Before the web: Teletext, Minitel & Gopher
The web did not arrive in an empty room. From the mid-1970s, millions of people already read news, weather and timetables on screens: teletext rode along with the TV signal, France's Minitel sat by the phone in millions of homes, and in 1991 university Gopher menus linked campuses across the Internet. All three are live below. Click a screen and use its keys.
Teletext UK & Europe, 1974–2012
Pages were broadcast in a loop inside the TV signal. Type a page number and the set waits for it to come round: watch the header count.
P100 NORTHTEXT 100 Mon 05 Oct 18:42/07
The information service from
Northvale Television NTV 1968-1989
INDEX page
News headlines ..............101
Weather map .................102
NTV tonight .................103
Sport ....................... 140
Travel & ferries ............ 150
Subtitles ................... 888
NEW Harvest Fair results on 115
Key in a page number on your
handset, or press a coloured key.
Northtext: always on, never sleeps
NEWS 101
Council approves Northvale ring road
Work to start in spring, 1,200 homes
on the route will get letters. 104
Rail fares to rise 6% in January
Season tickets hit hardest. 105
Lighthouse keepers stand down
Greywater light goes automatic
after 112 years. 106
Record crowds at Harvest Fair
Giant marrow wins by a whisker.115
Ferry strike called off
Sailings normal from 0600. 150
More news 104 Regional 160
WEATHER 102
9
11
12
8
Kirkby
Vale
Port Ash
TONIGHT
Clear and
chilly with
frost in
the valleys
Min 2C
TOMORROW
Bright then
showers from
the west.
Max 14C
Pollen: low
Shipping forecast 108 Ski 109
NTV TONIGHT 103
1800 Northvale News
1830 Wheel of Words quiz
1900 Harbour Lane Dot's secret is out
1930 Top Tunes Countdown
2000 FILM: The Glass Comet (1979)
Sci-fi drama. A comet hangs
over a seaside town for a week.
2140 News at Twenty to Ten
2210 Late Lines phone-in
2340 Closedown
Subtitled programmes on 888
QUIZ What year did NTV first go
on air? Press REVEAL for the answer.
Answer: 1968, from the Kirkby mast.
Minitel France, 1982–2012
A free terminal from the phone company. You dialled a code like 3615, typed a service name, and paid by the minute. Navigation was a row of function keys.
3615 METEOVILLEC
Gopher Internet, 1991–1995
The University of Minnesota's menu system. Every line is a link to a document, a directory or a search, on any server in the world. Use the arrow keys and Enter, u to go up, or just click.
Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Root gopher server: gopher.lakeside-state.edu
Press ? for Help, q to Quit Page: 1/1 Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Campus Information
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Dining Hall Menus
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Computing Center
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Weather
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Other Gopher and Information Servers
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
All the Gopher Servers in the World
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menuAbout the Lakeside State University Gopher (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the campus-wide information system (CWIS) for Lakeside State University, running on a NeXT cube in the basement of Hall 4. Gopher lets you browse information on computers all over the Internet through simple menus. Directories end in "/", documents end in ".", and items marked <?> let you search. Questions? Send mail to [email protected]. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Academic Calendar 1992-93 (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Aug 31 Classes begin Sep 7 Labor Day, no classes Nov 25 Thanksgiving recess begins at noon Dec 14 Final exams begin Jan 19 Spring semester classes begin ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Parking Regulations (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Lots A-D require a blue permit. Lot E is open after 5 pm. Permits are $40 per semester at the Campus Police office. Do NOT park in the Computing Center loading dock. We mean it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Monday (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Lunch: Chili, cornbread, salad bar Dinner: Baked cod, rice pilaf, green beans Vegetarian: Lentil loaf ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Tuesday (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Lunch: Sloppy joes, tater tots Dinner: Spaghetti night (all you can eat) Vegetarian: Pasta primavera ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Dial-in modem numbers (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2400 baud: 555-0140 (16 lines) 9600 baud: 555-0188 (4 lines, V.32) Settings: 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. At the "Lakeside>" prompt type: telnet gopher ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Lab hours this semester (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hall 4 (Macs and NeXTs): Mon-Thu 8am-2am, Fri 8am-6pm Library (VT220 terminals): open library hours Please do not play netrek when people are waiting. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
How to get an Internet account (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bring your student ID to Room 112, Hall 4. You will get a username, an email address and 1 MB of disk space. Accounts are for academic use. Please read the acceptable use policy before posting to USENET. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Lakeside forecast (updated hourly) (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- TONIGHT... Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 30s. TOMORROW... Sunny. Highs around 55. West wind 10 mph. THURSDAY... Chance of rain. Highs in the upper 40s. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Lake ice report (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- No ice on the lake yet. The Outing Club reminds everyone that the ice is not safe until the Club says it is safe. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
What is a "World-Wide Web"? (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- A note from the Computing Center, March 1993: Some of you have asked about the "World-Wide Web", a hypertext system from a physics lab in Europe. It mixes text and links in one document instead of using menus like Gopher. There is a line-mode browser on the VAX; type "www" to try it. We will keep running Gopher for the foreseeable future. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Connecting... (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Connecting to remote server... Connection refused by host. (In 1993 this would have taken you to another campus.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
+-----------------------LAKECAT------------------------+ | | | Warning!!!!!, you are about to leave the Internet | | Gopher program and connect to another host. If you | | get stuck press the control key and the ] key, and | | then type quit | | | | Connecting to lakecat.lakeside-state.edu using telnet| | | | [Cancel - ^G] [Connect - Enter] | +------------------------------------------------------+
telnet lakecat.lakeside-state.edu (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Trying 192.0.2.17... Connected to lakecat. LAKECAT Online Catalog Enter A for AUTHOR, T for TITLE, S for SUBJECT (The museum does not open real telnet sessions.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Phone Book (CSO) (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Lakeside State University phone book server (qi) name: Computing Center Help Desk phone: 555-0100 email: [email protected] location: Hall 4, Room 112 ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Campus Map (GIF, 41k) (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This item is a picture. Your terminal cannot display it. Save it to your account with "s", or fetch it with the Mac client in the Hall 4 lab. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
Gopher client for the Mac (BinHex) (text) ---------------------------------------------------------------- (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) :$f*TEQKPH#jdCA0d,R0TG!"6594%8dP8)3#3"!&m!*!%Esb6... ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Press RETURN to continue, u to go up]
+-----------------Search Lakeside Gopherspace-----------------+ | | | Words to search for | | | || | | | [Cancel ^G] [Accept - Enter] | +-------------------------------------------------------------+
Internet Gopher Information Client v1.12
Search Lakeside Gopherspace: gopher
Press ? for Help, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
[u] Up a menu