Wait, well maybe it is. Â Anyways I was on my Synchronet with a friend when we tried ‘Domain Poker’, and the version that shipped with Synchronet for DOS-OS/2 is the trial version. Â And it’s old. Â So while googling for an updated version I came across dpok2k.zip
Happy Y2K and beyond!
In support of the renewed interest in Synchronet BBS Software and it’s expectedtelnet capabilities some of you have been asking for registered versions of theold Domain Entertainment doors. Â Instead, I’ve gone ahead and recompiled thesome of the doors (the games) so that they don’t require any registration.
Be aware that Domain Entertainment no longer makes, sells, or supports BBSdoors so use these at your own risk. Â Domain Entertainment assumes no liabilityfor errors or omissions in these files or damages resulting from the use ofthem.
You may freely distribute this software so long as it is distributed in it’soriginal form with all accompanying files.
Wow that’s pretty cool!
So I’ve loaded it up on my BBS, and I’ve also updated the ‘bubble‘ BBS.
Although I don’t know poker for crap, any time I’ve won it’s with ‘neutral computers’ that don’t cheat. lol
Or at least that’s what I’m going to call it.
Click to run!
Basically it’s a super minimally configured copy of Synchronet configured to run on jdosbox. Â There is no external ‘world’ to talk to. Â There isn’t even any ‘persistence’ all changes will be lost after a simple refresh.
There also isn’t any user id’s it’s completely virgin!
Simply click on the picture, and hit the space bar once the menu comes up and you can login! Â Since it’s just console access there is no modem, dialing, tcpip stuff to worry about. Â If you can run java you can run this.
So why would I or you bother?  I guess its an importunity to suffer through the BBS experience.  Maybe I’m just leading up to something else, something really involved to setup so for most people this click & go java thing is about as close as they want to go to ‘feel’ it and it doesn’t involve any actual setup, nor any programs to configure.  And of course, you cannot ‘trash’ this thing beyond hope as the moment you refresh your browser, it’ll reload the image and you are back to the start.
And maybe it’s a sign of the times as well. Â Comparing a BBS install to any *AMP install of today really shows in some way just how far we’ve come, in terms of installation. Â Not to mention back in the BBS days nobody used SQL, everyone wound up writing their own multiuser database. Â Actually in retrospect I have to wonder why more were not based around Dbase/Clipper/FoxPro.
At any rate, it’s really impressive to see that Synchronet is not only still going but thriving out there. Â And the center of it all is DOVENET. Â A quick and easy way of distributing messages easily can make a community… Â Which sadly this thing doesn’t have any network IO so … no community. Â See it’s like a bubble, easy to pop, and in it’s own little brief world.
For anyone crazy enough to take the plunge you could download version 2 of Synchronet right here. Then you can telnet to vert.synchro.net and setup an ID for your prospective BBS. Â The best part is the simplicity of getting messages in & out… FTP! Â You can even use ncftp to make scripts to send / get messages. Â I cooked up something terribly simple to do that here.
While I did add TradeWars 2002 as a door, but you’ve also got the other defaults Synchronet Blackjack!, Domain Poker,Supernet Centipede..
Hanging with the developers.  Credit to ViciousAloisius
So after waiting what? 14 years and actually shelling out money for a game that I really don’t care about (BORDERLANDS.. UGH.) and all the promises…. I was about to go to bed, and suddenly… I got the email.
And of course, the server is OVERLOADED, and the first time I tried.. Denied.
Over and over. I know it’s silly but how can I go to sleep now? Â The greatest expectation in video gaming history is upon us!
Ok ok, yeah I do remember daikatana and what a catastrophic letdown that was, but come on! this is the DUKE!
So a few clicks more….
And it looks like we are in business.
Now the only debate is…
Sleep, or not.
ARGH!
Click to play!
I just found out that jdosbox can do the ‘boot’ command. Â So as a test here is TradeWars 2002 running in single user mode. Â I suppose I could go all out and make a standalone single node BBS with tradewars configured for the ‘full effect’.
But for now this will have to do.
Click the picture to launch! (needs Java).