Date   : Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:32:41 +0100
From   : joel@... (Joel Rowbottom)
Subject: Teletext / Viewdata / Prestel people

Hi --

On Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:16:11 -0500, Jules Richardson
<jules.richardson99@...> wrote:

> Anyone know any useful names of individuals / companies to contact who
> might 
> be interested in involvement in a display about Teletext / Prestel /
> Viewdata 
> services (either contributing experiences or software / hardware)?

*deep breath*

First one who springs to mind is me ;)

Then there's Gareth Babb and James Lawson, co-Sysops of CCl4
(www.ccl4.org), Gareth wrote !VHost among other bits of Viewdata
jiggerypokery on both Beebs and Arcs. Gareth would probably be happy to
help if you asked nicely although I understand he has a lot less kit than
he used to.

Chris Royle (who wrote CARBBS/Premiere and was Sysop of The Sin Bin) is
still kicking around in Cambridge. His partner-in-crime was Ashley Frieze
(did the CET routines and deputy Sysop'd for The Sin Bin, possibly) - he
pops up occasionally too.

Chris Reeve (Cyclone) stuck his head above the parapet a bit back, as did
John Carpenter (Resolve) and Dugald Holmes (The Animation Station).

You may get some good mileage from James Coates, who did the whole Viewdata
Revival thing a few years back (http://www.heaven.affection.net/).

So to summarise I'm still vaguely in touch with a couple of other Sysops
from the late 80s who had Viewdata boards still online, although it would
surprise me greatly if any had frame databases left let alone full setups.
Yell if you're interested though. I think CCl4 was the only one which
lasted well into the 90s albeit on a RISC OS platform.

Someone I met at ByteBack (name escapes me right now) had a Viewdata BBS
running.

> I think it should be possible to find someone to talk to at the BBC, and
at
> BT, but who else were big in these areas back in the day? (doing
something 
> *before* all the analogue services vanish within the next few years
seemed 
> like an idea with merit)

Gnome At Home was pretty big. ISTR someone has a frame database somewhere.

Didn't Shades have a Viewdata flavour?


j