this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Us Census figure was 1997. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/1997/demo/computer-internet/p20-522.html

Looks like 22% had internet at home, but over 54% had a computer.

How do you think the majority of computer users played Castle of the Winds, Jazz Jackrabbit, Doom, or other shareware games? Hint: it wasn't the internet because most computer users didn't have internet.

1993, the previous census figures are even worse as that's before AOL


Btw, downloads weren't a thing even for those who had internet. Back then, you paid per ~~minute~~ hour of internet usage.

My family connected to the internet to download (POP3) out email and then disconnected. Because my Mom would then want to use the phone to call her friends. Unless you had two phone lines like a rich person, extended multi-hour download sessions at 33kbps (or slower) was just not a thing.

That's 14MB per hour, if you don't remember how slow 90s internet was.

The college students with T1 connections were the source of shareware / disks by the later 90s (like 97, 98 etc. Etc). But home users weren't doing online downloads yet, too expensive and too slow.

So quit your bullshitting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We were poor as sin, still downloaded that diablo patch bro.

Happened to live In an apartment above a friend's business, during nighttime when the store was closed we had access to a second phone line.

If I recall correctly, the patch was 8 mb. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the size.

Sorry but, there simply isn't any bullshit to be given pal. I was a child, so no idea how much it cost my dad. Maybe I'll ask him.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://money.cnn.com/1996/11/01/technology/aol/

In a letter sent to the service's members Oct. 28, AOL Chairman Steve Case touted a new pricing plan that offers unlimited access to the service's proprietary content as well as to the Internet for $19.95 a month.

[Snip]

Until the new unlimited plan was unveiled, all users paid $9.95 a month for 5 hours of usage and $2.95 for each additional hour.

This is what I remembered. My dad always told me to watch the Internet usage, because it cost money for each hour. These were 5-hours / month plans back then. That being said, 1996 is a year before Diablo, meaning the "unlimited" plans came in soon afterwards. But "unlimited" didn't really work out in our favor because my mom and grandma who lived with us always wanted to use the phone.

And we were the only kids of the neighborhood who had internet. People came over to our house to surf the net.