News Archive

16th July 2010 Rob Just a little note to point readers at our sister site teletext.org.uk where I've been putting up a load of old teletext pages that I've come across or been sent while hunting for viewdata pages.

9th July 2010 Rob Whoops. Fixed broken link on last news item... I've also added the last news, letters and Editor's Letters to the Micronet 800 page.  Thanks gARetH!

4th July 2010 Rob A little treat - an entire Micronet Celebrity Chatline, this one on the occasion of their 1989 move of offices.  Thanks gARetH!

26th June 2010 Rob A new Micronet brochure from about 1983 - and this is something rather spectacular!  Along with it's cover letter and a form to have a new "jack socket" installed there's also a £25 discount voucher.  Fantastic!

24th June 2010 Rob Added a bit about Prestel Mailbox and Telex Link to the main Prestel Introduction page, together with an information and price leaflet.  £5 to send a telex to the QE2 !

23rd June 2010 Rob ..and an extra tidbit to make up for so little new content recently: a press release announcing Bee-Lines, the new online magazine for Acorn owners.  Also on the Micronet 800 page.

23rd June 2010 Rob Added "12 ways to profit from Micronet 800" and their software submission procedure to the Micronet 800 page.  Some slight additions to the text on there while I was editing, but I think it needs a good tidy up. Look out for that.

22nd June 2010 Rob I think all the pages with PDFs on have now been updated. Let me know if you find any with just boring download links! ""==":)"? ":)":""

12th June 2010 Rob Oops Two months since the last update.  I've been busy trying to organise the site and improve the appearance and layout.  A big chunk of new code now creates nice thumbnails of the PDF files so you can see before you click!  I've re-created some of the earlier PDF files to allow for this, which has also improved their appearance.  First page to really benefit from this is the Prestel Ephemera page.  Watch out for more pages getting the makeover!

12th April 2010 Rob Today, a small handful of Prestel system pages. Us mere mortals should not have seen these :-)  Also added some screens to the other Prestel Screenshots pages.

5th April 2010 Rob A small but perhaps useful option has been added to most pages - the option to bookmark pages on your favourite social networking site.  Spread the word!

2nd April 2010 Rob You can now visit the actual Ringworld BBS that used to run in the 1980s, restored and accessible via the Internet!  

30th March 2010 Rob Some real goodies to come in the near future, I promise, but here-and-now, freshly found tucked inside a 1987 Prestel bill, the very first issue of Log On, The Micronet Members Magazine.  

23rd March 2010 Rob Two newsletters, thanks Ant!  From late 1990, Micronet's Log On and Prestel's Going Live.  

11th March 2010 Rob Just some background tinkering been happening today, but it should make the screenshot and interactive pages somewhat faster to use! Let me know if you find any funnies with anything!

10th March 2010 Rob The reason it's been quiet over the least few days can now be revealed - most site content pages now allow you to submit comments!  Please feel free to do so, but keep them (fairly) relevant and SPAM free!  Don't forget the Forum for anything more lengthy you may wish to share.

7th March 2010 Rob Thanks to Chris forthe scans - two updates to the Prestel Brochures page - a 1990 tariff, and a brochure for Shades, a MUG !

5th March 2010 Rob For your entertainment, we have the second issue of Logon: The Micronet Members Magazine. Among others, this has an interview with Micromouse in it!

4th March 2010 Rob Today you can visit another small segment of Micronet - this time The Midnight Micronetters Club.  Happy Browsing!

2nd March 2010 Rob Today we have possibly the largest addition to the site so far.  The Dwarfen Realm was a viewdata BBS that ran until late 1990.  It's only a brief page about it, but we have the entire service available for you to browse!  No routes to nowhere in THIS database!  Thanks, Peter, for letting me put it back online!

2nd March 2010 Rob In other news, I've re-jigged the scripts that handle the screen displays so that they don't use an "iframe" any more when viewing frames as text.  This should make absolutely no difference to what us humans see, but should make the site much more friendly to the search engines.  If you run across any glitches, please Contact me!

2nd March 2010 Rob Today we have two updates relating to The Silicon Village. We've got the New Residents Handbook for you (Thanks David for the scan!) and a copy of one of the special interest groups, Forcefield Direct - All the news for the latest 1993 consoles! Thanks, Ant!

1st March 2010 Rob Two little updates for you today. (Yes I know it's the second update dated today - the one below was only just after midnight this morning!) A 1990 magazine article about the closure of Micronet's chatlines, and, for the stamp collectors among you, the 1982 First Day Cover with stamps celebrating Prestel as a feat of British Technology!  Excellent!  Thanks David!

1st March 2010 Rob Added a 1990 Micronet brochure and the 1991 letter informing us of their closure.. Thanks David and Ant.


27th February 2010 Rob These have been up on YouTube for some time, but thanks to Ant for finding them:  An original Prestel TV advert, and a couple of demonstrations snipped from TV programmes.  Find them on the new Videos page.  

26th February 2010 Rob Anybody in Birmingham remember Club 403?  An innovative service, this was!  Read all about it..

25th February 2010 Rob Added a few more screenshots to the British Rail section. Check your timetables!

25th February 2010 Rob Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes, but today we have another interactive offering for you - the actual TMMC/Micronet Virgin Users' pages, explaining how to use the system! Thanks, Ant!

20th February 2010 Rob A new article about a service many of you will never have heard of. Silicon Village aimed to take over the niche left by Micronet, but it didn't quite succeed.  See it now, with full interactive access to their 1993 demonstration database!

18th February 2010 Rob Four more issues of Log On, the Micronet magazine.  Thanks to Ant for scanning and sending these!

17th February 2010 Rob An update worth waiting for?  Thanks, Ant, for the data files.  Our first interactive viewdata database - From 1989, access the Micronet 800 demonstration right here in your browser.

16th February 2010 Rob Apparently the ZX81 modem did appear eventually. Thanks Ant!  

14th February 2010 Rob Added a letter from Micronet about using the ZX81 to connect up (I don't think this ever materialised), ditto for the BBC Micro (these did) and a letter about the launch of Prestel Microcomputing.  Also on the brochure page.

13th February 2010 Rob Added a rarity - a pre-launch Micronet brochure and cover letter.

13th February 2010 Rob Finished my tinkering with the gallery sofware. You can now navigate about a gallery when looking at the full size or text versions.

11th February 2010 Rob No new content, but I've been tinkering with the gallery scripts.  The screenshot pages should look a lot nicer and more in touch with the site style now.  I'll try and transfer the original gallery pages to the new format now later.

7th February 2010 Rob Added a brochure and associated leaflets and newsletter about Prestel Travel.  There's a lot of detail on how Prestel actually works in this one: I'm not sure if the brochure was aimed at Travel Agents or the holiday operators' IT departments! It seems to switch from one level to the other.  I've added the newsletter to the Ephemera page too.

6th February 2010 Rob Two more issues, April and July 1986, of Prestel Offline added.  The April one also has a newsletter from Micronet 800 included.  See how popular the chatlines were..

5th February 2010 Rob  Slight tinkering with categories.  I've added a "Hobby Systems" category, within which I can list multiple BBSs, rather than each having their own category.  Only the commercial or major services will have a category of their own now. I think this will allow me to cover more systems without cluttering up the menu too much.

3rd February 2010 Rob Added two information packs from PVS suppliers in the 1980s, Datasolve and Metrotel.

2nd February 2010 Rob In a break from browsing my old floppies (loads more screens from Prestel to go through..) I've scanned and added a triplet of newsletters, creating a new page Ephemera for these and other similar items to appear on.  Also, a little tidying up and re-writing of some pages.

31st January 2010 Rob A totally unexpected find today, which I just had to put up immediately.  Viewdata graphics at their best.  Head on over and read a Classic Dickens Tale

30th January 2010 Rob Yet more screenshots added to the Prestel Gallery page.  This time the subject is "Prestel Mailbox".

29th January 2010 Rob A whole new page of screenshots added to the Prestel Gallery page.  This uses the new software, so should be accessible to text-only viewers and screen reader users.

29th January 2010 Rob Virus outbreak, sorry about that.  Hopefully all clear now.

28th January 2010 Rob Well what do you know? I found an actual screen from Bextel! It's not very exciting, but it gave me the opportunity to try out the new Gallery software.  Take a look.

10th January 2010 Rob Yes I know it's been quiet.  Added a factframe to Prestel gallery.  I've also been looking hard to find anyone with any remaining copies of the original Prestel system software or database, but it seems that nowhere I've tried that has answered me  has anything any more.

5th October 2009 Rob Added a magazine article about the launch of Micronet 800.

4th October 2009 Rob Added some information about Bextel, Bexley's 1986 PVS service.  Previously, added placeholder for ccl4, and have made space for Haven and Heaven; still need to add content for those.

27th September 2009 Rob Here's an interesting one - the Prestel "Becoming an Information Provider" pack.  See how much it cost to be an online pioneer in 1983..

25th September 2009 Rob Added a List of Prestel Information Providers.

24th September 2009 Rob Several new screenshots up in the Prestel section, including the first couple of several non-public pages!

23rd September 2009 Rob Following several weeks of downtime caused by a hardware failure at my webhost, we have now moved to a new, larger and hopefully more reliable hosting provider.  I'll get back on track with the updates shortly.

21st August 2009 Rob Another Micronet 800 brochure upped.. sorry I'm slowing down!

11th August 2009 Rob Micronet 800 brochure up now. Not perfect, but we're getting better! Also re-created the 1979 Prestel PDF and it's a lot better now.

10th August 2009 Rob Been playing with some new software.  So, there's now a 1982 Prestel Brochure scanned, OCRd, proofed, and uploaded.

8th August 2009 Rob Many minor edits. Contact form now working.

6th August 2009 Rob First brochure scanned and uploaded.

3rd August 2009 Rob CMS Implemented and first content uploaded.

13th July 2009 Rob Viewdata.org.uk domain registered.