Atari BBS List

[doctorclu]

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. An Atari BBS list in 2007. J

 

Atari BBS List 03/07/2007

Modified from ongoing list at:

http://www.atariplanet.info/ATARIBBS.TXT

 

 

-- EMULATED Atari 8-bit ---

(View ATASCII graphics on your PC by downloading ATS.20

http://www.atarimax.com/atariterm/downloads/ats.exe)

 

 

01 Closer to Home BBS

telnet://cth.dtdns.net

(The first telnet BBS that emerged onto the telnet BBS scene in 1999.

A bit slow, but has been one consistant BBS as well.)

(Break movies can be found here)

 

02 The Boot Factory

WEB: http://bf.amfband.com

A8bit BBS: telnet://bfbbs.no-ip.com

or: telnet://bfbbs.dtdns.net

 

-- REAL Atari 8-bit Ran ---

 

03 Inside The 8-bit - (2 lines)

telnet://TCPIPExpress.dyndns.org:8888

:8889

expresspro.dyndns.org:8888

 

04 MouseNet BBS

telnet://atari-bbs.kicks-ass.net

 

-- EMULATED Atari ST BBS –

 

05 The Grove BBS

telnet://shadow.skeleton.org

 

-- REAL Atari ST Ran ----

 

06 Dark Force BBS (Run on a Mega 2 ST)

telnet://darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org

(Make sure to hit enter after connecting. It will display “ATA” and

go from there. Screen will be blank till you do that.)

 

07 ST Guild BBS

telnet://stguild-bbs.dyndns.org

 

--- ATARI CHAT AREAS ---

 

08 telnet://irc.atarichat.net

(Enter "atari" at login, skip the password (enter), and then enter a name..

will take you straight to the IRC chat.)

Someone is there most of the time.

(This IRC chat was started in 2006 and can be reached by

typical IRC means as well.)

 

09 telnet://www.atarinews.org

(Enter in this order... "bbs", "Bbs", enter name and password at the next

login, enter, t for talk, c for chat, then a name and you're in)

Chat times 7:00 PM CST Tuesday nights

10:00 am CST Sunday (EuroChat)

(This chat has been faithfully going on since 2004, and

has run on other chat clients before this since 1999.)

 

--- NOTABLE ATARI ALLIES ----

 

10 "I Still Like Atari" BBS (Yes, that is actually the name)

telnet://evtek.net

Edited March 15, 2007 by doctorclu

[+DarkLord]

Atari 8-bit BBS's...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=                               

Mousenet       

telnet://atari-bbs.kicks-ass.net

 

Boot Factory   

telnet://bfbbs.no-ip.com     

 

Closer to Home

telnet://cth.dtdns.net                   

 

"Inside Atari 8-bit"   

telnet://TCPIPExpress.dyndns.org:8888

 

The Café BBS     

telnet://thecafe.dtdns.net 8888   

 

And there are ST BBS's

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

DarkForce BBS

    telnet://24.177.23.74                             

 

Cold Winter Knights 

telnet://bbs.coldwinterknights.net

913945[/snapback]

 

Thanks Doc!

 

I'd sure appreciate it if anybody knows any other active Atari BBSs and posts them as well. I'd like to keep the lists on my BBS up to date.

 

Thanks everyone.

[doctorclu]

Atari 8-bit BBS's...

 

Thanks Doc!

 

I'd sure appreciate it if anybody knows any other active Atari BBSs and posts them as well. I'd like to keep the lists on my BBS up to date.

 

Thanks everyone.

914167[/snapback]

 

My pleasure! I'm trying to get Dark Forces on the BBS banner ads at like BBSmates.com and places like that, but so far they are dragging their feet on my submission.

 

In the meantime, I am happy with the BBS's we have out there (why I have not put one up for right now) and would like to see more people out there on them.

[+DarkLord]

  My pleasure!  I'm trying to get Dark Forces on the BBS banner ads at like BBSmates.com and places like that, but so far they are dragging their feet on my submission.

 

  In the meantime, I am happy with the BBS's we have out there (why I have not put one up for right now) and would like to see more people out there on them.

917810[/snapback]

 

So what have they got against us? I mean, is it some requirement that DarkForce doesn't meet?

 

Keep us updated! :-)

[Mindfield]

Atari 8-bit BBS's...

 

Thanks Doc!

 

I'd sure appreciate it if anybody knows any other active Atari BBSs and posts them as well. I'd like to keep the lists on my BBS up to date.

 

Thanks everyone.

914167[/snapback]

 

My pleasure! I'm trying to get Dark Forces on the BBS banner ads at like BBSmates.com and places like that, but so far they are dragging their feet on my submission.

 

In the meantime, I am happy with the BBS's we have out there (why I have not put one up for right now) and would like to see more people out there on them.

917810[/snapback]

 

Whoa ... did you adapt that logo from my TAF ANSI screen? (It was included as a sample in my FANSI program for the ST) If so, cool! I haven't seen ANSI in ages, much less my own.

Edited August 29, 2005 by Mindfield

[+DarkLord]

[

Whoa ... did you adapt that logo from my TAF ANSI screen?  (It was included as a sample in my FANSI program for the ST)  If so, cool!  I haven't seen ANSI in ages, much less my own. 

920466[/snapback]

 

If this is Eric March, I most certainly did grab it and adapt it from the FANSI zip file that I uploaded to The DarkForce! BBS aeons ago! :-)

 

That is one awesome program, written in GFA Basic, wasn't it? You probably don't remember me, but I tried to register it (shareware) not too long after I started using it for all the ANSI graphics on my BBS. I believe you said that you had already stopped taking any registrations and had moved on.

 

Since I've re-opened my BBS, I'm becoming familiar with FANSI once again, and I can't say enough good things about it.

 

You should visit the BBS sometime (now available by Telnet) and see what your program has helped me do. All the ANSI screens were created with FANSI. Its been a long time since we did close down (somewhere around '99 or so) but I do remember giving credit to FANSI in our message bases when I started using it then. I think I'll have to do that again. <grin>

 

Thanks again for such a great program!

 

See ya! :-)

[Mindfield]

If this is Eric March, I most certainly did grab it and adapt it from the FANSI zip file that I uploaded to The DarkForce! BBS aeons ago! :-)

 

Cool stuff. But yes, that's me. Funny, I kinda looked at it and thought "Jeez... that looks kinda familiar." I had to boot up STeem and load my TAF screen into FANSI to tell for sure. It's been a while.

 

That is one awesome program, written in GFA Basic, wasn't it?

 

Yep. Shortly before I discovered a way that I could really speed up the draw routines, which I ended up never adding to FANSI because I was way too into writing a game after ordering and recieving the SpriteWorks package. (The game never got released for reasons I'll explain in a minute)

 

You probably don't remember me, but I tried to register it (shareware) not too long after I started using it for all the ANSI graphics on my BBS. I believe you said that you had already stopped taking any registrations and had moved on.

 

Technically I had moved on -- my Mega ST died, and therefore I no longer had access to my FANSI keygen (or any of my source code for that matter). That was the final push that made me end up moving on to the PC platform.

 

Ironically, I was coding FANSI quite literally up until about an hour before I had to leave for a local user group meeting (TAF, as it happens -- hence the ANSI I did for it) where I was scheduled to debut it to members there; the last hour was spent making FANSI disks.

 

But anyway, the resulting mad rush to tie up loose ends caused me to leave a little debugging function in there: If you press F3 (or was it F4?) while in the registration dialog, it will pop up another dialog with your registration key in it. (It was a routine I wrote in there to test the decryption and key generation method and make sure that the proper key was being generated from the serial number) You can then use that key to register FANSI yourself. How's that for shooting yourself in the foot?

 

(I did release a 1.01 patch as a separate download, but it was probably too late by then for anyone who actually figured it out)

 

Since I've re-opened my BBS, I'm becoming familiar with FANSI once again, and I can't say enough good things about it.

 

You should visit the BBS sometime (now available by Telnet) and see what your program has helped me do. All the ANSI screens were created with FANSI. Its been a long time since we did close down (somewhere around '99 or so) but I do remember giving credit to FANSI in our message bases when I started using it then. I think I'll have to do that again. <grin>

 

Thanks again for such a great program!

 

See ya! :-)

920494[/snapback]

 

I'm glad you liked it and got good use out of it -- and still do for that matter. That's what I aimed to do with the program, even if it was written a little too late for a platform that was dying in a world that was rapidly fogetting about BBSes in favour of that new-fangled Interweb thing. But what the hell... I had fun writing it. I miss GFA.

 

I'll have to stop by and check things out. Last Telnet-based BBS I tried was Closer to Home (which was a blast -- it was awesome going online in ATASCII again!) and it's rather fun re-experiencing the glory days of the mighty BBS.

Edited August 29, 2005 by Mindfield

[+DarkLord]

"I'll have to stop by and check things out. Last Telnet-based BBS I tried was Closer to Home (which was a blast -- it was awesome going online in ATASCII again!) and it's rather fun re-experiencing the glory days of the mighty BBS."

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Any chance you'll revisit the Atari scene and update FANSI? That would be just awesome! Or maybe even releasing that game? Atarians are still out there you know. :-)

 

Please do stop by sometime. You'll be more than welcome!

 

See ya! :-)

[Mindfield]

Any chance you'll revisit the Atari scene and update FANSI? That would be just awesome! Or maybe even releasing that game? Atarians are still out there you know. :-)

 

Heh... that would likely be no, and no. The FANSI source code is long gone, as is the source to the game and the SpriteWorks disks to boot. And I'd have to take a major refresher course in GFA -- it's been about 8 or 9 years since I touched it last. (Actually that's the last time I really did any serious programming as far as that goes; life got in the way and my world ended up getting a lot busier. Careers are a bitch...)

 

Besides, any programming urges I get will likely be directed either at the 2600 and/or the PalmOS scene (which, for the record, is an ideal platform for classic gaming-style stuff you can take with you. )

[doctorclu]

Atari 8-bit BBS's...

 

 

Whoa ... did you adapt that logo from my TAF ANSI screen? (It was included as a sample in my FANSI program for the ST) If so, cool! I haven't seen ANSI in ages, much less my own.

920466[/snapback]

 

That is too cool! Now I am glad I posted that screen shot, and really awesome to meet the original artist of the opening screen I see so often.

 

Yeh, really would be great to hang back with you on Darkforces.

[Mindfield]

    That is too cool!  Now I am glad I posted that screen shot, and really awesome to meet the original artist of the opening screen I see so often.

 

    Yeh, really would be great to hang back with you on Darkforces.

921161[/snapback]

 

Heh, thanks. I just signed up ... that was trippy. 2400 baud, BBS Express! ST ... jeez. All I need is ANSITerm and I'm BBSing back in the 90s again.

[+DarkLord]

Heh... that would likely be no, and no.  The FANSI source code is long gone, as is the source to the game and the SpriteWorks disks to boot.  And I'd have to take a major refresher course in GFA -- it's been about 8 or 9 years since I touched it last.  (Actually that's the last time I really did any serious programming as far as that goes; life got in the way and my world ended up getting a lot busier.  Careers are a bitch...)

 

Besides, any programming urges I get will likely be directed either at the 2600 and/or the PalmOS scene (which, for the record, is an ideal platform for classic gaming-style stuff you can take with you.  )

921106[/snapback]

 

Oh well, too bad, just a random thought. :-)

[+DarkLord]

Heh, thanks.    I just signed up ... that was trippy.  2400 baud, BBS Express! ST ... jeez.  All I need is ANSITerm and I'm BBSing back in the 90s again. 

921223[/snapback]

 

Hmm, we should be getting 19.2k in theory. I did some tests with some friends. We did downloads and averaged 14.4 to 19.2k...

 

How did you get the 2400 baud figure?

 

Thanks! :-)

[Mindfield]

Hmm, we should be getting 19.2k in theory. I did some tests with some friends. We did downloads and averaged 14.4 to 19.2k...

 

How did you get the 2400 baud figure?

 

Thanks! :-)

921733[/snapback]

 

Visually; text scrolled by at about 2400 baud speeds. But I was using XP's built-in Telnet client, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

[doctorclu]

Hmm, we should be getting 19.2k in theory. I did some tests with some friends. We did downloads and averaged 14.4 to 19.2k...

 

How did you get the 2400 baud figure?

 

Thanks! :-)

921733[/snapback]

 

Visually; text scrolled by at about 2400 baud speeds. But I was using XP's built-in Telnet client, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

921846[/snapback]

 

I figured that was being controlled by the BBS actually. Seems the text goes by at a casaul (but not too slow pace) and there are a lot of pauses.

 

But it is my favorite Atari BBS due to D&D-ST. (Door game... Dungeons & Dragons.)

[Mindfield]

I remember DDST. Loved that game. As far as BBS software goes though I loved RATsoft. Very nice BBS program.

[+DarkLord]

Hmm, we should be getting 19.2k in theory. I did some tests with some friends. We did downloads and averaged 14.4 to 19.2k...

 

How did you get the 2400 baud figure?

 

Thanks! :-)

921733[/snapback]

 

Visually; text scrolled by at about 2400 baud speeds. But I was using XP's built-in Telnet client, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

921846[/snapback]

 

I figured that was being controlled by the BBS actually. Seems the text goes by at a casaul (but not too slow pace) and there are a lot of pauses.

 

But it is my favorite Atari BBS due to D&D-ST. (Door game... Dungeons & Dragons.)

923894[/snapback]

 

Hmm, if its an "infor" screen, there usually are built in (I say built in, as I coded them) pauses of say, 3-5 seconds so that everyone has time to read them. Other times, depending on the script file thats running, its actually doing something (updating user records 'n such).

 

Some things can be adjustted by the end user. The Random Quotes for example. When you pick them, it asks you whether or not you want a timed pause or a keypress to end it.

 

There is probably not much I can do about displaying ANSI graphics though.

 

So let me ask a question - do you guys feel that the built in pauses are a tad too long? I can go through and adjust the scripts and cut down the time. Just a matter of editing and recompiling. (c'mon, gimme any excuse to play with it!). <grin>

[+DarkLord]

I remember DDST.  Loved that game.  As far as BBS software goes though I loved RATsoft.  Very nice BBS program.

924029[/snapback]

 

I tried RatSoft. Paid something like a $100 for it. Spent a couple of weeks trying to get it to setup and run on my hardware.

 

For some reason, and I'm saying its probably me, since it was used by a lot of Sysops around the world, I never could come to grips with it. Dunno why.... <shrugs>

[Mindfield]

I played around with RATsoft briefly; I convinced a friend and fellow SysOp to make me a copy for my personal evaluation on the grounds that I'd buy it myself if I wanted to put up a BBS with it. I have to say it was very robust and feature-rich, and I was quite impressed with it. I never did get around to putting up a BBS on it -- I used my ST for my own purposes too much to sacrifice it to a BBS, and could never afford a second system.

[+DarkLord]

I played around with RATsoft briefly; I convinced a friend and fellow SysOp to make me a copy for my personal evaluation on the grounds that I'd buy it myself if I wanted to put up a BBS with it.  I have to say it was very robust and feature-rich, and I was quite impressed with it.  I never did get around to putting up a BBS on it -- I used my ST for my own purposes too much to sacrifice it to a BBS, and could never afford a second system.

924669[/snapback]

 

I hear ya. In the mid 90's at one point, I had a small room, 2nd phone line, and a Mega ST with 2 Mega drives dedicated to the BBS. It sure wasn't cheap. Being a Sysop is certainly not for everyone. There is a lot of work involved. Especially when BBSs where "big". I think at one point at the height of DarkForces's popularity, we were getting around 25-30 calls a day, every day. It takes time to manage all that e-mail (personal and sysop related) as well as the message bases...and the complaints.

 

Love it though! :-)

[skeezix]

Sweet.. fgor years, I had the only ST BBS online.. lookslike theres 1 or 2 others now.. very very cool.

 

How many calls (telnets) do you guys get?

 

Its a shame theres not likely enough traffic to warrant inter-bbs space empires like in the old days

 

(My BBS is temporarily down, due to lightning damage; I shoudl have it back up shortly. http://www.codejedi.com/bbs for details)

 

jeff

[doctorclu]

Sweet.. fgor years, I had the only ST BBS online.. lookslike theres 1 or 2 others now.. very very cool.

 

How many calls (telnets) do you guys get?

 

Its a shame theres not likely enough traffic to warrant inter-bbs space empires like in the old days

 

(My BBS is temporarily down, due to lightning damage; I shoudl have it back up shortly. http://www.codejedi.com/bbs for details)

 

jeff

929906[/snapback]

 

Ahh!! Hope it will come back up in the future!

 

So Space Empire, is that like Baron Realms Elite?

[+DarkLord]

Sweet.. fgor years, I had the only ST BBS online.. lookslike theres 1 or 2 others now.. very very cool.

 

How many calls (telnets) do you guys get?

 

Its a shame theres not likely enough traffic to warrant inter-bbs space empires like in the old days

 

(My BBS is temporarily down, due to lightning damage; I shoudl have it back up shortly. http://www.codejedi.com/bbs for details)

 

jeff

929906[/snapback]

 

I think its amazingly cool.

 

I'd say on a good day we get 5 calls or so. I've got 254 registered users now, but most of them were from before I shutdwon in '99/2000 or so. I don't think most of them are aware yet that we are back and available by telnet. I'm working on that though (Doc Clu keeps prodding me! <grin>).

 

Sorry about your lightning damage - I hope you get your setup back online soon. Its just not the same without it, is it? :-)

[skeezix]

We had a pile of damage .. garage door opener, all our telephones (and the wirign in the walls), router, wireless, PCs .. everything hooked up to the phone lines (like ADSL.. argh!) was toast, along with some things on the power lines etc.

 

My acrtual BBS went down sometime int the 90s (I was a 'support bbs' for BBS Express, not to mention developer of a bunch of junk), but I brought it up back around 2000 or 2001 online as the worlds only.. but its new menus and much more limited than my original BBS as the hard drive fried and most of my floppies have gone bad over the years.. so its mostly a museum and 'hang about', and I've been trying to collect BBS software online so it doesn't get forgotten. (Sent some over to Jason Scott of course

 

If you've got _any_ BBS software for the ST, from games to utilities to BBS software itself, you want to send it over? I'll put my archive back online (just need to break it down into subdirectories again, since the lightning toasted the original ) and if you've got anything.. it'd be that much better.

 

If you need any basic hacks done to BBS Express, let me know.. Rich kindly gave me a copy of the source, so I could modify it a little to be better for my telnet needs. My version doesn't have 'slow pauses' between characaters since no modem is involved.. it just spits out full speed, for instance. You're running on an actual modem, so you'd still need that, so maybe no need for changes for you

 

Let me know if you've got any files (I could make you an ftp section and let you push over whatever you like, or somesuch) and I'll get my bbs back up in a bit and you can have anythign you see there if you need.. though doubt you need much from the looks of it

 

jeff

[Mindfield]

I hear ya.  In the mid 90's at one point, I had a small room, 2nd phone line, and a Mega ST with 2 Mega drives dedicated to the BBS. It sure wasn't cheap. Being a Sysop is certainly not for everyone. There is a lot of work involved. Especially when BBSs where "big". I think at one point at the height of DarkForces's popularity, we were getting around 25-30 calls a day, every day. It takes time to manage all that e-mail (personal and sysop related) as well as the message bases...and the complaints.

 

Love it though! :-)

929789[/snapback]

 

I ran a BBS on my 8-bit. I beta tested for Oasis BBS back in the day, and like Skeezix wrote "a bunch of junk" (modules) in Mac/65 -- originally by hacking addresses manually because there were no documented jump points to specific parts of the code. (God I loved SpartaDOS X for that!) I had lots of fun with it though. The networking was primitive (read: manual) but it was kinda cool, if expensive on the LD bills. but I loved running a BBS. Mine was message-only (no hard drive, just a normal 1050, doubled 1050 and an XF551, plus a 192k RAMdisk) but I preferred it that way; it tended to attract a better quality of user -- the ones who actually liked writing messages.