Before Internet technologies which are still going on and already dead!

This time, I hope I have correctly understood the task! So today we will talk about technologies BEFORE the Internet. For the basis - two stories, the technology that is still alive and that were replaced by others as a result of evolution. Frankly, well nothing creeps into your head about the days before the internet, and that is it so far has been important except the computers and game consoles (well let it be console) - about them we will speak  at the second part of my chapter. First - the Internet before Internet (FIDO).

Root Fidonet network was initiated in 1984 by Americans Tom Jennings and John Medillom who were engaged in collaborative writing software BBS called Fido. They live on opposite ends of the continent, and perhaps this is what prompted them to suggest to add to the system module, which provides the organization an automatic transmission over a telephone line without human intervention data. About what happens next - the word Tom Jennings.

"At the time of the first test Fidonet network consisted of only two components - my site Fido # 1 in Los Angeles and the node Fido # 2 John Medilla in Baltimore, John and I spent the initial work on the creation and testing of Fidonet Hikakih specific purposes us before.. is not set:. it was interesting just to make sure the network performance as hams - in performance devised for the circuit of fun However, the network quickly proved its usefulness, and the exchange between us Fidonet messages instead of phone calls in-line to each other on the BBS or costly negotiations voice soon became a matter of course".

Around June 1984 saw the publication of the seventh version of the program Fido, It was not yet the message routing, error handling, logging and other good things will come later. Everything was very simple - to create a mail package was made a call to connect and package passed. The idea and implementation of Fidonet liking operators BBS, and started an intensive network growth. In August 1984, there were 30 in Fidonet telecommunication nodes, in February 1985 - 160, in the beginning of 1987 - 2000, in the beginning of 1992 - 20,000, in February 1995 - more than 37,000 units! Number of Point Fidonet users and BBS, having access to email and ekhokonferentsii Fidonet, without incalculable; According to rough estimates, there are at least half a million. Fidonet technology proved to be so popular that it is based on the set up and operate hundreds of amateur and commercial telecommunications networks are compatible with Fidonet software; (*) many of them are gateways to Fidonet. In Fidonet network as there are a large number of gateways to the Internet network. Even at a very early stage of development in the Fidonet address structure was laid and multilevel hierarchy that allowed to further develop the principles of decentralized management and support network development.

Since the inception of its Fidonet technology standards developed by the members of the network. At first they were just additional features introduced by the creators of the first programs for Fidonet; but over time the growth of the network called, on the one hand, the need for more stringent standards, and on the other hand, steadily increased the number of members of Fidonet proposed changes and additions to the Fidonet technology. In order to solve the problems was created Committee on Fidonet Technology Standards (Fidonet Technology Standards Comittee, FTSC), which during its existence has developed on the basis of the numerous proposals of members of the network a few dozen different standards Fidonet technology components.

Initially Fidonet network was designed for the exchange of personal e-mail between the nodes, in fact - between the nodes by the operators. Soon ehokonferentsy technology was developed; This technology has allowed for the first time to combine mailboxes scattered BBS and to create for them a common system of electronic exchange of information. ehokonferentsy Technology has given a powerful impetus to the development of a network Fidonet, and themselves BBS - software developers BBS and e-mail Fidonet programs began to provide in their products the ability to integrate BBS and Fidonet nodes on a single computer, and Fidonet looked like a "network of BBS": in most of the Fidonet BBS nodes have been deployed, and back, most BBS sought and obtained an address in the network Fidonet. And now about 80 per cent of the sites Fidonet provide access to their resources not only to other network nodes automatically, but users BBS online. Fidonet in principle still exists, but it is already past. With the advent of cheap internet on her replaced forums, facebook, chat, ICQ, viber, Skype, and so on and so.

OK - something that is still developing and is not going to stop, and began with the era when the network was, but cheap Internet have to wait and wait - the console.

The first generation of game consoles.

The beginning of the console era assumed since 1972, when it went on sale the first game.

Magnavox Odyssey is considered to be the world's first game console. Magnavox Odyssey 100 was released into the market in autumn 1975. It was cheaper than the previous one, but the presentation of this model was the May 24, 1972, and in August of the same year it became available to buyers. Unlike modern gaming systems, the first console had no chips or microprocessors. Work Magnavox Odyssey was based on diode-transistor logic. She had just two games. This was followed by several consoles from this manufacturer. Magnavox Odyssey Magnavox Odyssey 200 and 300, the latter of whom worked on the chip General Instruments AY-3-8500. In 1976, we entered the market MNintendo Color TV Gameagnavox Magnavox Odyssey 100Odyssey 400 Magnavox Odyssey 500, the second pleased customers fairly advanced color graphics. In 1977 we saw the light several consoles: Magnavox Odyssey 2000, 3000 and 4000. In 1975 and 1976 also came Pong consoles from Atari and Coleco Telstar. In 1977 there was the first console from Nintendo - Nintendo Color TV Game.

The second generation of game consoles (the appearance of the first 8-bit consoles).

Second generation era began in 1976. The founders of this era is considered Fairchild Channel F - the first video game console, which has worked on the cartridges containing the program. The prefix is ​​based on a rather complex microprocessor Fairchild F8. Imagine the following technical specifications: Processor 1.79 MHz RAM: 64 bytes, and a resolution of 128 × 64.

Atari 2600 - the console is also worth noting. It was released in 1977 and became the most popular game system of the time.

Mattel Intellivision console can be called ahead of time from a technical point of view. Launched in the 80 th year of the 20th century, long before she was a 16-bit generation, had a processor with registers of 16 bits. In those days, it was also released gaming systems such as the Atari 5200, Milton Bradley Vectrex, Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Sega SG-1000 and Bally Astrocade. Of these, it is worth noting the console ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 in the first game first appeared in Donkey Kong, well, the second was the first attempt to present well-known company Sega.

The third generation of game consoles (recovery of the gaming industry after its crisis).

The third era is the era of 8-bit consoles, and that the most important and significant, is the emergence of sprite graphics. Although up to this point in some set-top boxes were 8-bit processors, the very notion of "8-bit consoles",  it during this period.

Famicom / NES / Dendy - the most popular 8-bits. Start of sales of the gaming system in Japan occurred in the distant 1983. She was very successful in terms of technical solutions. It was her many consider the impetus for the gaming industry following the crisis. On this console was released a lot of games, and Mario, the main character game series Super Mario Bros., was the mascot of the company. The prefix NES and to this day is on sale, if you are not able to buy it, you can download Dendy emulator and play on it.

Apart from the Nintendo consoles, in the era of the third generation came Master System game system from Sega and Atari 7800. It is also worth noting that it was then that originated many well-known game series, such as: Sonic, Prince of Persia, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Castlevania, Final Fantasy and many others.

The fourth generation of game consoles (16-bit era of gaming systems).

This epoch has its origins in 1987, when Japan entered the market TurboGrafx-16 (NEC PC Engine). Yes, the first 16 had been jam-this is the system, not consoles from Sega and Nintendo. But the major players still steel consoles of the last two companies.

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis/ Sega Mega Drive / Genesis - the first of two 16-bit monsters went on sale. October 29, 1988, the prefix has been available to Japanese consumers. The console had two processors: the primary and secondary Motorola 68000 Zilog Z80. On the console was released more than 900 games, some are proprietary company, and some, such as Golden Axe, Ghouls' n Ghosts, etc., is a port of a slot machine.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Nintendo, Super NES and SNES) - console appeared at the end of 1990, mainly due to the fact that Sega MD has become very popular, and the first console from Nintendo began to lose its position in front of 16-bit systems. SNES worked on 16-bit Ricoh 5A22 processor with a clock frequency of 3.58 MHz. The new console from Nintendo was a success from the start and quickly began to crowd out competitors from the Japanese market. Many believed this console is much more powerful than its direct competitor from Sega, but this is still a controversial issue. But we can say for sure that the Super Nintendo gave us a lot of hit games.

The fifth generation of game consoles (times of 32- and 64-bit game consoles).

Fifth-generation time, this period the birth of the three-dimensional polygonal graphics and new game series.

3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and Panasonic 3DO - although the game system made by many companies, such as Sanyo, Creative and Goldstar (now LG), we have this attachment is best known as the Panasonic 3DO. Home sales began in 1993, but the price for it was high enough. It is believed that the high cost of fact not be given this very popular console in the world before the advent of more powerful gaming systems.

Sega Saturn - 32-bit console from Sega. The console was released in November 1994. Prefix worked two CPUs Hitachi SuperH-2 7604 with a frequency of 28.63 MHz and 6 coprocessors. Sega Saturn console was powerful enough, it was believed that she was even more productive than its main competitor from Sony. However, the complex architecture of the console hampered developers to use its capacity to the full. To date, there are several emulators with which you can play games created for: Saturn, but they are quite complex to set up.

Sony PlayStation, as it is called PS or PS1. The first console from Sony, through which the company was able to press on the Nintendo and Sega gaming market. The prefix was designed Sony Computer Entertainment, and its release was held in Japan in December 1994. It is considered a PlayStation game system, which is affected by the sunset games on cartridges. Games library of the console has more than 8000 games. It degenerated and were born and now many popular gaming series like: Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, Crash Bandicoot, Tekken, Resident Evil and others.

Nintendo 64, also known as the Ultra 64 64-bit video game console released in 1996 by Nintendo. The prefix was much more productive than their competitors in the console are the CPU with a frequency of 93.75 MHz, and a graphic with a frequency of 62.5 MHz. In graphic terms Nintendo's system has been head and shoulders above all others: it has been implemented such goodies as smoothing textures, MIP-mapping and more. Believe me, if you were in those days saw Super Mario 64, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire or Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, you would be frozen. The weak point of the console appeared carrier. As in the past, the company used cartridges, which limited the amount produced in the game, also noted the complexity of programming for this platform.

The sixth generation of video game consoles (many call the console, released at this time - 128-bit).

Start taking this era with the release of Dreamcast consoles from Sega in November 1998. It is also worth noting the appearance of a new player in this market, it has become Microsoft. Well, we can say that the most unfortunate event - a death of Sega as a manufacturer of game consoles.

Sega Dreamcast - the first sixth-generation console, the fifth and the last to date, consoles from Sega. At launch, the game system from Sega gave out an excellent plan, which was made possible by the CPU Hitachi SH4 RISC 200MHz and graphics coprocessors PowerVR2 CLX2 (Series II), 100 MHz. To the best games released on the Dreamcast include Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio. Of course, Sonic Adventure and perhaps the most spectacular project of those times on game consoles Shenmue. While consoles start was very good, by reason of financial difficulties that have emerged from the company due to the irrational actions of its financial professionals, the company was not able to compete with Sony and its PlayStation 2 due to a lack of financial support to its console, and was forced to discontinue its support.

Sony PlayStation 2 Sony again and again the PlayStation, but this time at number 2. PlayStation 2, or PS2, today it is the most popular attachment, which was produced almost 13 years, taking the start in 2000, the latest console went off the assembly line already in 2013. The great advantage of this system is able to run on it games from the PS1. The system is based on a 64-bit CPU «Emotion Engine» at a frequency of 294 MHz and the graphics co processor «Graphics Synthesizer». On the Internet you can find a PS2 emulator that can run quite tolerably certain games.

Nintendo GameCube - another veteran of the console platformers industry came in 2001. Technical characteristics of the console were not bad enough, there have been set PowerPC «Gekko» CPU with a frequency of 485 MHz and a video processor «Flipper» from ATI with a frequency of 162 MHz.

Xbox from Microsoft - the first attempt to get into the software giant's game console on the market, and, admittedly, successful. The prefix was published in 2001 and, thanks to the company's financial capabilities, quickly secured the support of the game makers. Seen from the point of view of the filling of the console, it is a home computer, adapted well for the game. Here and Intel Xbox processor from Microsoft Celeron / PIII Custom Hybrid video processor and Nvidia NV2A. The architecture of the console, plus gave against developers. On the console, it was easy enough to move computer games. And, thanks to this game system, we found Halo!

The seventh generation of video game consoles.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the first console of the seventh generation. As in his previous game system, the company has taken as a basis for the architecture of a similar computer. Prefix worked at the central triple-core processor Xenon 3,2 GHz, and graphics for the ATI Xenos replied with a frequency of 500 MHz. Xbox360 is the first home-top box that supports high resolutions up to 1080p.

Nintendo Wii - although from a technical point of view, this console was much weaker than its competitors. However, it was sold to the greatest number. The system worked on a processor from IBM «Broadway» with a frequency of 729 MHz, and for the video posted graphics chip «Hollywood» from ATI. The main Wii managed to get popularity due to its controller, the Wii Remote and games made for him.

The PlayStation 3 from Sony is a real multimedia center. It is possible to play, to communicate on the Internet, watch movies, and more. It has also been implemented backwards compatibility with previous generations of consoles. This console was the most powerful in performance among the seventh generation consoles. The heart of the console was eight-processor Cell Broadband Engine processor with a clock frequency of 3.2 GHz, and graphics was RSX Reality Synthesizer with 550 MHz. According to statements of the Sony, it's the system to produce 1.8 TFLOPS, which was almost twice as much compared to the closest competitor Xbox 360. But the complex architecture created difficulties to get the most out of the console.

Well, that's all. Today, the market is ruled by the eighth generation of consoles. But this is not a history it is the Present. If you wonder what they look like - go to any online store and see for yourself! It looks impressive!