Commodore BBS Programs : Carrier Detected

(ccgms screen) Bulletin Board Systems
A BBS is a private online dial-up service run on a single home computer. If someone wished to access a BBS, they would load into their computer a text-based "terminal" program, with which they could dial and connect to the BBS via their modem. Once online, the user could read online message, send and receive email, play online games, chat with the BBS owner, and download programs from transfer areas. Typically, only one user could dial into a BBS at a time, meaning telephone busy signals were common.

Well, before the internet was the thing, BBSs were. And in their hey-day (which I guestimate is roughly between 1984 and 1993) Commodore BBSs were the best. We had color graphics, they didn't. We had online graphic movies, they didn't. Our BBS programs were better written, provided better services to the SysOp and the user, and were just plain more powerful then anything the PC and Apple folks were hurling out.

(picture of the C= vicmodem) It was more then that though. For a Commodore owner, a BBS was plausable. Before the age of multi-tasking operating systems, the prospect of running a BBS meant losing your computer for general use. If you paid the price of a car for your computer, the way PC folks have always had to do, losing your computer to a full time BBS just wasn't worth it. However, good 'ol CBM, whatever their other faults, gave us cheap machines that did the job, which meant we could spend a couple hundred dollars on a fancy set up, and then make it available to the modem using world, while still reserving another machine for the games we loved so much.

At the heart of our advantage over other computer users was, of course, PETSCII, with its extremely easy access to color and graphics characters which transmitted unconverted across the modem for all to see. Another was, again, the price of our machines. When 14 year old kids could get their hands on a computer, modem, and all the spare time of teen years, lots could and did happen.

(1670 modem) Of course those days are beginning to see their end. The internet has shown its ability to do all that BBSs can do, and more. Message bases are replaced by UseNet news groups and chatting by IRC channels. Transfer sections are replaced by FTP sites. REAL movies can now be seen on-line, and all this is done without a busy signal, and with many more users then the best of boards could hope.

End of speil.

Now! With all this in mind, I bring you a series of pages dedicated to the amazing BBS programs we all loved to call and for some of us, run. If you see any programs you know about missing, and have access to programs, text, pictures, or any other material you think should be here, by all means click on my mail-to button at the bottom of this page.

You may want to check out the KEY for the "Facts" part of the BBS pages.

Program             Author              Version(s) reviewed    Download

1541 BBS            ?                   (need access to this)
6480 Exchange       David Tingler       2.2                    6480.zip
6485 Exchange       "Ivory Joe"         4.4 7.0e               6485-7.zip
6487 Exchange       Nick Smith          8.0                    6487v8.d64.gz
64 Exchange BBS     "The Breaker"       12.0                   exchange12.zip
64 Messenger        Messenger Software  4.5                    64mess.arc
Ace-Line BBS        Gilligan            3.5                    ace35.zip
All American BBS    Nickolai Smith      1.0 5.2 6.1 7.1 8.5    aa64v61.arc
All American 128    Nickolai Smith      5.9 (12.1)             aabbs128-59.zip
ARB BBS             Arthur Brock        (5602 review pending)
B-NET BBS           ?                   (review pending)
Bandit BBS          ?                   (review pending)
Bird Brain BBS      Leslie Bird         (review pending)
Bizarre 64          Bill Atchison       (need access to this)
Blue Board          Martin Sikes        (need access to this)
Bob's BBS           Bob?                (review pending)
Boring BBS          Everyone            (1.0 review pending)
BBS Const. Set      Will Gaddy          9.9F                   bbsconkit.zip
Castle BBS          ?                   (review pending)
C*Base              Gunther Birznieks   3.0                    (Web), cbase30.zip
C-Net 64            Perspective Soft.   10.0, 11.1, 12.0       Commercial, but Hidden.
C-Net 128           Perspective Soft.   1.0 - 7.0              cnet128.zip
C-Net DS2           Jim Selleck         2.5
CCGMS BBS           Craig Smith         (need access to this)
Centipede 128       Adam Fanello        1.0                    centfree2.zip
CHATeau             Eugene Tiffany      1.0 (Demo)             chateau.zip
Citadel 64 BBS      K2NE Software       87.07.15               citadel64.zip
Color 64            Greg Pfountz        7.0 7.37 (8.0)         color64.zip (v7) color64v8.zip (v8)
Color 64 (128)      Adam Fanello        -
Commodore Mania BBS Don Snider          5.1 - 6.0              cmbbs60.zip
Dataquick BBS       ?                   (need access to this)
DarkStar BBS        D.S.S.              (need new copy)        darkstar30.zip
Dead Zone BBS       FX Software                                dzbbs.zip
DirCon BBS          ?                   (3.0 review pending)
DLBBS               ?                   (7.1 review pending)
DMBBS               ARTIsoft            4.8                    dmbbs48.zip
Does the Job BBS    Andrew Bernhardt    (review pending)       dtj.zip
Dragonfire BBS 128  Jim Young           (need access to this)
EBBS 64             Ed Parry            3.3 - 3.4              eebbs167.arc
EBBS 128            Mike Pugliese       4.7                    e8bbs47.zip
Electro-Com         Alex Tucker         5.0                    electrocom50.zip
Elite BBS           Bill Fink           1.0C                   (not released)
Elite Exchange 1    Stevyn Prothero     (185Q review pending)
Fantasy Rollplaying Deep Pan Software   1.12                   frbbs.zip
Frontier 128        ?                   (need access to this)
HAL Secretary       Robert S. Shaw      (review pending)
Hal's BBS           Richard Buchanan    1.0                    hal.zip
Image BBS           New Image Soft.     1.2A                   image12a.zip
Infoquick BBS       Lew Lasher          (1.0 review pending)   infoquick.zip
Intelligentsia 128  Robert S. Murawski  1.0A                   INTG100.ZIP
Ivory BBS           Bill Jackson        2.0 - 3.2,6.0          ivory32.zip (6.0 pending)
Laser 128           Chris Timmerberg    (need better copy of 2.0PD)
Lightning BBS       ?                   (need access to this)
Matchmaker          ?                   (need access to this)
MBBS                Mark Parity         (1.2 review pending)
McBBS               McGuire/Theobald    (need access to this)
Microram BBS        Eugene Tiffany      (review pending)
Midgaard BBS        ?                   (need access to this)
Mike Black BBS      Mike Black?         (need access to this)
Net-64              Scott Markowitz     (review pending)
NORAD BBS           ?                   (review pending)
Omni 128            Omni Software       1.0                    (need a copy of this)
Pirate BBS          ?                   (review pending)
Punter BBS          Steve Punter        (review pending)
RAD BBS             ?                   (4.2b review pending)
RAVICS              Adam Jacobs         (need access to this)
RGBBS               ?                   (need access to this)
Ribit BBS           J.W. Fulmer         3.0, 4.0, 7.5          ribitbbs.arc
Satellite BBS       Shaw/Backer         1.0                    sattelite.zip
Sequel BBS                              (need access to this)    2.0
SCBBS               Chad Stansel        3.0                    scbbsv3.arc
Star 128            ?                   (need access to this)
Stellar Zone        "Mr. X"                                    stellar.zip
ST/R BBS            Douglas McLaughlin  3.9                    strbbs.zip
Spence XP           Spence/McFarlane    6.4, 6.8               6.4, 6.8
Spice-Net           Darrell Spice       (need access to this)
Stock Exchange      Tom Conway          (need access to this)
Superboard          Greg Francis        2.5i                   (not available)
Supra 128           Julian Burger       4.2                    SUPRA.ZIP
SynTech BBS         ?                   (review pending)
Ultra-Com BBS       PW                  1.1, 1.3               ucbbs13.zip
U.E.S. BBS          Willie Goebel       7.7                    ues770.zip
Vision Color BBS    Vision Software     1.00                   vision.zip
VortexNet 128 BBS   Stephen Kunc        4.6                    VTNT46.ZIP
Xavian BBS          Star Tech Software                         xavian.zip
ZBBS                "Mr. Bill"          1.2                    zbbs.zip
Zelch 64 BBS        Planet Ink.         1.0 - 3.7              zelch30.arc
Zelch 128 BBS       Elite Software      1.0 - 2.0              1.0, 2.0, 2.0+ incomplete w/src

All of the above works were copyrighted by their respective authors. All opinions are of course my own, except where I borrowed someone elses opinion. Programs have been made available where they are explicitly shareware or freeware, where they have no copyright notice, or where the copyright and all support has plainly expired. Any programs posted in error should be brought to the attention of the webmaster. Lastly, CMD is a reference to Creative Micro Designs, quite possibly the greatest company since CBM itself!

If you find anything in here you have questions or comments about, feel free to leave me email right here.

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