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DarkForce! BBS Info/News/Prizes


DarkLord

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Oh man. That was definitely throwback to the days I'd scour around for local BBSs and then poor over their files at 19200baud, hoping I could manage to pull a few down before someone had to make a phone call. Good stuff. Most of the Atari vendors' websites  appear to be defunct though ?

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On 6/5/2021 at 10:07 AM, DarkLord said:

 

Was this your first call?

 

First time callers go through a (pretty much) automatic vetting process.

 

I believe on your 2nd call and up you'll be allowed. Also, I logon daily as

SysOp and I check for new callers and verify them, bypassing the 2 call

limit.

 

This is to keep people who like to call in 1 time, see how much mischief

they can get in to and never call back.... It's unfortunate but true. It's]

also why message are not allowed to be posted on a first call...

 

Rather a lot like some Atari forums, eh?   :)

 

PS I changed the post about the prize to inform everyone about this...

 

Just curious how good the security is on the BBS software you use?  Encrypted passwords, and the like?  I should try it out once I get my 80 column carts for my A8s.  :) 

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I don't believe there's any actual "encryption", per se, and honestly, I don't

know if any of the other Atari BBS's do that either.... They might, I'm just

not aware of it.

 

With that in mind, to the best of my knowledge, I've never had any user

notify me that their account had been hacked (at least, so far), and that's

with us operating since say, 1992 or so?

 

Thanks.

 

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5 hours ago, DarkLord said:

I don't believe there's any actual "encryption", per se, and honestly, I don't

know if any of the other Atari BBS's do that either.... They might, I'm just

not aware of it.

 

With that in mind, to the best of my knowledge, I've never had any user

notify me that their account had been hacked (at least, so far), and that's

with us operating since say, 1992 or so?

 

Thanks.

 

Cool, was just wondering.  I should see how much an actual land line would cost, as I randomly think I'd like to play with old modems again...

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2 hours ago, leech said:

Cool, was just wondering.  I should see how much an actual land line would cost, as I randomly think I'd like to play with old modems again...

I had considered this very seriously and almost did it a few years ago when it was $19.99 a month. I just checked again recently and turns out their pricing had increased almost 3x so I ended up getting a cell jack to connect my old BeoCom2000 to and use it like the good old days! I just can't use dial up....

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23 minutes ago, Clint Thompson said:

I had considered this very seriously and almost did it a few years ago when it was $19.99 a month. I just checked again recently and turns out their pricing had increased almost 3x so I ended up getting a cell jack to connect my old BeoCom2000 to and use it like the good old days! I just can't use dial up....

Dial up, Tape Loading and Dot-Matrix Printers.

 

Three retro things I will not miss.

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I would like to check this out!  Coupla' questions:

 

Am i better off trying to get on via a new computer, or would one of my old macs work, say a Powerbook 3400c?  Or Does it NEED to be an ST to connect?

 

If i don't have a landline, could i buy a magic jack or something like that to simulate one for my modems purposes? 

 

Thanks! 

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I used telnet on a Mac, so I think you're good wherever. Interestingly, I had to hunt around for a telnet client. I guess telnet is considered so insecure and useless beyond scripted exploits these days, it's been outright removed from the package lists of most modern operating systems. Fortunately, the ubiquitous "screen" program works as a telnet client in a pinch.

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On 6/9/2021 at 2:37 AM, leech said:

Cool, was just wondering.  I should see how much an actual land line would cost, as I randomly think I'd like to play with old modems again...

Well, we are telnet. Most of the other Atari BBS's are telnet as well.

 

There is a service you can use to call into, that will then do the necessary

work to get your call into a telnet BBS...

 

But...this is making this unnecessarily hard. Any modern PC or Mac, using

a telnet client like SyncTerm can effortlessly call into a telnet based Atari

8bit or 16bit BBS.

 

Edited by DarkLord
Further info.....
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20 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said:

I would like to check this out!  Coupla' questions:

 

Am i better off trying to get on via a new computer, or would one of my old macs work, say a Powerbook 3400c?  Or Does it NEED to be an ST to connect?

 

If i don't have a landline, could i buy a magic jack or something like that to simulate one for my modems purposes? 

 

Thanks! 

 

Umm...it's *telnet*.  :)

 

Using something like SyncTerm on a PC or Mac, it's almost effortless to connect to DarkForce or any of the

other telnet based Atari (8bit and 16bit) BBS's.

 

Quite a few of us do connect with Atari's (again, both 8bit and ST's) just for that "retro" feel but it's most

certainly not required.

 

 

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19 hours ago, cubanismo said:

I used telnet on a Mac, so I think you're good wherever. Interestingly, I had to hunt around for a telnet client. I guess telnet is considered so insecure and useless beyond scripted exploits these days, it's been outright removed from the package lists of most modern operating systems. Fortunately, the ubiquitous "screen" program works as a telnet client in a pinch.

 

Again, download and install SyncTerm. It's the best I've used on a PC (don't have a Mac but I'm told

the Mac version is pretty much identical).

 

 

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I'm beginning to think there is a little confusion surrounding DarkForce

and the other Atari based BBS's. Here are some pertinent points:

 

1. Almost all Atari based BBS's are now telnet accessible.

 

2. Virtually any PC or Mac using a client like SyncTerm can easily

connect with these BBS's.

 

https://syncterm.bbsdev.net/

 

3. An actual, physical Atari computer is NOT required but will

absolutely give a more "retro" feel to the experience. (ain't

nothin' like the real thing, baby!)

 

4. There is a service that will allow you to call telnet BBS's with

a landline, i.e., dial up, if you prefer this route.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/bbs/comments/mh9cmz/bbs_dialup_modem_pool_part_2/

 

5. There is s web based listing of current Atari BBS's:

 

http://sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

 

6. It's not rocket science.  :)

 

Thanks...

 

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21 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

Well, we are telnet. Most of the other Atari BBS's are telnet as well.

 

There is a service you can use to call into, that will then do the necessary

work to get your call into a telnet BBS...

 

But...this is making this unnecessarily hard. Any modern PC or Mac, using

a telnet client like SyncTerm can effortlessly call into a telnet based Atari

8bit or 16bit BBS.

 

Ha, I know about telnet.  I just miss the modem negotiation sounds haha.

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4 minutes ago, leech said:

Ha, I know about telnet.  I just miss the modem negotiation sounds haha.

 

Honestly, I think a lot of us "old timers" do.

 

I use a Lantronix UDS-10 LAN to serial port converter with my Mega ST4 and

DarkForce. The first time I set it up and got it working it just felt like something

was wrong because...it's completely silent.  :)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is the winner for June 2021 at the DarkForce! BBS:

 

                              Doc Clu!

 

That's right, Doc Clu is the winner of the Jaguar game,
"Another World"!

 

Congratulations to our winner and thanks to everyone for calling.

 

  :)

 

PS Doc Clu, please send me your actual/physical address.

 

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11 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Here is the winner for June 2021 at the DarkForce! BBS:

 

                              Doc Clu!

 

That's right, Doc Clu is the winner of the Jaguar game,
"Another World"!

 

Congratulations to our winner and thanks to everyone for calling.

 

  :)

 

PS Doc Clu, please send me your actual/physical address.

 

 

Awesome, I wrote you in feedback on the BBS.

 

Can't wait to try this.  Just wrapped up the D&D door game on your BBS, so ready for a new adventure with "Another World".

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Congratulations!

 

For once, to paraphrase "The Hunger Games", the odds were ever

in your favor...  :)

 

As I've stated many times, the winner program I use randomly picks

one line from a list. The more times anyone is listed, the higher chance

that person has to be picked. In this case, you had the largest amount

of entries and were picked.

 

It's not always that way. I've had a handful of times where a person made

a *single* call and won.

 

It really is totally random.

 

Thanks to everyone who participated and keep watching, you never know

when we'll throw another prize up for grabs!

 

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On 7/2/2021 at 11:02 AM, DarkLord said:

Congratulations!

 

For once, to paraphrase "The Hunger Games", the odds were ever

in your favor...  :)

 

Oh yeh, been a part of the BBS since like 1999, and in all the raffles I think I've won three times.

 

This was cool!  :D   Never thought I would have this game, but wow!

 

214612151_10158526963468651_4206344771699298220_n.thumb.jpg.0dd3262824a116e6f5ecc33938a7eb68.jpg

 

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10 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

Glad it made it there okay. I'm a little leery of shipping

these days.

 

Looking forward to your thoughts once you start playing

it.

 

Please...let us know how you feel after say, the first 10

minutes of the game...  LOL

 

I quite enjoy the game and have completed it... once. 

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