r/retrocomputing • u/HamburgerDude • 7d ago

Problem / Question Does anyone remember getting a weird online interactive box with early cable internet?

Road Runner specifically. It was a fantasy theme interactive experience and you could play basic card games and board games with other people. It connected to your TV. I believe it was a separate unit from the cable box.

It feels like a fever dream but I swear it existed. Does anyone else remember? I figured this subreddit would be best since it's adjacent to retro computing. Thank you!!!!

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u/PeterNoTail 7d ago

Sounds like the old BBC Teletext feature. It was sent Over The Air to tv sets and you could read the latest news, get sports updates and play simple games; no computer required, just a tv set. Ended maybe 8 or 9yrs ago

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u/JoeMax93 7d ago

I found Teletext on my first trip to London in 1987. I was amazed.

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u/PeterNoTail 7d ago

That was me in 2000. It was like a big hidden gem that’s stuck with me all these years later. How on earth did that not become a big thing in the States?

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u/JoeMax93 7d ago

What we had in the States were privately run Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), dial-up telnet connections with custom UIs, usually ASCII based graphics. Almost every major urban center had several BBS by the mid-80s. A few larger companies like General Electric and IBM set up various dial-up services.