Dive Into the '80s: A Teen's C64 BBS Before the Internet
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.พ. 2021
- The purpose of this video is to show you, before the internet, we called Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). This is my C64 BBS I ran from the '80s to the early '90s. I ran a BBS on my Commodore 64 as a teen. I started it in April of 1988 and ran it for 4 years. I am showing you how my BBS looked and how you used it in the 80s. It was all about Warez and being Elite. Let's time travel back and take a look at my BBS called Temple of Syrinx!
#c64bbssoftware
#c64bbs2021
#commodore 64
Floppy Deep Dive • Floppy Deep Dive - เกม
I called your BBS all of the time!
That’s pretty awesome! I remember your user name. You were very active!
Lol what a small world.
Put it back online via Telnet!
I remember the time I got a visit from a detective with the local PD. Seems one of the numbers for a BBS in my auto dialer had been entered wrong. I was calling some elderly lady over and over !
I don't remember Vision BBS. From 86-91 I called a lot of C= BBSs running mostly C-NET and Ivory. This was a cool blast from the past. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Wade, glad you liked it.
Did you live in the area? Most people only called systems in their area code. Lots of BBSes in the other 49 states that I never heard of.
BBSs back in the 1980s and 1990s were glorious.
Agree 100%. They were the best!
I ran a bbs back in the day.
Fortress Of Doom. Ran on a modded ivory 3.3
Then a year later upgraded to UCBBS V1.3. Ran that bbs from 1990 to 2004. BBS is going back up soon. your right floppy deep dive: it was a fun time for us.
It was the best! Very wild wild west. Everything was new and a lot to explore!
It’s so interesting watching this because I was too young a C64 user (and we were too broke to afford a dedicated line) so my c64 never once went online. Seeing your BBS “online” sorta blows my mind because I didn’t BBS until my fam landed a 486 PC and a schoolmate handed me a floppy with Telex and a list of numbers.
That was my start!
Hey John, glad you enjoyed it. It was a great time!
Wow - this brings back memories! I used to run a BBS on my C-64 back in the early 80s in Omaha called The Dark Side of the Moon. I got some old public domain BBS program and completely re-wrote it. Back when 300 baud was still a thing. Taught myself to code doing it. Those were the days.
The best days! Thanks for Watching!
It was the Wild West back then for software sharing...... ahhh the good ol days
So cool to see, there is some magic feeling watching retro bbs'es at work =)
Agree! Magic is the perfect word to describe it!
Oh my god I love this so much! To have something like this, a time capsule from back then, and even your own. The best I can come up with is my old DOS files. I still have TELIX, TELEMATE and TERMINATE on that installed, and some old logs from calling BBSs of the time, and the old phone file. You haven't called in 234923235 days. ;) Man I miss those times very much. To have contact to local people. To have regular user meets.
Thanks Jammet, glad you liked it and thanks for watching!
That would be ANSI art on your intro. But really enjoyed you showing your BBS. I ran one on a 486 based system for many years. Even ran it as a telnet BBS on more modern hardware later on. It's an era that I miss a lot and would like to live through it again d:)
Thanks Robert, glad you enjoyed it.
@@FloppyDeepDive Thank you for the nostalgia d:)
Hello from Ohio. Back in the day I had several incarnations of BBS's. I can't remember all of the details but I was on a party line and had to run mine from like 9pm till I got up for school at like 6am or else. Some of my Sysop names were Blackie on the "Dark Cloud", I was the Tapeworm on "The Intestinal Tract" and there were others. I remember some of my friends BBS's as well. Some were highly popular but they had rich parents that afforded them a private line and they ran 24/7. I don't remember the different software I ran, but I do remember being excited everytime a new baud rate was introduced. I ended around the era of the 24K Supra but started with a 300. I remember when it went to color as well. Ahh, the good old days. Eventually all of the people on the party line got sick of the line noise and not knowing what it was (I was in farm country) got their own lines so I ended up with my own private party line and went 24/7. I even ran a few BBS's on my Amiga's but started on the 64. Good times and the file sharing back then was off the hook. Multiple drives and slow baud rates made it nearly impossible to log in sometimes. There was a window to log in and if you missed it you would have to wait or keep redialing. Downloads were the most common but Uploads happened too from time to time when people felt nice. Thanks for sparking a memory! :) I have a lot more!!
Thanks for sharing. It seems most people who ran BBS’s have great memories associated with it. It was just such good times!
Great video. I ran a BBS from 1984-1989 here in NJ. I started with the C-64 w/ 300 baud modem & two floppy drives. Got frustrated with the crappy quality of C-64 BBS software so then got an Apple IIC & bought a 1200 baud modem then a 2400 baud modem. Still not satisfied I went & bought a Apple IIGS w/ two 3.5" drives and a ProAPP 20 MB hard drive. Then finally bought a USRobotics Courier HST 9600 baud modem and a Chinook 40 MB hard drive. I thought I was cool running the IIGS at 9600 baud "featuring 40 Megabytes Online!" - lol. Great times.
Awesome! Great story. Those were great times. Thanks for watching!
I ran DMBBS for a bit. Late 89-90. On a c128D built in 1571, epyx fast loader cartridge with a 1541-Ii external, 1200baud modern. I got my mom to buy me a 128D at toys r Us on sale, around then. I loved that machine.
Started off using a c64 300 baud to call places.
I never hear anyone talk about DMBBS. Supposedly it was named after "Depeche mode" the founder was lord ronin.
That's awesome! Welcome to the channel! BBS’s were incredible back then. So much fun dialing them up.
I ran The 128 PC in San Antonio around the same time. Had a 20 Meg drive running CNET 128. Loved those times.
That’s so awesome!! Those were the best times! Thanks for watching!!
This was great to see. BBSs were such an important thing for me when I was 11-13. It was my main social outlet. I met a lot of people from around the country. I made a lot of splash screens for BBSs and would love to see my rudimentary art skills again! I would cringe to read all the dumb shit I posted on message boards though- lots of "wars" amongst groups, lol. I remember when I finally got my 2400 baud, it was magical.
Thanks for Watching! It was an awesome to get into computers!
This is such an amazing time capsule for a former C64 BBSr. Thank you so much for posting this!
Thanks for watching!!
Ran an intel based BBS back in the day on Wildcat. Good times and tons and tons of file swaps! Great Video. Surprised I haven't seen this.. Thanks for the video!✌
Very cool! Thanks for watching! Glad you found us.
Time capsule, indeed! Loved the video, Tom. I've been running a packet radio BBS here in Northeastern Pennsylvania (one node within a network of packet stations) . . . not completely analogous to the 8-bit BBSs of the '80s and early '90s, but still operating at 1200 baud, primarily on VHF frequencies (secondarily on the UHF amateur band). Handling mail is a typical use of a packet radio BBS among amateur radio operators, so email absent the Interwebs.
Great video, scratched an itch I had tonight. Thanks for sharing and for running your BBS back in the day
Thanks for watching! Glad you liked it. Did you run a BBS back in the day?
@@FloppyDeepDive I did yep, a WWIV board up in western Canada in the early 90's.
That’s awesome!!
@@FloppyDeepDive YOU'RE AWESOME!
I ran Fabulous Disaster for XDS using Ivory. I would love to be able to see my old board in action again...
Nice! Thanks for watching!
I haven't heard SysOp mispronounced as Sie-Sop in many, many years. haha! You're the best! 🐐😎🎉
EDIT: Just subscribed over that, too. ;)
Thanks brotha!
@@FloppyDeepDive Yeah, we ALL (me too) said Sie-Sop back in the day. Eventually I learned it's short for System Operator and its pronounced Siss-Awp. Still... hearing it the way we all used to say it as teens hit home in a good way. 😎
Would ihave enjoyed your board back then. I had about 50 boards in my area that I had numbers for.....far too many even to try. Bottom line, I had a blast with BBS's. So glad now that we still have them on the internet, some even on dialup still !
Right there with you brotha! Those were amazing times!
Got my first 300 baud modem for my C-128 back in 1989. Fun times looking through that thick Computer Shopper magazine for local BBS numbers.
Yep! Calling up BBS’s was the best!
textfiles dot com maintains an archive of BBS message base dumps. I don't know if it is possible but you should consider dumping these to an ascii file and preserving it there.
Awesome idea, I will check it out.
I second this
awesome video
Thanks for watching!
The only link I found for Vision BBS was v1.0 and it was monochromatic. Yours looks to be an updated version with more color!
So was there was there only ONE version of this released? Seems weird that a BBS program would start and stop at v1.0. I did see a more colorful link for it over on CSDb. I will have to check it out.
Did you ever find a different one? Are you running a BBS?
@@FloppyDeepDive I did not. Sorry.
Awesome!
Thanks! Did you run a BBS?
Ran "Bizarre-64" back in the mid 80s; written by Bill Atchison right here in KC. Super customizable for it's time. Ran BBS-64 for a short while as well (written by another local named Wheeler; believe he was on FidoNet).
Great times!
something that never occurred to anyone was... A Vic-20 could SERVE a BBS (instead of the c64 ) they were being thrown out by the end of the 80s. You could even SHARE the 1541 - connect two computers - the BBS has to 'check' if its busy, then 'check' if its the right disk. But an even more far fetched possibility is running a BBS on a 1541 only with more ram. (THE INDUS drives could be maxed out) . Multiple lines could be done with more than 1 computer -> 1 drive . There was RAMdisks avail for the VIC-20/64 also meant it could run it all from RAM, (then dump it periodically) .
I never had a Vic-20 but that was so true and I never did think about it. I bought two C64’s so I could play games and run a BBS. I could of got a Vic 20 for nothing. Where were you to tell me this in the 80s! 🤣
well I didnt think of it then either. I recall SDF-1001 drives being liquidated as well for 1/2 of 1541 cost. Someone did make a CP/M install for INDUS drives(atari) -with a terminal interface. THE only thing I WISH I did was the multi-user - if I realized it was easier than I thought. @@FloppyDeepDive
At first, we used computers over phone lines. No we use phone lines over the Internet!
Cool observation!
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. I had the VICMODEM 1600 which was at 300 baud. I never ran my own BBS because this modem was a bit weird. Apparently some people were running BBSs on that modem though. I think I did eventually get the Commodore 1200 but don’t know what happened to it. Would be cool to run an old school Commodore 64 BBS in 2023. Lol
I've been thinking about putting it back up again.
Do it 🎉
I noticed your drive is quite noisy as are most 1541's. On my 1541's I opened them up and cleaned the rails with alcohol and lubed them lightly with silicon oil(as I remember) They were so quiet that at first I thought it wasn't working......it was ...just very quietly. I also installed a write protect bypass switch so I wouldn't have to punch out the floppies when using them on the reverse side or even editing a write-protected disk. Came in handy. Also two switches for drive number selection.(8/9/10/11)
Very cool! I would love to have a write protect bypass switch! Good stuff!
Ohhh phreaking... the good ol days!! Hahahahaha
BBS s were the original Internet, more or less
Yep, the wild west for sure.
i ran a bbs on cnet 128, and cnet amiga, and had an isdn line, it was alot of fun
Awesome! What was it called?
@@FloppyDeepDive midnight bbs out of cleveland area
Awesome look into the past! I love the memories this brings up of my BBS. I still have all my files too but I haven't been able to get it to work yet. It is a Color 64 board with something like 4 disks just to get it booted since a couple of disks with overlays and Mods had to be loaded into the REU. I don't remember how I used to load it. HAHA.
Is there a D64 available of the Vision system disk? I have never heard of it.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for watching. Yes, there is a D64 available out on CSDb. It took me a little bit to remember myself.
I still call a C64 bbs and an Amiga 2000 bbs Not much going on These days. Thank god they work now over Internet. My telephone bill in past days was all I had lol 😂 but miss these days
Nice, RUSH references. :)
That's right, you can't go wrong with RUSH!
Lol I think I saw the artform in the form of shareware order screen when exiting the program to dosprompt.
Lol, thanks for watching
All my life I called it "sis-op". Is it really "sci-sop"? Great Video -- nice trip down memory lane.
Thanks for watching! I only heard it as sci-sop but I don't know if that is right or wrong. lol
SYStem OPerator :)
Thanks Jason, that makes sense. Going to hard to change after all these years.
I've always said "sis-op" as well.
Sis op is what I'm used to. Maybe a regional thing.
I was in Fort Worth, too -- I don't remember your BBS specifically, but if you were listed, I probably dialed in a least once to check it out. Seems like most BBS's were ran on Telegard or Renegade at the time. I had one, too, but it wasn't really ever popular, and I can't even remember the name of it now! I remember I was going to call it CyberNet, but someone else started a fancy multi-line system not long after, and I couldn't use that name anymore. Oh well.
I always pronounced it "sis-op", though, so maybe I was always pronouncing SysOp wrong all these years?
Yeah, those were fun days. I think some magazine stated that BBS's were going to be a huge money-making business in, like 1993 or 4, but then the very next year the internet came in and killed it instantly.
Another thing that was popular around here, was US Videotel (see the commercials online here). That was my gateway drug into computers and BBS'ing.
Hello fellow Texas! You pronounced it right. It is sis-op. Short for system operator. Thanks for watching and sharing! BBSing was an awesome experience back then.
Fun video. Wished someone would make a c-net version. That’s what I used.
Thanks. I called a lot of CNET BBS’s back in the day. What was yours called?
@@FloppyDeepDiveThe Dark Domain BBS. I’m actually well on the way to resurrecting it for a video. I’ve gotten most the files off my floppies and I’m about 1/2 way through fixing all the bugs and out of sync files. Been a ton of fun.
Love your content! You should try using a lav mic tho when talking to the camera. They are not as expensive anymore.
Appreciate it! Ok thanks for the tip. I will look into it. Do you have any recommendations?
@@FloppyDeepDive yes, the one i use is from amazon 'PoP voice Professional Lavalier Lapel Microphone' its like $14. Works with your phone, so you may need an adapter depending on your phone model.
Ordered!
@@FloppyDeepDive Sound quality is one of the most important aspects of a video. I never record a video without a mic. Recently when I bought a $6 microphone for my iPhone amazingly I discovered the sound quality and volume was equal/better to my previous ROde SmartLav+ that costed $60!!
Wow this is so cool ! I was too young for this. I would of loved using it . So when someone called, your phone would ring at home all hours of the night untill they connect to your BBS ?
It would ring until the modem answered it. You would hear the old school modems connecting and then see my drive lights start running.
@@FloppyDeepDive yes I remember the sounds of modems connecting. I didn't start using dial up modems till early 90s on our first home PC .
@@FloppyDeepDive
How would the modem know if the call was intended for the BBS and answer it, and not a friend or relative who's calling to say hello?
Hi, amazing video. I live c64 and bbs. I have a wifi Leif Bloomquist hayes modem... Were I can download this release of Vision bbs?
Many thanks
Luigi
The ghost train
Cool BBS name!
Sys. Op. Sysop.
Oh yes, I heard back when I first released this video. If you watch my next BBS video I correct it. It must be my Texan accent lol 😂
To better understand your setup, you would have a 1541 to load the BBS and save posts and 2 1581s, one for uploads and one for downloads? Would they run on devices 8,9 and 10?
Your BBS is a great time capsule, all I have is high scores from space taxi, my friends and I used different handles depending on the decade we played in. My hope is to get my kids on there and span 40 years of digital history.
I never used a BBS on a commodore, my Dad had a 286 I used to play trade wars and the pit though. Today people could setup an array of BMC64s for this purpose :)
Yes sir. The 1541 was the master (8) and would have the system disk for the bbs. Then I would have multiple drives for uploading and downloading and they would be 9, and 10. Thanks for watching!
Same type of setup here. I ran Image BBS 1.2a with an Aprotek 2400 baud modem. Two 1541s, and 2 1581's. Jiffy Dos ROM in one of the 1541s and one of the 1581s. I miss those days.
Great video and great program Vision bbs.
Please can you show where. Can download this version o vision.. please...
I don't foind on Internet.
Many thanks
Best Wishes
Luigi
Email me at p1tom@yahoo.com and I’ll send it to you.
Did then and do now :)
You rock!
How can I view/login to a BBS today? I have always wanted to try it out.
I use my Ultimate II+ cartridge to call up a BBS on my C64.
I ran a BBS back in the day on an Apple ][e
What was it called?
@@FloppyDeepDive The Cellar
So could this still be used today if you have a home phone line ?
Yes, I could run it today if I had a home phone line.
Yes, but only at lower speeds. Nowadays, all "landline" phones run over the internet and the sound is digitized and compressed. It distorts the sound as a result. It's hard to get above 1200 baud successfully through a land line nowadays. With some ingenuity, you could find a way to connect to the audio of a cell phone instead of a "land line" but the compression issue still applies. Most BBS's now have the option to connect via the internet.
How did uploading/downloading disk specific images work without hard drives?
While it downloaded it wrote directly to your floppy disk in your floppy drive.
@@FloppyDeepDive thanks, but I mean - how does one choose which image to download from the BBS? Does it need to be scheduled so you can place it in the BBS drive for the user?
You were limited to whatever was on their floppy drive that day. If your were lucky you might find a Sysop who would take request but normally not the case. You just called BBS and hoped there was something new on there you didn’t already have. It usually wasn’t a problem because new stuff was coming out all the time. I was never picky. I downloaded whatever they offered that I didn’t own.
@@FloppyDeepDive It must have taken forever on 300 baud to download a full disk game!
It took all night long. Just get it started and go to bed.
And a download wrote a whole disc side without any ram expansion?
Thanks for the feedback
Pretty sure it’s pronounced Sisop. System Operator 👍. I ran a BBS back in the 90’s as well.
You are correct!
@@FloppyDeepDive Ever think about putting it back online? With original hardware? I really wish I still had mine archived.
I’m really enjoying your channel by the way! Thanks for all the great videos!
@@nyccollin Yes, in fact working on a video about the journey of running a BBS in 2023.
@@FloppyDeepDive That’s great to hear!
Sysop stands for system operator. So.... sis-op. Not Psy-sop.
Yep
Hay Tom I hate to be a bother but I'm having problem I just purchased a 1541 disk drive there's nothing wrong with the drive it works as expected my problem is I purchased a couple of games I found on ebay both commodore 64 and to my amazement they were new old stock sealed anyway one is super password every time I try to play the game I get just so far when it says to insert my word disk and hit return now I've looked serval times in the box and there's only one disk and as far as I can tell from my research the game only came with the one when it was originally produced so what gives do I have to make my own word disk it doesn't say anything in the instructions I even tried to put a blank disk in owe yeah the guy that sold me the drive included 12 new never used blank floppy's any advice would be greatly appreciated I really would like to give this game a go
Maybe it’s on the back of the floppy. Flip it
@@FloppyDeepDive I tried that nothing happened
pronounced Sis-Op not cy's op. its short for system administrator.
Yep, I was corrected shortly after I published this video. Watch my next BBS video. I learned my lesson. 😀 Thanks for watching
I've dissevered something floppy drives are slow as hell and I don't care for them think I'll stick with my sd2iec fir gaming so far almost every disk I've purchased is crap load errors funky graphics on load think I'll take my drive to the back yard and chop the dam thing up and burn all the disks
You need to get a Fast Load Cartridge. They speed it all up.
@@FloppyDeepDive Yep I got one found out part of the problem was dirty disks a little IPA and they started loading now all I need is a game guide for the game of risk lol
@@FloppyDeepDive I know I was kinda harsh when I said chop up just needed to rent and get it out of my system nothing to fault the desk drive for
You ran what I called a "NO NO BBS" when you shun anyone or make too many rules
Your BBS was no longer fun.
Some people just couldn't afford to upgrade or just didn't know how so I always welcomed everyone on the
CHALLENGER BBS
Agree, the 16 year old me just copied what I saw everyone else doing. What system did you run your BBS on? Thanks for watching!
Doesn't sound like he was shunning 'anyone' just some people, nor 'too many rules', just too many rules for you. Everyone had their own way to run their own BBS and that is what made this era and BBS's great. Each was it's own community run in it's own way. And here you are some 30 years later shunning the 16 year old version of the man that decided to put the time into making and uploading this video to the internet because he didn't do things your way or the way that you thought was best.
I ran penultimate.come in Ruston, La. First flat rate ISP anywhere around the area.
Very cool!