ALTERWORLDENTERPRISES
ALTERWORLD ORIGINS · 1996—2002
Before browser games, cloud deployments, and GitHub Actions, there was a dial-up-era homepage, a home-built DOS environment, CGI message boards, and wrestling software written in Visual FoxPro. This is where Alterworld began.
Before “full-stack developer” was common language, this was already full-stack work: users, tools, data, community features, downloadable software, documentation, releases, and direct feedback loops.
A DOS-hosted, multi-user command environment with passwords, file management, an editor, calculator, terminal, announcements, online help, Windows launching, sound, ANSI screens, and a slot game. Documentation, installation, beta feedback, and version notes were part of the product.
The first surviving homepage connected Alter/OS, BBS experiments, Ai2000, writing, community pages, original graphics, and MIDI. The web became both a distribution channel and a place to experiment in public.
CGI list, post, and read modes powered message areas. Guest walls, a cookbook, personal databases, categorized lists, and AlterCam pointed toward a deeper interest in data-backed, participatory software.
Visual FoxPro became a playground for complete desktop products. Wrestling, bowling, fishing, and SecurePIC tested simulation, animation, data storage, security concepts, installers, and platform limits.
AlterWorld Wrestling grew from one predetermined match screen to real-time matches, tag teams, more than 40 wrestlers, an e-fed manager, and a franchise simulation with hiring, training, ticket prices, events, and advertising. Read the full AWW retrospective →
An approachable command environment built on DOS, priced at $15 to cover advertising and disk mailing.
A long-running Visual FoxPro wrestling sim that evolved through years of releases and user feedback. Full story →
Two small games deliberately built to discover how far Visual FoxPro could be pushed.
A multi-user utility that encoded private pictures into a password-protected database.
CGI message areas, posting flows, guest walls, link databases, and webcam-style pages.
A fictional series website with news, an about page, and seven surviving episode entries.
The tools changed quickly, but the habits were already there: ship early, document the work, listen to testers, make the setup understandable, stretch the platform, and use every project as the laboratory for the next one.
Curiosity became working software. Working software became a product. Each product became the next experiment.
The Wayback Machine lists 192 URLs under the old NACS account. Captures are incomplete and server-side PHP/CGI source is not recoverable, but the surviving pages preserve the shape of the work.
Screenshots are direct renderings of Internet Archive captures. Dates describe capture time, which may differ from original publication dates. Archived executables are intentionally not offered for download here.