AOL 3.0 reverse engineered and put back online

[p4d]

Hey all, I'm on the Re-AOL team and I wanted to slide through and drop some info about it.

 

1. One developer, a Canadian named Zip

2. Back end (aolserver) coded in Python

3. 1,500+ Discord users in the 1st week

4. Huge exposure on reddit, hackernews, twitter, etc.

 

But we've yet to be covered by a big YouTuber. A major YouTuber did try to sign on while we were undergoing maintenance, so that was embarrassing.

 

Mostly I'd just like feedback from you guys. If you'd like to play around with AOL 3.0 in 2022 come check us out. I won't link anything to be tactful but you can probably Google "AOL Reverse Engineered"

 

So, what do you guys think?

 

 

Thanks,

Pad

[aisle9]

Will definitely be checking this out. I remember being a beta tester for AOL 4.0 way back in the day...maybe in middle school? Which means that AOL 3.whatever was my intro to America Online. It's fun to see how much of what we take for granted on the internet today actually had its roots in the old AOL programs that everyone's forgotten about.

[Vishera]

3 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

That sounds amazing! I'm not old enough to have remembered the AOL days, but it'll definitely be cool to take a look at it in 2022! Really appreciate all the work you've put into making this happen!

I didn't have an internet connection back in the day so i have never experienced AOL...

I connected to the internet around 2004~2005.

 

I wonder what i missed :D

[p4d]

It means a lot to us that the younger crowd (we're guys in our 30s and 40s) are firing up AOL 3.0 for the first time. That's cool to us haha.

[Needfuldoer]

Can’t wait to try connecting with one of my old Macs, if that works. 

[Lurick]

"You've got mail!"

 

-You read it in that voice (for those that know)

[varrys]

a/s/l check

[Zomeguy]

On 6/13/2022 at 10:29 AM, Lurick said:

"You've got mail!"

 

-You read it in that voice (for those that know)

Yup sure did.

 

I have used AOL since dial up was a thing. So I barely remember it.

[p4d]

On 6/13/2022 at 11:39 AM, Needfuldoer said:

Can’t wait to try connecting with one of my old Macs, if that works. 

 

We're actually working on Mac support, slowly but surely.

 

Here's a Windows screen shot from last night

 

[RoseLuck462]

The nostalgia!!! Id love this lol, Is there anywhere to donate to you guys?

[tkitch]

*Ding!*
You've got mail!

[Kisai]

I'm not sure who the intended audience is. It's definitely before most people under the age of 40's time. It was definitely before Linus's time.

 

Things like INN (Imagination Network, born of Sierra in 1991 before bought by AOL in 1996) have more value just on the basis of it being designed around a virtual animated avatar (*cough*the first metaverse*cough) and games built on top of it.

 

AOL itself, came out in like 1989. And the only game it had was Neverwinter Nights (the original version developed by AOL and SSI/TSR) in 1991 and then killed it in 1997.

 

So just having AOL for the chatroom experience might have some value for someone producing something intended to look like the 80's/early 90's (eg Stranger Things) but ultimately a lot of these projects just die off after the nostalgia element wears off.  It was nice to visit, but ultimately people you knew in 1991 are definitely not there, and since it would have mostly been 20-30 year olds using it in 1990, those people would be in their 50-60's by now. 

 

[Middcore]

3 hours ago, Kisai said:

I'm not sure who the intended audience is. It's definitely before most people under the age of 40's time. It was definitely before Linus's time.

Linus and I are approximately the same age and AOL was my first experience of the internet in the mid 90's.

 

For reference, AOL 3.0 was released in 1996. Not the "80's/early 90's."

[Dr_Whom]

45 minutes ago, Middcore said:

Linus and I are approximately the same age and AOL was my first experience of the internet in the mid 90's.

 

For reference, AOL 3.0 was released in 1996. Not the "80's/early 90's."

Same. I'll be 32 this year and AOL was my first experience as well. While I can't say what version it was for sure, it definitely looked like this. Was on the the first home computer our family owned, a Gateway running Windows 95. I remember being excited and fascinated when my mom called me over and showed me how she was talking to my cousin through the computer, amazing stuff lol. I also distinctly remember being excited when new version discs would show up while everyone else was complaining about it being junk mail  

[Needfuldoer]

3 minutes ago, Dr_Whom said:

I also distinctly remember being excited when new version discs would show up while everyone else was complaining about it being junk mail  

Remember when they sent out actual floppy disks you could erase and reuse?

[Dr_Whom]

22 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Remember when they sent out actual floppy disks you could erase and reuse?

No I must have missed the floppy train lol. By the time I was paying attention they were sending out CD's. We were never short on floppy disks though, we always had a pack or two of those bright neon-colored see-through disks around lol

[Middcore]

On 6/16/2022 at 10:43 AM, Dr_Whom said:

Same. I'll be 32 this year and AOL was my first experience as well. While I can't say what version it was for sure, it definitely looked like this. Was on the the first home computer our family owned, a Gateway running Windows 95. I remember being excited and fascinated when my mom called me over and showed me how she was talking to my cousin through the computer, amazing stuff lol. I also distinctly remember being excited when new version discs would show up while everyone else was complaining about it being junk mail  

I remember sitting at the table with my parents the first time we tried out one of these "chat rooms"... Just one of the free for alls without a specific topic... Which of course turned out to be a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I remember my mother gasping and covering my eyes to prevent me from being exposed to what she deemed an exceptionally deplorable bit of vulgarity before closing the chat in disgust.

 

I remember the first time I discovered that once you were connected to the internet through AOL you could open a normal web browser in a separate window and just... Go to websites. Felt like a hackerman power user.

[p4d]

On 6/15/2022 at 7:23 PM, RoseLuck462 said:

The nostalgia!!! Id love this lol, Is there anywhere to donate to you guys?

Well, since you asked lol. It's not about money for us, it's all about having fun.

 

Here's a video of connecting to AOL in 2022:

[Beerzerker]

Would be neat to have the old modem dialing/connecting noise right when you start the program.
That along with the "Welcome", "You got mail" and other things rounds out the audio package from back then.

[Kisai]

On 6/16/2022 at 7:51 AM, Middcore said:

Linus and I are approximately the same age and AOL was my first experience of the internet in the mid 90's.

 

For reference, AOL 3.0 was released in 1996. Not the "80's/early 90's."

Linus lives in BC, where AOL was a long distance call. So it's unlikely anyone in BC, let alone Canada used AOL, despite getting all the free floppies. Like I distinctly remember that the TFN's for Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL were all long distances calls at the time, and at 55 cents a minute in 1991 ($1.18/m today in 2022), you ain't using that.

 

My personal experience with dial-up things goes back to the AOL 1.0 floppies. You know what is a sucky thing to realize? The phone company probably made more money off of dial-up services than these services did off customers. At any rate, AOL was not "the internet", and was not connected to the real internet until 1995.

 

 

[p4d]

On 6/19/2022 at 2:45 PM, Beerzerker said:

Would be neat to have the old modem dialing/connecting noise right when you start the program.
That along with the "Welcome", "You got mail" and other things rounds out the audio package from back then.

We actually have the dial up sounds in one build. We've considered making it optional or default.

 

Welcome!, Goodbye! and IM.WAV are fully functional.