People had the internet in 1989?! Unfair!

[raiderfan99]

I did not get the net until around 95-96 and even then 14.4 modem connections were real unreliable and horribly slow. I think that was still in the time frame that you would be charged overages for a certain amount of hours/minutes.

[danth]

And Newtype! Boy, I remember drooling all over the garage kits they sold. I think I wrote them once and after that, I was on their mailing list and I'd get their catalogs in the mail. Oh man, and I remember seeing the B-Club Special Bubblegum Crisis character garage kits, especially the one of Linna. At the time, I barely knew how to paint a regular plastic model, so I had no confidence in learning how to make a garage kit. That was before I had access to the Internet, and even still I bet there weren't the wealth of information on how to do such things back then like there is today.

Yeah! I got those catalogs, made out of regular 8 1/2 x 11 paper folded in half, with one piece of colored paper as the cover. I think the first one I got had the VF-1J Icarus from Macross 2 on it, and the second one had A.R.I.E.L.

I remember finding SD Macross kits in the catalog that sounded really cool. I called the number in the catalog and asked the guy what "Super Deformed" meant, and he explained in a thick Japanese accent that they were "short and cute." The only thing I ended up buying from them was the Gakken Mospeada Ride Armor toy and the Bandai VF-2SS model.

I'm kicking myself for throwing those old catalogs away.

[Daishikaze]

My dad had alot of computer games he got from the net back in the 80s, Most of them were never seen anywhere else, some of them eventually got published and released, but we got to play them long before anyone else. It was pretty cool.

[greg]

I was connecting to the Internet with Windows 3.1. I remember having to download the WINSOCK.DLL or whatever it was in order to get it to work. I think I downloaded it via FTP through a BBS (either that or was it Archie or Gofer?) and I remember the confusion between that and another program call Windsock that was completely unrelated. If I remember right, it was called Windows Sockets and it enabled the modem to connect to the Internet. It was a frustrating learning obstacle, but once it was in place, it worked fine. Windows 95 did make it easier to connect to the Internet, that's for sure. Plus the Plug N Play feature to it, while it was hit and miss at the time, it eventually led us to the place we are at today where we don't have to worry about jumpers, IRQ settings, and COM port conflict issues.

Still, I am nostalgic for those days. My friend had Windows 3.11 Workgroups for Windows. That was when I was introduced to network gaming, using coaxial cables, T-connectors, and terminators. Command and Conquer, Duke Nukem 3D... I still prefered my Super Nintendo, though.

[raiderfan99]

Did anyone have a Mac back then? I think I had a performa 6200 at the time. Blazing fast 75mhz and 14.4 modem, by 1999 I was glad my grandparents gave me their old 133mhz hp vectra that was manufactured around the same time but 10x faster

[greg]

Son May (Taiwan) knockoff:

I remember the infamous Son May bootlegs. I own only one SM CD, and it's a Legend of the Galactic Heroes soundtrack. I made up for it later by buying a LOGH boxset soundtrack, though.

But yes, that's the CD I've been listening to lately. I want to get the 3 CD compilation set that includes the music from episode 8.

[Ender424]

Unfortunately my family didn't get online until 96'. By then anime fandom had a pretty big presence online and I had no problems finding like-minded people.
Stories of online bulletins and days of mailing out old school fansubs on VHS are the stories of legend I could only wish I had been a part of.

[llj]

It's always fun looking at old usenet posts. I think I once remember coming across some posts by sports fans in the early 80s who thought Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan would be busts. Those are always good for laughs.

I talked to some of those guys in the link the OP posted. I think I started posting in usenet at around 1997, my first year in college. I was still learning the internet in high school. I remember in my last year of high school, my library had 1 or 2 computers with modems at the time, and NOBODY used them. I was one of the few who semi-regularly used them, if only to poke around and satisfy my curiosity about it. There was this one girl I knew who used to be there ALL THE TIME in her spare time, tapping away and sending messages to who knows who.

I think at home, my family got online at around 1997 too, but it was more for my sake.

Generally, while I miss (some) of those early online anime fans, I don't really miss those days of slow internet connection and crude messaging, though.

I was connecting to the Internet with Windows 3.1. I remember having to download the WINSOCK.DLL or whatever it was in order to get it to work. I think I downloaded it via FTP through a BBS (either that or was it Archie or Gofer?) and I remember the confusion between that and another program call Windsock that was completely unrelated. If I remember right, it was called Windows Sockets and it enabled the modem to connect to the Internet. It was a frustrating learning obstacle, but once it was in place, it worked fine. Windows 95 did make it easier to connect to the Internet, that's for sure. Plus the Plug N Play feature to it, while it was hit and miss at the time, it eventually led us to the place we are at today where we don't have to worry about jumpers, IRQ settings, and COM port conflict issues.
.

I remember just randomly flipping switches and turning options on and off to get things working whenever I had problems.