BBS: The Documentary (2005) • Hacker News Board

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#51

Post by brewtide » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 2:37 AM UTC

tbyehl wrote: post #48

epcoa wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was gonna say take it up with Jason. Looks like that has been done http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3415

They are that Brian. I went to work for a BBS software company straight out of high school and can't recall ever hearing of COCONET outside of this beef with Jason.

I have no idea if it's chance, but my middle school "first class" BBS system was named... Yup. Coconet. Strange memory recall.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#52

Post by slowhadoken » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 4:39 AM UTC

sdenike wrote: post #30

slowhadoken wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Usurper and Legend of the Red Dragon are still running somewhere. They’re basically just old DOS games running on someone’s computer you dialed into.

I remember years ago someone made a PHP version of Legend of the Red Dragon, I think it was Legend of the Green Dragon if not mistaken. I wish I still had my original registration code that was mailed to me and signed by Seth Robinson.

I had Usurper back in the day. It’s one of those items I lost during a move.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#53

Post by orionblastar » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 5:06 AM UTC

Bayaz wrote: post #25

It’s surprising how much of this era has just disappeared. I recently searched around to see if I could find a few of the door games from my youth (Legends and Virtual SysOp) and there really isn’t much out there. Some games like Tradewars live on, but software for TBBS/TDBS is basically forgotten.

Tradewars is still sold here: https://www.classictw.com/

TWGS is Tradewars Game Server that uses Telnet to run on a Windows PC over the Internet: https://www.eisonline.com/downloads/

It runs on WINE but it won't do the Big Bang, you have to Big Bang the universe from a Windows PC and then export it to be imported into WINE.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#54

Post by spiderxxxx » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 5:26 AM UTC

myth_drannon wrote: post #23

divbzero wrote: post #8

Are there places where BBS is still in active use?

You can telnet to many BBSs. If you want something a bit similar to the original modem experience, you can buy device that emulates modem but actually uses WiFi and connects to telnet instead of a phone number.

I just built one of those today, the Wirsa v2 (its on github) and it's great for getting older devices "online". You can telnet, or playback text files, or download files from sd card all via a DB9 serial - you can use a DB9-DB25 converter if you want. I got it so I can get my TRS-80 Model 100 online, and maybe even an Epson HX-20, but I still need to build a cable for it.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#55

Post by squigz » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 6:20 AM UTC

sdenike wrote: post #30

slowhadoken wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Usurper and Legend of the Red Dragon are still running somewhere. They’re basically just old DOS games running on someone’s computer you dialed into.

I remember years ago someone made a PHP version of Legend of the Red Dragon, I think it was Legend of the Green Dragon if not mistaken. I wish I still had my original registration code that was mailed to me and signed by Seth Robinson.

I remember playing an Eragon version of this game when I was a kid. I couldn't figure out what the software was for years, and finally figured it out a couple years ago. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on the specific instance I played, but it was nice to get an answer :) Good memories there

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#56

Post by jonasmerlin » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 8:05 AM UTC

Hah, learned about the existence of this documentary just 3 days ago while researching how .zips work[0]. The last episode is supposedly about Phil Katz, co-inventor of the format and kind of a tragic figure.

Fun fact: Due to their structure, the first two bytes of many .zips are 0x50 4B, or PK–his initials–in ASCII.

[0] https://indieweb.social/@jonasmerlin/111617397581024775

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#57

Post by johnlinvc » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 2:43 PM UTC

divbzero wrote: post #8

Are there places where BBS is still in active use?

ssh://bbs@ptt.cc is the largest one in Taiwan with ~60k concurrent user at this moment. You'll need to switch to BIG5 encoding to display properly.

There's also a web version https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/index.html , which supports Unicode.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#58

Post by DonHopkins » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 5:10 PM UTC

Bayaz wrote: post #45

DonHopkins wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modems used to cost about a dollar per baud.

Rich folks with their 56k.

And 501k!

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#59

Post by christianvozar » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

Not only are BBSes alive and well today so are many ansi artists who make the block art to power them. Be sure to give the ansi archive a look (https://16colo.rs). Create an account and give some rating love to artists who still keep this medium alive.

Re: BBS: The Documentary (2005)

#60

Post by snvzz » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 11:42 PM UTC

slowhadoken wrote: post #26

Bayaz wrote: post #25

It’s surprising how much of this era has just disappeared. I recently searched around to see if I could find a few of the door games from my youth (Legends and Virtual SysOp) and there really isn’t much out there. Some games like Tradewars live on, but software for TBBS/TDBS is basically forgotten.

I believe Usurper and Legend of the Red Dragon are still running somewhere. They’re basically just old DOS games running on someone’s computer you dialed into.

They definitely are running, in more than one of the BBSs I call regularly.