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BBS in Montreal 1981 to 1988

Ole Juul

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,982
Location
Coalmont, BC, Canada
I've been looking for information on Ord Millar and how his activities relate to Pinacle Software and the FREE SPEECH BBS.

Ord Millar brought up SASSy on Nov. 1st, 1986.

That was a social study started earlier and made into a BBS test project.

Free Speech is based on a Pinnacle Software design study for "an unusual BBS-like service" known as "The SASSy" (Stark And Simple System).

I am getting this information from the Free Speech documentation, but it is not clear and the internet is not bringing up much.

The "Wrap-Up Report on The SASSy" (written in January, 1988 )

Ord Millar was associated with Pinacle Software, which as far as I can determine is actually Timothy Campbell which many here will probably know as the author of Sapphire BBS and the Pyroto Mountain Gaming BBS.

What I want to know about is that early history of the SASSy. It would appear that it was written by Ord Millar yet the final product, FREE SPEECH, has the following in the documentation which seems to be intended to describe Timothy Campbell:
1975: Co-promoted a popular public conferencing system.

1980: Wrote Montreal's first computer-hobbyist "broadcast" program (BBS).

1981: Became involved with Montreal's fledgling BBS community.

1982: Designed a computer-hobbyist telecomputing system.

1984: Started Canada's first coast-to-coast consumer telecomputing service.

1986: Wrote the Pyroto Mountain Gaming BBS. Installations throughout the
world.

Designed the SASSy BBS Experiment, which led to Free Speech.

Participated in design of experimental BBS systems ITS & Infinity.

1988: Wrote Sapphire, the first truly Zero-Maintenance BBS. Installations
throughout the world.

The Free Speech manual states the following:

Free Speech is Copyright (C) 1990 by Pinnacle Software. Its appearance, look
and feel and operational concepts are property of Pinnacle Software and any
product bearing substantial similarity will be considered an infringement of
copyright. Should any portion of these provisions be found to be inoperat-
ive, the remaining portions shall remain in effect.

The original SASSy design specification and research reports are copyright
(C) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 by Pinnacle Software.

The original SASSy program is copyright (C) 1986 by Pinnacle Software and Ord
Millar.

The following products were used in the development of Free Speech.

Turbo Pascal is a Trademark of Borland International.
TechnoJocks Turbo Tools, Copyright (C) 1986-1989 TechnoJock Software, Inc.

Was there some kind of competition between Ord and Timothy? Did Timothy make claims that were too inclusive of others' work? Were they actually the same person?

Hopefully there are some Easterners here who were involved with BBSs in the early days and had some awareness of the Montreal scene.
 
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