173 lines
7.8 KiB
HTML
173 lines
7.8 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<TITLE>T E X T F I L E S</TITLE>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#00FF00" LINK="#00FF00" ALINK="#00FF00" VLINK="#00FF00">
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<TABLE WIDTH=750>
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<TR><TD VALIGN=TOP>
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<IMG SRC="/images/source.gif" ALT="SOURCES FOR TEXTFILES.COM">
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<TD>
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<P>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New,Courier" COLOR="#00FF00">
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A natural question that occurs to people who browse a site like this for the
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first time is <I><B>"Where have you gotten all these files!?"</B></I> It seems
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beyond the ability of a single person to gather this much information alone.
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<P>
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This is certainly the truth in my case; while a lot of files have been personally
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gathered, many more have been donated or mailed to me by others who want to
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see this site grow, and I have purchased a number of CD-ROM Shovelware Discs that
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contained files I wanted.
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<TR>
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<TD COLSPAN=2>
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<P>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New,Courier" COLOR="#00FF00">
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<B>Personal Collection</B>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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During 1982-1988, I spent a lot of time collecting textfiles from all sorts
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of BBSs. Some of the more prominent places at the time were Sherwood Forest II
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and III, OSUNY, Dark Side of the Moon, Ripco, The South Pole, Broadway Show,
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and hundreds of others whose names I've forgotten.
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<P>
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Like a lot of kids, I started my own BBS (The Works) so that people would come
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to ME and send me a lot of files, and I could just sit back and take them in.
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Of course, this didn't translate to an insane number of contributions, but I
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did get dozens of files as a result of my BBS, which touted itself as the
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"Largest Text-file BBS in the World!" There's actually no way to verify if this
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ever was the case. It probably wasn't. But I was plucky, and a lot of people
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thought that The Works was pretty darned huge for its time.
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<P>
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All told, probably 3,000-4,000 of the textfiles on this site are from that
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initial collection. This is already less than half that are up on the site, and
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will constitute even less as time goes on.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<B>User Contributions</B>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Since TEXTFILES.COM has recieved media attention, more and more people are
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discovering the site and offering me files. I have asked them to mail whatever
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they have around, and many have obliged. In some cases, I get duplicates,
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but in many others, I get entirely new message bases or files I'd have never
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noticed. For that, I would like to thank the following users who have all
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gone above and beyond and sent me something back:
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<P>
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<B>Erik Pedersen</B> sent me roughly 2 gigabytes of text (!!!) from all
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sorts of places. Our collections are the same in many places, but it feels
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good to know that a lot of the stuff I have would have been covered in this
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donation as well. Erik's BBS homepage is at
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<A href="http://powerlink.servebbs.com">http://powerlink.servebbs.com</A>.
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<P>
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<B>Scott Brawner</B> was kind enough to send me the ISO image for <I>Forbidden
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Secrets</I>, a CD-ROM I'd heard about but couldn't find, and which had a couple
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hundred good files on it for me to use.
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<P>
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<B>Stein Gjoen</B> gave me a tip on where to find the magazine "Cheap Truth".
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<P>
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<B><A HREF="http://www.orcutt.net">Chris Orcutt</A></B> and I used to trade
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textfiles when we were both 14. As it turns out, Chris kept a lot of files
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I lost, so he scrounged through his old 5 1/4" disks and sent me 600 files,
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of which 400 were entirely unique.
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<P>
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<B><A HREF="http://www.outreach.uiuc.edu/~p-schne/">Paul Schneider</A></B>
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donated a collection of about 200 textfiles, of which 113 harkened back to
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the 1984-1985 years and I didn't have.
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<P>
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<B>Slade Winstone</B> was "El Presidente'" of the Banana Republic BBS in
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New Zealand, and sent me 300-400 textfiles that I've scattered throughout
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the site, including a set of files his friends came up with in the
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<A HREF="/groups/bananarepublic">GROUPS</A> section. He's helping me
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become world-wide!
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<P>
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Profetas from Brazil gave me 46mb of textfiles, some of them mine (after
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going through South America!) but quite a few not. Hundreds of textfiles.
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Thank you!
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<P>
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<B>Neema Moraveji</B> took the time to send me 50 files, including some neat
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Virus disassemblies and better versions of a few anarchy files I had.
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<P>
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<B>Nick Levay</B> sent me a CD of stuff he's gotten from all over the place,
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nearly 20,000 textfiles in all! At least half of these are unique. Thanks
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for the 600mb hit!
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<P>
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<B>Paul Rubel</B> gave me 100 files of anarchy, mayhem, and general disarray.
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<P>
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<B>Yves Barbero</B> let me have a copy of his novel and some clever files
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he had lying around.
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<P>
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<B>Danny DiRocco</B> sent me a 10 megabyte mail attachment that yielded 300
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one-of-a-kind files that peppered the magazine, phreak and hack sections.
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<P>
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<B>Amit Margalit</B> used to run a Textfile-Only BBS in the 80's, and graciously
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sent me the entire archive from that BBS, giving me another couple hundred files.
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Many of these files were erotic stories or hysterical computer humor. Superb!
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<P>
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The great folks at <A HREF="http://www.chaven.com">CHAVEN</A> had
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squirred away 30 megabytes of Apple II Documentation and textfiles.
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Thanks to them, the Apple section tripled in size. Thank you!
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<P>
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The Legendary <B>Dr. Who</B> rose from the sands of time and gave me
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a stack of files he'd done for his part of the LOD BBS Message project,
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including his transcribed/buffered files he had lying around from the
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early 80's. He also included an insightful message from the LOD group
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working on the project, which gives a really cool angle on the project.
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<P>
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<B>Phox</B> gave me a collection of about 50 files, most of them somewhat
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modern in vintage, but many having that original textfiles spirit. He
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also included the <A HREF="/bbs/diaryhack.txt">Diary of a Hacker</A> by
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The Cuisinart Blade, which was a great look back. Excellent!
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<P>
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Douglas Cox gave me a great idea for how to handle the meta-descriptions,
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those little descriptions of the file you can click on. Thanks!
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<P>
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Alfie John gave me a CD with a collection of Melbourne BBS information.
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Thanks, man!
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<P>
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Finally, the following people sent me just one or two files or files I
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already had, and I wanted to thank them all for thinking of me:
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<B>John Brajkovic</B>, <B>Happyhammer</B>, <B>Michael Milbert</B>,
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<B>Tyler Bindon</B>, <B>ARA</B>
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and <B>Joe Pranevich</B>.
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<P>
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<B>FTP/WEB Sites</B>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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It would be inevitable that as I browsed the Web myself, I would happen
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along some really enjoyable/helpful sites brimming with textfiles from the
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era I'm researching. Most of these sites also have other useful files and
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information that I don't have any use for at my site, but which are of
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use to others. For this reason, and as a thank you, I'll include a list
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of these sites below:
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<B>CD-ROMS</B>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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During the Shovelware Heyday (About 1990-1994) a lot of companies
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went out and threw together massive collections of files, often with only
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tenuous connection to each other, and then burned them on CD-ROM with
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some sort of cheap clip-art-esque cover and sold it as a package. These
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CD-ROMs usually retailed from $10 to $50 and were complete hack jobs.
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Usually, they had really sleazy, "underground" names, referring to
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some Forbidden or Dangerous subjects covered inside, and of course
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when you got them home and plugged them in, were YOU in for a surprise!
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<P>
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However, I've made it a point to acquire as many of these CD-ROMs as I can
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and see if anything is of use from them, and then put the good stuff up
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on this site. I'd like to attribute those CDs here.
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<P>
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As an unintended side-effect, you are about to get a series of
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CD-ROM reviews for these CDs I used. In many cases, I couldn't tell you
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where to purchase one of these CDs, as they've mostly been stumbled
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along on forgotten web sites, and purchased used from various folks.
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<P>
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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Send mail to
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<A HREF="mailto:jason@textfiles.com">jason</A> if you can suggest further
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sites for him to browse or have textfiles/messages you'd like to contribute.
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</TABLE>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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