STARPORT

The demo printed this on its way out. It is MAIN/ENDANSI, seventeen lines of text mode, and it is the reason a board is the right shape for a site about this demo:

  Mail:                       BBS:
  Abyss / Future Crew           StarPort
  Espoo, Finland                +358-0-804-4626  V32Bis HST
                                +358-0-804-1133  V32Bis
  Fax:                        CDN 94:61/0
  +358-0-420-8620 / GORE        Fidonet 2:220/630

Two lines, so two callers at once, at V.32bis — 14,400 bits a second, with one of them also speaking USR’s HST. A FidoNet node number and a CDN one, because the way a file crossed Europe was store-and-forward between hobbyist machines overnight.

To get Second Reality in 1993 you dialled somebody’s house in Espoo, or you waited for it to reach a board nearer you. It is 2.33 MB. At 14,400 that is around twenty-five minutes, and you were paying for the call.

The release also carries a street address. It is not reproduced here.