page_title: Micronet 800
section_title: Services Provided
hierarchical_section_title: Micronet 800 / Services Provided
context_page_description: Micronet 800 was an information provider on Prestel, aimed at the 1980s personal computer market. It was an online magazine that gave subscribers computer related news, reviews, general subject articles and downloadable telesoftware.
  Users would log onto the Prestel network and then access the Micronet 800 home page by entering *800# on their modem or computer. Most Micronet 800 members would have their default main index page set to page 800 automatically.
context_section_description: Micronet 800 pioneered many public online services, such as Multi User Games, long before the Internet was in widespread use.
  Chatlines: Users could post messages that other users could see and respond to. Celebrity Chatline was a weekly feature conceived by Publisher Ian Rock and implemented by Sid Smith in which a prominent person was interviewed by Micronet users whose questions appeared onscreen, with Micronet personnel usually typing the answers (if the 'celebrity' couldn't type or format the text themselves). Early 'celebrities' included Sir Clive Sinclair, Feargal Sharkey, Fatima Whitbread and Lord Cardigan.
  Downloadable software: Micronet 800 implemented the CET specification that allowed 8 bit files to be transmitted over a 7 bit medium, with some basic error detection and error correction.
  Online games: The longest-running game on the system was StarNet, a Play-by-mail game, whereby the players would send in moves which would be executed once a day (a sort of very slow game of chess, where the aim was to become the emperor of the galaxy) run by Liverpudlian Mike Singleton by inputting the moves he was forwarded by email from Micronet into a Commodore PET computer. Micronet 800 also hosted SHADES, one of the first MUDs - a realtime, highly competitive hack-and-slash game that is still running today.
  E-mail: Each Prestel user had a unique number (usually the last nine digits of the subscriber's telephone number), and this could be used to send messages. Micronet users were reported to be particularly enthusiastic about the medium, sending twice as many 'mailbox' messages as regular Prestel users. On 1 July 1984 users could send a pre-formatted 'Happy Birthday' email to Princess Diana via Prince Philip, in whose name the Buckingham Palace press office telephone number had been registered as a Prestel user.
  Gallery: Conceived by Publisher Ian Rock, this was an area where users could post their own pages about anything they wished, subject to minor oversight for libel and obscenity.
  News and reviews: Micronet was frequently the first organisation worldwide to report on happenings in the UK computer industry.
caption: Micronet 800 page c. 1985, transcribed at the time onto Micronet 800 headed paper. This was a competition entry in Micronet's popular science fiction pages
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