Commodore Free 13/Commodore_Free_Issue_13_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.bbs systems

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 14KB | 409 lines

u
BBS
Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Flickering light from the monitor
dances over his expectant face in the
darkened room. His mind is full of
plans & plots for this session. Fears
too are seen to no-one on his face. Is
anyone else on at this time? Will he
make it before his opponents? Are those
files up now in the file areas? He sits
& waits. Yes! he almost says aloud, as
the modem makes the squealing sounds
that he anticipates. No busy signal
this time around.

Heaven is just a few keystrokes away.
The screen appears in 16 colors. He
sees the familiar Shadowrun SAN [System
Access Node icon. Last time he read
that a new entry screen was being made,
& now he sees it, with a matrix city
scape from that game. He is now asked
if he wants C= Graphic, & that is
quickly followed by a request for info
on if he wants it to be 40 or 80
columns. Making his selections with
trembling hands.  Hoping that he is
able to enter the games before his
opponents. He waits & at the prompt
line, changes from his mundane
existence into the decker known as
"Neon Samurai". Handle typed in, then
the usual message about just putting in
his account number would be faster. Now
he must carefully type in his password.
A closely guarded secret. Looking
around & seeing only the gold looking
eyes of the cat. Watching him closely.
Neon Samurai takes the last step in
making his true identity known to the
cyberworld.  Ah, here is the message
from the last caller, they call them
deckers on this board. Great it is one
of the Sys Ops. Vixen, the main Sys Ops
girl Friday. She handles the files, &
her statement is to check the news file
for the recently released files. He
wonders if he should look at the news
first or go to the games. While he
waits, he finds out that he has mail.
Looking at the list, he sees that there
are some form letters from the Sys Ops
on prospective changes to the message
bases & file areas. Nothing too
important, just stuff that is presented
in case the news isn't read. Oh oh,
there is a message from one of his
opponents. Looking at the time & date.
He worries at the content of the
message. He should read it now he
thinks, he only has two hours of online
time. Might give him an idea for how to
fight this guy in the game. Opening the
mail he suddenly...

Choose your ending
<A> Phone line goes dead
<B> The cat jumps on the keyboard &
 disconnects Neon Samurai
<C> "Villy, to the dinner table you
 should be going, it is Passover. Comes
 from his mother.

OK A & B have happened to me. Me mum,
well I was 45 when I started calling
the BBS scene, & running my own one.
She was also 400 miles away from me.
But from the above you can get the idea
that I spent way too much time, or not
enough time, playing 1st Ed. Shadowrun
as well as being on a different BBS
systems. The purpose of this little
drivel of mine is to present the world
of the almost forgotten BBS scene.

Would you believe that there are people
in the computer world of today, people
that in my home town who are taking
computer classes at the high school,
the college & even at the Job Corp
centr. Taking these classes for a
career in computer work. Who never
heard of a BBS? True man, I meet them
in my game store. When I tell them
about a BBS. They seem to think that
this form of telecommunication is a new
& great idea. So then what is a BBS &
what does the smeager do in the first
place?

The where & when of the start of a BBS
is lost to me in space & time. I
understand from things that I have read
& heard over the years. That this grew
out of the mega corps method of
contacting their individual computers
to the central one for data sharing. I
have heard also that they worked at
incredible speeds. 35bps is one of
them. I can't swear to that but I can
attest to seeing a setting on an old
BBS for as low as 75baud.

Like many other things in the computer
world. The truth is lost in myth &
legend. Goes something like this in the
legend, so take it with a bag of salt
for accuracy. Somewhere along the line
in the mid 70's. Before the Pet & Apple
stuff. Back when you had to assemble
the computer onto the actual circuit
board. Somewhere along this time frame.
Some computer electronics geek. Found a
way to connect over the phone lines, at
a price that was comfortable to the
pocket book, a home computer modem.

Anyway that is the legend, & it grows
from there to this next part. Which I
can attest to having spoken to people
that claim they were in on these styles
of computer access over the phone
lines.

At first it was just contacting the
other guy. A simple term programme & a
set time to call. Some of the modems
had to be hand dialled to make the
connection. I have seen in some old
books, the type where you had to dial &
then put the transceiver unit in the
cradle. Shades of that show VR5 several
years ago. But about all you could do
was send text messages to each other.
Now does that sound old school with the
cell phones of today & text messaging
BG?

Along the way a method of being able to
keep these messages was found. In order
that other callers could read &
comment. This is how the term
Electronic Bulletin Board, came to be
coined. Shortened down later to just
BBS, with the S standing for System.
Because that is all you could do, read
what was already posted on one topic &
make a reply at the end of it.

Personally I have never seen one of
these boards. The closest that I have
come to that one is a BBS called FRPBBS
<IIRC>. That one was 40c C= GFX, & at
best 1200baud. There where 10 message
bases for your  topics. As I remember
the initials stood for Fantasy Role
Playing BBS. As that was the main &
about only purpose for the board. A DM
would contact the Sys Op for a game he
wanted to run. Then be assigned one of
the 10 areas. Each was secured with a
sort of password. Making entry only to
those that where registered for that
game. Creating at most 10 areas for
PBEM games <Play By Electronic Mail>.
This has a big disadvantage.

That disadvantage was that only C= 40c
mode PCs could access this BBS. Not
that this is a big thing to me, the guy
that thinks all  the world should use
128s & nothing else. EG But it is an
irritant when you can only log onto a
BBS if you are running the same
computer as the BBS. That is what a lot
of them where for the different PC
platforms at one time. Platform
specific to just one system. Back to
this in a bit.

Well according to the people I spoke
with over the years. The ability to
create different topic areas was
created. Today we call these, generally
speaking, by the term "message bases"
Where a main topic is created or a
theme of a topic, right an example is
needed. GEOS on my BBS is message base
area #5. Only a Sys Op can create the
main area. Sub areas, such as in this
example, GeoWrite, GeoPaint, GeoPub &
others. Can be created by Sys Ops or
high access level <read that as
trusted> callers. These have subs to
them, where the average caller can
start a new thread on the subject. Yeah
sounds a bit complicated I know. Lets
not get to the hub networking stuff.

OK that out of the way. Another reason,
& to the guys I spoke with, the
important of all reasons for a BBS.
Getting files, OK if you think we are
speaking of pirate stuff here, you are
right. The guys I spoke with where copy
freaks. Somewhere along the
development, a way to send the data
from a disk was discovered. I
understand that it was at first a
manual system. I mean that you had to
swap disks to send or receive the data.
Then press the proper key for your
terminal programme. Both for sending &
receiving. Today about all you need to
do is make certain that your protocol
is the same as the BBS. Before you
start to DL or UL <DownLoad & UpLoad>
files.

Games are an important part of life.
They are also an important part of a
BBS. I've run three different C= BBS
systems. Been the games  Sys Op for non
C= Boards. In this area where I live,
the games are more important to the
callers than the file areas. Now then I
don't know what was the first game on
any BBS. I do know that the most
popular game in the 80s was Empire.
There are many versions of Empire. Some
are expansions of the older ones that I
have seen. Some are rewrites with more
features. Others are copies of one that
has a lot of new names & story. But
still primarily the same engine. I may
be called on this one. But my biased
opinion is that games for the other BBS
platforms, such as Legend of the Red
Dragon, & Usurper. All draw heavily
from the basic concept of Empire. Games
themselves are really a mutated form of
a message base. Well when you look at
the Basic program line that is what I
felt. You enter information in regards
to the situation. Like replying to a
message. A result happens, like an
answer to your message. OK & the fact
that the games & the message bases as
well as the mail, generally will use
the same writing editor programme to
some degree. Past all of that they are
fun, & are limited only by the
imagination & the programming skill Of
the creator. Yeah I am trying to learn
how to write them myself. But that is
another & longer story.

Mail as mentioned above. Now that is a
growth out of the messages  posted. A
private e-mail to & from specific BBS
users. Unseen by anyone else. Well not
exactly true. I had a file that was
taken from some Supreme Court <USA>
ruling that basically said the Sys Op
was liable for what happened on his
BBS. That is why there isn't real
private e-mail. Sure no one but who you
sent it to can read it, Except for the
Sys Op. Who is running the  BBS. And
yeah, I do spot checks on mine. Because
of some smeaghead sexual predators that
where in the area on the other boards.
Anyway, what the mail programme can do
is different for each BBS. I have one
now that will allow quoting. The one I
used previously didn't.

Now lets put this together. We have
message boards. These are like mail
lists on the Inet. We have mail, also
like the Inet. We have online games, &
again that is like the Inet. We have
PBEM games, & that I can most assuredly
say is like the Inet. Since I just
received an invite today to play in
one. We have file areas. Sort of like
doing a web hunt for specific things of
interest. Hmm see any similarity to the
30 some odd year old BBS concepts to
the Inet? BG

What we don't have is pop ups. Nor are
we usually infected with virus & Trojan
horses or worms. Gotta make that a bit
general at this point. As I run a C=
BBS. A good Sys Op will check each of
the files that are uploaded by the
users to his board. Before releasing
them to the public.

Just in case they have these nasty
things. In my case, I don't run the
heretic windrone system. The files that
I have for that system are old ones.
That I inherited from a multiplatform
users group. Who ran a C= BBS.

There can be adverts on a BBS.
Generally these will be found in a
login & the log out. Simple screens
that are made by the Sys Ops. On mine,
I have at the logout, the different
clubs & the game store for the fact
that they are the ones that sponsor the
BBS. I will say that in an old magazine
I read about a program to create Ads
for the BBS, &  sell the time/space for
them to your local businesses.

Thankfully it doesn't work on a C= I
suspect. On the heretic boards. I have
seen a series of adverts done in ANSI
for local businesses. But a quick press
of the space bar gets one through them,
at least on the systems that they were
using.

Well today a BBS is forgotten by many.
Unknown by a greater number, & still a
fantastic invention. One of my sayings
for a local BBS is that  you can meet
at the grocery store, the guy that you
just whacked out in a game. Hard to do
that on the Inet.

Even the telnet BBS boards, there is
something that is more personal &
friendly. I used to be on some of the
C= & Amiga ones in the past.

OK there is a down side to the BBS
scene in the old days. A lot of them
where out there. I mean that I live in
a county of 36,000 population. At one
time there where 15 boards. I was on
most of them in some form or another.
This doesn't count some of the nearby
but still long distance ones.  One
could spend an entire day on the boards
at that time. Sending & receiving
files. Hey I remember reading a story
about the light speed of 300baud. But
even at 2400.

You can spend a lot of time grabbing
files & using up disks. Even with all
the inventions of Arcing, SDA ing,
Lynx, Library & others of that time.
Not to add the Zip & .D64 things of
today. People spent an ungodly amount
of time during the night on the boards.
I recently spoke to a guy that did just
that in his teen years. He now does
that with the Inet & chat rooms.

So then what use is there for a BBS
today? I can't answer that for you. Not
because I am being secretive. No it is
because the answer is personal just
like the reason a guy put one up in the
first place. Sure there are many a
reason. Groups can use it as a
communications thing.

Friends can play games that way over
distance. People of similar interests
can join together in their interests.
There are thousands of reasons for
starting a BBS. Which today are the
same reasons for calling one. Mainly I
can say it is a specific thing. A thing
of very tight & alike interests.

Or call it a Special Interest Group. My
board is going back online. This board
is support for the members of the
Anything Commodore Users Group <CBM Reg
#447> A support place for those that
play dice Role Playing games. <RPGs>
Fans of Geos & well you get the idea. A
C= & RPG themed  board.Far away from
the influence of the www & the Inet. Or
as we said in the 60s, we aren't
plastic or corp. Just simple, clean, &
pure. Well as  much as can be expected
with the bias of the Sys Op. <BG>