What is a BBS?
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting. In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail, which is similar to internet-based email.
Back in the early 90s I was turned on to the PC MS-DOS community. It was a fun time of WordPerfect 5.0, Lotus 1-2-3 and some text and light graphical games that came around the way… Tapper, Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 and other worthy softwarez; but things got real when I learned that you could dial-up to other computers, and bulletin board systems, to reach a world beyond your monitor. In the United States, and many other countries as I’ve come to learn, you could find [amost] hundreds of BBSes in every area code! There were plenty of public domain [shareware] boards, but the elite user could find systems dedicated to more seedy topics… HPAVC [Hacking, phreaking, anarchy, virus, cracking], warez [pirate software], the art and dem0scenes… you could literally find anything you sought out. As time went on, BBSes would get their own type of message networking; FidoNet FTNs and begin to connect in ways that weren’t originally possible. At the end of BBSes, many of them turned into early ISPs in the cities they operated in, as the sysOps already had a lot of the hardware that was needed - and many sysOps would earn a very good living serving up the bytes of data that their users lusted…
Sounds boring… I can only take so many Lemmy messages…
Door Games were a huge part of BBSing. Door Games were brought to life with the ANSi graphics that BBSes used - while they weren’t fully graphical, they were exciting and multi-player… something that you couldn’t get on PCs of the day. Popular Door Games were Tradewars 2002, Legend of the Red Dragon [LoRD], Barren Realms Elite, The Pit, Arrowbridge, DrugWars, Operation Overkill II and many m0re. For the time, they were literally worlds beyond what you could find on early 8088 machines… and continued to be very popular even as graphics won over w/ the likes of the shareware kings. The reason? Multi-player games; there are many servers and BBSes that still get users lining up to play - in 2o23!
Phone lines are dead, how do we connect?!
After copper wires telephone lines went the way of the dodo, and TCP/IP took over the interwebs, the BBSes of the day mostly went offline… but it would prove short-lived, as we soon learned how to connect the old BBS software up to TELNET and SSH - allowing them to be hosted on the web; no m0re phone bills to get you grounded!! All you need to connect today is an ANSi-capable terminal software. (Or, PETSCII for Commdore BBSes, AmigaFonts for Amiga boards or Atari support for Atari bbSes…) There are a few of these that are developed for current machines:
Syncterm - Syncterm is the ‘best’, as it has ANSi, PETSCII, C=, Amiga, Atari, RIP and SIXEL support.
Netrunner - Netrunner is a GREAT ANSI/Amiga terminal [About 80% of all BBSes] as it has anti-aliasing and the fonts look smooth and crisp.
MagiTERM - A decent terminal, developed by APAM… a BBS user that also develops door games and even BBS software…
The easiest, if you run Linux or Windows, is Netrunner… SyncTERM is a binary download for Windows and MacOS, but will require a compile on Linux… don’t worry, tho - MeaTLoTioN of The Quantum Wormhole BBS has an awesome how-to/script that you can follow to compile it with ease!
- You can also connect using MS-DOS, or other, software on real hardware… there are many Wifi Modem’s to choose from, but I’ll make you hunt for Telix or Terminate 5.0 on your own time…)
They’re all stupid stock boards - wheres the beef!?
Many new BBS users peruse The Telnet BBS Guide and are first surprised at how many BBSes are available to connect to… only to quickly find out that the majority of listed boards are stock setups without much substance or community… but I’m here to tell you that you just have to turn the r0cks and find the great BBSes out there; or, just connect to these:
2o fOr beeRS - This is actually my bbS!! We get about 30 callers a day, have all the popular FidoNet-FTNs and over 800 users… come on by, 2oFB is a wild one. MORE Social, less Media.
20ForBeers.com:1337 TELNET :1338 SSH
aBSINTHE - Ran by the sysOp aNACHRONiST - he’s also a great ASCII artist and aBSINTHE is literally my favorite BBS of all time. It’s an Amiga joint, ran on CNet BBS software. Skyraiders is a door game that he’s developed from scratch and is one of the very best doors I’ve ever played… you aren’t BBSing if yer not here!
absinthebbs.net:1940 TELNET
The Quantum Wormhole - Another mainstay of BBSes and home to MeaTLoTioN, the writer of that Syncterm script from above… its just a damn good BBS; clean, safe and solid. Some SIXEL graphics support if you look around…
bbs.erb.pw:23 TELNET
Wizards Rainbow - Can you believe this one?! Shooter Jennings, yea THAT Shooter Jennings, is the sysOp! Furthermore, he writes custom Door Games and just introduced a new one called Phantasie Plaza! Its a LoRD-type RPG and is looking really nice. He also wrote a few other Doors; 1NS0MNIA - and hosts a Door Game Server that any sysOp can connect their BBS to… rock and roll w/ Shooter @ the rainbow…
wizardsrainbow:23 TELNET
Dura-Europos - This one runs on an old Apple IIe BBS software - and is literally still hosted from Apple IIe hardware running at 9600 baud! Skip, the sysOp, does amazing things w/ that Apple… including a lot of Syncterm font switching and graphic wizardry - this one doesn’t have all the flashing lights and pizazz as some other boards, but when you see what he does with rudementary hardware - its amazing!
dura-bbs.net:6359 TELNET
SLACKERS BBS - The bad boys of BBSing… the assholes… the haters - and a damn solid BBS, too. (The sysOp, GnGRDR3DMan, doesn’t even care to pay for a domain… gangster!)
slackers.ddns.net:2323 TELNET
Black Flag - Hawk, the sysOp, never left BBSing… he is one of the original pirates, the original r0ckstars - and his family of BBSes are many. I’ll only link to the main one, but it features RIP graphics if you wanna experience that - RIP never really caught on, but Hawk don’t care!! (You can find 5+ other Black Flag boards if you l00k for them…)
blackflag.acid.org:23 TELNET
Frozen Floppy - This is a Commodore 64 BBS; you’ll have to have Syncterm, and you’ll have to select C64 or C128 as the ‘screen mode’. You’ll be amazed at the 40-column PETSCII graphics, and the fact that C= users are still kickin… the art here is top notch, too… C= heaven.
bbs.retrohack.se:64128 TELNET
Do I really wanna spend time on this sh*t?!
You do. You’ll be amazed by the community of BBSing in 2o23 - I know this, because you’re here… sysOps of BBSes are also OSS, privacy minded, federation, technology and Linux users! While very different from the Twitters or Facebooks of social media, BBSes offer something you can’t get on that shiny iPhone - community. I hope to catch you @ 2oFB, or on one of the many other BBSes still running today. GET S0ME!
If you have any questions about bulletin boards, please feel free to email me @ 2oFB or reply here; there’s always someone willing to help, whether you want to become a user, a door game player or even a sysOp… you’ll find it all on a BBS near, or far, from you!
- pAULIE42o
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I’m very envious of people who were able to grow up with BBSes. I caught the very tail end of the phpBB/MyBB days but this seems like a whole 'nother level. it’s nice to know they’re still kicking though- one of these days i’ll finally get a network cart and join the fray
BBSes were the very first way to connect to other computers/systems. Well… prior to BBSes is was possible to literally dial another user with a terminal program; the user you were dialing would answer the modem and all you could do was type to each other and send a file if needed… there were no menus, logins or … anything; it just opened a TEXT connection with a protocol for transferring files.
Christian Ward created the first BBS, CBBS, during a winter storm in 1979 - IIRC… you can still dial into that first CBBS board!! I’d have to find the link, but there is a clone of the original out there for users to experience… its very text based, but does have ONE message area (a message board) that users can post to.
When I was in grade school, BBSes became the main way we’d connect with other people… in High School I ran my first Telegard BBS, and later switched to Renegade… [bbs softwares]
Its amazing that people still love the technology enough to run these BBSes… I’ll never shut 2o fOr beeRS down - I hope you get a terminal software and dial out. I do host a terminal software right on my website, which you could find and connect to 2oFB @ http://20ForBeers.com:1339
that’s awesome, i’ll definitely have to visit. thanks!
Also, try Xibalba, its a bbs software written in nodejs, which has web interface.
Xibalba is actually the WHQ BBS for Enigma 1/2 BBS software… I agree w/ you that Enigma.5 is super rad - in fact, NuSkooler had been working on some integration w/ Mastodon altho I don’t think that feature has made it to the codebase just yet…
Yeah, it looks cool. In my times it’s been Tornado BBS, written in Pascal. By tuning that I’ve started my way into coding.
There were midnight chats with strangers, who chose to use ‘yell sysop’; long explanations to parents, who weren’t so understanding about phone line taken after 10PM. Such a great times that was)
Agreed - I don’t think I’ve been on a Tornado BBS software; but I still code in Mystic BBS’s PASCAL-like MPL language. :P
I’ve hosted a BBS on my home town like 20 years ago. That was still a thing in ex-USSR at that time.
Been looking for years for this board game I played back in the day. It worked with multi-line BBSes so people could play against each other in real time. The premise was basically the battle royale games of today - you’re in a forest, sneaking around, trying to kill the other people on it. There were computer NPCs, if no one else was online to play. It was all done via text, since it was dark, so you would get things like “You heard a sound from the west.” if someone was moving to the west, along with a room description. You got various weapons, pistols and the like. Movement was running, sneaking, normal walking etc, with different amounts of sound generated. The map was a grid.
Anyone happen to run across this one?
There a few like that; Legend of the Red Dragon, The Pit, Usurper, Arrowbridge, Exitilus, DoorMUD… I think yer talking about DoorMUD. Theres a BBS today, Danger Bay, that has a ‘Door Game Museum’. The BBS has 1,000s of Door Games and the searchable museum… people often go there to find long forgotten doors, but I think yer thinking of a popular one. Does DoorMUD ring a bell?
Danger Bay BBS - dangerbaybbs.dyndns.org:1337 TELNET
- pAULIE42o
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No, it was modern, guns and what not. It was running on a majorbbs, only ever saw it there. The grid was a set 20x20, you could run, walk, or sneak from section to section, like a2 to a3, like an excel sheet, with each cell having some description. It was similar to a mud but zero graphics, all text. Also static and relatively small. Like a protomud.
Can you believe some large BBSes, such at PTT & PTT/2 in Taiwan, never went down? They’ve been running since the 80s/90s, only adding TCP/IP support as the internet came about… IIRC, PTT had 300,000 users at its peak and still has 100k, give or take, using the BBS today. It’s known for its lofi graphics and being an information hub for the Taiwanese… sucks, tho; PTT uses heavy CAPTCHA and requires users to be in the country - ask me how I know… :P
- pAULIE42o
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You gotta search for MUDs with that description. That’s how that kind of games was called.
Yep, Sounds like an old MUD (was an “immortal”(programmer) on a MUD for a while)
