Calling a BBS: Retro Computing Experience.

[@Wizardof]

That power strip though....Yer office wasn't complete without it.

[@zingfodd]

Used to be a lot of fun in the early 90's for me as a kid touring different BBS's using the listings in the back of a copy of that month's Computer Shopper.

[@squirrelsinjacket1804]

You are right about the 'magic' of the BBSes back then, used to dial in and play one of those doors games (the name is lost to time) after school with my best friend when a kid. Also being able to download stuff like the Doom shareware and user levels from the download section was amazing too. That was the early-mid 90s so the real internet wasn't very widespread yet.

[@jkeelsnc]

When I lived in Winston-Salem, NC in the early 1990's (91-93) I was attending Forsyth Technical College and purchased my first 386 PC. With this there was about 50 or so local BBS systems in the area. The best one was EarthLink BBS which was a MajorBBS system with at first 8 lines I think and later 12. Anyway, I met friends through that system and the sysops had parties at their house on the weekend, etc Good times! Of course, I downloaded software, exchanged messages, played door games, etc on some of the other local BBS's at the time. I was extremely budget oriented at the time so I was using a 2400 modem card but this was sufficient to get into the BBS experience. I even ran my own BBS there for a short time called Paradox BBS. I had to look it up because it has been so long but I was using TriBBS software.

[@techjesse]

Love it! Good stuff. Many hours were spent racking up high phone bills on BBSs when I was a kid. Thanks for uploading.

[@DerekDavis213]

High phone bills? you didn't know about phone phreaking?

[@olivander65]

Very cool video! I love hearing about this era of computing. was born in the early 90s, so the web was already a thing when I was old enough to understand. Thank you for sharing!

[@retrorelic]

No Problem. I really like this AST 486 I've got and hope to do a few more videos with it.

[@theserialport]

Terminate is such an awesome DOS terminal program

[@DerekDavis213]

What about AE on the Apple // computers?

[@starbuck1776]

I used to use BBS's around the San Antonio area in the mid 1980's. Used my Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem, lol.

[@coop5868]

I used to log in to Lunatic Labs, somewhere in Los Angeles. Young people today will never understand the pain of endless busy signals-sometimes for weeks. But the pure excitement of hearing the phone ring and the handshake begin? That was a total rush. Simpler times.

[@retrorelic]

or the terror of "Hello??" of a wrong/bad number..

[@DarkZeno]

The good 'ol days. I was on only Dallas based BBS's. The Dog House and Funny Farm were my two. We had a lot of good times on thos boards. Even threw a few BBS parties.

[@odius94]

Remember to add *68,, to your dialing string prefix to disable call waiting! Now I'm off to play TradeWars

[@retrorelic]

@@odius94 Always!

[@jkeelsnc]

I had totally forgotten about this but you are right and I remember doing it. Nothing was more annoying than having your connection lost because of the call waiting.

[@RetroTechChris]

Very cool!

[@geoffmaxwell4461]

The fun you could have putting +++ in your messages lolol

[@DanielBlair-z5k]

Had a renegade board. Setup a business called BoardTech to sell BBS's. Only sold 1 before realising the internet was going to take over.