This is SILLY to be on top. but if YOU want to connect to BBS's that are STILL online. they're NOT on phone lines. They're on Telnet. No joke. and they're WONDERFUL for reliving your old ways:
Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
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Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#12Particles BBS is another good Commodore board. I connect using my VIC-20 and a USR-TCP232-T2.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#13This is SILLY to be on top. but if YOU want to connect to BBS's that are STILL online. they're NOT on phone lines. They're on Telnet. No joke. and they're WONDERFUL for reliving your old ways: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
I mean YEAH thanks BUT please STOP doing THIS.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#14This is SILLY to be on top. but if YOU want to connect to BBS's that are STILL online. they're NOT on phone lines. They're on Telnet. No joke. and they're WONDERFUL for reliving your old ways: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
That is nice and all. But as you can see, the majority of BBSs are Synchronet, that is not a bad thing but it has a limited support for old DOOR systems. So while it keep the BBS scene alive in someway, it kills a bit of history with other systems.
I love Sync client, it is amazing! But it is sad that old systems are slowly disappearing. A few years back I was able to find telnet BBS on some old system with very specific games. Last year I've tried to get back and all were dead. I simply cannot find it anymore.
At least I have all the software locally but it keeps harder and harder to get it running due to compatibility stuff and I don't have enough time to setup it correctly in a kind of vm.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel that the Internet used to be that way, back in the 90's. Many early ISP's grew out of the BBS scene.
I think USA was pretty unique with free local calls and hence why the scene took off big there. In the UK* we used to have to wait till 6pm for the price to drop from 5p a minute to 1p so internet usage and BBS prior was pretty constrained - the fear of 0345 usage on the bill was a constant fear that shareware mail order lasted into late 1990s. Broadband was also way behind, I think it was 2002 before we got 512kbit.…
There were ways around that.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#16When I discovered BBS'es at 15 ( 1988 ) my life changed considerably. It was, as mentioned below, like a secret Goonies tunnel to the upside down......
I ended up running my own BBS on my C64 and had to get a job to pay for the extra phone line and the array of 1581 3.5 drives I had to buy to support it. I was up all hours of the night talking to people who logged in. Trying out new BBS software, getting into ASCII art, warez, demos, etc. was a lot of fun.
It got so bad my mom had to sit me down and tell me that I had to go outside and ride my bike, play football, etc.
Nearly 30 years later I am still working with software everyday and enjoying ever minute of it. I do have to remind myself to go outside.......
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel that the Internet used to be that way, back in the 90's. Many early ISP's grew out of the BBS scene.
I think USA was pretty unique with free local calls and hence why the scene took off big there. In the UK* we used to have to wait till 6pm for the price to drop from 5p a minute to 1p so internet usage and BBS prior was pretty constrained - the fear of 0345 usage on the bill was a constant fear that shareware mail order lasted into late 1990s. Broadband was also way behind, I think it was 2002 before we got 512kbit.…
I don't recall free calls exactly. In my area we had band plans - there was an A, B and C band that had different rates. The A band would have a connection fee (1 cent? 5 cents? can't remember) and no per minute charge. The other bands charged various rates per minute.
Most people spent most of their BBS time in the A band obviously. That had the effect of having most of your users being very, very local to your BBS.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#18This is SILLY to be on top. but if YOU want to connect to BBS's that are STILL online. they're NOT on phone lines. They're on Telnet. No joke. and they're WONDERFUL for reliving your old ways: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
There are still dialup BBSes. I called into one in Wisconsin just a couple of weeks ago from my TRS-80 Model 100 via acoustic coupler.
Yes, the phone I dialed in with was rotary.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think USA was pretty unique with free local calls and hence why the scene took off big there. In the UK* we used to have to wait till 6pm for the price to drop from 5p a minute to 1p so internet usage and BBS prior was pretty constrained - the fear of 0345 usage on the bill was a constant fear that shareware mail order lasted into late 1990s. Broadband was also way behind, I think it was 2002 before we got 512kbit.…
I don't recall free calls exactly. In my area we had band plans - there was an A, B and C band that had different rates. The A band would have a connection fee (1 cent? 5 cents? can't remember) and no per minute charge. The other bands charged various rates per minute. Most people spent most of their BBS time in the A band obviously. That had the effect of having most of your users being very, very local to your BBS.
One place I lived in the 80's, we had free phone calls within our phone company. So it was most of our county, parts of neighboring counties, and a county in a neighboring state.
You didn't even have to dial the full seven digits to make the call if it was inside the local telco. Just the last five numbers.
Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]
#20If you like this, check out neohabitat.org a relaunch of the first virtual world. You can play via emulator, or if your C64 is online, you can play with an original C64.