
Log on Like It’s 1985: A Fragment of Minitel Returns - wallflower
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/log-on-like-its-1985-a-fragment-of-minitel-returns
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camtarn
The Wikipedia page for Minitel is fascinating:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel)

It also answers the question of why '3615 SM' \- 3615 was the code to dial to
access Minitel, and Minitel services were often advertised as '3615 [service
name]'.

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wazoox
In the 80s and 90s, walls everywhere in France were covered with posters
advertising for minitel services (mostly sex/porn related, so called "minitel
rose"). It was a really big industry...

3611 was the yellow pages, free for the first few minutes.

the numbers 3614, 3615 (up to 3619 IIRC) were actually defining the price. All
3615 servers cost the same; 3614 was cheaper, and 3616 more expensive. Some
services were accessible through several prices, for instance 3614 AIRFRANCE
and 3615 AIRFRANCE: you dialed the 3614 first, and if there was no line
available, tried the more expensive (but otherwise identical) 3615...

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agumonkey
another common one was 3617.. can't recall if it was business only or tariffed
anything though.

ps: I'd love to try a slow / low res internet with cute devices like a
minitel. Maybe with slightly increased specs and slightly better interfaces
(functionally, not ~aesthetically). Remember when things used to take time ?

~~~
wazoox
Yup, 3617 was common for more expensive services. I don't remember the exact
price but it was really high. Usually professional stuff, like "3617
INFOGREFFE" (to get legal information about registered companies), etc.

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amiga-workbench
Very cool, as a side project I've started programming an esp8266 to plug into
the back of a Minitel and act as a telnet client, and consume the reddit &
4chan API's.

The documentation is a bit difficult, I'm having quite a bit of trouble with
the block drawing mode. All the literature is in French and reading it is slow
going.

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ftio
One of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast (Reply All by Gimlet) is
about Minitel: [https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/french-
connection](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/french-connection)

Well worth a listen.

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gaius
I have very fond memories of the UK equivalent of this, Prestel, which I
accessed on a 1200/75 modem from a BBC Micro. In terms of simplicity and
reliability in many ways the modern web is s step backwards from those old
systems.

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eesmith
SM chat server available from [http://sm.3615.live](http://sm.3615.live) .

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pkaye
Anyone remembers those information terminals that we at BART stations in the
bay area back then?

