I did have this brilliant idea when I was coding in machine code on the commodore 64 doing interrupt driven routines.
I figured out a way to attach CBM64s together using V++ and Gnd and one signal wire (from the parallel port, nay User Port as it was known then) where each machine would announce its presence by first announcing a random number (its address) then be able to communicate serially via an interrupt driven routine.
I'd figured out 'data collision' and everything (easy, you wait a random amount of milliseconds before checking for then sending on a clear channel)
Turns out it was already invented.
they called it 'networking'
blah
I was robbed