Were any of your sysops on a BBS?

[Sarah_Jayne]

Some of the best times of my youth came from discovering the world of the BBS back in the day. In fact, a few of my dearest friends are still people I met on them when I was a teenager.

I just started watching a multi-part documentary on the old BBS scene and it brought back a flood of memories. The site for the documentary is really bad looking but it is here.

[fris]

i coded some vga loaders for some groups

[Coup]

nah, during that time I was too busy knocking out trim and smoking dope with my buddies to give a rats ass. Didn't even know the internet even existed until like 1998. lol

"Internet? What the fuck is the internet?"

In retrospect I really wish I was way more nerdy then. I really missed the boat on that one. lol

[Bored]

i ran a small one in my hometown using uh spitfire. I remember renegade, and there were a few others.

My first time on the internet was using a stolen SLIP account and telnetting to a BBS in LV, writing a fake online check to download some pictures off of CD288.

[Brujah]

Ran my own BBS for many years in the 80s. Saw the documentary, it was good. Another one if you haven't seen it is Get Lamp

[Sarah_Jayne]

Yup, we bought Get Lamp too. We both grew up with too much Zork not to get it.

[itto]

yep, 3 nodes ringdown, running a heavily modded PCBoard. Man, those were the times!

[2MuchMark]

Hi Sarah,

Wow its funny that you say that - I was the exact same!

When I was 16 I wrote my first "big" program, a BBS for the TRS-80 Model 4. I called it "compu-sexe" at first but then changed it to "Datamate", and bought ads in the local newspaper, calling it "sexually explicit". It got so busy so fast that I soon bought a second TRS-80 (Model 3) just so I could have it support 2 users at the same time (with 2 phone numbers and 2 "auto-answer" modems!

It was lots of fun. I learned alot and as goofy as it sounds, it helped me break out of my ackward shell at the time (nerdy guy, bad at sports, few friends, kept to myself, etc). Good times..!

[2MuchMark]

[CurrentlySober]

???

[BittieBucks Eric]

I started one when I was about 16 orso which was really at the end of the BBS era.
My mom didn't like it because the phoneline was permanently busy lol

I ran RA.

[2MuchMark]

[magicmike]

Helped a friend run his 2 node board, he ran 3 nodes at night off his parents line as well, lol.

Renegade mainly, but we used pc board as well. I played a lot of tradewars back then as well.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by magicmike

Helped a friend run his 2 node board, he ran 3 nodes at night off his parents line as well, lol.

Renegade mainly, but we used pc board as well. I played a lot of tradewars back then as well.

i don't miss 2400 baud modems in the least!

[Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life]

I made myself an admin on a school ran BBS when I was like 15. They didn't like that, I got suspended for 5 days. Should have played it cool, instead I started answering questions in the "Ask the police" board.

[Tom_PM]

I was co-sysop on a local kids BBS. I wrote a game for it that was a clone of Operation Overkill. Bought my first, full-height 10MB hard drive from another sysop. He started with WWIV but switched to Telegard which was a clone. I have the source code for it somewhere on my XT class computer.

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally Posted by **********

Yup, that is it. If anybody was around in those days it will be a trip. I miss those days in a lot of ways but progress marches on.

I remember getting told by a science teacher that I made up the word 'download'. He was a prick anyway and made sure he told me that in front of the whole class. I hope every once in a while when he downloads something it rings a bell in his head.

[GonZo]

Originally Posted by pornopete

yup. was running renegade.

Cott Lang still sux.

[myneid]

i always wanted to start my own BBS but my mom wouldnt pay for another phone line and was getting mad at me as it was for using up the phone line that we had all the time. But i had about 4 BBS's that i HAD to get on everyday to play trade wars and LORD

[Sarah_Jayne]

I can not tell you how important Trade Wars was to my group of geek friends in my junior year of high school.

[Godsmack]

Had 9 node AmiExpress The Pleasure dome BBS, for a short time i was distribution for Razor 1911.
Running on an Amiga 2000 with special multi serial card

Was great those days, i have fond memories and was the time when computing had such magic.
I started my first BBS on a C64 and had to swap diskettes for people that requested files tagged on a list :-)

Good days!

[PornGreen]

no but i had fun tormenting many sysops

[CIVMatt]

Damn I just used up all my turns for the day in TradeWars2002

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally Posted by PornGreen

no but i had fun tormenting many sysops

Did the sysop request a chat with you often? That used to freak me out.

[$5 submissions]

I ran a WWIV board back in the early 90s.

[u-Bob]

I wiped one out

Sysop became one of my best friends afterwards

[docputer]

I remember trying a BBS on a Vic 20 but it wasn't too good.
then went to the C-64. Started on 300 baud modem and moved up speeds as tech changed. Ran the BBS for the local Commodore club.

[Bill8]

I was sysop of a 2 line BBS for about 4 years. It was based on waffle, a unix emulator for pc's, and carried usenet and all the old school early text internet and real email, a really unique thing in my area.

good times.

then that guy released the first internet worm, and html and browsers were invented, and I foolishly did not jump to the new platforms - well, I couldn't afford it at the time.

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by pornopete

Oh you ran it on windows! DesqView was actually the best.

LOL! Time bank!

No not at all - that is just a screenshot I found of WWIV.

My computers were TRS-80's with 16k of Ram or something like that, and a 360k "Double Sided Double Density" floppy drive. I think the processor was a Z-80 2MHz or something like that...

The computer wouldn't multi task so I needed 2 computers with 1 x 1200 baud modem each (Hayes compatbile I think). My friend Rick wrote a simple way for these 2 computers to "network" by way of the cassette ports in machine language. We hooked up the computers via the ports by connecting the SPKR OUT Cable to the AUX IN, and Vice-Versa but it didn't work at first. I determined the signal (audio) wasn't loud enough so I went to Radio shack and bout 2 little 5-amp amplifier kits and hooked it up. These amps made too much noise which generated errors so I had to add a little noise filter to fix it, then finally tweaking the volume controls to get the best sound possible to make the network connection happen. Talk about lots of fucking fun!!! I loved it. THAT was the good ol' days... Once this was happening, a person logged in to the first computer could actually, really, real-time chat with the person on the other computer! WOW!!

My parents though were still not impressed...then again they didn't understand what I was doing. Still fun tho.

[sexdatesj]

I was in 1985 - 1990, I ran a BBS at night when the family was asleep using my Commodore 64 and the C-NET software.. good old days!! I upgraded
with 2 1571 drives and a 1200 baud. My buddy had a nice IBM with 9600.. that was smoking fast in those days..lol

[garce]

Very briefly in '96. Legend of the Red Dragon made me do it.

[Dirty D]

Awesome thread...

I was Robin Hood and ran the Sherwood Forest BBS from late 1979 through 1984 on Atari 8 bit machines. I wrote all the software for it because none existed in 1979.

Started at 300 baud because that is all that existed... then the 1200 ATT modems came out!

[webair]

yep thats how i got into all this craziness =))

I was The Duke! thus my aim screen name Moduke96

Miss those days of dialers and black boxes =))

[Ravage]

I had a private BBS setup that I ran at night for friends and classmates in the early 90's.

Mainly used for playing TradeWars and LORD

[Chosen]

I weren't

[Nasty]

Ran a 6 node pay bbs using pcboard, actually made a little money at it

[kaori]

ymodem-g!!

[GrouchyAdmin]

X00 or BNU?

If you answer wrong, you're a Renegade running tardmuffin.

[Elli]

Aw man, I used to chit chat on Shoreline back in the day.

[rock-reed]

The Bates Motel, 1984

[Lester Burnham]

Oh yea. Loved the BBS scene.

I was fortunate. My mom was a computer programmer, so I had all the gear, from the old TI, to the Vic-20, then I became a big baller when I got a Commodore 64. Shit I even had an Amiga.

Other memories from the day:

- I almost cried when I went from a 300 baud modem to a 2400 baud modem. Friends would come over and say, "daaaaamn, that shit is fast!!!!!!"

- I wrote a programming book in elementary school (back in the early 80s) and I won some contest so they published it and put it in the elementary school library. I think one of the programs went like this:

10 Print "Hello, how are you"
20 Input A$
30 If A$ = "great" go to 50
40 If A$ = "bad" go to 70
50 Print "I'm glad you are doing great!"
60 Goto 10
70 Print "I'm sorry you are feeling bad"
80 Goto 10

When I wrote this, I told my little elementary school friends that had invented "artificial intelligence." I was on top of the world!

It all went down hill from there lol....

[2MuchMark]

Here's a small graphics program that used to freak out my friends:

10 cls (Clears screen)
20 s=1 (Sets a value of 1 to variable S)
30 for x=0 to 127 (count to 127, starting at 0)
40 for y = 0 to 47 step s (counts to 47, starting at 0, in steps of the value of S)
50 set (x,y) (Turn on the pixel at that location)
60 let s=s+.1 (add .1 to the value of S)
70 next y (Increment y)
80 next x (increment x)
90 goto 90 (endless loop)


This simple program would produce a really cool (almost 3D) image on the full screen of the TRS-80. It would take about 15 seconds to draw the whole screen. The TRS-80 had only 1 bit graphics (on, off, no color and no shades of grey), and of course only 128 pixels across and 48 pixels down.

I. loved. it.

[ECG]

Any c64 nerds hanging around here who were active in programming demos and/or cracking these c64 games?

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally Posted by Angry Jew Cat

I made myself an admin on a school ran BBS when I was like 15. They didn't like that, I got suspended for 5 days. Should have played it cool, instead I started answering questions in the "Ask the police" board.

I am not sure of your age but guessing it is probably not that far off mine. In which case, it was that period where the kids into things like the BBS scene usually knew way more about computers than most teachers. One of my best friends in school offered to help the school librarian network the library computers. It sounded like a helpful request but really he was just getting his hands on them so he could network the entire school's computer's and install Doom so that him and several friends could play Doom from different classes. He ended up getting suspended for that. Later he got too cocky and logged in to change grades and got expelled..duh.

[MrDaniel]

Yeah, I had a BBS and was i FidoNet node, so i was a bit sceptic to the strange "Internet" =)

[The Dawg]

Originally Posted by rock-reed

The Bates Motel, 1984

Really?

I was on that BBS back then.

I ran The Error Channel 0-1 Day BBS on my Commodore system for a while. (2400+)

[Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life]

Originally Posted by Sarah_MaxCash

I am not sure of your age but guessing it is probably not that far off mine. In which case, it was that period where the kids into things like the BBS scene usually knew way more about computers than most teachers. One of my best friends in school offered to help the school librarian network the library computers. It sounded like a helpful request but really he was just getting his hands on them so he could network the entire school's computer's and install Doom so that him and several friends could play Doom from different classes. He ended up getting suspended for that. Later he got too cocky and logged in to change grades and got expelled..duh.

I'm 27 now. Getting suspended for fucking up the school networks was routine back then. I actually found my way into the BBS as an admin after being banned for dumping cut+paste physics lectures into the "gifted and talented forum". Was just something that fell into my lap. In grade 10 they decided to give me my own office (was really just a cleared out storage room after the music program got closed) and 8 computers, trucked in tons of network hardware, licensed me a copy of Novell Netware and turned me loose with a 40 minute block every day to play with it as I saw fit. I spent most of that time getting baked and drinking beer in my "office" while playing Oregon Trail. I usually had a good buzz on by the time art class rolled around...

[adultmobile]

LOL I not expected so many from BBS times here - and now I feel really old we talk of 20 years ago.

I had setup and run "in europe" between 1988 and 1994 a few bbs's using AmigaExpress software (or predecessors I forgot), over Amiga 1000's and Amiga 2000's and HST US Robotics 9600 then 14400 modems, actually accepting only HST 9600+ connections and 0-day traders. That was so called Elite bbs's, no 2400 and leechers, often new user password needed, really not open as fidonet ones. One it was called "Infernal Dreams" sysops was me as "Randy" + Poeticall the other coSysop, but just for releases, no big talk going there.
I was in groups of course, included Comax, Ram Jam and others, we had several BBS's including Sweden, Italy, USA, but forgot most of names I should google for it - you guess we called between US and Europe all day in some cheap way lol.
Someone asked of demos, well I used to code crack intros and trainer menu's on c64 then Amiga and demos too, I even participated to demo parties in finland or denkark and one time won something I not even remember when and how.
I was often logged in BBS's such as DANSE MACABRE, FINAL ECLIPSE, MOZART'S MANSION (at one time this was ours group, but I am not 100% sure), USS ENTERPRISE - I remeber SHERWOOD FOREST (whose sysop posted here, amazing) but unsure if I was there often or just I remember the name well.
I was mostly in a BBS with many nodes and damn I forgot the name completely and even group, may it be by supplex or razor or two groups at once, it was the only BBS with a special section for crackers and trainermakers, we was decompiling each other cracks to uncover who copied each other's. At the time there was .txt or disk mags with news and best "scener" lists, I remember I got mentioned in the silents world charts 1992, there was also best Sysop's contests. Around 1994 half our group bbs's was busted we all go doing something else, most I have no idea where they are now.
Now I run a cam site, chatgf.com , funny how it ended, and I see 2much guy also come from bbs, maybe there's many more
Anyone from old time wish talk can ICQ me 279222391 but I forgot most nicks and names don't expect I recognize everyone like 20 years ago.

[Traxman]

'82 i got an C64 with a 300/75 split modem, got so hard slapped by my mom and she even destroyd the modem after the phonebill came.

Took another 4 years before i was allowed to use a modem again.

Remember using fidonews, it was a major break for me, and started to use OS/2 instead of DOS.

Meet a guy in Skurup, outside Malmo in Sweden who did run a 7 node bbs, think that was one of the biggest board in sweden 92/93 then. We converted it from Amiga to OS/2 and we had scsi drives already then, even had to use several machines connected with Lantasic (10mbit coax network).

Around '96 I came in contact with an ISP with a 2mbit link where I had my first real FTP server and did build it up as the 'The Library' and had swedens biggest archive of 0days, i was not intrested to be first with the releaes but had an insane storage.

When i started to work at a university i was on 100mbit and it dident take long until I had move the site to that link and it became PowerTrip (PWT). FLT was quick to affilaite me and it was one of the fastest sites in Europe, '98/'99 we was ranked best site in the world and even Anthill in the states had to step down.

By then we was using all handwritten scripts/ftpd's for FLTs network and I became their tech guy for many years. Bouncers/roundrobin scripts was all made by friends of me in Denmark (Tanesha.net now), at 2004 when feds did not found our server we decided to leave the scene permanent.

Back then we had access to several c classes of networks so we was using ~ 150 ip numbers to spread the load, most sites that was creted by students was often bashed quickly by us, since it was my work to scan for sites, so one of the reasons we spead the load over so many ips that it did not even show up on my spy lists ;p

Have been doing a lot of things and that was one of my more happy days due to the fact how much I did learn in the process. Talking to feds looking for a site called PWT was not fun tho, they simple did not know who the owners was

But BBSes still have a place in my heart, it was my youth ;)

[The Dawg]

Originally Posted by Traxman

'82 i got an C64 with a 300/75 split modem, got so hard slapped by my mom and she even destroyd the modem after the phonebill came.

We knew better. Thats was PC Pursuit and PBX numbers were for. There was no way we'd be able to call Europe to get those 0 day warez without it.

Another C64 warez board I liked was Rad Trans (Radical Transfer).