Ceefax comes to an end :(

[Zulu Romeo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20032882

BBC Ceefax, the world's first teletext service, is set for a final bow as the UK's digital switchover is completed.
Olympic champion Dame Mary Peters will turn off the last analogue TV signal in Northern Ireland at 23.30 BST. A series of graphics on Ceefax's front page will mark its 38 years on the BBC.

We never really grew up with Ceefax, or other teletext services. It was all the cool kids with their remote control-ready TVs with Fastext buttons that had it. All we had to make do was to get up early in the morning to watch Ceefax AM accompanied by the now customary easy-listening music arrangements.

Things changed when we changed our TV in 1992 to one with Teletext, and a whole new world opened up before my eyes, in the days before any of us had heard of the World Wide Web.

My memories of Teletext were mostly spent checking up the Formula 1 results (while my dad checked the cricket scores), through to reading some of the viewers' letters on some of the other pages. And the quiz pages were fun too, with the "Press REVEAL" instruction ever present.

Those classic BBC Micro MODE 7 graphics were an iconic part of my childhood. Gone but never forgotten.



[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFjICtYbxyU[/yt]

 

[MacLeod]

Whilst ceefax may soon be gone, it does live on in some small way, many of the BBCi pages use the same numbers as ceefax.

 

[Bamarren]

I grew up with Ceefax. It was my main source of news and football scores the whole way through my childhood. I never had Sky/Satellite/Digital to very late on, and never liked the radio when I was younger, so all my football scores came through this on a Saturday and Sunday.

Even now every morning, while eating breakfast before work, I do my regular check of the pages - 102 for news, 302 for football, 501 for entertainment news, and when I realise there's no entertainment use of any value, its back to 338 for the rumour mill in football.

...What the hell Ill do in the morning I have no idea!

End of an era is not the term, so many people swore by it - it's news what short, to the point, and you got the jist of it straight away.

I even remember there was forum-like pages on it where you could message in and they would display 5-10 pages of messages, updating daily at 4pm! Cant recall its name mind.

Strange that its gone, was always there, I guess its time we moved on technologically.

...That said, I loathe the red button nonsense. Slow and clumpy.

 

[Seven of Five]

I used to love Ceefax and Teletext, but mostly Ceefax. It was like the micro-internet of its day. I dutifully checked news, entertainment, football and formula one pages daily for years and years. I gradually became an internet whore, so stopped using Ceefax a while ago. I look back on it nostalgically though.

 

[MacLeod]

I used ceefax 99% of the time, the onlt time I used the teletext service on the other channels was to check the cinema listings.

 

[Faldor]

Digitiser was the stuff of legend

 

[Saul]

^ Turner the Worm getting sick!


Loved Ceefax and Teletext. Them were the days.

 

[Bamarren]

Like I was saying, I get up and use Ceefax during my breakfast at 8am.

It also appears TNG is on at 8am.

This is a good substitute!

 

[cultcross]

Ceefax was the information source of my childhood, the only way in a pre-internet, pre BBC News 24, world to get up to the minute news/weather etc. without sitting there waiting for the next scheduled bulletin.

This modern world scares me. I hear there's a fourth channel these days?

 

[Bamarren]

I hear there's a fourth channel these days?

Not if your like me and never bothered get digital receiver

Im sticking to streaming on laptop and phone!

 

[Captain Shaw]

Ceefax was the information source of my childhood, the only way in a pre-internet, pre BBC News 24, world to get up to the minute news/weather etc. without sitting there waiting for the next scheduled bulletin.

This modern world scares me. I hear there's a fourth channel these days?

Five.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Ceefax was the information source of my childhood, the only way in a pre-internet, pre BBC News 24, world to get up to the minute news/weather etc. without sitting there waiting for the next scheduled bulletin.

This modern world scares me. I hear there's a fourth channel these days?

Five.

I've heard there's this second BBC channel that broadcasts IN COLOUR.

 

[Starkers]

Man I loved ceefax, news, weather and, more importantly, football scores and gossip!!

The only annoying bit was if you had to wait for 10/20 pages to scroll round again sometimes if you weren't quick enough with the hold button

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I remember when we got a ceefax able TV....it was like striding proudly into the future. lol

We virtually time travelled when we got a Nicam stereo TV. lol

 

[Bamarren]

Man I loved ceefax, news, weather and, more importantly, football scores and gossip!!

The only annoying bit was if you had to wait for 10/20 pages to scroll round again sometimes if you weren't quick enough with the hold button

Back in the days when on Ceefax had ALL the European leagues football results on one page, and there was 20/25 leagues to scroll through, it was a nightmare waiting through all these results, just to see La Liga and Serie A! To be fair though, I ended up with a decent knowledge of Greek, Polish, Portuguese and other football leagues I had never watched before!

 

[Rowan Sjet]

I used to love Ceefax and Teletext, but mostly Ceefax. It was like the micro-internet of its day. I dutifully checked news, entertainment, football and formula one pages daily for years and years. I gradually became an internet whore, so stopped using Ceefax a while ago. I look back on it nostalgically though.

Bolded bit is very true, and I feel the same about it.

 

[MacLeod]

I stopped using ceefax and teletext services years ago, when it was switched off when my region switched to Digitial.