"Never Heard of BBS Doors? You're Not Alone..."

Back in the good old days, when the Internet was a place where you could only look at pictures of dinosaur fossils (and only the same seven fossils), a BBS (Bulletin Board System) was the only place to have a multiplayer game. Now, they still exist, but they've heavily lost their popularity with the wide spread of the Internet.

On a BBS, you would usually use your modem (commonly around 300 to 14400 BPS) to call a phone number. There, another computer would be listening, and they would communicate to each other. Imagine the internet, except that you only have the resources of one webpage. This computer was run by one person usually, nicknamed the Sysop (system operator). Most were free, with optional donations to get more privliages. While on the BBS, you would log in with your own little username and password.

Once you got logged in, there was several things you could do, depending on the scale of the BBS. ALL popular BBS'es had at least 3 things - message boards, door games, and file banks. Most had many other thrills, such as voting booths, direct chat, and a member directory. All of these were common functions in the most popular BBS programs, such as Renegade and Wildcat.

Message boards were the main way of communicating with other users on the BBS. Here you could leave a message, ranging on topics from computer software to programming help to just normal chit-chat. Here are also the roots of Internet message boards, and the infamous flame wars.

Door games were fun little games you could play on the BBS. They were usually text-based and sent very little data between you and the remote computer. By doing this, ping times were kept low and the games were playable on the very slow modem technology around. The graphics were ANSI and ASCII based, and mostly very unimpressive. Sounds were nearly non-existant, showing up in very few games. The biggest draw of the door games was the competition between you and the other players. Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) was by far the most popular game, found on nearly every BBS.

File banks were also vital for any decent games. Except for retail and hardcore computer stores, BBS'es were the only places to try out new games. On most you could download the shareware versions of such hits as Doom and Hexen. You could also download multimedia and image files. For most BBS'es, there was a ratio (meaning you have to upload some files to download some files), unless you wanted to donate some money to the Sysop.

There were several other features sprinkled throughout the BBS system. In the voting booth, you could post issues to be voted on (pro-life or pro-chose) and see how your fellow users felt on the issue. Direct chat was usually only available on large BBS'es with two or more phone lines, or if the Sysop liked to talk to his users. With a member directory, you could look up info on other users, much like a profile.

BBS'es were popular in computer sense during the mid 80's and early 90's. However, this doesn't translate into mainstream success. A successful BBS had about 25+ active users. There were tons of underground and less popular BBS'es that were the start of the pirate revolution. Here, users would trade copyrighted games and hacking information. Warez has its roots in BBS systems.

In today's world, BBS'es exist in two senses. The first is the traditional dial-in connection, and the second is Telenet.

The dial-in connection becomes less and less popular each day with the spread of the Internet and AOL. To use dial-in connections, you have to manually call a number. Telenet is much easier and flexible then the dial-in.

With Telenet, you connect to the internet, then you type ''telenet blah blah blah'' in the run button. ''Blah blah blah'' would be the server number that you wish to connect to. These are much more popular then the dial-in connections of the past day. However, they are more suspectible to hacker attacks, as Telenet is notorious for security holes.

Neither has widespread popularity, and both can be a tricky to find. However, if you do, you could have some fun on them. It's nice to interact with the fellow users on the board and download the wide range of files.

The biggest problems with BBS is its obscurity. Message boards and door games aren't any fun with no users using them. Also, some sysops are notoriously power hungry, and you are entrusting them with private data, such as your address and home phone number. The same common sense you would use on the Internet (i.e. Don't give out credit card info) applies for the BBS system. BBS'es usually offer little in the way of help documation except for fellow users, so if you have a problem, you're essentially stuck with it.

However, if you can still find a good working BBS, it's a tasty little diversion. They can be worth finding out and developing a connection to. To find BBS info, do a Yahoo! search or look at bulletion boards at computer stores. Both of these usually have BBS listings in your area and Telenet info.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/00, Updated 08/07/00