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Topic: BBS History |
Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2003 10:38 am |
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quote:
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 10:38:43 -0800
From: Hal Sullivan
Subject: is this thing still on?
If it is .. happy birthday to the BBS!
Feb 16 1978
The first computer bulletin board system goes live on an S-100 motherboard and CP/M, and a Hayes 300 baud modem. Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss's Computerized Bulletin Board System still kinda runs to this day, but the Internet has taken the place that BBS's used to have.
I started running BBSs in the mid 80's, both at home and at work. That experience led me to start the Steel Guitar Forum, as a hobby, a decade later.
So much has changed in 25 years, but the attraction of communicating with a group of people from the comfort of home remains. What a great idea it was! Thanks, Ward and Randy.
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 Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 17 February 2003 at 10:40 AM.] |
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Mel Culbreath
From:
Waynesville, NC, USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2003 3:02 pm
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Bob,
Back in 1985 I got my first computer as such: KayPro, DOS, 640KB RAM, 8Mhz with turbo to 16 Mhz, 80288 processor (I believe), no hard disk. I also remember a couple of years later when I got my first 1200 baud modem and was accessing a couple of local bulletin boards (no long distance charges)in Cincinnati. I can understand the meaning of this thread.
I add my thanks to Ward and Randy. Who knows,without them we may never have had this great forum.
Mel
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2003 5:54 pm
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I remember in the mid-80's, people were running BBSs on Commodore 64 computers with 5 1/4" floppy drives - no hard disk! I had a nighttime-only BBS called Nite Owl Motel that ran on an Atari ST with two 3 1/2" floppies (high tech!). It would dial out to a system in Georgia at 3 AM to pick up a few newsgroups from the Usenet, including rec.humor.funny. That was amazing as far as we were concerned.
Those late night transfers used Ward Christensen's wonderful XMODEM protocol. I actually coded the protocol several times, on several different platforms. Them were the days!
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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2003 6:02 pm
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| I actually coded the protocol several times, on several different platforms. |
In C on the Atari ST?
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| Them were the days! |
When I put away the ST I lost interest in programming.
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George Rozak
From:
Braidwood, Illinois USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2003 4:48 pm
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Bob...
I was a latebloomer I guess. I started "Monkey Robinson's Corner" on an old 8088 with a 10 Meg harddrive & 1200 bps modem back in the late 80s or early 90s. Started out with a program that I believe was called "Minicom" and then upgraded to "RBBS." I went through a 386SX & then an IBM "Blue Lightening" 486 class cpu running Searchlight with a 33.6 kbps modem before I finally pulled the plug several years ago. Had a uucp internet connection with email, a couple of dozen newsgroups, & several FIDO/QWK type message areas before it all ended.
Out here in the boondocks it was just too expensive to get a 24/7 connection & move to the Internet that way. I tried it for a short while with a dedicated dial-up modem, but it just wasn't practical.
The old "Blue Lightening" box is still sitting here next to me as I peck this out on the keyboard. One of these days I'm going to fire her up again & read thru some of the message areas just for old times sake I guess. It was kind of fun while it lasted though.
George
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Sho-Bud Professional
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Rich Paton
From:
Santa Maria, CA.,
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Posted 22 Feb 2003 8:06 am
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I love it, Happy Birthday! My first home PC was a PacSmell 386SX20 ("Mr. Hourglass") with a 2400 baud modem...Dos 6.22/Win3.11
In between watching lots o'streaming hourglass, I tried one of those free 10 hour (LOL) floppies. By the time the AOL brower "ART" ("skins" these days?) had downloaded and been installed...I had about 2 hours left. Another 1 1/2 hours lost on the superhighway, which left a few minutes on the labrynthine Tower Records website. Bonk, out of free time.
I had worked on lots of gargantuan/jurassic yet capable mainframe rigs...IBM 7090, 7044, Univac 1230MTC, Harris S-120, VAX's, SEL's, various (serious garbaqe here) commercial "Minis"...and the spooky CDC Cyber 7 sanctum (eleven C7 mainframe systems & their periferals lurking in the development lab)...running (mostly, it seemed) on a truly hellish electrical bill and at least 60 tons of air conditioning, LOL! That CDC heavy iron eventually went on, as a configured system, to the three Dew-Line BMEWS early detection radars, to Cheyenne Mtn. & Omaha.
My point is that given the slothenly response time of that pc, along with the new-to-me concept of funky software (WHAT the heck do you mean by the software isn't working? A "crash", what is THAT?) left me fairly unimpressed with my own "computer".
I really is too easy to forget how far our Loved/Hated machines have advanced.
Again, b0b...Happy B-Day, & thanks for fathering this forum.
BTW, I have a buddy who collects old S-100 machines, ssort of a club thing along with other retired enginners. You should see his garage! |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 22 Feb 2003 7:26 pm
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| Earnest, most of my Atari ST programming was in Forth (L&P F83, Forthmacs) and 68K assembly. |
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