BBSes

Just curious, how many of you ever used BBSes? If so, what was your first experience with one?

I started out using a BBS system called C-net 10.0 on the C-64.

Back then, it was 1 computer, one phone line, one person on the BBS at a time. hard to imagine that now with 300+ people on here at once (when the server ain't crashed anyway!!).

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I ran a BBS for years, first on an Atari 800XL, and several generations later, ending on an Atari Falcon.

Although it was a great love of mine and at the time I couldn't imagine never running a BBS, eventually the internet kind of made it redundant and obsolete, and I lost interest (along with most of my callers).

I tried to recapture the magic with a website, but it just wasn't the same. So now I'm just a lowly end-user.

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Ran Telegard for awhile, then Renegade, Finally moved to Proboard for the last couple of years that I was into BBSing.
I truly enjoyed hanging on BBSes, there are still a couple that I call. Being that I am on a 56k connection (usually around 49.2), the old ansi stuff flies compared to the web. Most of what I did was messaging and doors anyhow.
Every once in awhile I will restore my BBS from tape and play LORD for a couple of days just for fun.
Ran a board strictly telnet for a couple of years until I moved back in December (out of cable/dsl area now). Stayed fairly busy believe it or not. Once it becomes available out here I will probably go back online. There are a couple of decent BBSes that are still being worked on that interact with a web interface as well as console.

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i ran a BBS on my C-128 for a bit...then later on ran a few BBS's using RemoteAccess 2.02. even paid the $99 to register that baby. then when the guy coding it decided to stop, i switched to the renegade rewrite.

always was part of fidonet too...was like 6:140/something-or-another. being in japan, though, i was always a 6.

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Ran a little one-line hobby BBS back when I was 14 using RA. Used it to swap and collect amiga .MODs...

Kinda like napster except it was all our work.

While we're on this topic, does anyone remember the terminal program Terminate?

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T-Man

Join Date 03/2001

+79

I ran a Commodore 64 BBS back in my high school days. Actually thats how Frogboy and I met.
Started out on a 300 baud modem. It was actually scary, in the BBS program there was a little text box window that displayed all the data coming through. At 300 baud you could actually read the text as it was being transmitted.

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I used to run a 3-line BBS in the early '90's for about 6 years. First it was SuperBBS (then EzyCom) under DR-DOS and DESQview/X, finally it was Maximus/2 running under OS/2. It ended up being the longest running and most popular board in town, actually getting enough donations to cover all the costs of maintaining and upgrading it, and registering all those 'door games' like LORD.

After a rather fun run, the story pretty much went the way Tarkus described. I, and the majority of my callers, moved on to the Internet.

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I too started WAAAYYY back with an Atari 800XL (heavily modified to include an external, separate keyboard that I could pull down onto my lap). It started with a PocketModem 300bps modem and the software was the CATS software (for the Atari) that I had to manually customize to work with the PocketModem. After that I moved on to Express BBS Pro by Keith Ledbetter who wrote the Express telecom program for the 8bits (and later Express ST). Eventually I moved into the big leagues with an ICD RS232 adapter and a Supra 1200bps modem along with the Supra 20MB Hard Drive (That sucker cost me $1200CDN!!). It also made me the 3rd largest Atari BBS in the WORLD briefly (at the time there was an 80MB board in the UK and a 50MB in Texas). Now, needless to say, this 20MB wasn't exactly filled with *ahem* shareware products but in my defense it was the Wild Wild West of the telecom days. Hell, even the cops that visited my house on occasion (unrelated to my BBS) didn't have a problem with the pirated software - actually swapped with a few of them

Unlike the others above though my interest in running the board waned (too much backend stuff) and the "competition" around my area was creating too much friction between boards, users, etc. It was pathetic. I ended up pulling the plug on it and ended up being an Assis. Sysop on a couple other boards before the advent of the 'Net. Still miss the ole ATASCII animations though...

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Heh. I was actually a part-owner of BBS Express! ST for awhile, when T2 owned it. I ran the support BBS during that period, too. The Rebel BBS was pretty popular there for a spell.

And yes, ATASCII was pretty cool alright.

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