Atari 8-bit related BBS(s)

[+DarkLord]

Thanks! 

 

[+Tillek]

22 hours ago, DarkLord said:

So per user requests, I've added another alias for telnetting

into the DarkForce! BBS.

 

There are now 2 routes:

 

darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org (the original)

 

and

 

darkforcebbs.dyndns.org

 

The second is for comms software that balks at anything

non standard (such as the dash) that is entered.

 

Please test and let me know if it's not working....

 

Thanks!

 

Really?  The "-"?

 

As in 234-567-8910?

 

Not the length or the letters... not the , not the : but the - ?

 

Interesting.

Am kind of curious which term program that is....

Edited May 13, 2020 by Tillek

[_The Doctor__]

It's worse than that.... sometimes it's not the terminal on a particular computer but rather the console server that won't process a dash...

more fun, I had more than one mail server that could not handle my email address, underscores cause them to choke... dots are ok, just not underscores or dashes... go figure...

hmmm make me wonder if that's why bob might not get my emails...

Edited May 14, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[+Stephen]

3 hours ago, Tillek said:

Really?  The "-"?

 

As in 234-567-8910?

 

Not the length or the letters... not the , not the : but the - ?

 

Interesting.

Am kind of curious which term program that is....

It is Ice-T XE, using APE registered as the outbound connection.

[+DarkLord]

Well, as reported to my by a couple of DarkForce "regulars", (or should

I say "irregulars"?   ) , the new address is working fine. Hope that

takes care of that situation.

 

[+DarkLord]

Forgot to announce this yesterday but yes, we're going to do a 

 

"Bombs away"

 

week here at DarkForce, commencing today and lasting until this next Saturday, June 6th (D-Day, what a coincidence!).

Just pick "D" for Deliver E-mail Bomb from the main menu. The menu is pretty self explanatory, but basically you pick users from the DarkForce BBS you want to "bomb" and up to your bomb limit, you do so. They are given an opportunity to guess who sent the bomb. If they are wrong, they are then terminated (disconnect). If they guess right, they are shown who sent the bomb so they can retaliate. Users have a limited amount of bombs and only so many bombs can be stacked on any 1 caller.

 

Good luck, have fun and

 

                                    B O O M !

PS Oh, don't forget to check the Obituary for funny user "deaths".

 

[+DarkLord]

Okay, "Bombs Away" week is officially over at the DarkForce! BBS.

 

I hope everyone had fun with it. At best, it's a light hearted attempt at

humor for our callers. At worst, it can drive you crazy.

 

I'd like to thank everyone who (willingly or UN-willingly) participated.

 

Until next year, "ka-boom". 

 

PS Oh, here's a screenshot showing the obituary and what happened to

those who failed to defuse their bombs.

 

[+Amis]

currently testing Altirra/X64 running on AWS public IP 18.191.83.48:24 BBS Express - So far very stock but working on graphics, door games, expanded file base. Running Atascii and Ascii. Message Bases, Uploads/Downloads appear to be working well.. Loaded up some ATR's for testing.

 

So far running 10 days 24hrs.. See if you can punch some holes in the platform..

Edited June 27, 2020 by RobVWA

[_The Doctor__]

37 minutes ago, RobVWA said:

currently testing Altirra/X64 running on AWS public IP 18.191.83.48:24 BBS Express - So far very stock but working on graphics, door games, expanded file base. Running Atascii and Ascii. Message Bases, Uploads/Downloads appear to be working well.. Loaded up some ATR's for testing.

 

So far running 10 days 24hrs.. See if you can punch some holes in the platform..

What machine? Are you running BBS Express ST or are you running BBS Express 8 bit... normal, pro, demo....??

Based on ATASCII, it's a guess at BBS Express 8 bit demo... or normal...

Edited June 27, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[+Amis]

Built on a 130XE with 850, SIOSD, WiModem and moved to the AWS cloud running Altirra emulator. BBS Express 2400 APE. 
 

Altirra is being run off of AWS instance of Windows Server edition. Emulating 850+standard Hayes modem, public Telnet IP,  and 30GB of space.

[JohnPolka]

On 6/26/2020 at 9:52 PM, RobVWA said:

currently testing Altirra/X64 running on AWS public IP 18.191.83.48:24 BBS Express - So far very stock but working on graphics, door games, expanded file base. Running Atascii and Ascii. Message Bases, Uploads/Downloads appear to be working well.. Loaded up some ATR's for testing.

 

So far running 10 days 24hrs.. See if you can punch some holes in the platform..

 

I could not connect. Is the IP and port (24?) correct?

 

-JP

 

[_The Doctor__]

@RobVWA,

not getting through, not at all sure how your hosting in the cloud works...

but I'd bet it's still at home on you machine, so make sure the ports are open to you BBS which would be 24 based on your post...

also changing from telnet to RAW is usually better for graphics and upload/download.

Edited June 30, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[+Amis]

Moved to Port 23 yesterday.. 

[+Amis]

3 hours ago, JohnPolka said:

 

I could not connect. Is the IP and port (24?) correct?

 

-JP

 

Moved to port 23 - AWS public IP 18.191.83.48:23 

 

Trying to avoid the Wicks Bots...

[JohnPolka]

1 hour ago, RobVWA said:

Moved to port 23 - AWS public IP 18.191.83.48:23 

 

Trying to avoid the Wicks Bots...

That worked!

[+Amis]

On 6/30/2020 at 9:40 PM, JohnPolka said:

That worked!

Thanks and appreciate the notes.. Its been really stable and the security from running in the cloud + other perks working well.. With this said, Im going to take to the next few weeks and stand up a solid Atari BBS.. Lets see how this goes. Its only been 35 years since I was a sysop..

 

AWS Cloud EC2 Running Window Server 10

Public IP with Layer 4 Security 

Altirria 3.90 X64 set up with 850, 96 modem and 4 Indus GT Drives 

130XE Stock with OSS XE

Modified BBS Express 1.0 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

I am so confused as the BBS is not running on AMIS and in the North East, not in the South... Topsy-turvy !

Edited July 2, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[tschak909]

is anybody actually running AMIS?

-Thom

[+Amis]

2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I am so confused as the BBS is not running on AMIS and in the North East, not in the South... Topsy-turvy !

Its also not 1984... So nothing literal and mostly for nostalgia.. Here is the story:

 

I have always been captivated by building networks, either technology, social, or creative. From the 80's and my first commodore vic-20 to the getting smart and converting to Atari, bigger, faster and the more connected the better.

 

We ran southern comfort dial up bbs on a highly modified fast amis program called southern amis created and improved by a local group of sysops. Machine language was added, online slots, blackjack and of course plenty of downloads.. The author was The Griff and freely shared his upgrades and the platform with our group which included South of the Border, sysop Pedro. We all took down our board around 1988 or so along with the Bandits Hideout as other local boards (New York) were disappearing the same as the rest of the country.. Forem, Amis, BBS Express, Oasis, and a bunch of other platforms of course were quickly replaced by the web.. Long forgotten but always packed away well, my 8-bit Atari hardware close by and when the Wi-Modem was created by CB Design, I went to work on brining back some old work.. Seems i'm not alone as 20+ boards are now running via telnet..

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by RobVWA

[+Amis]

2 hours ago, tschak909 said:

is anybody actually running AMIS?

-Thom

I have the disks but very buggy... I have not seen an actual AMIS running BBS..

[_The Doctor__]

hmm though there was still 1, but I haven't been very active lately... health issues on both sides now... definitely want to see his disks recovered and restored/backed up...

I wouldn't use them at all until they get the proper care and treatment...perhaps a kry/scp dump as well.

[_The Doctor__]

7 minutes ago, RobVWA said:

Its also not 1984... So nothing literal and mostly for nostalgia.. Here is the story:

 

I have always been captivated by building networks, either technology, social, or creative. From the 80's and my first commodore vic-20 to the getting smart and converting to Atari, bigger, faster and the more connected the better.

 

We ran southern comfort dial up bbs on a highly modified fast amis program called southern amis created and improved by a local group of sysops. Machine language was added, online slots, blackjack and of course plenty of downloads.. The author was The Griff and freely shared his upgrades and the platform with our group which included South of the Border, sysop Pedro. We all took down our board around 1988 or so along with the Bandits Hideout as other local boards (New York) were disappearing the same as the rest of the country.. Forem, Amis, BBS Express, Oasis, and a bunch of other platforms of course were quickly replaced by the web.. Long forgotten but always packed away well, my 8-bit Atari hardware close by and when the Wi-Modem was created by CB Design, I went to work on brining back some old work.. Seems i'm not alone as 20+ boards are now running via telnet..

 

 

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be on the BBS library... call it 'The story of this BBS' or something...

folks appreciate the backstory these day!

[+Amis]

1 minute ago, _The Doctor__ said:

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be on the BBS library... call it 'The story of this BBS' or something...

folks appreciate the backstory these day!

Agreed and just like most of us these days, many projects and well if it wasn't for the current disruption and so much behind the keyboard time, I would not have ventured this far.. I'm intrigued by the current increase of BBS's overall as the social change from the big platforms to the smaller groups and forums is giving a space back to the people who started all of this with message boards and the excitement of cracking a game.. So many great innovation during the time which have not been published and gave foundation to a generation and built the backbone of the technology today... Legends to us and unknowns to the generations.. The documentaries on the topic don't even touch the surface.. 

[tschak909]

41 minutes ago, RobVWA said:

I have the disks but very buggy... I have not seen an actual AMIS running BBS..

Agreed, AMIS was a _REALLY_ buggy chunk of software.

 

In fact, most of the BASIC BBSes were... AMIS...FoReM....

 

BBCS was _REALLY_ buggy...

 

and it's making testing with #FujiNet be a living hell...

 

-Thom

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by tschak909

[JohnPolka]

16 hours ago, RobVWA said:

Thanks and appreciate the notes.. Its been really stable and the security from running in the cloud + other perks working well.. With this said, Im going to take to the next few weeks and stand up a solid Atari BBS.. Lets see how this goes. Its only been 35 years since I was a sysop..

 

 

 

Not sure how stable it is tonight.... the message base isn't working:

 

[1 Min] Command: To Board #1

Going To Board #1

Invalid Board Number

[4 Min] Command:
 

 

And I tried to leave you feedback about it, but the 'F'eedback option didn't work:

 

[4 Min] Command: Feedback To Sysop

Hold On...
[5 Min] Command:
 

 

-JP