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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.
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.
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.
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!
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