CGQ Flashback Ep. 28 - Cruising the Information Superhighway at 1200 bps

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CGQ Flashback Ep. 28 - Cruising the Information Superhighway at 1200 bps | CGQ+

Рет қаралды 7,115

Күн бұрын

First of all, it's crazy that we haven't talked about computer stuff on Flashback in a whole year. Well that's about to change, my friends. In this episode we talk about my getting a modem, dialing into BBSes, and all that goes along with that. We also discuss the Gravis PC GamePad, shareware games Captain Comic and Commander Keen, and the greatest BBS door game of all time, Tradewars 2002.
Benj Edwards' article about the Gravis PC GamePad:
www.howtogeek....
Wildcat's Castle BBS (Where you can still play Tradewars!):
bbs.wccastle.ne...
Show Notes:
- I KNOW THE VIDEO IS BLURRY. I am using a new camera that I haven't put many man-hours on yet, and I'm still figuring out how everything works. Once the video was recorded, there was nothing that I could do aside from re-recording it. But these are supposed to be spontanoueus, unscripted, off-the-cuff talks, and if I re-record it, then it's going to feel fake to me. So just watch the episode on a smaller screen, sit farther back, or just listen to it like a podcast.
CGQ is now on Patreon: / cgquarterly
The new CGQ Fan Shop: www.cgquarterly...
Send me a postcard:
Classic Gaming Quarterly
PO Box 73126
Davis, CA 95617
#Flashback #CGQ #CGQuarterly

Пікірлер: 71

@TheReasoner 4 жыл бұрын

"There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of. There were loose threads, untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads it unraveled the tapestry of my life." --Jean Luc Picard, Star Trek TNG 'Tapestry' "The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did not fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realised how fragile life is or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted for much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never lead the away team on Milika Three to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's Bridge when its Captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe. And he never, ever got noticed by anyone." --Q, Star Trek TNG 'Tapestry'

@sanyr80 4 жыл бұрын

Ears perked up at the DAoC mention at around 42:00. That was the first MMO I got into in a real hardcore way. What a blast.

@33Dannyb 4 жыл бұрын

No better way to start a Saturday than watching a new episode of CGQ flashback. 😃

@dfortaeGameReviews 4 жыл бұрын

Wonderful episode Chris! As always, you bring back so many great memories for me, so THANK YOU! So many memories about BBS'es. I actually operated one (The Immortal BBS) when I was in high school. My parents got me my own phone line so I used that! Needless to say, only 1 person at a time could log in to my BBS. It was so exciting for a high school kid! I had a Wildcat one, as well as WWIV at some point. I was known as the "protocol kid" because I would help other SysOps setup like 10+ file transfer protocols. Man I wish you and I would have been friends back then!

@CGQuarterly 4 жыл бұрын

Sorry about the blurry video, guys. We’ll get it right next time.

@mrdavidemmitgreen 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the vid Chris

@priorwitness 4 жыл бұрын

I always loved how most TNG episodes had a moral to their stories. Heck even the movies did. We just watched Star Trek Generations today and at the end they talk about how time is a companion that goes along with us on a journey to remind us that each moment is special because they'll never come again.

@NinjaRunningWild 2 жыл бұрын

Tapestry is one of my favorite Star Trek TNG episodes. I love the dialog between Q & Picard : "The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did NOT fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is, or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted through much of his career, with no plan or agenda… going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away-team on Milika III to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe… and he never, ever got noticed by anyone." "You're right, Q. You gave me the chance to change, and I took the opportunity. But I admit now - it was a mistake!" "Are you asking me for something, Jean-Luc?" "Give me a chance, to put things back the way they were before." "Before, you died in sickbay. Is that what you want?" "I would rather die as the man I was… than live the life I just saw."

@remybien3277 4 жыл бұрын

Always love the trip down memory lane

@byronlaw6491 4 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed this thanks. Always wanted to know what a BBS was and what it was used for. I first got online in 1997 but only experienced the web.

@geno7628 4 жыл бұрын

Blast from the past!! I remember calling BBSs back in the day. Thanks for bringing the memories back.

@WalrusFPGA 4 жыл бұрын

that picture of you on the skateboard in T&C surf designs is awesome =) just played that for a competition on discord a couple weeks ago. great game brought back a lot of fond memories of early computing for me in this video. i had that wolfenstein shareware disk and package. i remember buying it at a local computer swap meet where people unloaded all kinds of software, hardware and shareware. dont see those around anymore, since the internet became popular. and holy crap, i completely forgot about captain comic! I played the crap out of that game in dos. thanks for the reminder of this game! dont even know if i ever had the full version of that but i played it a ton regardless, as with most shareware

@walylama1672 4 жыл бұрын

Oh man this just made my day!

@TGApuleius 3 жыл бұрын

The days when I learned about long-distance charges. Oof. I had a friend whose dad was into PC games, and it was great. He would let us use the phone lines to play Warcraft and Descent for hours, and my friend always had the latest hardware -- seeing Unreal with a new graphics card made it hard to go back to my older system. Love these videos!

@billschlafly4107 4 жыл бұрын

Speaking of false memories. When I was a kid I walked/rode my bike to K-Mart to play the Atari 2600 at the kiosk. I waited my turn to get the controller and I recall being selfish with it even when another kid was waiting to play. I have vivid memories of playing Laser Blast at that kiosk. Yet we moved away from that neighborhood in 1978 and Laser Blast wasn't released until 1981. Clearly I was playing Space Invaders or some other game and my brain is mixing in later memories from a different kiosk at a different store.

@VW7472 4 жыл бұрын

Wow bring back some memories I played lots of Trad Wars as a kid. My brother and I even ran a BBS (Bulletin Board System)for a while call The Cross Roads BBS. O and the loads of Games I downloaded from them for my Commodore 64 I have boxes of 5.25 floppy loaded with them, that is if they could even be read anymore. Loved the show!

@shertz43 4 жыл бұрын

I was always one generation behind on modems cause they were so expensive. The first modem i got was a 300 baud modem for the Coleco Adam computer. Around 1985 or so I got the exact same Hayes external 1200 baud modem you have for my Apple IIe. then around 1989 I got a Supra 2400 baud modem for my Amiga 2000 computer. Best of times!!

@cloudparter 4 жыл бұрын

Nice back upstairs video! Love the lighting please stay up there. The basement is dour.

@littleterr0r 4 жыл бұрын

Shout out to Benj Edwards! Enjoy hearing him on Retronauts.

@briannorthFW 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chris, around the same time ‘92...I graduated HS and purchased by 1st computer a Packard Bell, probably a 486??? I think it had Windows, I just remember playing games where you needed the manual in order to start a game, it would have you go to a certain page and put some type of code in, again thanks for sharing your memories!!!

@hateeternalmaver 4 жыл бұрын

Ooooh, a new Flashback episode. I love these, can't wait to listen. Thanks so much, Chris.

@fireresq7 4 жыл бұрын

Wow I got the 90Feels!! Thanks for making this video! I will enjoy listening and watching all them

@derekfelska5683 4 жыл бұрын

Great Flashback episode! You are 100%, but you played the hell out of those demos. My friends messed around with BBS, but I never did. I didn't have a PC at that time time. Eventually, having spent enough time at my friend Adam's house I convinced my parents to buy a PC. Then we picked up demo discs just like you did and your 100%, we played the hell out of those demos. I vividly remember the first time I played Wolftenstein. I played Episode 1 time after time after time. No Gravis Gamepad for me, I used a mouse and I was fine with that. But I always had a Ch Flightstick for all of the flight and space simulator games I liked to play. Did you ever watch Halt and Catch Fire from AMC? A lot of what you said about the early abiity to chat on those BBS forums was talked about in the show. I think you might like that one if you are looking for a show to binge. Thanks again for the flashback, we always love watching them! By the way, the Star Trek: Next Generation: Tapestry reference was spot on. I had a Hayes external modem too, but I got mine much later and it was a 33.3 one and used it from the end of high school and into my first years of college.

@betaman7988 4 жыл бұрын

I wasn’t around then but I know that from 1980 to 1991, here in the UK at least, there was something called Prestel which ran Micronet 800 - like a proto-Internet. It had bulletin boards (called Chatlines), emails (with users having a unique 9 digit number), a news service, you could book holidays through it, there was a gallery (where you could essentially create a page about something) and very very primitive online games, such as SHADES (a very early multi-user dungeon game). I believe my great grandfather used it on his Commodore 64

@ryan.e.reinbold 4 жыл бұрын

I remember asking to sign up for compuserve when we got our Tandy and the answer was no. Didn’t get online till sometime in 1997 for the first time on my own. I would however watch my buddy play some MUD games and look at really low res pics. Ah good times.

@ktown3733 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for featuring the game Adventures of Captain Comic! I have all these memories of playing this game when I was probably 5 or 6 years old, and in the last number of years I have been trying to re-discover what the game was called and I have spent hours trying to research lists of old DOS games to find it, but as soon as you showed it in your video, I was like "THAT'S IT!"

@JopieHaargel 4 жыл бұрын

Oh man, I have so many DOS games like that... :/

@eddougherty323 4 жыл бұрын

When you said you only played one game, I was thinking “plz say trade wars”. When I was 12 my father was a principal of a rich school, and we got a new computer. One of the teachers in the school had a kid who was super into computers, and I went over there and he copied all kinds of games for me, and introduced me to the BBS lifestyle. For years afterward I was obsessed w trade wars, would meet girls via BBS, it was a whole thing I basically had forgotten until tonight. Anyway I was always evil in trade wars, and there was a huge game on this one BBS. Several of my middle school friends were in a corporation w me. On Xmas morning the dominant good guy Corp found all of us somehow and annihilated us. It was traumatic. Also do you remember how you could do a private chat, and then hit ^h to get it to hang up on the other person? I loved that trick.

@mulleinroots 4 жыл бұрын

i love the depth you go to in these videos, i never got to use a BBS so you were teaching me some good history there, great episode! always look forward to these

@bloodflower2141 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Chris its good to be back.. I started watching flashback right when I began a very difficult break up over a year ago and I wrote to you letting you know how much the series meant to me and how much I appreciated coming across another nostalgic soul who's memories and past were beautifully dotted with epic gaming moments and experiences.. You replied to my post and I just wanted to let you know how much it meant to me in that moment.. There was just something about you reaching out and giving those few words of encouragement that meant a lot. I think I may have already written you a similar message thanking you but I wanted to again just to be sure lol.. Hit me up if you're ever in the Toronto area, I owe you a beer big time and would definitely love to reminisce about the good old days.. Take care and keep rockin out these vibey vids dude

@CGQPlus 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks man! Glad I could be of some assistance. If I'm ever in Toronto, let's do it!!

@cloudparter 4 жыл бұрын

I remember getting a used 286 from my moms work, whom was clearing out their old PCs to upgrade their infrastructure. It came with an external 2400 baud Modem and a burned in IBM image in the VGA monitor lol.. screensavers matter kids. Played the crap out of my first internet game on BBS. A text based game called LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon). Anyone remember that game? I thought it was cool you could flirt and get married haha. Those were the days.

@NinjaRunningWild 2 жыл бұрын

John Carmack was the primary programmer for Keen, as far as the engine is concerned. John Romero programmed much of the gameplay & the tools (TED for Tile Editor. Still available for download on the archive of the 3D Realms site. Used for over 30 games!).

@guagetuein8906 3 жыл бұрын

Stewart and his dad seem like awesome guys.

@sloppynyuszi 3 жыл бұрын

Captain Comic was awesome! I’ll have to check for the NES conversion.

@marcelokodama238 4 жыл бұрын

Great! A brand new Flashback episode! Your letter is still waiting the end of this pandemic to be sent, Chris!

@littleterr0r 4 жыл бұрын

I also had the shareware version of Captain Comic! I've gotta try it on NES now.

@littleterr0r 4 жыл бұрын

Had Commander Keen as well! Man, I should have had a joystick for these games.

@stgenerations 4 жыл бұрын

I never had any experience in BBS. To me when I got Windows 95 and I realized you could surf the web and fax things, it was a game changer in my brain.

@JopieHaargel 4 жыл бұрын

I got a Gravis Gamepad to play Jazz Jackrabbit and Keen. Good times.

@dumpnchase 4 жыл бұрын

You brought back many memories for me. Great content as always!

@Skysmeller1 3 жыл бұрын

Putting yourself skating in a framed still of T&C surf design for NES is straight Gangster.

@CGQPlus 3 жыл бұрын

A viewer actually drew that and sent it to me! I don’t have the skills...

@Skysmeller1 3 жыл бұрын

@@CGQPlus That’s really fresh, it’s random art to anyone and a cool Easter egg to those that know. I think it had one of the best game music for the time.

@NinjaRunningWild 2 жыл бұрын

I still have all my Gravis pads. They came with a demo of Commander Keen 4, which was perfect with it. Normally, the way PC joysticks work on a programming level is to provide 2 axes for 2 joysticks, each with 2 buttons. Games like Keen & Wolf 3D managed to have 4 by ignoring one of the joystick’s axes & using all the buttons with the 1st joystick’s axes.

@Kevin_Smith82 4 жыл бұрын

Yes!! Nice to see you back😎

@CaptainNatron 4 жыл бұрын

Love me some Flashback!

@metalmat3651 3 жыл бұрын

I didn't get online until 96 so I don't have any sort of memory of interaction with BBS but it seems pretty neat. I had to deal with AOL like many people for a while.

@for8bitgamers 4 жыл бұрын

I had a BBS site I made with Renegade software. I loved Legend of the Red Dragon the most of the BBS games I played. I may have downloaded a few non-shareware (warez) games too... The Gravis pad was great for NHL and yes the stick was horrible and we never used it. My cousin used to use the mouse and keyboard for NHL and I thought he was strange. I guess he wasn't, since that's what most people use now for PC gaming. I played a bit of Trade Wars too. I pretty much stopped playing BBS games after my brother bought Ultima Online. Thanks for the dose of nostalgia.

@joek6741 4 жыл бұрын

Heck yeah! I didn’t expect this. Thanks man.

@acecarrera1 4 жыл бұрын

So, Trade Wars was basically No Man's Sky....in text.

@MisterDozer 4 жыл бұрын

My Gravis Gamepad is the only piece of my childhood PC gaming hardware still around to this day. I wonder if anyone actually used it in left handed mode.

@CGQPlus 4 жыл бұрын

I have my GamePad and my first IDE hard drive, and I think that’s it.

@CondemnedToBeMe 4 жыл бұрын

cool this excisted so early!

@Herrjosefk 4 жыл бұрын

Wooooooooooooooooo.

@chrisvanderhoef9885 4 жыл бұрын

The BBS games I played the most was this one where you traffic drugs and pick up hookers (I don't recall the name of it) and a fantasy one where you fought dragons (don't recall the name of this one either, wish I could). The Resort was the chat one I would hit up a lot.

@chrisvanderhoef9885 4 жыл бұрын

Drug wars was the name of it! Thanks for mentioning it!

@fgaze72 4 жыл бұрын

perfect timing

@thecunninlynguist 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this

@Mujangga 3 жыл бұрын

Haystacks Calhoun had his own modem?

@CGQPlus 3 жыл бұрын

I don’t get the joke...

@CondemnedToBeMe 4 жыл бұрын

✔✔✔✔

@saratov99 4 жыл бұрын

I think Commander Keen 1-3 is not that good compared to best console platformers, but Commander Keen 4-6 are excellent. In fact Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle is one of the best platformers of all time! Things moved very fast back then on PC. Commander Keen 1-3 were blink and you miss them type thing , cause Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle and Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mantion were released only a year after and they were on par or better then all console platformers.

@CGQPlus 4 жыл бұрын

I’ll check out CK4. Thanks!

@saratov99 4 жыл бұрын

Have you played Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mantion? All these games are significant, cause it was John Carmack who figured out smooth scrolling on PC. Please read Masters of Doom, it chronicles ID Software and their revolution from 1988 to 2001.

@CGQPlus 4 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure I've played that one. I'll fire it up in DOSBox. I have Masters of Doom; just haven't had cause to read it yet.

@saratov99 4 жыл бұрын

Man, i promise you are in for a treat ! Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle and Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mantion were on every PC i saw in early to mid 90's. And Masters of Doom is a book that even my console players friends read and it blew their minds just how much gaming scene is influenced by ID Software. Can't imagine modern gaming without their influence. My first console was a Famiclone called Dendy Junior and when i got a PC instead of Mega Drive which i begged for i played Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle, Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mantion, Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM 2. It blew my mind back then and still do that all these classics were made by same guys.

@WhatsOnMyShelf 4 жыл бұрын

I didn't have an NES at the time Keen 1 was out and to me, it was a Mario game on the computer and very impressive. There weren't a lot of scrolling platformer games for our 286 I ran into then. I would hardly put Keen 1-3 down especially when there are games like Dangerous Dave 1 for DOS. I played all these w/PC speaker and EGA graphics.