John Draugr
Experienced Member
Ok... I don't want to talk your ears off, so I'm going to try and not get sentimental and go on and on about my days as a PC BBS sysop.
Let me just give you the quick end of it.
NOTE: As always... I kept typing and BINGO long message. You can skip the next bit and go to the bottom where you will see [QUESTION]. That is the main question I need to ask and hopefully someone here can help.
I am working on building a 10 node Telnet BBS geared towards vintage Systems. My BBS will offer support for Vintage PC systems, Commodore 8-bit, Amiga, Atari 8-Bit, Atari ST, and more. Each section would appear to be its own separate BBS, even though it is really all one large BBS broken and separated into sub systems. Anyway, one idea I had from the beginning was to be able to have an option upon initially logging in that would offer the caller the ability to visit "The Disc Master's Domain BBS" as it was in the early 90s. Menus, access levels, filebases, etc... I searched on my old hard drives, and never found the lost archives. That was until today!
I just found an old Practical Peripherals 14400 FX SA V.32 modem box. I pulled it from the storage heap and thought it felt heavy. I opened it up and could not believe my eyes. Within the box was not the modem, but about 20 large tapes from my old Maynard Tape Drive (Drive is long gone). On a few of the tapes I found the following titles "286/16 File Server: 01 for BBS Tape 1, 2 and 3. Then I felt my heart stop. I held in my hand the last tape in the box. The title was "386/40 Main BBS Wildcat Main Files" I couldn't believe it! After all these years I hold in my hands the last remaining archive of my BBS. Each of these tapes held 120MB I believe. That means not only do I have 120mb of my original BBS menus, Main BBS program, and game doors, but also 3 more tapes full of my old file database. This is exactly what I've been looking for. As for the other 17 tapes.... Well, lets say they were filled with *cough* warez *cough*. Nothing that would be that interesting today as most of it is findable as abandonware on the Internet. It was bascially backups of all the elite files I pulled off other BBSes back in the early 90s. Especially my friend John Flint's BBS "Rascal's Computer Haven"!
Continuing... There was also one more exciting thought that came to my mind. Way back in the early 90s There was this BBS Door that I downloaded off of another BBS, this was way before the Internet. The door was a beta and only featured the first 2 levels I believe. It was the first Multiplayer Fantasy game with graphics that I ever saw. You had to execute a client side copy of the game to play over the BBS, sort of like Land of Devestation. Anyhow, my brother and I would play together through my BBS over my Lantastic BNC 2mb...YES I said 2mb network. LOL Back to the story... The game had tile graphics that were a tad nicer than the graphics in Ultima IV or V, at least from what I remember. The game was really neat, but alas when the BBS was brought down for good in 1995, I lost that game and thought it to be lost forever. I've searched for countless hours over the years, trying to find the game on the Internet. I've spoken with Doug over at BBSFiles.com, and he, nor anyone on his forums knew the game I spoke of. (Side Note: Doug is the central point for Sysops who wish to obtain old and new BBS doors for their boards. Doug and his site are great resources!) Anyway, could I have been one of the few people who ever saw that game door? I never thought I'd see it again, until now! There is a good chance that not only are my old BBS files on these tapes, but the long lost D&D type graphical multiplayer door game might also be backed up on that 386/40 Main BBS tape.
So...... This is my question, and one I hope someone might be able to help me with.
[QUESTION]
I no longer have the tape drive, but I have the tapes. Now I need to know what tape drive model I need to try and hunt down on eBay so that I can hook the drive up to my 486 and pull the data off these tapes and put them on my new BBS and onto CD-R or DVD-R for further archiving. I'm going to give the only info I have and hopefully someone here might know what model I need to look for.
A few of the tapes are 3M DC 600HC tapes. These are bigger than the small Colorado 250mb tapes that were popular in the mid 90s. I believe these tapes are actually from the 80s.
Another tape has a SunOS label and says :
4.1 Sun 4c SUNBIN
1/4" Tape (boot format) QIC 24
Part Number: 700-2521-10 Rev:A
I hope this information might be sufficient in determining what tape drive I need.
Well, I wait anxiously in hopes that someone will respond with some good info.
Sorry for rambling about my story above.
Thanks
John
PS: If anyone knows what tape drive type I need and might have a spare to sell (cheaply) or even loan just so I can pull the data off the tape and then burn the data to DVD, I'd appreciate it. I'm currently out of work, so I don't have too much money to toss about, but I am very interested in being able to pull this data from the tapes. They were stored in their original protective hard plastic cases and were then within the modem box in a dry cool storage area. I hope the data is STILL good. Knowing my luck everything will be good except the Main BBS tape. LOL
Let me just give you the quick end of it.
NOTE: As always... I kept typing and BINGO long message. You can skip the next bit and go to the bottom where you will see [QUESTION]. That is the main question I need to ask and hopefully someone here can help.
I am working on building a 10 node Telnet BBS geared towards vintage Systems. My BBS will offer support for Vintage PC systems, Commodore 8-bit, Amiga, Atari 8-Bit, Atari ST, and more. Each section would appear to be its own separate BBS, even though it is really all one large BBS broken and separated into sub systems. Anyway, one idea I had from the beginning was to be able to have an option upon initially logging in that would offer the caller the ability to visit "The Disc Master's Domain BBS" as it was in the early 90s. Menus, access levels, filebases, etc... I searched on my old hard drives, and never found the lost archives. That was until today!
I just found an old Practical Peripherals 14400 FX SA V.32 modem box. I pulled it from the storage heap and thought it felt heavy. I opened it up and could not believe my eyes. Within the box was not the modem, but about 20 large tapes from my old Maynard Tape Drive (Drive is long gone). On a few of the tapes I found the following titles "286/16 File Server: 01 for BBS Tape 1, 2 and 3. Then I felt my heart stop. I held in my hand the last tape in the box. The title was "386/40 Main BBS Wildcat Main Files" I couldn't believe it! After all these years I hold in my hands the last remaining archive of my BBS. Each of these tapes held 120MB I believe. That means not only do I have 120mb of my original BBS menus, Main BBS program, and game doors, but also 3 more tapes full of my old file database. This is exactly what I've been looking for. As for the other 17 tapes.... Well, lets say they were filled with *cough* warez *cough*. Nothing that would be that interesting today as most of it is findable as abandonware on the Internet. It was bascially backups of all the elite files I pulled off other BBSes back in the early 90s. Especially my friend John Flint's BBS "Rascal's Computer Haven"!
Continuing... There was also one more exciting thought that came to my mind. Way back in the early 90s There was this BBS Door that I downloaded off of another BBS, this was way before the Internet. The door was a beta and only featured the first 2 levels I believe. It was the first Multiplayer Fantasy game with graphics that I ever saw. You had to execute a client side copy of the game to play over the BBS, sort of like Land of Devestation. Anyhow, my brother and I would play together through my BBS over my Lantastic BNC 2mb...YES I said 2mb network. LOL Back to the story... The game had tile graphics that were a tad nicer than the graphics in Ultima IV or V, at least from what I remember. The game was really neat, but alas when the BBS was brought down for good in 1995, I lost that game and thought it to be lost forever. I've searched for countless hours over the years, trying to find the game on the Internet. I've spoken with Doug over at BBSFiles.com, and he, nor anyone on his forums knew the game I spoke of. (Side Note: Doug is the central point for Sysops who wish to obtain old and new BBS doors for their boards. Doug and his site are great resources!) Anyway, could I have been one of the few people who ever saw that game door? I never thought I'd see it again, until now! There is a good chance that not only are my old BBS files on these tapes, but the long lost D&D type graphical multiplayer door game might also be backed up on that 386/40 Main BBS tape.
So...... This is my question, and one I hope someone might be able to help me with.
[QUESTION]
I no longer have the tape drive, but I have the tapes. Now I need to know what tape drive model I need to try and hunt down on eBay so that I can hook the drive up to my 486 and pull the data off these tapes and put them on my new BBS and onto CD-R or DVD-R for further archiving. I'm going to give the only info I have and hopefully someone here might know what model I need to look for.
A few of the tapes are 3M DC 600HC tapes. These are bigger than the small Colorado 250mb tapes that were popular in the mid 90s. I believe these tapes are actually from the 80s.
Another tape has a SunOS label and says :
4.1 Sun 4c SUNBIN
1/4" Tape (boot format) QIC 24
Part Number: 700-2521-10 Rev:A
I hope this information might be sufficient in determining what tape drive I need.
Well, I wait anxiously in hopes that someone will respond with some good info.
Sorry for rambling about my story above.
Thanks
John
PS: If anyone knows what tape drive type I need and might have a spare to sell (cheaply) or even loan just so I can pull the data off the tape and then burn the data to DVD, I'd appreciate it. I'm currently out of work, so I don't have too much money to toss about, but I am very interested in being able to pull this data from the tapes. They were stored in their original protective hard plastic cases and were then within the modem box in a dry cool storage area. I hope the data is STILL good. Knowing my luck everything will be good except the Main BBS tape. LOL
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