BBS The Documentary

A brief collection of clips from one of the best documentaries of geekdom ever made. Purchase the boxed set over at http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• bbs
• documentary
• fidonet
• sysop
• history

[lenowin]

Says the fucking moron using the internet that evolved out of the BBS'es in this documentary.

[xr0]

I wasn't born at the time when these adventures with BBS'es took place, but it still managed to strike a chord somehow.

Most captivating documentary I've ever seen, I especially enjoyed the ANSI-part.

[86HillyBilly]

Awesome movie, own the boxed set. Highly suggest anyone interested watch the entire thing! If you're poor at least check it out by alternative means until you can afford to buy it. Please do buy a copy when you can to support these guys, I hope to see more stuff like this from them in the future.

Long live the BSS and the freedom of information! :)  I was too young to take part in the early BBS days, but I did enjoy catching the tail end of them and the start of the web. ;)

[thunderscratch66]

@lordtalon69 it was also good at school/work for pretending to be doing something serious when i was actually goofing around doing whatever i wanted.

[lordtalon69]

@thunderscratch66

lol only you and me know what desqview was ... allowing multiple nodes on a dos pc for renegade bbs [or others] ;b.

[astrochelonian]

@crogeek Well, I certainly have my opinions on the matter (I love my old PC games -- dosbox, where would I be without you?), but I'm the first one to admit that 1) It's very much a matter of opinion, 2) The games that come out today cater to the newer generation, one with which I don't share much in terms of gameplay expectations or aesthetics. :)

[crogeek]

@astrochelonian you're right but one thing is better compared to today modern Internet standards. PC (and especially Amiga) games were so much better back in the days - where consoles have much better games than on PC platform.

[astrochelonian]

@crogeek While the benefits of fast (and almost ubiquitous) connectivity are hard to deny, one of its drawbacks is that people have forgotten how to wait. I remember the first time I ever got online, a friend of mine logged on to a BBS to get a copy of netscape navigator 2.0.This procedure, over a 14.4k modem, took about an hour. While we waited, my friend, my brother, and I had a great dinner while talking and laughing. The one thing I learned that night was: patience has its rewards.

[johnrcornelius]

I was not really that long ago. I ran a PC-Board BBS from 1992 - 1996 3 phone lines. Even attended BBS CON a few years. Had Internet Use Groups via satellite and internet email, before many knew what the internet was. Having 3 users at one time on my BBS was cool. Downloading games or what ever. Then quickly came the internet. Domain Names I even got a domain name for free called outdoor.com If I only knew what was to come, I could have grabbed a bunch of domain names, oh if I only knew

[r1ch1t]

The BBS is not just a piece of history. It is alive and well and more accessible than ever before on telnet connections. I run a BBS. I create original ANSI Art and modify Door Games. Its still awesome.

[OBSysteme]

@OBSysteme To end my story... I remember Modem and BBS-type of culture surviving on Irc chat channels for a while, remember when MIRC was the thing? It was like a Bulleting Board System but on steroids in real time, and people still had the "local" mindset about the internet.... by that, I mean, that on MIRC, people tended to still group themselves on channels of their city or state, as if you we on BBS (where the phone lines limits your geographical scope, not your mind).

[OBSysteme]

@snowblindu I was in a rural area in a very small canadian town far from any major city, and there was only ONE BBS in the town and no computer store. Still, in this limited environement, we seemed to be in the BBS culture (I even remember seing files on that BBS that used to make the news on the continent, remember the terrorist handbook TXT file?). I remember meeting alot of new people by going to their place and doing floppy disk swaping, we were hundry for software and had no outlet.