Night Owl BBS

Updated 7-8-2024: Now operating extended hours, 7.30pm to 6am

The Night Owl BBS operates in the evenings (GMT 7.30-6am), running over a little out-with these times quite frequently. As it is a 38 year old Host computer it cannot run 24/7 without risk of disaster at some point. A Viewdata / Videotex BBS from the UK which runs on original Acorn hardware. The board offers 3 Message Boards; Sysop Chat & Blog; a Viewdata Art Portrait Gallery and a Classical Composers Gallery; a Retro YouTube channel section; Interview section; a profile and history section of the most popular 1980’s 8 bit machines, a Teletext database of news and trivia from the UK (1981-84) called BEEBFAX) and a fun adventure game. There are nearly 800 pages of info on the BBS. A Viewdata / Videotex client is needed to access the graphic capabilities of the BBS. Vintage home computer systems will need a suitable client program that was capable of accessing services like Prestel and Compunet in the 1980’s. There are many client programs still around for these machines. Apple 2, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga and all Acorn systems all have their own still available.

Modern PC/Mac/Linux client programs are also available on Github, for example
IcyTerm https://github.com/mkrueger/icy_term

Vidtext https://github.com/simonlaszcz/vidtex

Other clients for PC/ Mac / Linux are available here.
Telstar Viewdata Client – GlassTTY https://glasstty.com/telstar-viewdata-client/
Web Browser Access:

http://fish.ccl4.org/js-nightowl/

https://vd-view.azurewebsites.net/

Dial-up Access: – V23 1200 baud, 7E1

+ 44 1756 66 44 33 ( via Telstar Gateway, choose option 6, from Main Menu)
+ 44 020 3422 8439 (via Cutel Gateway , option 3)

The aforementioned Web Access links will take you instantly to the Login screen..

There is a guest login that anyone can use to browse the board.
Name GUEST
Surname GUEST
Password NIGHTOWL