Gaming Internet and Download - Does anyone remember that ?

[Alexander1970]

When the Internet Speeds are incredible !

But at that times it was fast.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Whew, that takes me back to the days when I'd have to actually sign into my modem every time I wanted to connect to my (at the time) blazing-fast DSL network and watch Homestar Runner

 

[kumikochan]

Yeah i remember. I think it was 1993-1994 when we first had internet at our house and i was only allowed to use it 30 minutes a day because it was do damn expensive back then. Usually just used it for Cheatcc to get some cheats for my games. Ha the good old days

 

[DBlaze]

The modem sound is forever imprinted in my brain.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

The modem sound is forever imprinted in my brain.

Fun fact: There's actually a command you could use to silence that horrific (yet nostalgic to some) screech of a dial-up modem.
It would still make the initial dialing sound, but it would be silent after that.

 

[Skelletonike]

Yeah, I remember....
I also remember accessing a funny site that had porn games (hey, I was only around 8) and then my Grandfather got pissed at me because we got a phonebill that was equivalent 200€.

 

[DBlaze]

Fun fact: There's actually a command you could use to silence that horrific (yet nostalgic to some) screech of a dial-up modem.
It would still make the initial dialing sound, but it would be silent after that.

But that wouldn't be the legit experience for my rosetinted nostalgia goggles

 

[StrayGuitarist]

But that wouldn't be the legit experience for my rosetinted nostalgia goggles

It's existed since Windows 95, I believe. There's a "volume" slider in the "properties" tab somewhere in your modem settings in Control Panel. it was in 98, and XP, as well. Not so sure about Vista and newer.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I remember using Getright (a download manager) to download back then:

What was good about Getright is it would re-dial your internet connection when you got disconnected and resume the download.

Most ISP's here in the UK used to disconnect you every 2 hours, so this was essential to download large files.

I remember downloading a beta of Windows XP at 3-5kb a sec, depending on how fast the internet reconnected at. I believe that took almost a week to download as I used to just leave things downloading over night.

Needless to say these days I could download in a few seconds what would take a week back in the 90's. Just shows how far things have moved on.

 

[Alexander1970]

 

[Dust2dust]

The good old days... Warez files were 2.8 MB, so manageable on 56k, as long as you were fast enough to get the whole release. Files were stored on sites like Tripod, 4 files per URL, and Tripod were also fast in deleting them. Iso releases were out of reach, usually. Way too big files... 20MB each file, up to 35 files to download (to fill a CD-R). I was getting them through IRC, if I really wanted to get the iso.

 

[DinohScene]

Can't say I miss that period tho.
Why would you want to have sub par internet speeds nowadays?

 

[Dust2dust]

Why would you want to have sub par internet speeds nowadays?

Nowadays, no, of course! 5 K/s (more or less what I was getting) would suck big time. But back then around 1999, it was the norm. Everything was smaller back then. I remember my hard disk was a whopping 6 GB. Could be filled up in a few minutes at today's internet speed.

 

[DinohScene]

Nowadays, no, of course! 5 K/s (more or less what I was getting) would suck big time. But back then around 1999, it was the norm. Everything was smaller back then. I remember my hard disk was a whopping 6 GB. Could be filled up in a few minutes at today's internet speed.

I had a 10 GB Quantum Fireball in 1999.
I can remember having it almost filled with games and some music + animated shows videos.

Took ages to pull from Napster etc

 

[Dust2dust]

Took ages to pull from Napster etc

Napster? That brings memories. I think Yahoo was also the recommended search site, before Google took over. I wonder if we'll see the death of popular sites like Facebook in the future. Probably, if history repeats itself.

 

[DinohScene]

Napster? That brings memories. I think Yahoo was also the recommended search site, before Google took over. I wonder if we'll see the death of popular sites like Facebook in the future. Probably, if history repeats itself.

Oh I would LOVE to see that happen!

 

[Taleweaver]

Yup...I certainly do remember those days. A screeching sound (that's the "modem" dialing in), occupying the phone line ("get off the internet! I'm expecting a phone call!") and the waiting that was basically what 'downloading' really meant.

It was also where I learned multitasking: opening about five different pages (usually consisting of porn images) and then opening a text page so you could read something while things were incoming that were not on your PC before!!!
I was also one of those guys who tried to download the entire internet (or at least my favorite pages) onto my home computer for offline use. Went pretty well for a while.

 

[Alexander1970]

"get off the internet! I'm expecting a phone call!"

I hear it as if it was yesterday.

 

[Sethtimus Prime]

Never again.

 

[ChrisMCNBVA]

the internet company my family and I were on when I graduated high school in 1995, would disconnect every hour and a half and you would have to redial back in and sometimes even then you wouldn't be able to, I was addicted to the internet the first moment I was online. I'm glad I have DSL now but I still wish it was faster speeds here where I live, so it wouldn't take much time to download big games, at least with some games, you can preload and not have to wait until the day of. One day I really hope we all have faster speeds for our downloads