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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]

#21

Post by cromwellian »

The major BBS software I remember was DMBBS and it’s derivatives, and C-Net, both of which were very advanced, DMBBS supported PETSCII and was very colorful and allowed animated posts, and C-NET was modular and supported loadable modules(games) multiple dialin lines, and later federation.

There were a collection of simpler boards used by pirate sites in the 80s, but community wise, I felt C-Net 128 was the most advanced BBS.

I spent about a year myself writing a modular BBS in assembly code to try and beat it, including a ram disk, multitasking with windowing system for sysops, federation and fast search indexing, but quit to move to Amiga in 1989.

BBS software was really the the Web 0.1 of its day and a very dynamic and fascinating field to watch develop.

I still have a fondness and warm feeling when I see an acoustic coupler or Vic Modem and the old Bell phones where you dialed manually and then disconnected the handset and quickly plugged it into the modem. Love watching Wargames because of this.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#22

Post by themodelplumber »

reaperducer wrote: post #18
damianmontero wrote: post #11

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: 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.

Have you documented this with video? I'd love to see it.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#23

Post by Clubber »

jasondigitized wrote: post #16

When 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 a…

Sounds familiar. BBSes is what got me interested in coding. I would mod the BBS and I got to show everyone and release mod files to other BBS owners. We ran C-NET variants at the time.

I switched to PC in the 1990s and WWIV was the closest to CNET, and if you registered (paid) you got the source code. There was also inter-BBS networking available that predated (public) email and newsgroups.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#25

Post by linkmotif »

apo wrote: post #8

This documentary on BBSs is well worth the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnSz-Hb9LQY

I just saw this the other month after sitting on it since it came out in 2005. Couldn’t agree more. Not only worth your time but a must see.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#26

Post by lunchables »

jasondigitized wrote: post #16

When 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 a…

>1581

I assume this is a model number? You couldn't possibly mean 1,581 3.5" drives ... right?

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#27

Post by bluGill »

nsxwolf wrote: post #17
sitepodmatt wrote: post #5

Earlier 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.

It was different in every state. When my parents moved "to the country" they made sure they were in the Minneapolis calling area, but it didn't occur to them that the local town where I went to high school wouldn't be in that area. As a result I could call some people who lived 70 miles away from our house at no additional charge, but neighbors just 5 miles down the road who I went to school with were not a free call.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#28

Post by reaperducer »

themodelplumber wrote: post #22
reaperducer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you documented this with video? I'd love to see it.

It never occurred to me that it's something so rare that it needs to be documented. It's just something people do.

Re: Borderline BBS: A Commodore 64 dial-up BBS (2014) [video]

#29

Post by PhasmaFelis »

lunchables wrote: post #26
jasondigitized wrote: post #16

When 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 a…

>1581 I assume this is a model number? You couldn't possibly mean 1,581 3.5" drives ... right?

Yep. The 1541 was Commodore's original single-sided 5.25" floppy drive (you had to physically remove and flip the disk to read the other side). The 1571 was a double-sided 5.25" drive, and the 1581 was a double-sided double-density 3.5" drive.

(Yes I know all those numbers from memory)

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