BBS memories

[tyranthraxus]

I wonder if anyone here has seen Jason Scott's BBS documentary. I think sometimes about setting up my own BBS, just to get a feel for what the technology was like. When I finally get to watch my copy of the documentary, that will probably be enough to push me over the edge.

 

I've got that doc, took me a while to watch it after I bought it because of the huge length and the low production values, however, once you dig in its pretty terrific and I plowed throught all the discs over a weekend. Even though my BBS experience was very limited it was very interesting and really gives you a great look at the history and development of the scene and that important word: community. Makes ya want to go back in time to experience that. Worth getting to support the filmmaker and his future docs, plus there will likely never be such a thorough look of such a small sub-culture of computing.

 

 

Both the C64 and A8 had great "crack'd by" opening titles and scenes. Some of the original music that was written for both computers was just simply awesome. Hoboken, NJ was like some far away distant land that cracked commercial games and made them available for fellow BBS'ers. Excellent.

 

That could be a fun topic for a website, just crack'd title screen grabs. They did grab your imagination as a kid and as you learn the BBS Documentary, it was all about bragging rights between the hackers, which is also a topic covered in the Commodork book (which I bought bundled with the BBS Documentary).

[The Usotsuki]

Like http://artscene.textfiles.com/intros/APPLEII/ ?

[Mendon]

One of the fun things of running a BBS was you'd be sitting around watching the TV, hear the modem on your BBS kick in, and then run to see who was logging in. Maybe you'd break in on them for a "Sysop Chat" or just sit and watch them browse/post for a few. But I always got a blast from seeing who was logging in.

 

 

We also had fun creating "themed" forum areas. Several that I remember taking part in: a western town where everybody took on the roles of cowboys/cowgirls with gunfights - saloons - panning for gold - bank robbing; another where we took part in Norse mythology; and I ran one called The Speakeasy, which took place during prohibition with gambling, singers, dancing, and of course shoot-outs with the cop's and each other.

 

These "themed" forums were a blast with everyone just role-playing any way they wanted. Imaginations ran wild with some of the most off-beat characters showing up at any time.

 

 

Mendon

[Grig]

Like http://artscene.text...intros/APPLEII/ ?

 

Thanks for the link. Reliving those greet screens was like time travel. The 80s was a great time to be a pre-teen and a teenager. What memories!

[Grig]

One of the fun things of running a BBS was you'd be sitting around watching the TV, hear the modem on your BBS kick in, and then run to see who was logging in. Maybe you'd break in on them for a "Sysop Chat" or just sit and watch them browse/post for a few. But I always got a blast from seeing who was logging in.

 

 

We also had fun creating "themed" forum areas. Several that I remember taking part in: a western town where everybody took on the roles of cowboys/cowgirls with gunfights - saloons - panning for gold - bank robbing; another where we took part in Norse mythology; and I ran one called The Speakeasy, which took place during prohibition with gambling, singers, dancing, and of course shoot-outs with the cop's and each other.

 

These "themed" forums were a blast with everyone just role-playing any way they wanted. Imaginations ran wild with some of the most off-beat characters showing up at any time.

 

 

Mendon

 

My pally is hangin' on a wall in Folsom, copper!

 

Sounds like your BBS was a lot of fun.

[Dauber]

I was on the BBS scene from late 1991 until 1998...didn't do much in terms of visiting the crack sites (mainly because I didn't know where they were!), and because I lived with the parents, I had to keep it local..(for some reason they'd raise a huge stink if the phone bill was big, but then would blow me off if I offered to reimburse!)....

 

We had our own gatherings...First gathering I went to was for members of a BBS called Dark Castle, the most active, hottest board in the Joliet, IL area. It was run on an Apple II, and the sysop basically rewrote the BBS program's code to make it custom to his tastes. Great board. Still remember the number, too! (815-729-0188) There was a big deal made about having a gathering at one of the local pizza restaurants...everybody was all "Can't wait to see everybody!" "Yeah, I'll be there!" How many people showed up? FIVE. We spent the whole night wondering where the hell everybody was! One of the ones who showed up posted about how great it was to see old friends (numbering two) and how he got to meet new people (two again) and didn't say a word about how only five showed up. Turned out that at the very last second there was just a string of bad luck -- one user who was still a minor just got grounded, a few others had to work late at the last second and couldn't make it, etc.

 

There was also the annual HutFest, again primarily of Dark Castle users. Usually met at the centrally-located Pizza Hut in Joliet,although one year it was moved to a mom-n-pop place called Taco Hut. (That way it was still HutFest.)

 

And every summer we had Winger War...in fact, it was at Winger War 1992 (July 25, to be exact - why do I remember that exact date?!?!) when I met both Inky (whom I had later found out lived about 200 feet down the street from me!) and the sysop of another one of the boards, a Christian BBS called Revelations (still remember that number too -- 815-727-3396, probably because I pointed out how it spelled RAPED-YU on the phone dial!). For Winger War, we would gather in a local park, split up into teams, and shoot water balloons at each other with Wingers[tm]. (Mine was actualy an Aqua-Sling, not a Winger.) At my first Winger War I was privileged to, uhh...get hit by a water balloon in the left 'nad from 100 yards away....Team SubGenius (or did they call themselves Team SLACK???) was so proud of that hit....(and in all honesty, the thing exploded the second it touched the fabric of my shorts so I didn't feel it! Just got REALLY wet!!!!) Good times, good times! I remember one year at Winger War we launched Spam out of a Winger just to see what would happen; for the record, an entire slab of Spam bounces...I seem to remember so did half a slab....a quarter, though, splatters -- one quarter landed in the tennis court and splattered all over -- we had to warn a couple of people who were about to use them to be careful because there might be oily slippage!

 

Once in a while I'd call Tele-Rag, which was a C64-based BBS down in the Kankakee, IL area...I caught hell from the parents on that one because it was quasi-long-distance! I favored the Amiga BBSes when I got my Amiga 600 in 1993...the local Amiga boards would often have member gatherings at a sysop's house and have swap parties...

 

lots of fun, it was...and probably a good reason I was single for so long.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Dauber

[Grig]

Great post, awesome times! Thanks for sharing your memories with us.

Edited February 15, 2012 by jtoubeaux

[leyunker]

We had our own gatherings...First gathering I went to was for members of a BBS called Dark Castle, the most active, hottest board in the Joliet, IL area.

 

And every summer we had Winger War...

 

Wow... I thought I'd never run across another "Winger War" veteran . Those were good times. I remember doing a bunch of work to organize WW II. I think it was the first time we actually used the pond to separate the two teams. The thing I remember most was that I was about 14 or 15 at the time and so I couldn't drive yet. It really shocked a bunch of the older BBSers that some punk kid had been involved so much in putting this whole event together. I think we had maybe 30 or 40 people that year, food, a bunch of Wingers, and a few notable wet tee-shirts. It was a good time.

 

Hotblack Desiato

Later Dayz....

[Rex Dart]

I remember getting my mom to write a $10 check to the sysop of the local BBS so I could get X number of extra turns in L.O.R.D.

Still remember the phone numbers, too... good times.

[Lynxpro]

Do you remember the BBS you were on the most back in the 80s? Bakersfield did not have much in the ways of BBS's. I remember constantly visiting the Dew Drop Inn for my Commodore cracks and some Dungeon Castle type name for the Atari cracks (I can't remember the name). I think they were both run out of the Midwest so my parents got me my own phone line and I paid for the long distance with chore money (it did get expensive but it was worth getting some of the new cracked games). I attempted my own BBS for awhile but Bakersfield was just not very Atari 8 bit friendly - it was more of a C64 town. Anyway, I remember getting Epyx Karate Champ for Atari from a BBS - it was one of my favorites for a long time. Anyone else with some good BBS memories? Any former Sysops?

 

 

My favorite was The Gateway BBS here in Sac/Citrus Heights. I used the same user name back then. I forget the BBS program it used, but it was Atari ST based. The board went down when the sysop left for university.

 

It wasn't run on Rattsoft. I vaguely remember a few boards that ran off that. And we won't discuss TrippLink.

 

And I have no memory of any Atari based pirate websites. Funny how the software industry first used the A8 platform as a scapegoat and cut development to it based upon the alleged pirate problem and then they repeated the same for the ST. In comparison, all of my immediate friends had C64s and they pirated everything they had. I also don't remember any pirating happening in the local Atari user groups either...

 

 

I called my first BBS in 1983 using a Commodore 64 and a 300 baud VicModem. I continued to call them until a few months after I got a dial-up "internet" account with Netcom in 1994, which is around the time I closed the BBS I was running. I didn't use a modem to call a BBS again until 2008 or 2009...

 

The rate the Feds and the rest of the word are threatening to strip online users of their rights, the better the chance BBSes will spring back up. And even without that possibility, this is something that the hipster crowd might embrace just for kicks.

 

I think I called my first BBS in...87? I had just got the SX212 modem for my ST.

 

 

BBS "gatherings" were a monthly thing,

 

MUPTs! At least that's what we called them here. Except no copying...it was all about the pizza and trash talking. I don't remember people bringing hardware to those activities; that was something more in line with actual users groups meetings [sans the pirating].

 

 

I really, really miss BBS culture. :/

 

 

I got misty-eyed for it watching the "BBS Documentary". And Curt was in it!

Edited June 4, 2012 by Lynxpro