[claystu]

What was it like to use a BBS? In a word: awesome.

I was lucky enough to go to middle school in the late 80's with a kid who loved computers even more than I did and actually ran his own BBS on a 286 with a 20? megabyte hard drive. I asked my dad if he could bring home a modem from work. He delivered--I have a memory of 4800 baud, but that could be wrong). I dialed my friend's number and the rest was history.

The BBS experience consisted of three things:

First, trying to log in. A BBS was just somebody's computer attached to a private phone line. The more popular the BBS, the longer you had to wait until you connected. Luckily, ZModem had a redial feature. (Years later, my college would require us to call in to register for classes over the phone with long wait times and I used ZModem to auto-redial until I got in). Sysops would also limit users' time online to a set number of minutes to make sure everyone got a chance. The computer clocked your time. When your time ran out, the computer booted you and you couldn't log back in until 12:01 AM.

Second, the door games. Damn I miss those door games. You could log in and select from a whole host of games against other players. I lived for online Risk! God only knows how many games I played. I also played a little resource game called Space Dynasty and occasionally this other space 4X called Space Dominion or something that might have been programmed by the Sysop and his friend.

Third, the discussion boards. Think Hacker News, but with people from around town. Remember, they're locals because nobody wanted to pay the long distance fees. I actually met some of the people on the BBS. One of them even ran a competing BBS that I occasionally visited. People also played role playing games that way and conducted entire campaigns with strangers. Today, that's normal game play, but in 1988 it felt like stepping into a science fiction movie.

A good BBS honestly felt like a community. The identity you created for yourself mattered in those forums.

Good times!