Before the modern Internet existed, there were still plenty of ways of connecting with other computer users “online”, although many of them might seem completely foreign to those of us in the modern era. One of those systems was the Bulletin Board System, or BBS, which would have been a single computer, often in someone’s home, connected to a single phone line. People accessing the BBS would log in if the line wasn’t busy, leave messages, and quickly log out since the system could only support one user at a time. While perhaps a rose-tinted view, this was a more wholesome and less angsty time than the modern algorithm-driven Internet, and it turns out these systems are making a bit of a comeback as a result.
The video by [The Retro Shack] sets up a lot of this history for context, then, towards the end, uses a modern FPGA-based recreation called the Commodore 64 Ultimate to access a BBS called The Old Net, a modern recreation of what these 80s-era BBS systems were like. This involves using a modern networking card that allows the C64 to connect to Wi-Fi access points to get online instead of an old phone modem, and then using a terminal program called CCGMS to connect to the BBS itself. Once there, users can access mail, share files, and even play a few games.
While the video is a very basic illustration of how these BBS systems worked and how to access one, it is notable in that it’s part of a trend of rejecting more modern technology and systems in favor of older ones, where the users had more control. A retro machine like a C64 or Atari is not required either; modern operating systems can access these with the right terminal program, too. A more in-depth guide to the BBS can be found here for those looking to explore, and we’ve also seen other modern BBS systems recently.
Thanks to [Charlie] for the tip!
No, they are not posting crap like it’s a new thing.
The thing here is that with the new C64 hardware now available and hitting the market at very large numbers, it’s “suddenly” just more accessible out of the box than it ever was before, making it easier for more people to join the party. Which is the whole idea… the more people at the party the more fun the party could become. Which might “revive the BBS days” a bit more then just a handful of people (that needed to buy a DIY modem with a 3D printed case from ebay) ever could.
The Commander X16 beat them to the punch by years, and is a much more “authentic” platform. It can also connect to BBSen.
Thank you for your insightful comment, Mr maN.
Please note that this was the home users’ experience, mainly.
Business users may have dialed into bigger BBSes such as CompuServe (famous for international e-mail),
used Videotex platforms (Prestel, Minitel, BTX here in Europe etc) or had used a more direct X.25 access.
X.25 networks were what banks, universities or databases had used since the 70s, for example.
By comparison, internet at the time was mainly used by military and resesearch.
Last but not least, C64/C128 users in the US had Quantum Link on-line service, too, which relied on PETSCII.
The platform is being emulated now, I think.
CompuServe wasn’t really a BBS, despite having some of those features in the later years. It was a terminal time-sharing service – allowing a large number of users the distributed computational power of what at the time were very expensive business machines. They didn’t really get into the “BBS” game until after PC’s started to proliferate and BBS’s themselves, mainly starting in universities, proliferated in parallel. I believe they were also one of the first services to commercially offer Internet gateways.
The very first was The World (Software Tool and Die) in Brighton a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A Unix shell account came with internet access, I learned to edit bash shell files with pico ~’94. Good times!
I learned C modding my copy of WWIV, before I moved on to TAG, and then back to WWIV. Good ‘ol Borland. “The Napalm Enema” (also KFBBS until the cease and desist letter :P )
I believe that Quantum Link became America Online (AOL)
Indeed, it did. 🙂
Needs more Legend of the Red Dragon.
+1
+1
I have that on my BBS
I completely agree, and as a side note, I recently met the creator of L.O.R.D. I sometimes go to his meetup events. Nice guy. Gave me an original L.O.R.D. poster! If you’re in Kyoto, look up his meetup.
Ah! Nostalgia. There is no way to get the ’80s BBS experience without A 3600 baud modem over copper phone lines and watching a 39 min download of a grainy porn bitmap.
3600? I started with a 300 baud and eventually went to 1200.
Yeah something smells off…
Yeah! You could bump it up to 450 baud and it was just legible enough. 😆
My first modem was a 300 baud Volks Modem that had a cradle for your telephone handset. Then I saved up for a Hayes 1200 modem that had a built in command system. After that I got the US Robotics 9600 baud. Good ol days
And then in the middle of downloading a file when Call Waiting kicked-in, you had to start from scratch!
Never heard of a 3600 baud modem, I thought it went 300, 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4, 28.8, and finally 56k
Sometimes people don’t remember the actual speeds of the modem but the actual speeds that they were connecting at at the time.
It was not uncommon to connect that 288 or 332 or 38 something using a higher Baud modem. After moving to the city I started seeing speech to 42.2 46, 48, 52.
There is also a v number like v80 or v90.
I believe that was for The voice.
I remember setting up and answering machine in the mid-90s it had different mailboxes that you could select using the number pad. But it always got stuck when somebody hung up. Leaving my line open, so it was scrapped. I had a BBS using an apple ][ GS, it was pretty cool. I remember loading AOL for the first time listening to q95 out of Indianapolis. I didn’t even know I was on the internet. I was just happy to be able to download games, there was so much stuff on there that I could get it was like a gold mine.
But I’ll never forget the time when I was on the US board of education, they had a chat room and the guy said he was Macaulay Culkin from home alone. But I didn’t know who the person was, but later after talking about it I was like oh crap.. I had no idea I was possibly talking to the home alone guy. It was definitely different now than a 800 number for a BBS chat. I started off on a commodore 64, went to a commodore Vic 20, TRS 80, Apple ][e, Apple ][ GS, mac something compact all one unit. Slower then crap. I remember it would take 5 to 10 minutes just to load one porn page. I think I was half done with my bottle by the time it was loading LOL smeared off days with jolly ranchers. Then I was working at the factory one day and the leader came up to me and asked me if I was interested in buying his IBM because he was upgrading. So I got a 150 MHz IBM, it loaded web pages very fast, no more waiting.. the end of the ’90s and here I’m running 150 MHz IBM downloading ROMs and playing Nintendo games. And then it was neo Geo ROMs.. so much fun on dial up, and then of course we all can’t forget the Napster days, OMG. Download what you want and take it with you to work. Then comes opennap servers, win MX <which still runs today with patch last I checked and still connected open nap servers. What was all this superseded by bit torrents?? And then it was the Dreamcast ROMs, you could burn them and just stick them in the Dreamcast and playing whenever you want. Or the PS1 ROMs, just glue the button down stick original disc in, wait for the logo to load, and then stick your burnt copy of whatever game you want in real quick hot swap. What a life…Thanks for the memories
In the early days of the 90s, Popular Science and few others used to be known in the classifieds of having a LOGO and BBS with brief info such as number and protocol to connect. Alternatively this is where I learned about Genie and Delphi. We paid by the hour billable to Phone Bill.
where I can buy a modem?
where is real working solutions for bbs on free band radio?
Minitel and Quantum link!!
I still remember using an acoustic coupler at some insanely slow speed at least relative to today, and the screen very slowly drawing in. Later some BBSs did support multiple users I think, but each dial in user needed a seperate phone line and modem logically, which made them expensive to operate.
Yeah! We had diversi-dial chat system where the guy who ran it had 4 phone lines. They used to charge a few bucks a month to access.
What a nostalgic trip down memory lane! It’s amazing to see the Commodore 64 sparking interest in BBS culture again. I love how retro tech can connect us like this. Do you think this revival will inspire new creative projects?
Call castle wolfenstein bbs
313-757-0065
Atari rulez!
Commies suck!
Part of the charm and nostalgia comes from actually using analog modems over copper POTS lines during the BBS heyday. It also served as an intellectual barrier that ensured that, for the most part, most of the folks that you met online were intelligent and worth communicating with. Plus, with a smaller niche community, limited bandwidth, tying up a phone line, and mostly local callers, it wasn’t something that was all-consuming like today’s internet and social media. There were no “influencers”, e-sports, monetization, or political propaganda back in the day, it was just a community of mostly like-minded individuals sharing information.
I can relate a bit to that, I think.
It’s similiar to Packet-Radio users on amateur radio (or on CB radio back then).
Or radio amateurs operating via ham satellites (such as QO-100 or many the non-geo stationary ones).
We need a modern C64 multi user BBS for Ultimate64 and C64 Ultimate machines…retro BBS style but modern no limit to users. Would be a great community builder.
Drak era, inhad a 1024kbit modem for g-o-d sake.
Whats there to like about it?
I used to run a BBS on my c64. I ran it, originally, on ARB BBS and later upgraded to Color 64. Had to get a 1764 REU to load it into RAM so you could actually use it instead of waiting for each module to load as you navigated the board.
Btw, there also were RTTY and Packet Radio users on C64.
For receiving RTTY, there was that popular Microlog or Bonito cartridge, for example.
Packet Radio was done via AEA K-64/PK-232 TNC and PAKRATT-64 software.
Or via MFJ-1270 or MFJ-1278 TNC via MULTICOM64 software.
Other users had used BayCom modems and DIGICOM 64 software.
https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/1980s-packet-radio-with-the-commodore-sx-64.915382/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIGICOM
https://www.oldsoftware.com/hamradio.html
Anyway, these are just my two cents.
Users tend to forget that there used to be SWLs and hams back then.
BBS didn’t just exist on landline, but also via radio.
The modes AMTOR, Pactor and especially Packet-Radio had quite some BBS users.
Ahh, memories…. I git my start in packet when in 1997 when one if the guys in the club handed me a BayCom modem and said, ” if you can make this thing work, you can have it”. So I did, and eventually hooked it up to a laptop and HT, so I could work portable and mobile. I eventually worked my way up a step at a time to Pactor2/Winlink plus all the soundcard modes. I still have the BayCom, the SDS Pactor2 modem, and a really nice soundcard interface that % designed and built, plus a couple of Tigertronics interfaces, plus I have of thus stuff running on Android and Dell Pocket PC, with homebrew interfaces for them. And yes, I still use the Pocket PC; it’s still my favorite writing too, cz I like the stylus action better than on my phone. I’m glad someone is still dabbling in the Good Ole Days. 73.
Oh I miss those days. I had a 2400 baud modem and I remember trying to hide the phone bill from my parents. I was often on CompuServe, Prodigy and the original AOL. My friend eventually got a 14.4k modem and we started our own BBS called “Computer Underground”. I would be on “The draw” making ascii art for hours. Our BBS was my first run in with “piracy”. Someone had uploaded a copy of PKZip that was cracked.
I really miss that time in my life. Despite the huge phone bills, parents picking up the phone while I was online and constant busy signals, it was so much fun just discovering new things.
Ah, 1k2 and 9k6 Packet Radio with a C64 or Atari ST! The days of old, I tried Prestel here in the UK at school, but I did more with 1k2 and 9k6 on Ham Radio with a BBS…. Fun!
Ohhh the days of spirfire and renegade bbs software…… ohhh sprintnet many may not remember ye but i even have memories of Prodigy.. to the days long since past, if you are longing to play Legend of the Red Dragon on a BBS, Telnet has your back…
In 1986 I had a friend at FSU staying in the Kiwanis house. They ran a BBS called “The Nylon Curtain”.
It was great and terrible – long distance to Tallahassee. Even with a calling card it cost me some serious cash to dial up. The C64 BBS days are fondly remembered.