Games - Compunet

	Games - Compunet

Compunet was a United Kingdom based interactive service provider, catering primarily for the Commodore 64 but later for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. It was also known by its users as CNet.

It ran from 1984 before closing down in May 1993.

Overview

Compunet hosted a wide range of content, and users were permitted to create their own sections within which they could upload their own graphics, articles and software. A custom editor existed in which the "frames" that made up the pages could be created either offline or when connected to the service. The editor's cache allowed users to quickly download a set of pages, then disconnect from the service in order to read them, thus saving on telephone costs.

The user interface used a horizontally scrolling menu system, known as the "duck shoot", and navigation was essentially "select and click" with the ability to jump directly to pages with the use of keywords. Content could be voted upon by the users.

The service had many features which were considerably ahead of its time, especially when compared to the Internet of today:

Pricing of content (Optional. Users could price their own content).
Voting on content quality.
"Upload anywhere" of content (Unless a section was protected).
Software could be dongle protected (the custom modem doubled as the dongle in this instance).
WYSIWYG editing of content.
Chat room (known as Partyline), which allowed users to create their own rooms (similar principles have been shown in IRC).

The server hosted Multi-User Dungeon MUD (by Richard Bartle), and Federation. Both of these games continue to run on the Internet today.

Games creator Jeff Minter and musician Rob Hubbard, along with various members of the demo scene, had a presence on the network.

History

In 1982, Commodore UK decided to construct a nationwide computer network for the use of teachers. The Commodore PET computer had been very successful. Nick Green developed the specification of what became PETNET with David Parkinson and Mike Bolley of Ariadne Software in The Albany pub (see "PETNET - data transmission system" in "Microcomputers in education" ed Dr I.C.H. Smith 1982 John Wiley ISBN 0853124248).

In the Summer of 1982 Keith Hall of Commodore secured the money to commission the prototype which was run on an ADP DEC-10 machine. Ariadne Software wrote the software in 6502 Assembler for the client and FORTRAN for the host. The X25 packet protocol was modified to provide error correction for all file transfers. At ADP's suggestion reliable uploading was achieved by using temporary file names which were changed to user file names when the last byte had been correctly received by the host. Nick Green sought partners who could provide local call access and Host facilities. Alan Carmichael, Graham Craigie and Robert Foot of ADP joined the project.

Around this time the BBC Micro was released and gained enormous popularity within the UK education system. Commodore's 64 was seen as the "more bangs per buck" American alternative. PETNET became Compunet which was aimed to support consumer and educational users.

Nick Green specified a secure modem based on the Viewdata chip set and the assembly language client software was ported into the modem and bundled with the Commodore 1541 disk drive. After the first year Commodore was bought out and Compunet Teleservices Ltd became an independent company.

ADP provided the initial DEC-10 mainframe, as well as the local-access dial-up points. But this was very expensive and a scheduled migration to a VME bus based multi-micro machine was succesfully undertaken. New local dial-up points were provided by ISTEL (on their Fastrak network). After a management buy out ISTEL was sold to AT&T. This led to the failure of ISTEL technical support and an upgrade of local access to 2400/2400 baud. The best efforts of Ariadne and Compunet staffers Jason and Mark Clarke came to nothing as the English legal system failed to protect Compunet's contracts. This meant a higher cost nationwide rate call for most users. A third move of the Compunet Host to Camden in North London was undertaken with Nick Green now board chair and MD.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Compunet ]

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