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| Rage Hard! | ||
| It's been a good year and a half since we last took a peek into the wonderful world of Micronet, and it's come an awful long way since then. MATT BIELBY tries to get his mind around it all. | ||
Micronet - what is it exactly? Well, it's a special service run by British Telecom on their Prestel network (which rather begs the question "What's Prestel?"). Well okay, Prestel is an 'Online Videotex Service', which basically means that it connects your computer to a much larger mainframe through the phone lines, so your Speccy (or whatever) becomes a terminal of this other 'host' computer. You now get to use the big computer like a massive electronic library, and through it you can access all sorts of information that wouldn't normally be available to you. What sort of info? Well, I've got a directory to Prestel here, and there are thousands of pages on hundreds of different subjects you can call up - there are separate pieces on most popular makes of car, for instance, as well as well-known countries and towns. There are regularly updated news and sports services too, along with up-to-date weather and traffic reports, arts reviews and all sorts. I never knew there was so much in it! There's even a section all about asbestos! (Not that you're all that likely to want to read it.) But isn't that just the same as Ceefax and Oracle? Well, yes and no. If you're thinking it sounds a lot like the Teletext services you might already have on your TV you'd be right - up to a point. Information is presented in a very similar way, but Prestel is far more flexible and allows you to do lots of things your TV could never manage. It's faster for a start (you don't have to flick through every page under the sun to get to the one you want, like you do with Teletext) and features all sorts of additional services like shopping and banking by computer, financial news and live football reports updated as they happen (and unavailable on your TV). The big difference though is that it's interactive - you don't just watch passively, but get a chance to respond and join in. That's enough about Prestel. What's Micronet? Micronet is a special section of Prestel put aside for computer users. You access it with your computer, a modem (a piece of hardware that plugs into the back of your computer and allows it to talk to other computers down a phone line) and some communications software - and then the world's your oyster, basically. Alright, so I've plugged in my modem, paid up my Micronet subscription, dialled the local phone number and typed in my password. What happens next? Whatever you want. The first thing you see is the Micronet contents page (now redesigned to be clearer and more interesting), allowing you to go just about anywhere in the 'host' computer at Micronet. For instance, you've got a daily updated computer news service which you can read, almost like those in a paper magazine. Then there are the individual 'magazines' for each popular make of home computer which are updated regularly, including (of course) one for the Spectrum. This isn't much like the mag you're reading at the moment - there are no piccies for instance - but it has the advantage that you can communicate with the 'editor' and other readers far more easily. Type in your response, send it by electronic 'posting' to the relevant box number and you'll see it appear (with a reply) as part of the magazine within a day or so (and often a lot quicker than that!). Each electronic 'magazine' has a journalist editing and updating it on a full-time basis from a computer terminal at home somewhere, so it's quite a professional service, and nothing takes very long to see print. As well as the official magazines (like the Spectrum Micromag we've just been talking about) there are the Special Interest Groups publications, run by individual Micronet users as a hobby in their spare time. Spectacular is the Spectrum one, but there are lots of others as well. I've heard you can get free games off Micronet. How? Yes, it's true - Micronet provided oodles of free programs for all makes of computer which you can download directly from the mainframe into your Speccy at home (and then save to tape for future use if you want). Of course, the idea that you'll get all this free software is one of the most appealing things about the whole business, and the folks at Micronet freely admit it's one of the main reasons many people join in the first place. But (but! BUT!) they insist it isn't the reason they stay on! It's not that the programs aren't any good - for instance, CodeMasters have a deal whereby some of their games get into 'The Net', as does good old YS which provides the Program Pitstop listings to Micronet users - it's just that there's lots of other stuff about Micronet that's even more appealing! (The software is mainly Public Domain stuff though, so don't expect to be able to download the likes of Rainbow Islands for free or anything.) But I can get information from 'real' magazines and I can buy my own software. What's so unique about Micronet? Why, the interactive aspect, of course! Micronet allows you to talk to other computer users - oodles of them (especially from around 6.30 in the evening onwards, when most of them come 'on line'). In some aspects it's almost like one of those chatlines where you can make new friends down the phone, only it's cheaper, you get people much more likely to be a bit interesting, and you don't get cut off when you try to swop addresses! Since you can't see or hear them (obviously) and have no idea who they really are (unless they tell you), it can become a very strange, abstract sort of communication - almost like there are loads of little people living inside your computer! Spooky! If you want a more private conversation you can go into little 'rooms' within Dialtalk (which is what Micronet calls its conferencing system) to talk with a smaller group of people about any particular topic you like. You can keep these rooms open (so anyone can come and join in) or close them to keep everyone else out - it's up to you. You can even let someone come into your room but have them on 'mute' so they can't actually say anything if you're feeling particularly mean - or they're particularly annoying! Times for this sort of thing can be arranged via the electronic noticeboard, as can any other news you wish to spread about a bit. For instance, if you decide to set up your own specialist magazine you can do so on the Gallery facility (self-publishing within Micronet), then let everybody know through the noticeboard. Some specialised mags are about very involved computer stuff, but there are trivial things too - soap opera updates, anyone? What about the big multiuser games on Micronet? These are incredible things - giant multiuser adventure games almost like the world's biggest FRP extravaganza, but much more convenient (because you can turn it on or off at will!). Shades was the first biggie and it's still going strong - a Lord Of The Rings style fantasy adventure where your job is to find your way about and collect treasure. Great fun. And it's recently been joined by Trash, along similar lines but with a Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy style science fiction theme. It really is like entering another world. As you go off on your quest you keep coming across other people doing exactly the same thing - they might help you or hinder you, and you'll never know if 'Megrim the Dwarf', say, is really a 13-year-old boy from Aberdeen, a 50-year-old accountant from Scunthorpe or your own next-door neighbour. It might even be someone famous - you just never know! There's the more strategy-based Starnet game too (a giant PBM strategy game with each player taking the role of a starship captain on a mission to overthrow the emperor and rule the universe), the gambling game Casino (featuring electronic Blackjack, Roulette and so on) and the quiz-based Games City (the only one that actually offers real prizes). Hurrah! That's all very well, but all this was going on when Snouty first wrote about Micronet a year and a half ago, What are these recent developments you were going on about? Well, some of it, like Trash, Casino, the new contents page and so on I've already mentioned, but behind the scenes things have been changing too. For a start, Micronet has been bought by British Telecom (it used to be a private concern, though BT has had an interest in it for some time) and 1989 saw it move to new offices and conduct lots of market research - finding out what people liked about the service, what they disliked and what was missing. (Things like the design of the pages and making it easier to find your way around have been changed as a direct result of this.) The mailbox system (where people can leave messages for you and vice versa) has been improved too - no longer do you have to delete the last message before a new one can come in. Basically, it's become more user-friendly. It's become a lot more popular too - when it first started the users were mainly Spectrum and BBC owners, now it's just about everybody. People access the system with PCs, STs, Amigas, anything really. (Even a few SAM Coupes!) How much does it all cost? It's not actually that much. A subscription to Micronet is £20 a quarter, with connection charges free from midnight to 8am (if you don't believe in going to bed), off-peak (6pm from midnight Monday to Saturday and all day Sunday - when most people use it) at 1p a minute, and at peak hours (during the daytime) 7p a minute. Once you're connected, use of electronic mail, Trash, Shades and most of the other services (though not all - Prestel's news service costs a penny a page) is free too. Free modems! Yes, it's true! Flick over to page 69 and you'll see one extremely wazzy little compo whereby you can win a free (one more time - FREE!) modem! And so can 299 other lucky Spec-chums! It's amazing!
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