Subj : Re: BBS Software Timeout Values
To : Nick Andre
From : Dan Clough
Date : Mon Apr 10 2023 12:12 pm
-=> Nick Andre wrote to Dan Clough <=-
NA> On 10 Apr 23 07:31:00, Dan Clough said the following to Nick
NA> Andre:
DC> NA> This is true.. If you bought either MBBS or TBBS it was an
DC> NA> investment that you wanted recouped. I never once saw a totally
DC> NA> "free" one of those systems until much later, when the novelty
DC> NA> wore off.
DC> Do you recall how much it was back then? I ran a purchased/registered
DC> copy of PCBoard back in the 90's, and I think it was either $125 or
DC> $150, which was a significant cost for me back then. Also registered
NA> I can't remember exactly. I keep thinking MajorBBS was at least a
NA> few hundred and they upsold you on the "Galaticboard" serial card
NA> which was another couple hundred bucks.
NA> Same with TBBS... You bought the license but needed the serial
NA> board for anything beyond 2 nodes. Then Fidonet was an add-on.
NA> Remote access was an add-on... I mean, any BBS that came with a
NA> freaking VHS installation video you just knew was going to be a
NA> bit out of your league.
NA>
https://archive.org/details/1993-bbs-tbbstape
Wow. How cool is that. I watched the whole video... Hahaha, the
professionalism of the presentation is awesome. What a different time!
NA> To be fair TBBS was absolutely fascinating. You could get your
NA> hands on a pirate copy but it was absolutely useless without the
NA> printed manual. It was "the mother" of all Rube Goldberg
NA> lets-make-it-freaking-complicated contraptions. But when you
NA> really began to understand why it did things the way it did... it
NA> actually made sense. The manuals were very professional.
I just downloaded it from an "abandonware" site, two 1.44 floppy images,
probably no manual in there. Might give it a look sometime... :-)
NA> I was a huge fan and wrote some crude textfile-utils for John
NA> Souvestre's hub system in the 90's. It seemed like him and many
NA> TBBS Sysops jumped ship and started their own ISP businesses when
NA> the author invented a router appliance and began pitching the
NA> Internet as the future.
Yep, the entire BBS world (dialup, anyway) took a nosedive around 1996
or so, going from memory. I ran mine then from 93-96 (Fido 1:115/321),
and had to move away (active duty Navy at the time). Didn't get things
re-started until 2018... ;-)
Thanks for the flashback!
... As a matter of fact, it IS a banana in my pocket.
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