Instead of continuing the off-topic discussion of computer Bulletin Board Services in the TRF thread, I thought I'd start another just for a BBS discussion.

I ran a BBS for several years in the late 1980s. It first went online full-time on January 29, 1986 (gee, why can I recall the exact date?). I ran it from my bedroom on an IBM PC clone that cost me about $1200 (no hard drive, 64k of memory). I later added a 20M hard drive for about $800 and a 14,400 bps modem for about $900. I was working and still living "at home" with my parents, so I had a lot of money to spend.

The BBS, named the "RSBBS," was connected to a network called "FidoNet." Late at night, it would call other computers in the network to exchange email including discusion group messsages ("Echomail"). My phone bill ran about $100 a month!

I ran a BBS program I wrote myself call "Oratorio." It was somewhat unique in that it used "ANSI Escape Sequences" to draw windows with shadows and drop-down menus on a terminal screen and interpreted a simple scripting language that allowed you to easily modify the BBS and add custom features.

I was still working on Oratorio and planning to sell it commercially when this thing called "The Internet" came along. Suddenly, several years of work became worthless. :-)

The BBS years were during my "rocket-free" period, so I didn't particpate in any rocketry-oriented disucssions through FidoNet. But, it wasn't too long after discovering the internet that I got back into rocketry.

-- Roger

I ran Net154 in FidoNet here in SE WI for a number of years. I was a beta tester for and ran RemoteAccess for the BBS and FrontDoor/EchoMail for the Fido message handling.

I first started out on a C-64 BBS at 300baud in 1984. I later went to a C-128 and got a 2400 baud modem. I ran and beta tested C-Net and Image BBS software for the Commodore.

I moved up to an IBM XT back around '89 or '90 and switched to RemoteAccess. I was a beta tester for USR Courier modems also so I ran at the proprietary 14.4 HST speeds until they came out with the faster 38,400 than 57,600 speeds. We'd replace daughter boards in the modems whenever updates came out. I think I may still have some of the high speed UART chips laying around here.

I ran a 2-line system called Ye Olde Pawn Shoppe. I was in to trading "warez" back then.

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Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

I was FidoNet node 18/14 then 1:366/14 when zones were introduced. I couldn't remember my address and had to do a Google search to find it.

I also used a US Robotics modem. They offered them to BBS operators at a highly-discounted price and it seemed that I was buying a new one every year as faster ones came out.

-- Roger

I had admin access on the Tree in Sacramento for a couple of years in the early '90s. It was a Unix-based system, unlike all the DOS BBSes in the area. I even wrote a multiuser dungeon program, MDG, which ran exclusively there for several years.

Them was the days...

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Ahh, back in the day, when it was a "Baud" rate, not a bit rate!

My freind ran one of Montreal's larger BBS back then. He was one of the first to have an 'Optical drive'. The predecesor to the 'WORM' drive. The thing was the size of a toaster, and they had these neat silvery disks, read by 'laser' and could hold 500MB!! Users voted / requested a disk, one of a set, that had certian programs & apps.. So, he'd swap when the demand was high enough.

Space wars or trade wars.. that online 'text' multi player space conquest game.

8086 or 8088 CPU?

I used some computers with no HD, dual 360k floppies, and the super fast 8086 cpu's, but didn't own a computer until later.

My first computer had a 386SX-16mhz processor. Junk. I should have spent a few extra bucks for a 386DX-20, which was much faster with the true 32 bit bus. DOH!

I had a Zoom 2400 baud modem, but all the BBS's were long distance and the phone line was terrible at the time to boot. I gave up on it pretty quick and didn't fool with online stuff anymore until I could get a local dialup internet with 24k access, but I never connected higher than 19.2 with the old USR Sportster. I never fooled with BBS's again.

I was the Sysop of The Rock Pile BBS in South Bend, IN. You know I can't remember exactly when I started the board, but it was in 89 or 90 and I shut it down in 97 when I moved out of town. It was a 3 node board running TriBBS. on 3 separate computers over a ArcNet LAN.

One of the major upgrades was buying a 660 Meg SCSI drive (huge at the time) . I was also the first board in the area to have all nodes at 28.8. I also had the planet connect satellite delivery system and would pull down about 10 mail networks including Fidonet. Any new messages where sent up to the Planet Connect hub by modem. Fairly high tech for the time.

When I was getting the house ready to sell I have a major crash the wiped out all of the user records and didn't have the time to rebuild it. Saw it as an opportunity to just shut down and move on.

For those that use to play Tradewars, I found it online the other day. Didn't save the link, but it's still out there.

I had a number of nodes. I can only remember my main one though of 1:154/750.

__________________
Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558

Wow, I forgot all about Planet Connect. I remember getting a dish from some guy for it but I never set it up to get the service.

__________________
Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
Ye Olde Rocket Plans - OOP Rocket Plans From 38 Companies!
Ye Olde Rocket Forum
WOOSH NAR Section #558