4 ms·

And the number of concurrent users was directly correlated to the number of phone lines there were for the BBS. So there were a lot of indie BBSes that scaled

And the number of concurrent users was directly correlated to the number of phone lines there were for the BBS. So there were a lot of indie BBSes that scaled to... 1 concurrent user.

lowtolerance 7y ago
While that’s true, even single-line BBSes were still technically multi-user, as the sysop could be logged in locally while another user was on the line.
- slantyyz 7y ago
  Yes, that is true too. It also depended on what software being used to run the BBS.
tptacek 7y ago
But that was OK! Because BBS's worked like Usenet. You logged in, checked your messages, and logged out. A lot of multi-line BBS's had lines dedicated to downloads and lines dedicated to interactive use. I am having a weird time-travel moment remembering Telix continuously trying to redial through busy signals to BBS's to play my next turn on some door game while I listened to Smiths songs on FM radio and soldered crystals into Radio Shack touchpads so I could get free calls from pay phones. Let's see how many of those concepts the median HN user remembers. :)
- slantyyz 7y ago
  My friend's BBS had a dungeon style role playing game (this is around 1986), so you could waste quite a bit of time playing that game. The best "purchasable power up" in the game was an "All You Can Eat"... which ran out very quickly, so not quite what was advertised.
- kikoreis 7y ago
  Telix but not Telemate? ISTR the scripting language for Telemate was really nice and I definitely built something pretty sophisticated for x25 NUA scanning. Payphone hacking was not much of a thing in Brazil but I spent days on Bluebeep on international R2 connections. It is amazing to think how hard you had to work to be able to call abroad. The scarcity in everything made for a lot of fun. Toneloc was also something I recall from the era that was outstanding. It is a pity I never printed out the full exchange scans I had, as they were beautiful.

And the number of concurrent users was directly correlated to the number of phone lines there were for the BBS. So there were a lot of indie BBSes that scaled to... 1 concurrent user.

lowtolerance 7y ago

While that’s true, even single-line BBSes were still technically multi-user, as the sysop could be logged in locally while another user was on the line.

slantyyz 7y ago
Yes, that is true too. It also depended on what software being used to run the BBS.

tptacek 7y ago

But that was OK! Because BBS's worked like Usenet. You logged in, checked your messages, and logged out. A lot of multi-line BBS's had lines dedicated to downloads and lines dedicated to interactive use. I am having a weird time-travel moment remembering Telix continuously trying to redial through busy signals to BBS's to play my next turn on some door game while I listened to Smiths songs on FM radio and soldered crystals into Radio Shack touchpads so I could get free calls from pay phones. Let's see how many of those concepts the median HN user remembers. :)

slantyyz 7y ago
My friend's BBS had a dungeon style role playing game (this is around 1986), so you could waste quite a bit of time playing that game. The best "purchasable power up" in the game was an "All You Can Eat"... which ran out very quickly, so not quite what was advertised.
kikoreis 7y ago
Telix but not Telemate? ISTR the scripting language for Telemate was really nice and I definitely built something pretty sophisticated for x25 NUA scanning. Payphone hacking was not much of a thing in Brazil but I spent days on Bluebeep on international R2 connections. It is amazing to think how hard you had to work to be able to call abroad. The scarcity in everything made for a lot of fun. Toneloc was also something I recall from the era that was outstanding. It is a pity I never printed out the full exchange scans I had, as they were beautiful.