Welcome
Welcome to viewdata.org.uk.It's over 30 years since the GPO launched Prestel on the unsuspecting public. Over the fifteen or so years of it's existence, it became everything that the Internet is today, and spawned an entire industry of competing and complimentary services, plus more than a few hobby based systems, not to mention a multitude of companies dedicated to supporting those publishing or using the services. For the most part, outside some specialist applications, these have all now disappeared without trace. Our aim here is to celebrate this industry, and not let what was a revolutionary concept be totally forgotten.
Being on-line, 1982 styleWe're especially disappointed that there was no celebration of the 30th anniversary; apparently nobody cares any more about such an important milestone in the history of "being on-line". We appreciate that many people will consider Viewdata to have been a dead-end technology, but it laid the groundwork for much of what was to come. Would the UK have become such a major player in the provision of on-line services were it not for the experience already gained by many companies in running consumer-facing online services? Who knows, but it must have had an impact.
On viewdata.org.uk, we celebrate all aspects of Viewdata in the UK, and beyond. Obviously we're concentrating on it's heyday of the 1980s, however that doesn't stop us from covering current systems too!
We have screenshots, brochures, memories and stories, downloads, and even interactive access to demonstrations. We plan access to systems that are still running, and emulations of past services.
We've got examples from commercial systems (Prestel being the biggest) and from non-commercial and hobbyist systems; we're not fussy! We would especially like to add information from systems which were not generally publicly accessible, as those are the services most likely to have vanished without trace.
Contribute
Please feel free to contribute anything you have! If you were an IP on Prestel or elsewhere, and have a copy of your pages from the time, we're able to republish them in an interactive format. Individual screenshots are still welcome, of course, as are brochures and other documents. Old backup tapes of entire systems would be especially welcome, however we're also very interested in publishing your memories and experiences of being involved with, or just using, viewdata systems. To write privately, the contact page gives our details, or you may wish to contribute to our forum where you can reminisce in public.We're happy to exchange links with other relevant websites! Just Contact us with the details!
Latest News
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.
Older News
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