The Username origin thread got me thinking about how I first started with computers and the internet by connecting to electronic BBS’s around my community. Everything I learned about the basics of modem configuration was from dialing out on my dad’s Tandy 1400 Laptop with 1200 bps modem to BBS systems.
So does anyone here remember any of the BBS systems they called into and if so, did you have a favorite? What kind was it and what made it so special for you?
My favorite was one called “The Secret Citadel”. It was running the Citadel 86 BBS software and the reason I liked it wasn’t that it was especially powerful (it acutally was just a discussion BBS…no online games), but that it was run at this guy’s work. He was a manager at one of our town’s local department stores and had PC that was work issued that he ran the software on. Upper management had no idea that he was doing this and that made it way cool for all us users who were dialing in.
The Inner Sanctum, running C*base on a Commodore 128. Max Speed, 2400 baud. Had two games we all played. a really simple baseball game, and Empire, which is where the game Barren Realms Elite came from. We played those to death, then debated/ranted for hours in the message areas.
Really, it died cause we all went on to the internet, and the system finally gave up the ghost. I started BBSing with a C64 at 300 baud. Waaaaayyy back when.
When I was in college the University of Iowa’s BB was very popular at Michigan State University. People would spend hours waiting in “line” to get on. We would then spend hours chatting with complete strangers who were probably sitting at the other end of the Union’s computer lab.
What was interesting about that time was that I was one of the few people in Kalamazoo that had a modem and PC at home so I could dial into WMU’s mainframe and do all my programing homework at home… and NOT wait in line at the computer lab. I still remember connecting to the VAX system and talking to people at WMU computing lab who didn’t know where I was (cause’ I was dialed in, he he).
When I first moved to where I live now (and first started using this username, back in 1991), just about every BBS used the WWIV software, with a few using VBBS and Renegade. Some old names of the places I frequented are below:
Saturday Night Live
Kaptain’s Korner
Simpson’s Street
Kingdom of Shit
Lost Realm
Flashpoint
Generic Terror
Slag Heap
Club Baby Seal
Virtual Hell
Neurochic’s Biker Slut Haven
And somewhere in there was Demon Roach Underground. I’d wound up accidentally living in the home town of the Cult of the Dead Cow.
A fun note on Simpson’s Street: it was run by a fella called Bartman (I still see him on occasion around town) out of his campus dorm room. He had “stolen” the phone line of the unused kitchen next door to keep his BBS up full-time.
In December 1992, the Secret Service came down on him like a ton of bricks for distributing copyrighted software. You have never seen so many computer geeks scrambling to hide their goodies…that was a crazy-ass day.
Not long after that, a fella almost completely unknown in the local BBS community opened a BBS called Planet Zog. The board was fully modded and customized, and the sexual GIFs he had for download had little “censor” bars over the good bits. On top of that, the users never got notice that the sysops were reading their mail, but changes were implemented based on e-mail suggestions. We started making jokes in the discussion forums about it being a fed board, and it closed down within days. Gee, I wonder.
Are you referring to ISCA? (Iowa Student Computer Association) I’m logged in there as we speak…
The queue is nonexistant now…has been for a long time, I’ve been on ISCA for nearly 4 years, and I’ve only heard tell of it, never experienced it myself. Fun place, though, or at least it was, until they deleted Weird>.
The University of Iowa’s BB was very popular at Michigan State University. People would spend hours waiting in “line” to get on. We would then spend hours chatting with complete strangers who were probably sitting at the other end of the Union’s computer lab.
The BBS i used to visit the most was the one i had running for almost 4 years called The Dark Forces. A buddy of mine copy-catted it and called his Dark Force Rising. Yeah we are Star Wars nuts. We ran with Telegard for a while then made the switch over to Renegade. We also got hooked up into a multi-bbs meesage system using G-echo. That was the first time i ever communicated with anybody over-seas. The network we ran off of spanned the whole globe. It was pretty cool while it lasted. Then this whole Internet thing started and boom, nada.
I still have a vast majority of the software and a shit load of files from the BBS. When i was into it, i was trying to be one of the biggest files server around and when i shut down the system, i had well over 250,000 files for download, ranging into everything imaginable. Yes, even the illegal stuff, and NO, i don’t have that stuff anymore. I got rid of that when i became a father. No need for the little one to grow up wondering why dear old dad is sitting behind bars.
How far back do you want me to go? I started off on a couple of chat boards in Michigan (near Detroit) in 1985. The Dad gave me a couple of phone numbers and showed me how to work the modem on our little Apple IIe (1200 baud, I think; Dad always had state-of-the-art stuff, sorta). My first date ever was with some yaboo from there. He was also my first french kiss, and I was VERY pleased to find out that KISSING didn’t suck, just HE did. Hrmmm…
Then there was Stardock, run out of Wyandotte, I think. Got to be fairly good friends with the sysops for a little while; I’m still a little bit upset that we fell out of touch.
Then I went to WMU (Hi there, fellow Kalamazzo people!) Man, when you brought up the Vax system…I cannot BELIEVE how much DRAMA happened as a result of that stupid Vax system. Got a couple of friends that way. Got a couple of boyfriends that way. The Vax was indirectly the reason I ended up dropping out of college. HUZZAH!
Moved to Virginia, and started off with ANOTHER couple of phone numbers and my mom’s IBM. I’d only worked with Apple products at this point. Argh. Fortunately (as any die-hard BBS’er knows) a couple of phone numbers spawn many more, and I discovered WWIV boards. Ran one for a while, met my husband through them. He ran one, I logged on, history ensued.
I was a sysop for the Palantir BBS in Massillon, OH. We were basically a shareware BBS (Night Owl CDs and such). At that time (91-92), we were so proud to have 2.2 GB of files available! Amazing! We were running at 2400, later 9600. My favorite local BBS was the Canton Connection. It was my first introduction to real-time chat, and it had 8 phone lines, so we could be chatting with up to 9 people (if the mod came on from the local port). The 8 lines were all different phone numbers, and the first 2 were for everyone, the last 6 for paid members (I paid), and I would have to set my dialer to dial all 8 numbers in succession for about 15 minutes until I hit an open line. Thems were the days.
It was a FidoNet board. In fact, it was the first Fido board in this town (set it up when I moved here) and the last one in town to be taken down. Ah, memories…
Yes, even the illegal stuff, and NO, i don’t have that stuff anymore. I got rid of that when i became a father. No need for the little one to grow up wondering why dear old dad is sitting behind bars.