swatheMany of us remember our first use of a computer, and have fond memories of those late nights hacking away at the keyboard. One of the things I really loved was dialling into BBS machines. It was amazing, playing games, swapping software, chatting to people we’d met on there. It was a massive part of my life and something I well and truly loved doing. Imagine my surprise when I found out a documentary had been made about the BBS by Jason Scott, creator of www.textfiles.com
In his wisdom, he released this under the Creative Comments license, whick I applaud. It consists of 8 episodes with interviews with many of the biggest influences in the BBS world. Each episode addresses a different facet of the phenomenon. It brough back many memories for me, and reminded me of things I had totally forgotten about, liek ANSI art packs. I will make it available for those attending meets at the hackspace and our local LUG meets.
I totally reccommend this for anyone who was ever involved in the BBS scene all those years ago.
The official webpage for the series is http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
nice! thanks for the tip on the videos! just the mention of BBS brings back fond memories! after all, what did we have before the “world wide web”? BBS’s!
i belonged to a local BBS called Terminal Velocity. oh, i remember the modem tones well. (turns out the guy who ran it only lives about 10 minutes away from me.) on Wednesday nights there was a buzz in the air. it was hard to dial in with the busy signals. it was becasue that was the night he would open a hole to “the net”. for just two hours. LOL everyone would be jumping out there to download something.
as it turns out, though that BBS, i met my sisters husband before she did! one day, years after they where married, the subject of MUD’s cam up. i mentioned i used to play a MUD in a BBS. he said he did as well. i mentioned my user name from back then, he recognized it, and told me his. i remembered the name! turns out we where both on the same BBS from years back!
amazing… i miss those times!
Lol great story! I think that was at a time where things were at their purest as far as online communities go. Would be great to hear anyboy elses memories of the BBS days.
Ahhhh these were the days , i lost my job because of all nighters on BBS
I used to download games off them and sell them to the kids at school hehehe.