Do you still remember?

A lively meeting place where, for just a few euro, you could play Tibia or Diablo 2 for hours with friends.  25 years later, let’s recall the once popular entertainment venues. One of them was Atlantek Computers LTD broadband provider and Internet Cafe Ballina and the other their Belmullet venue. What were cafés like in the past

What is an internet café?

Internet cafés were ubiquitous in their heyday and need no introduction now, with reasonable prices for one hour’s internet access, and were crowded with people interested in the novelty of the technology. High temperatures, the smell of coffee and salted sticks are always a constant companion in internet cafés. Today, there are still privately-owned cafés in Ireland that have been a favourite with regular customers for more than 15 years.

The 1990s and early 2000s were certainly a good time for the development of gaming and instant messaging. How many people would get together with friends and play Counter-Strike for hours on end, LAN games were gamer-friendly as you didn’t need the internet to enjoy a multiplayer game LAN parties gradually grew in popularity and many people still play local They meet up on the network and play together.

Cafés were not just a place for gamers. Many people used to buy hours on the computer and write with different people. Gadugadu was first released in 2000 and has since become the most popular instant messenger in Europe. Although Oxygen followed, GG has not lost its status as Europeans’ favourite application. From the outset, it had a beautiful appearance and an intuitive interface that appealed to users. Interesting features include animated emoticons and the ability to add descriptions to your profile.” Hey, can you click on it?” is a message that I am sure Gadugadu users have received at least once from a “stranger”.

Now that internet cafés have been forgotten and practically everyone has access to a computer, they are commonly used by people on holiday, students who need to print documents in a hurry, or travellers looking for a low-cost place to contact their families.

History of internet cafés

Internet cafés first appeared in Ireland in 1996 and quickly became popular among young people. Pioneers of this trend were countries such as South Korea. There, an early trend towards the use of internet cafés was born, which eventually transformed them into gaming-focused places, the PC Bangs of today.

 Atlantek Computers Broadband  Ballina and Belmullet quickly adapted their shops and started offering internet access to thousands of their Irish customers.At first Irish cafés did not have constant internet access, so gamers were pleased  to play then-popular titles through local networks.

Worldwide in 1991, the USA introduced a Japanese version of the internet café. Wayne Gregori, creator of the original BBS system SF Net, opened the first cyber café in Berkeley.BBS is a system that connects computers to each other via telephone modems. It is like an electronic noticeboard, where participants in a given network can write to each other. SFNet connects nearly 20 coffee shops, where people can use their computers to post messages on a shared noticeboard. Short stories were often drawn there and people enjoyed interacting with each other.

But the world’s first real internet café was Cyberia, founded by four young entrepreneurs, which quickly became very popular. Thanks to investor interest, the founders were soon able to open a chain of cafés in the UK. Internet cafés were originally planned as a place for women to expand their knowledge of new technologies, but the rapid growth of the venture made this impossible. Nevertheless, on the third Wednesday of every month, women gathered in the basement of a London café to exchange technology and listen to female experts on new technologies. A few years later, the Cyberia chain was sold to a Korean investor and renamed Be the Reds.