A BBS experience...from the past to the present!

I have been asked why I would want to run a BBS in today’s internet driven world. Well if you were online before the internet then your were into BBS’ing and with social media all over the place in this day and age the BBS appeal is more now than ever to have a place to share plus communicate with others while not having ad’s or peoples photos popping up all over your screen. That is not the only reason behind using or running a BBS today but a big part for many besides the nostalgia.

First I will share a short history of my personal BBS experience:

As a teenager in the 80’s my biggest goal was to get a job as soon as possible that way once I turned 15 I could pay for my own phone line in my bedroom then setup a BBS on the Commodore 64! With a bit of persistence on my 15th birthday I was hired at a local restaurant which up to that point I kept soliciting, they would tell me to try back once I turned 15. Now with the job down I needed software to run the BBS on but I did not want to use the typical Commodore Color 64 BBS software, instead I wanted the coveted C-Net BBS how ever C-Net was too pricey for my budget, that is till I got to talking with Ed the then President and SysOp of the local Albuquerque Commodore Users group BBS. For a year plus, I was always asking Ed questions about the BBS he ran for the local Commodore user group, from running it to how the software worked. So when I got my job I contacted Ed and explained how I was ready to be a SysOp just like him and to my surprise he told me how he just ordered the upgrade of the C-Net BBS software that the user group BBS was running on and for a low price he could sell and transfer the license of his current C-Net BBS version 10 software over to me. So, we agreed on a price of only $10 and once he got his C-Net BBS version 11 up and running he drove across town one Saturday to my work, ordered his lunch then made the $10 transaction with me. That night I did not sleep much as I had my own official C-Net BBS version 10 and spent the rest of that weekend plugging away modding it for my first BBS named “Last Link BBS”. That name did not last long before I changed it to “Final Connection BBS” which also had a short life. A few years later in the early 90’s I once again threw up a BBS called “The Kats Alley” though this time it was now running the latest Image 1.2a BBS for the Commodore along with harddrive’s for mass storage of games. The Kats Alley lasted about a year due to work and life there was just not the time available that was required in maintenance back then.

During those early years of BBS’ing I was known by a few different handles but in the late 80’s I finally locked in to one and I have been known as “PalKat” ever since.

Logon

So here we are many years, kids, pets and computer generations later with another BBS. This time it is just a fun project for people to experience what BBS’ing was like if you never been on one but are curious or those who have been away from BBS’s for years and want the nostalgic experience. The 8-Bit Boyz BBS is an ever evolving BBS with it’s interface, themes and content while still offering 8-Bit information just like the goal of this website.

I do plan to document on here the evolution of the BBS as it changes, upgrades or just new things I learn growing this old BBS technology in our new tech world!

To connect you will first need a good Telnet terminal program. SyncTerm is the best I have found available on PC, MAC and Linux, it also includes fonts for computers used back in the day like Commodore or Atari along with full color ANSI. You can download SyncTerm and yes it is FREE from their website syncterm.bbsdev.net.

After you have SyncTerm installed you will need to add our BBS to your address book in the program with the following server connection info:

Our BBS Telnet Address: bbs.8bitboyz.com on Port: 6502

A few screen shots of the current 8-Bit Boyz BBS running Mystic BBS software!

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