this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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[–] dragontamer -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

did you download the old doom shareware wads

Ummm... no. I loaded it through a floppy found in the mail through a system called shareware. (Where people would leave floppy disks in people's mailboxes, and we didn't know what viruses were so we just plugged them into our computers).

Did you actually exist in the 90s? That was floppy era of shareware, you'd spread games like Doom by mail and/or by copying the floppy and giving it to a friend. That's why it was called SHAREware, you shared it with friends. In some cases, computer stores would combine a bunch of shareware games into CD-ROMs (650MBs!!! So much space!!) and you'd get a lot of shareware all at once.

[–] Harvey656 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh my goodness, it's almost like what I said had nothing to do woth floppy disks or even discrediting their use.

According to the US census, 18 percent of housholds had internet use at home. Yahoo was around in 1995, usenet usage started dropping, and school systems started getting schoolwide internet access.

Your memory is vapid and you are clearly misremembering large swaths of important facts.

Edit: spelling.

[–] dragontamer -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Us Census figure was 1997. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/1997/demo/computer-internet/p20-522.html

Looks like 22% had internet at home, but over 54% had a computer.

How do you think the majority of computer users played Castle of the Winds, Jazz Jackrabbit, Doom, or other shareware games? Hint: it wasn't the internet because most computer users didn't have internet.

1993, the previous census figures are even worse as that's before AOL


Btw, downloads weren't a thing even for those who had internet. Back then, you paid per ~~minute~~ hour of internet usage.

My family connected to the internet to download (POP3) out email and then disconnected. Because my Mom would then want to use the phone to call her friends. Unless you had two phone lines like a rich person, extended multi-hour download sessions at 33kbps (or slower) was just not a thing.

That's 14MB per hour, if you don't remember how slow 90s internet was.

The college students with T1 connections were the source of shareware / disks by the later 90s (like 97, 98 etc. Etc). But home users weren't doing online downloads yet, too expensive and too slow.

So quit your bullshitting.

[–] Harvey656 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We were poor as sin, still downloaded that diablo patch bro.

Happened to live In an apartment above a friend's business, during nighttime when the store was closed we had access to a second phone line.

If I recall correctly, the patch was 8 mb. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the size.

Sorry but, there simply isn't any bullshit to be given pal. I was a child, so no idea how much it cost my dad. Maybe I'll ask him.

[–] dragontamer 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://money.cnn.com/1996/11/01/technology/aol/

In a letter sent to the service's members Oct. 28, AOL Chairman Steve Case touted a new pricing plan that offers unlimited access to the service's proprietary content as well as to the Internet for $19.95 a month.

[Snip]

Until the new unlimited plan was unveiled, all users paid $9.95 a month for 5 hours of usage and $2.95 for each additional hour.

This is what I remembered. My dad always told me to watch the Internet usage, because it cost money for each hour. These were 5-hours / month plans back then. That being said, 1996 is a year before Diablo, meaning the "unlimited" plans came in soon afterwards. But "unlimited" didn't really work out in our favor because my mom and grandma who lived with us always wanted to use the phone.

And we were the only kids of the neighborhood who had internet. People came over to our house to surf the net.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I was around in the 90’s. I downloaded the Doom shareware (and many others) from either the internet or local BBS’s in like, 1994.