Did any of my visitors ever partake in the world of BBS’, or Bulletin Board Systems? For those not in the know, before the World Wide Web, and back when Internet access came via Lynx and had no images, there was still a method of what we geeks referred to as “going online”. A BBS was, for the most part, set up on a personal computer and attached, via modem, to a household phone line. The user would dial the phone number, connect to the computer through the modem, and then got to partake in a community of sorts – something like the Internet, but much smaller. Once in you could chat (if they had multiple phone lines), post messages, download files, and play online games complete with ASCII art (ha!).
Rob and I were regulars on Warped Minds before becoming Co-SysOps (Systems Operators) on Chaos Industries. We then decided, along with a couple others, to start our own and named it Cryptic Dimensions. It was intended to be a skinned BBS (now THERE’S something before it’s time – this was 1992/3) that would allow you to alter the appearance of it depending on your mood. Instead, it became a huge message and file destination until we got hacked by some punks in Brampton and Scarborough. My time with another BBS, T.E.A.M., also lead to my first “band” (for lack of a better word) that I’ve glossed over here before. Upon the advent of the World Wide Web, the Internet seemed to be a natural progression for most of us and BBS’, for the most part, disappeared. It’s a shame, too, because sometimes I do miss the smaller aspect of the “internet” back then. I remember how pumped I was the first time I got to converse with someone from the United States via the FidoNet, one of the first Internet newsgroups to be made available to local BBS’.
The moral of this story? I like stories. :)
Anyone else have BBS experience?
Oh, I loved BBS’s. Used to be a regular on a ton of them in town, such as Inner Circle, Risky Business, Damian’s Domain, etc. Even for a while, tried to set up a BBS with the TBBS system on my old computer… Didn’t work out well, parents kept giving me shit for the computer always being tied up. But, I agree, I miss those days at times. The community feeling many BBS’s had will never be duplicated by any area on the Internet.
BBS suck. And I used to be the classic “sysop” –I remember those days too well. I remember waiting 8 hours to download a 144k-sided 5.25″ floopy so that I could do a “BRUN” in the Apple category index and play Miner 2049er.
I remember the days when tape drives crashed and took forever to load. I also remember the the TTC, a famed Apple II group, known for its passion for games and removing copy protection. I remember being part of one bbs…called Eastern…we never knew who managed the Apple II BBS…and only ONCE in an entire 7 year span did we see a PUBLIC post from the operator. Amazing, when the system crashed, he’s reboot after a few days…he was very mysterious…many claimed he was a pilot for EASTERN airlines based in Toronto…but we would have a fun-filled time on there…
Community was developed on BBS and so where monthly get-togethers — to discuss the latest warez, or hacking techniques…or whatever…all good, none of the bad stuff of today. I used to go on Toontown (a commie64 bbs) to wage war against the nuts of Commodore systems. At one time, I ran a small mini-system using an AppleSOFT basic program called WARP SIX, developed by a Toronto Apple Canada employee…still keep in touch with him. The problem was that I could only run it for a few hours (at night, with no dedicated line) and that was the death of any BBS growth. ;-)
I have Wargames on DVD and still want my computer to talk to me. I challenged a friend on the BBS front about the impending growth of the global village and the internet…that broadband and internet chat boards would destroy BBSes. Why? Because the GUI of the internet deliver far more punch power and global research than some local joe’s system. Is it better now? I think it is in some ways because chat clients (then, it was IRC with command set instructions and no graphical emoticons) and other means connect people worldwide. I love the global contact — it’s amazing. Is it as tight at the BBS community? Most likely not…but who cares…then, it was all male and all warez with lots of D&D mixes in. ..now, we have a better mix of people — too much testosterone can be a boring thing…and more age categories involved…it isn’t just a bunch of kids anymore…while that was ‘fun’ (we ruled the net), it’s better now…look at the reach of blogs? Isn’t THAT community?
Alex.