Another thread helped to remind me of this, but it was a huge part of my life for years. Back in '96 or so I was rockin' AOL on 28.8k dialup (connected at 26400 on a good day), and I had played every single piece of Mac shareware in existence. My thirst for games increased, and I rather quickly discovered Hotline.
Hotline was some software that allowed users to create servers that had news, chat, and filesharing. At first, sites were only tracked via random web pages, but later on trackers were built into the app that allowed one to browse various servers. Of course there was a lot of piracy going on, but my gaming hunger was ultimately satiated by the discovery of 8 Bits of Power, a server dedicated to the emulation of old systems. Most (maybe all!) of the developers of emulators for the Macintosh frequented this server at some point, where the chat was always filled with huge discussions of old games, emulation, computers, music, everything. The community was so strong that the server far outlasted Hotline. I would guess that I logged in every day for nearly a decade. Hell, I still have random chat logs from 20 years ago!
At some point I lost my bookmark which had the login/password and ip for the site saved in it. I was never able to rediscover 8bits of Power. Perhaps it still lives on! I know for a fact that some of the users/admins from 8bits are here on NeoGAF, but we have never reconnected. Much of my teen years were spent with these people, day in and day out. I grew up in a small rural town and was so lucky to have a broad spectrum of friends at 8bop. People from cities, people with ISDN connections (haha), people who knew far more than I ever will about technology. I miss that place! 8 Bits of Power taught me so much, and the other users there turned me on to this place. They really altered my "country boy" trajectory!
