Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: LePaul on February 19, 2002, 12:15:34 PM
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Reason I ask is that on Channel 1 a few weeks ago, we were chatting it up about BBSs. BBSs were everywhere in the late 80s/early 90s. Then the Internet Wave of 94-95 really pasted most of them out of existance.
I've still got my BBS up, its been running since 1992 and although its much different that how it looked/ran then, its kept up with modern technology...offering telnet, got rid of the modems (no ones calling anyways) and have Web and NNTP logins available.
My *big news* is that I just copied ALL the Shareware CDs I've gathered over the years and copied them to Hard Disk. 178 CDs, and 117GB later, they are all now in the system. Before I was using CD Changers, Jukeboxes, etc, just to have them available for people to download.
So, if any of you guys care to wander by (blatant plug) feel free to do so. The web address is http://www.checksix.net and just login as a New User and have at.
If you REALLY want to reminsce, you an telnet in for the ANSI side of the BBS at bbs.checksix.net
Who else ran BBSs? I know a few folks on Channel 1 said they ran Spitfire, Renegade, etc....I'm running Wildcat (now WIN Server) and its still works quite nicely.
Anyways, c'mon by, and if you ran or frequented BBSs in the past, tell me about it. I might even remember ya! Heck, I knew Jack from Boardwatch and all those guys....sigh, seems like yesterday!
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I ran a BBS in the Portland area in the early 90s (Long Gone BBS)... for about 4 years. I had 3 phone lines and ran Wildcat in various forms.
Damn... I even ran one under OS2/Warp for a bit... but can't remember exactly what bbs that was. Man.. comm ports and OS2 were a real squeak.
The BBS went by the wayside with the introduction of WWW to the public. It was just too easy to set up a simple web page to handle most of the things done on a bbs. I was also glad to get rid of the chat features. I swear, it seemed like most people used the bbs as some kind of geeks looking for geeks mating service. The fricking LOTR players were absolutely the worst.
Ah... remembering the old days here.
AKDejaVu
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I used to run virtual dallas bbs here in dallas and used three others barefactsbbs virtuallvillage and chrysalis
I used galacticom software and had all the major mud modules
4 lines at a whopping 28.8 on each was a sweet deal back in the days
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Godfather was one I remember..
upgraded from a 2400 baud modem to a 9600 and thought I was really cookin :)
files were alot smaller then :)
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Wow. 2400 baud.
My setup, we used a Novell Network, those early multi-tasking programs were not stable for multiple lines/multiple door game users...just not enough memory to go around. So, we had the dedicated Novell Server, then each Node Machine merely had a 386 SX 25mhz in it with 4mb of RAM. No hard drives, just a floppy drive, modem and Network card. Booted up, logged into Novell and took calls. Worked really well despite the additional cost(s)
Also recall the "big day" I went from 4 2400 modems to 4 14,400 baud modems. InfoTel modems, full length cards. Still got em, monsters!
Then, Zoom had a Sysop Program where if your login message said "Connected to a Zoom Telephonics Modem at ", they'd sell you modems for over 1/2 off! So, that's how we upgraded to 28.8 cheaply.
But when the Internet rolled around, I pondered offering dialup Internet like others were. I opted to stay a content-provider and yanked the modems when it was down to only 20 calls a day (down from a high of 300+). So, I don't care who people connect to the Internet with, as long as they find me via HTTP/Telnet etc
Oh man, just remembered, I also had Planet Connect back then...satellite feed...Fidonet messages, weather forecasts, and lots of new shareware files. At a blazing downlink speed of 19,200.
How about Door Games? I know the biggies on my system were games like...
TradeWars 2002
Food Fight
Legend of the Red Dragon
Solar Realms Elite
Baroon Realms Elite
etc etc
BBSs are trying to make a come back, its just a squeak trying to persuade the hardliners to give it up on ANSI and embrace HTML. I see a lot more web browsers than Telnet clients at all the Internet Cafes I visit!
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I used to play all kinds of games on BBSes in the early 90s. MajorMud was my favorite. Legend of the Red Dragon wasnt bad either.
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cool, some former Sysops here
I only once runned a BBS, 89/90 with my Amiga, Software was
called "TransAm" ;) and i had only a 300baud Bell Acoustic coupler ! but it was a great time and great phone bills *g*
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I visited more than a few at the time, since it was the "online" source for patches, etc. I also played around with Wildcat BBS on one of my machines but didn't have the resources or motivation to go beyond that. I still remember when Computer Shopper used to run a big BBS directory each month, where they had to break it down alphabetically and run portions each month to fit it in. That changed pretty quickly in the Mid 1990s.
Charon
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Oh yea, when Computer Shopper was a book 3 inches thick!
To be in there, you had to call, long distance, a 2400 baud BBS system that was s-l-o-w. I had my ad in there and by the next issue, I went from 100 callers to 1,200.
They got so many BBSs in there, they had to alterante ads every issue....A-M on month, N-Z the next
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Computer Shooper was a telephone book
Another informative rag was one called Board Watch
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oh yeah... good old BBS days...
days of Telix... with autodialing to whole town in search for new BBS numbers :) Waking up everyone at 2am in the morning :D
Did you guys know that best place to find porn those days was on High School's BBS's ? :D
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LOL
I ran the biggest BBS in my town. And, since I was a subscription board, I was a *bad guy*. Can't tell you how many guys tried to slam me for ruining the *spirit* of BBSing by charging. But, for me, charging just a whooping $1 a month got rid of the kids and rif-raf. I got lucky, I had a great following, folks like the mayor, police chief and other such type to just easy going adults who understood the value of a system that offered so much for so little.
Those guys who accused me of ruining the *spirit* of BBSing never took up my offer to pay my power bill, 4 phone lines of satellite feed. Oddly enough, those who accused me of these things lived on Government assistance and Federal Housing. Hmm, must be use to freebies and upset they couldnt prod me into giving em free access. LOL
Most of the kiddie BBSs ran from Mom and Dad's house....too bad the parents didnt know. Kids would advertise "BBS online from 2pm to 5pm". Just to be a dick I'd set TeleMate to randomly call at 7PM, 11PM, etc etc. That BBS went away in no time
Abunabi ran a BBS to. He had a case where a kid was causing all kinds of problems on his system. Nasty messages, the whole 9 yards. Abu finally called the user and his father answered the phone. Father was very apologetic and told the kid to go get the modem out of the computer. While Abu was holding on the line, listening to this argument, the father eventually got the modem and smashed it with Abu listening. Kid never called or raised havoc again. True story!
Ever go to any of the BBS Meetings/Get togethers? I've never seen so many pocket protectors in my life ;) All the guys with names like "DeathSlayer" or "UltraMagnum" were 90 pound weaklings who pumped gas for a living....hehehe....
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I ran a BBS in Charlottesville, VA for two years (1992 through 1994). That was a lot of fun, if not terribly expensive. I was the first BBS in town to offer 9600 baud, then 14.4k, then dual-speed 19.2k/21.6k access via the free USRobotics promo deal. I was also the first in my area to offer files from CD (grabbed a couple of Night Owl shareware CDs and wrote a script to add them into the Wildcat BBS software database).
FIDONet... dozens of games (Legend of the Red Dragon, anyone?)... distribution site for Apogee, iD, and Epic Megagames... those were the days. :D
Naturally, in the summer of '94 my harddrive decided to die on me. At that point, interest in BBSes had declined to the point where it wasn't worth dishing out the money for a new harddrive to bring it back up again. Plus, I'd discovered the Internet and decided that it was more fun than local BBSes anyway.
-- Todd/Leviathn
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Used to dial up some BBS's in San Diego in the early 80's.
At the time, I used a Commodore 64 and a 1200 BAUD modem.
BTW... that modem cost me $240 at the time.
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Wow
Remember how expensive a 120mb hard drive was back then?
And when a "sound card" and CD-ROM were the "cool new things" to have?
Ah the memories
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Originally posted by AKDejaVu
I ran a BBS in the Portland area in the early 90s (Long Gone BBS)... for about 4 years. I had 3 phone lines and ran Wildcat in various forms.
Damn... I even ran one under OS2/Warp for a bit... but can't remember exactly what bbs that was. Man.. comm ports and OS2 were a real squeak.
The BBS went by the wayside with the introduction of WWW to the public. It was just too easy to set up a simple web page to handle most of the things done on a bbs. I was also glad to get rid of the chat features. I swear, it seemed like most people used the bbs as some kind of geeks looking for geeks mating service. The fricking LOTR players were absolutely the worst.
Ah... remembering the old days here.
AKDejaVu
LOTR or LORD?? hehehehe Wow..memories.
btw, what was the game where you were like a galactic emperor and you fought other systems...sheesh. I don't think it was Tradewars or Solar Realms. Been going nuts trying to remember that one.
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Hehehe.. LOTRD? yeah.. LORD.
Don't remember hardly any of the ansi games played back then. I remember some game where you could send a "gooie kablooie" bomb... played over nets against other local BBSs. I think we had about 12 in our network.
AKDejaVu
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LOTRD! Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind. Man i remember logging in only to find some tard clan had attacked mine and stolen all my stuff. Also used to play VGA planets for a bit.
I ran a MUD for a while on er.. i think it was on the SA country internet server. I circlemud from memory. Was cool.
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Hell ya! 1983 was when I got my C64 300 baud "Automodem" -- autodial (pulse)/autoanswer, totally the way to go! (I remember in '81 being jealous of those who had spent the $500 or so on a Livermore Star acoustic 300)
I was the terror of the local boards -- most of which had freaks (not phreaks -- I guess statute of limitations means I can admit to that for a very brief period) as Sysops.
The local BBS scene was:
A. Some well-meaning guy who ran a decent, low-profile BBS.
B. Some Bobn-class moron who had a trash-80 wired to 6 different types of floppy drives, had a "second personality" he swore was real (only a US MArshal, so he was out of town whenever anybody visited), and who printed out full logs of everybody's sessions (included priv. email)
C. Another Bobn-class moron who hated B, required snail-mail requests to get on his board. In flamewars with B, he created his own second personality, allegedly "A deaf friend of C; C is really nice and helps me set up my board"
D. An alcoholic, who called his site "Friends of Bill W."
I screwed around with these, mostly inciting trouble -- I met B. at his house (with his equally horribly obese wife); they lived blocks away. He claimed a marines formation; I doubted it -- I mean, no matter how low you might think of the marines, this guy was below that. He had a bunch of yap dogs he claimed had full-size jaws, but all they did was run and dump on the carpet (his house rule: 'you step in it, you clean it up'). Then I got a phone number for a BBS in Berkeley I had overheard discussions about in some silly College-Level 6502 programming course taught by grad students at Berkeley over the summer. That got me into "the wrong crowd", as the feds would say.
I finally stopped when I gave a complementary call to the 38-year-old former boomer dude with a wife and kids for a new Cserve password, and his wife answered, "He's out of jail, but he's not here right now."
Fortunately, that's all behind me, back when I was a minor. Although from time to time, I still get misty-eyed about the days when long distance was a dialup (local or 800) and a six-digit code. SIX DIGITS. You know, if you have 50,000 clients, 1 in 20 works?
I was young and stupid; man I'm glad I survived that to warn kids not to pull that toejam.
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Originally posted by LePaul
TradeWars 2002
Food Fight
Legend of the Red Dragon
Solar Realms Elite
Baroon Realms Elite
etc etc
WHAT? No Major Mud?! That was THE game.. never scripted and got my missionary up to level 24 :D. Man I wasted my life playing that game :D.
"You slash Elite Orc Guard for 67 damage!"
I always used a local BBS called Cyber Quest. After that closed down I moved to a place called ODS.. not sure how popular that was, but they offered telnet.
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Those door games were the best. I can remember playing several different ones, trade wars springs to mind as well as lotrd, but lots i cant recall the name of. Remember RIP graphics. They were great, but slowed the action down :). Was it LOTRD where you could visit the bar and stuff in town? I have such a bad memory :).
I had a very bad experience on a BBS chat site when I was a lot younger. Hehe. I reckon I'll be roundly laughed at if i tell the whole tale. I was going to give an overview, but even that makes me look stupid.
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Well guys, I have Tradewars and Legend of the Red Dragon on my system, telnet in (bbs.checksix.net) and have at. They are there to play, so by all means!
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Ah, those good old days. I had my own BBS fairly late, when 14,4k and 28,8k:s were kicking. I ran it for about 1-2 years or so, 'till the internet came for whom i sold my soul..;)
But i was BBS:ing when 2400b modems were decent. I remember when eyes would pop out when you'd see a 100kb game demo. No way i could download that!
Even the 1 screen of ASCII characters would load up sloow.
And 12 years later were downloading 100mb patches all the time to our games!
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You know what else is fun to remember, is that DOOM was one of the first games to really soar on the BBSs as a Shareware Demo. Once they got you hooked on that, and announced DOOM 2 coming at your local stores, BBS usage really went through the roof. Everyone wanted the cool WADs/AddOns for Doom, Doom 2, Heretic, etc etc.
(I think the best Doom WADs were the Aliens and Simpson's ones. Absolutely hilarious)
I wandered around last night in the game areas...I found demos for games I loved years ago....Dark Forces, the Star Wars knock off of Doom (too bad it never supported multiplayer). Rise of the Triad was another really well done game, as was Duke Nuke Em.
Speaking of, I thought we had a kickass new version of Duke showing up someday?
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Speaking of, I thought we had a kickass new version of Duke showing up someday?
It's been "someday" now since what, the mid 1990s ? :) I'll believe it when its in my hands, which will be sometime after the first major patch is released.
Charon
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lol memories, i was hooked on Tele-Arena and then Major Mud shortly after. My wife was hooked on L.O.R.D. too.
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Originally posted by LePaul
Wow
Remember how expensive a 120mb hard drive was back then?
And when a "sound card" and CD-ROM were the "cool new things" to have?
Ah the memories
Yeah,
I was in "Hog Heaven" when I upgraded to a 3 1/2" drive for my Commy64... Did the 300/1200/2400 modem upgrades... I remember reading pages faster than my system could load them.
---> and then came the Amigas...:D
Warez Sysop
Toadie's Lillypad
Jacksonville Florida
1990 - 1993
when only a commy would do...:cool:
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Heck, I remember when a BBS went up in Oakland with 60 Megs on it. THey called it "Magrathea", it was so huge.
Damn, 60 Megs -- that was a monster! Most of them were lucky to have a hard drive.
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Heh, I ran a BBS in NZ for a while called WarBoad. Started of on what became Kiwiboard software, then went to Wildcat, then went to PCBoard.
I also ran some software I wrote in Turbo Prolog called Warlords ][ (don't ask what happened to 1). Was sort of a multiplayer turn based strategy game you could customive quite a lot.
Sigh... those were the good old days :)
...16 colour porn
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i remember 4 color c64 porn. hilarious.
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Even more fun, I had access to a phone line that didn't exist, ie free international tolls. I got membership to the Pirates Cove and Hackers Den and downloaded a large portion of their filez at 1200bps :D
That was a long long time ago. The guys from Pirates Cove actually run me up - they thought I was a Fed trying to get in under the guise of being offshore LOL. That was right around the time one of the more legendary hackers 'disappeared' - forget his name now.
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Hehe, I met my wife playing scrabble on a local BBS.
Her first word was a double word score worth 27 points....
I was in love.
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Used to log onto a local BBS religiously to play Trade Wars especially, and always LORD afterwards because I was still looking for fun after my turns ran out. The Board was "Panther's Den", and used Renegade as it's BBS software.
Maybe I'll have to log onto LePaul's board and play some Trade Wars...got a similar game for my Clié, but it just ain't the same :)
SOB
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Hey I'm game for some Tradewars action :)
Ive been messing around in Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) too.
By all means, have at ;) I'm logging in now and hiding myself several sectors away!
BTW....found some silly, old ANSI art....if you telnet in, enjoy the Spock-Vulcan hand gesture as you exit.
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Ok Ok
Whose "SnottenHeim" ?
Hehehehe, you are kick my bellybutton BADLY in LORD ;)
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Originally posted by LePaul
Wow
Remember how expensive a 120mb hard drive was back then?
And when a "sound card" and CD-ROM were the "cool new things" to have?
Ah the memories
I remember saying, "Oooh... sixteen colors!"