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Old-school BBS and Shareware

W

wdatkinson

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2007
Messages
54
Location
Noblesville, IN
Back in the day I was a FidoNet BBS SysOp. Man, I miss those days. We did with computers and modems basically what the internet does with IP addressess.

Anyway, I was digging through my garage, and found a couple of CD's full of shareware that I used to have on my BBS. That gave me the fever, so I started rummaging through my old BBS software (RemoteAccess, PCBoard and various doors and utilities) that I'd purchased over the years.

So a couple of days later, I have a working RemoteAccess BBS that I've been able to setup for access via telnet. I also have the contents of both CD's online via said BBS, as well as a local message base. No door games yet, but I'm thinking about playing with that.

That brings me to this message. Very few people I work with even know what I'm talking about when I say BBS. Fewer still can appreciate the fun and enjoyment we had back in the day and the memories I've resurrected over these last few days. I suspect that there are at least a few of you who might understand.

After doing all the work, I got to thinking. In this day of technology, why would anyone want to telnet to a BBS and download shareware for their vintage machine when I could just burn the entire CD for them for pennies and mail it to them for a few bucks? The old SysOp in me hopes that someone might appreciate the work I've done. And if not, I had fun doing it.

I haven't exposed the BBS to the outside world yet, I figured I'd post this and get a feel for what sort of audience might be out there.
 
I was never a sysop but I did spend a few years in the late 80s/early 90s inhabiting the BBS world. I can relate.

It was a lot of fun and great to connect to other geeks "out there".

Yes the Internet killed the BBS scene stone dead...to be replaced by things like this forum. Which when you think about it, is much better.

It's not the same without the squeal of that modem though :)

Tez
 
It's an interesting scenario that occurred. I'm not so sure the internet really killed BBSing but the use of the phone line I think is what did it in. Instead of having to dial out, phones busy and be on one system the internet allowed you to get to many systems at once (WWIVnet and a few other BBSes tried this but at a SysOps expense you can only justify so many phone lines on one computer for incoming and outgoing dialing). I know a friend that was a WWIV SysOp with a few of his friends and they set up a "friends and family" plan for their homes for the BBSes to communicate to lol. Reduced cost phone lines. Just like all of us that call the phone company and ask for a children's line (for the bbs.. you'd NEVER want to tell them what you'd be using it for or they'd charge you for some ridiculous usage and account).

Anyway, a few years back I was toying with the same thing but never got telnet on OS/2 or EcomStation to work in a speedy manner. I told a friend (given he's a programmer and does enjoy gaming and vintage gaming occasionally) about TradeWars2002 and Usurper. I got them up at home and he ended up playing it most of the weekend. So game play wise I think you may be able to get some of the new/younger generation still sucked in. Some (honestly probably fewer) you can just say it's like MUD games or MMORPG.

The shareware argument I think you're right, not too many care anymore with highspeed connections. The only good part is you can virus scan it so it's less likely (if you trust the BBS) to contain malware than all these noname sites I keep ending up at now adays searching for a product.

I still hope to get my board up again but it's always the same idea/concern. Is it going to be anyone outside of me and some worms playing on the bbs, and how do you capture the audience again.

- John
 
I too was a sysop from ~1990-1993 or so.
Somewhere I've got an archive of my board as it last stood as well. I doubt very much that I'll resurrect such a thing, but you never know.

If you haven't heard of it, the BBS documentary will likely bring a tear to your eye. It's a great piece of nostalgia.

http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/

I'm quite interested in your shareware CDs, especially if there are DOS games on it, so if nothing else, I'd log in and leech some stuff from you.
 
barythrin said:
It's an interesting scenario that occurred. I'm not so sure the internet really killed BBSing but the use of the phone line I think is what did it in.
- John
Click to expand...

Well, not everywhere. Remember that (AFAIK) local connections in the US tend to be without costs- but in the rest of the world, at least Europe, they were not.

But yes, good memories. I just went on youtube and searched "modem sounds". :)
I remember the thrill when I swapped my 1200 baud modem for a speedy 14K4, and ZModem came.
 
I wouldn't say that BBSs are dead exactly, in fact they seem to be enjoying a bit of a revival as people become interested in computing nostalgia. What is relatively rare is dial-up access; although these days with cheap or flat rate phone plans they're a lot cheaper to use than "back then", they would require a dedicated phone line for each user.

There are quite a few model-specific boards for C64s, Ataris etc., either running on the original vintage hardware or emulators, and accessible via bridge software that emulates a modem.

There are also many Internet-connected BBS packages and systems; here's an overview (429 systems):
http://telnetbbsguide.com/

And here's a list of only those BBSs using the Synchronet package:
http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html

A couple of systems running on C64s (and the software used):
telnet://cottonwood.servebbs.com/
http://home.ica.net/~leifb/bbs/
 
Jorg said:
Well, not everywhere. Remember that (AFAIK) local connections in the US tend to be without costs- but in the rest of the world, at least Europe, they were not.
Click to expand...

Yes. In New Zealand you just paid a flat monthy rental for the phone line and local calls were free. You could hang on the line as long as you wanted to without incurring extra charges.

Tez
 
I've spent a lot of hours late at night listening to the squeal of the modem. There was a couple of hundred BBSs in my town. I'd make my rounds to a dozen or so every night. 2400 baud was just fine because I can't read that fast anyway.

I loved FIDO and it's community. The mostly noncommercial nature and the natural exclusion of people who weren't wellmeaning was unique. The internet didn't exactly replace it - it obliterated it.
 
My feelings are a little conflicted.

I ran a BBS from about 1988 up until about 1995. But it was mostly for customer support. Mostly, I read the email and kept the files updated. Otherwise, I prety much ignored the system and let it do its thing.

I also had ARPANET and then USENET access. I found the net access a lot more interesting than BBS. Also Compuserve and Tymnet.

BBS-ing always seemed to be a lonely slow-motion way to communicate, but it was useful for distributing files and information.

Regardless, the modern telnet-ed ones seem to me to fail to reproduce the days of high line noise and 300/1200 bps slowness. (Later there were 9600 bps modems, but only for those who could afford them--2400 seemed to be the most common maximum).

If there was something really important to exchange, it was "Can you mail a disk?"
 
Bbs

Bbs

Chuck(G) said...Regardless, the modern telnet-ed ones seem to me to fail to reproduce the days of high line noise and 300/1200 bps slowness.
Click to expand...
Of course, one could add such random nastiness to a webBBS emulator...

I have to agree with Chuck(G). It was always a thrill downloading a file a couple of megs in size, since you knew if the clouds actually brought rain, your download was toast.
And then the number of times the line dropped for whatever reason. Thrilling days.
USENET & Compuserve were amazing ways to rapidly spread info, almost like a HAM network during disasters. Pity Compuserve faded.
patscc
 
Being on dial-up and considering today's 50MB download file sizes, I find that my Internet experience isn't much different from "the old days" of BBSing; the 56K modem tones are different and it takes longer to connect, but despite the higher speed there are still ample opportunites to make a sandwich and watch a Simpsons repeat or two while waiting for that latest freeware gem...

There aren't many viruses etc. around any more that attack a well-configured BBS running on some obscure old hardware/OS, and if it does crash it's usually much less hassle to resurrect; it's also a lot easier to Telnet with that old 8 bitter than it is to browse the 'Web, but mainly it's just fun.

We're currently having fun on another thread logging in to a homebuilt Z80 single-board computer in Australia with another similar board in Holland and my Radio Shack M100 notebook here in Toronto.
 
Well, you can still telnet to gateway.compuserve.com and it asks for an ID and password, but it's been many years since I had one of those, so I don't know if anything useful happens after that.
 
MikeS said:
We're currently having fun on another thread logging in to a homebuilt Z80 single-board computer in Australia with another similar board in Holland and my Radio Shack M100 notebook here in Toronto.
Click to expand...

You can always "enhance" your web experience by using Lynx as your browser...

I saw an article somewhere that with the tough economic times, some people are dropping broadband and going with the remaining dialup services like NetZero.
 
Oh the BBS days, mine started at age ~13 w/ my IBM 5150 @ 2400 baud. Dialed out to "Gamer's World" based in my town of Minoa NY. i was utterly amazed at the comunication, door games and file transfers... my happiest computer memories. I still remember the chat room and wish to relive it. Eventually I upgraded all the way up to a AMD 133mhz and was able to play doom 2, duke 3d and warcraft 2 over siripx over the BBS and thus my addiction to online computer games began...

About the time I built a P166MMX system I also got the internet and quickly lost interest in my trusty bbs friend ;( looking back on it I regret having so coldy dumping my bbs ... but the internet was so.... BIG.

To date, the fastest analog modem I have ever had installed was a 28.8k, around that time cable modems were new to my area and I was one of the first beta testers.
 
As I recall, it was the "Computer Decency Act of 1996" that finally killed off the few remaining local BBSs here in America. Hundreds of systems went dark within a very few days of the passage of that fine piece of legislation, even though we all knew it was unconstitutional and would be overturned (which it was), nobody wanted to take the risk of imprisonment due to content that some Joe Blow uploaded or posted on their board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act

--T
 
I ran a BBS (with Fidonet) for about a year before the scene completely went downhill. I was running the most cutting-edge BBS software (Mystic) and had around 50 door games. Before I shut it down, I was working on getting the thing to connect users (with 2400 baud modems) to the internet. Unfortunately, a drastic change hit my life and I had to shut the thing down.

I had the whole BBS archived onto a couple of CD-ROMs, and recently extracted it onto a laptop which I've devoted entirely to running DOS programs. I've been meaning to take a few screenshots and post them.

...and yes, I miss the sound of the modem, and the ring of that cheap $3.00 phone I had hooked up to the modem. I've tried Telnetting BBSes, but it's really not the same. The echo is terrible, no modem noise, and most of the Telnet BBSes I've been on generally suck.
 
A question on the same topic--the other day, I ran across a disk for Pyroto Mountain.

Does anyone still run this BBS? It was pretty cool for its time.
 
Interesting comment made by Echoes in another thread "Hearing that someone bought a web browser sounds a bit funny to me" which even though I recall and remember those days also comes across today as a "why" factor.

Maybe that's a hidden clue into the success of the internet over bbses. At first very few businesses were on the internet with a webpage, in fact lots of companies and government agencies all had public access bbses. Then a few made whatever technical choice to start supporting some of those client based ISPs (I know Texas Parks and Wildlife chose AOL to create it's new home for a while). The BBS eventually faded away (also was used by remote users from what I remember). Internet browsers became lower in cost, time allowed online became longer and longer without charges for minutes/hours, and eventually Netscape and IE became free in an odd battle which I assumed once one beat the other they'd likely start charging again, and ISP time became unlimited resulting in no more desire to hang up the computer and dial anywhere else. Just sit online and get as many minutes as you could for what you paid for.

I remember just being in chat rooms all the time or on sites for magazines I read (OMNI) and then trying to become a moderator there. Eventually since AOLs proprietary scripting language was a pain and popularity of independent websites had climbed it was time to let go of the charge for having your AOL site and things moved on.
 
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