# BBSes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788 "2003-03-20T13:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/21 "2003-03-20T19:46:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Balthisar \* > \*\*Dang it – that’s it. Don’t know where I got frogs or amphibiians, but at least it was an animal! \*\* Maybe thinking of Kermit, an early file tranfer protocol. It’s still alive and [kicking](http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/). ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/22 "2003-03-20T23:11:13Z")
\> Oh the good old days. I loved the C64, tape drive and the old \>handset modem. They don’t understand today the typing all day \>to get the newest game from the Commodore mag. and then \>uploading to the BBS to download other games. I remember…Compute’s Gazette, and every issue would have a few pages of numbers…I’d type them all into Compute’s compiler in one sitting. I also remember an issue of Mad magazine which had a similar setup, with code for the C64 & Apple I think. God, I was such a geek. Ok, I’m still a geek. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/23 "2003-03-21T01:30:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fat Bald Guy \* > \*\*I remember when 9600 bps was considered blazing fast after using 300 and 2400 bps modems. Of course, at this time there was no such thing as “graphics” and everything was ASCII text. \*\* I was there too, and in a world where there’s no graphics and everything’s text, 9600 _was_ and still _is_ blazing fast. What do we need all these pretty pictures for? I want _information_. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/24 "2003-03-21T02:21:38Z")
Of course there was ANSI graphics- using the upper ASCII character set plus color changes to draw stuff. The best ANSI artists could actually make halftone pictures. I also remember that BBSs almost always used 80 column text, which was the universal text standard (with or without linefeeds). That changed when Windows introduced wordwrapping and the “paragraph is one long string” standard. 80 column text, floppy disks, acoustic modems, Fidonet, Commodore, ANSI art- the lost world of my youth \. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/25 "2003-03-21T03:35:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pestie \* > \*\*Oh, how I long for the days of the BBS! I got into BBS’s when I was in high school in the late 80s. I had a 300 baud modem which I dialed by hand. Eventually I got a 1200 bps “smart modem” (one which supported the Hayes AT command set) and started my own BBS. They said I needed a hard drive to do it, but I showed them! I ran QuickBBS on a 4.77 Mhz XT clone with only a 720K floppy drive and a 360K floppy drive! It was slow, but it worked! Over time I grew to the point where I had a “real” computer (a 386-40 with 4 megs of RAM) and could even run multi-node under Desqview. > \*\* This reminds me so much of what I did. Started out on an XT ( a Tandy 1000HX of all things) with dual 720k floppies. Moved up to a 386-40 with 4 MB RAM. Ran Desqvuew for awhile. Got OS/2 and ran it with a text shell. Was able to get really good DOS multi-tasking that way, until I upgraded to 8 MB and started using the GUI. Ran Spitfire BBS software for awhile. Moved up to Renegader for quite some time and even wrote a couple stupid little utilities for it (was so cool when someone dialed into my little Ohio hick town from New Zealand because of them, though). Eventually paid real cash money for Synchronet BBS. Then we finally got an ISP in our town and the BBS scene died off quickly. ☹ Every once in a while, I start getting this fever that makes me want to start a telnet BBS up and see what happens. I usually take a couple aspirin and lie down until it goes away. It was fun at the time, but even if I thought it would get used, I don’t have the time anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/26 "2003-03-21T04:11:15Z")
Wow, Barren Realms Elite. I remember that game. I’ve heard tell that its still up and running on the 'net somewhere, but I haven’t looked. ---
**Author:** ![yme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/35a633/32.png) [@yme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yme)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/27 "2003-03-21T06:24:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keeve \* > \*\*I was there too, and in a world where there’s no graphics and everything’s text, 9600 _was_ and still _is_ blazing fast. What do we need all these pretty pictures for? I want _information_. \*\* I want _porn_. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/28 "2003-03-21T06:27:18Z")
What, ASCII porn isn’t good enough? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/29 "2003-03-21T06:38:10Z")
One reason that I liked BBS’s was that you often became real life friends with the people you met. My husband and I met on a BBS and announced our engagement at a BBS picnic. Our rehersal dinner and reception were at a sysop’s house. Another sysop was the best man. The minister was also a participant as were many of the wedding guests. We’ve been married seventeen years. Ah…the Commodore 64! So romantic! …La Boheme just logged off… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/30 "2003-03-21T19:34:28Z")
Oh yeah, ZTerm. And menus driven by hitting the corresponding number keys. Message of the day. ::rummages:: God I’m such a pack rat. Yeah, I’ve got a list of 51 Long Island area BBS numbers. I’d post it just for the heck of it, except that many of these numbers are now attached to the telephones of people who ran BBS’s a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/31 "2003-03-22T07:49:22Z")
Was anyone else here on BIX? ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/32 "2003-03-22T08:56:20Z")
[lord.nuklear.org](http://lord.nuklear.org) for those that wish to play LORD again. ---
**Author:** ![Kat\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Kat\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat_Lady)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/33 "2003-03-22T09:28:22Z")
Trying to explain what a BBS is to someone who has only had the internet as it is today is an interesting propostion. Back in the day I spent so much time on several of them. I know of a lot of couples that got their start on one, and there were several different kinds just depended on what you were looking for, some really were fun but as with any group there were some that did tend to get more like office politics that any thing else. But they were fun and the best thing I remember was getting to know people when I first moved into a town, could make instant friends, in fact the fellow I live with and have been for the past almost 8 years and I met on one. They were amazing places but the internet just ain’t the same, and no one seems to have the time or inclination to put them up any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/34 "2003-03-22T12:54:35Z")
“I want _porn_.” Ahh, C64 porn…Farmer’s Daughter, a text adventure where you try to get into the daughter’s pants, while staying out of the cornholing clutches of Jed & Clem, her inbred brothers… I also remember downloading a video…4 frames of 320x200 porn, repeatedly endlessly, or at least for a few minutes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788/35 "2003-03-23T07:56:39Z")
Ok, there’s now a spike in new players at my favorite LORD site. One of them is named, oddly enough, **Fenrhys**. So if my Dopers have joined, holla back, and I’ll see if I can hook you up. They only allow 1000g transfer per day, total, but it’s nice for a starting character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbses/162788.md?page=1)