Favourite "Old Internet" stuff - Let's reminisce about the Wild West days

[Spruce Supremacist]

I miss old mobile Internet, and by that I mean WAP era mobile Net.
When I was a young kid during mid 00s my computer access was heavily regulated, so I managed to find refuge by accessing the Internet through my tiny budget Nokia phone. Countless games and images were downloaded and forums browsed on WAP sites, one website I remember to this day is DedoWAP, which had the biggest selection of .jar games I could find back then. WAP sites were also my first introduction to erotica, imagine that.

I have a very fond memory of downloading TibiaME onto my Nokia 3220 and playing it online, and then having a completely mind-blowing moment of encountering and interacting with another player from my country (it's a small one, so it was an unlikely occurence in itself) -- "this is a real person, somewhere out there, from my country, on his phone, interacting with me, in REAL TIME!". The fact that I was interacting with someone through the Internet on some fringe ~120kB J2ME game that I downloaded off of some random wapsite, on my phone was completely mind-boggling and magical to me.

Also, around that time browser-based MMOs were pretty popular locally (think Ikariam/Travian/BiteFight/etc.), so I'd go out of my way to load and log into the desktop version of their websites on my dinky feature phone, which would take minutes at a time to load a single page, not to mention the page formatting being all fucked and STILL managing to play the game this way and enjoy it in the process. Goes to show how little JavaScript you needed to make things work back then.
Good times...

 

[AWizard]

.....so I'd go out of my way to load and log into the desktop version of their websites on my dinky feature phone.....

And now every website is formatted for smartphones even if you use a desktop.

 

[Tequila Jong]

Was perusing the internet and came across these. I hadn't realised the pages of eBaumsworld in 2002/2003 were burned into my memory to such an extent.

Spoiler: Images

 

[Shake]

I miss forums in general. It was definitely much better for arguments especially with the ability to elaborate on your thoughts and add inline embeds for sources. That's why this site is easier to read than a lot of social media to me. Of course the other day I came across an old forum weapons playlist and looking at all the references made me realize I'm just old. I also have not joined a forum in years because most people aren't trustworthy enough to handle all that user info.

 

[Elysian]

WAP sites were also my first introduction to erotica, imagine that.

This is giving me PTSD flashblacks to discovering fanfiction.net on my Nintendo DSi web browser lmao

 

[AWizard]

This is giving me PTSD flashblacks to discovering fanfiction.net on my Nintendo DSi web browser lmao

I forget how old the DS is, it's still new in my mind.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

I forget how old the DS is, it's still new in my mind.

At least many of the games have aged pretty well. A DS with a flashcart was fucking fantastic during its lifetime (and kinda still is).

 

[anustart76]

At least many of the games have aged pretty well. A DS with a flashcart was fucking fantastic during its lifetime (and kinda still is).

I have a New 2DS XL and a DS Flashcart, which is great because I can play so many games on it from both libraries. The entire Mario & Luigi RPG series is playable that way since the first one has that remake.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

I have a New 2DS XL and a DS Flashcart, which is great because I can play so many games on it from both libraries. The entire Mario & Luigi RPG series is playable that way since the first one has that remake.

Same here, though I've taken lately to using the Drastic emulator on a Galaxy Tab, as an Android tablet is (in some situations anyway) a decent option if you want what amounts to a bigger screen DS experience. Worked well for DQIX anyway.

 

[White Room]

Have any of you guys read the Something Awful thread from 9/11? It's an interesting read. http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911 SATHREAD/

 

[anustart76]

Same here, though I've taken lately to using the Drastic emulator on a Galaxy Tab, as an Android tablet is (in some situations anyway) a decent option if you want what amounts to a bigger screen DS experience. Worked well for DQIX anyway.

Only problem with emulators on mobile devices is trying to hit button combinations. It makes more action-oriented games harder to play.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

Only problem with emulators on mobile devices is trying to hit button combinations. It makes more action-oriented games harder to play.

Yeah, but it at least seems to be working okay for turn based games, and god knows the DS had a lot of those.

 

[NoReturn]

This is new but feels Old Internet: https://kiwifarms.net/threads/happy-halloween.172984/

 

[Anonitolia]

Have any of you guys read the Something Awful thread from 9/11? It's an interesting read. http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911 SATHREAD/

Dude, reading live 9/11 threads is practically a hobby of mine. It's so bizarre to see people actually caring about something like this instead of cheering on the spectacle or talking about how it was totally deserved. I still remember the first one I stumbled upon, when I was probably 14. People were actually mourning and some dude got banned from the forum for making a joke while the towers were collapsing.

It's such a stark parallel to the internet of today it's depressing. But my fascination with the different climate offsets any long-lasting negativity that kind of stuff could bring. Looking into an older time does that to you, I suppose.

EDIT: Here's one of the threads I was collecting. I find it notable because within less than a page some dude starts the "death to America" chanting and is absolutely destroyed within minutes. Nowadays someone like that would probably be given way more leeway.

 

[Elysian]

Avatar Dress-up Forums were the shit back in the 2000s/early 2010s. I'm not even talking about Gaia Online but instead like obscure Gaia Online knockoffs. Menewsha, Tinierme, Crysandrea, Trisphee, Syndrone Online, Bunny Kingdom - it was all rad as hell. I miss that area of the internet so much.

I know the Crysandrea source code was made open source after its death so if you draw your own avatars and items you can make your own avatar dress up forum fairly easily.
https://github.com/tylerdiaz/Crysandrea

Imagine if everyone's KF avatar was a cartoon kiwi bird that you could spend your internet stickers to dress up lmao. I suppose then it'd attract furries though, because nothing can be wholesome anymore.

 

[Feefee81093]

I miss Vampire Freaks.

 

[Triple Flutz]

I miss Vampire Freaks.

Good call. Not to damper your memory of the site at all since all large websites are going to have some psychos, but I remember one of my first forays into Internet archival tools being around the time Kimveer Gill shot up Dawson college, maybe mid-2000s or something? His entire Vampire Freaks post catalogue had been preserved and it was incredibly interesting. I ended up browsing it for fun once in a while beyond the whole grisly shooting thing.

 

[The Reddest Red 0ne]

I miss old mobile Internet, and by that I mean WAP era mobile Net.
When I was a young kid during mid 00s my computer access was heavily regulated, so I managed to find refuge by accessing the Internet through my tiny budget Nokia phone. Countless games and images were downloaded and forums browsed on WAP sites, one website I remember to this day is DedoWAP, which had the biggest selection of .jar games I could find back then. WAP sites were also my first introduction to erotica, imagine that.

I have a very fond memory of downloading TibiaME onto my Nokia 3220 and playing it online, and then having a completely mind-blowing moment of encountering and interacting with another player from my country (it's a small one, so it was an unlikely occurence in itself) -- "this is a real person, somewhere out there, from my country, on his phone, interacting with me, in REAL TIME!". The fact that I was interacting with someone through the Internet on some fringe ~120kB J2ME game that I downloaded off of some random wapsite, on my phone was completely mind-boggling and magical to me.

Also, around that time browser-based MMOs were pretty popular locally (think Ikariam/Travian/BiteFight/etc.), so I'd go out of my way to load and log into the desktop version of their websites on my dinky feature phone, which would take minutes at a time to load a single page, not to mention the page formatting being all fucked and STILL managing to play the game this way and enjoy it in the process. Goes to show how little JavaScript you needed to make things work back then.
Good times...

Before I had a smartphone I used some crappy off-brand flip phone my parents gave me (and paid the bills for since I was like 16). I figured out how to access the internet* on it and ran up like a $200 bill in about an hour. Not even kidding. Needless to say they were fucking pissed.

*Crappiest browser layout (if you could even call it that) and speeds that were honestly lower than 56k dialup. Good times.

 

[AWizard]

It's such a stark parallel to the internet of today it's depressing.

I don't want to ruin your perception of 00s internet but IIRC there was a popular image macro of a photoshopped 9/11 image with "Terrorists Win" from CS GO not long after the event. I mean, it probably came from SA forums. I'm pretty sure there's like a 9/11 image macro thread somewhere in the archives. The 00s internet years weren't the called "Wild West" years for nothing. Edgy discussions, art/content and pictures of terrible events was commonplace (enough in certain places/forums).

What you're talking is something different. I can't quite describe it (especially with the headache I've got right now) but a crappy example/analogy would be the un-PC/racist/homophobic/etc posts on 4chan way back in the didn't contain the kind of vitriol and bile you get from similar posts of (post-2014) 4chan today.

 

[Anonitolia]

I don't want to ruin your perception of 00s internet but IIRC there was a popular image macro of a photoshopped 9/11 image with "Terrorists Win" from CS GO not long after the event. I mean, it probably came from SA forums. I'm pretty sure there's like a 9/11 image macro thread somewhere in the archives. The 00s internet years weren't the called "Wild West" years for nothing. Edgy discussions, art/content and pictures of terrible events was commonplace (enough in certain places/forums).

I'm well aware that those times were edgier- it's actually part of why I missed it- the point is that back then you could still be genuinely concerned or even vaguely nationalistic without immediately being dogpiled by the opposition for having values or supporting something they don't. People made a bunch of edgy 9/11 memes, sure- and even while it was happening, there were still a few idiots shouting "death to america" or expressing similar sentiment- but those memes didn't have nearly as much influence. You wouldn't see (a shit load of) news articles (from """reputable""" outlets) published about how some assholes online were making memes, you wouldn't have everyone getting into fights over those memes as a result. If you did, they'd be in smaller groups of people that were insulated enough not to totally take over the internet.


It's very late here, so hopefully I'm still coherent, but basically- from what I can tell, things were far less constantly connected. Even when this kind of shit existed back then, you wouldn't see it dominating twitter for a week and making discussion of the topic a living hell, you wouldn't see people getting angry or sad or anxious over stupid shit like it (on a massive scale), and you still had any chance to express your opinions on it without facing immediate rejection on the grounds of some stupid -ism of the week.
Granted, this started to disappear by the (very) late 2000s when the news started sticking its nose in the internet's shit and social media began to take off, but I'm mainly referring to early-000s internet from before all this (I'd say like 2000-2006 or 7ish).

This is coming from my perception, anyways. I was barely old enough to use the internet during that decade, so most of what I know comes from a lot of research i've done in my free time, testimonies from older people, and general atmosphere I pick up from on older sites.