Prestel was a service which was based around a system called Viewdata, or Videotex. You'll recognise this as Teletext on your television. Around the nation, amateur communications enthusiasts also opened their computers to anyone else with a modem, and hence the Bulletin Board was born. Bulletin boards had multi user chat rooms, (although in the early days you could only talk with the System Operator, or sysop) quick colourful graphics, and a multitude of files you could download for your computer.

Viewdata was always renowned for being colourful and fast; unlike its ANSI counterpart in the bulletin board world which was slow and cumbersome. But like most good things, technology moves on, and in the late 80s and early 90s, the Internet started to take hold and people moved away from the chunky graphics and homely feel of the home grown system, and diverted their attentions to the growing internet.

The Great Internet Viewdata Revival is an attempt to bring those days back; not for commercial purposes, just for fun. All the features are still there, multi user chat, user to user messaging, discussion groups - and fast colourful graphics. Try it! Heaven is just the first... we hope many other old bulletin boards will come back and start a new life on the net.