BBS questions

[cloverskull]

Hey friends, I missed out on Atari BBSing back in the day, but recently I’ve called a few boards and it has piqued my interest!

 

I have a few questions/requests and was hoping someone could assist.

 

1. I’m leaning toward RatSoft. I see mention of a 2.1d but can’t find the archive. I assume 2.1c works fine but would like to find the latest ver if possible!
   1. Does this need any sort of registration?
   2. If running in emulation, how would I go about setting this up to work with telnet? I know it’s single node, I think that’s fine, but curious what the best method is
2. Is there some big archive of Atari BBS stuff anywhere? I’ve called a few boards and it seems rather hit or miss for what anyone is carrying
   1. BBS software, doors, mailers, etc. Would be cool to serve up a ton of BBS related content on my board
3. What’s the best way for connecting to FTN? And is there an Atari specific FTN?
4. Anyone got a bunch of doorgames they can share?  I know Dark Forces has a ton of doors but I can’t find the archives anywhere to try them out myself
5. In the PC scene, there were a lot of cracked doors/bbs programs, serials floating around, etc. Does this exist for Atari related stuff?

 

Thanks!

[+DarkLord]

<answered via PM already but I'll repeat it here>

 

Hi! I'm not sure about RatSoft - I think it does require registration to get the full benefits but again, not sure. Contact "Tillek". He runs the Star Fleet Headquarters ST BBS and it runs on RatSoft. It is very likely the only operational RatSoft based ST BBS still around.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about doing telnet in emulation unless you mean running everything on a PC (Hatari, STeam, etc) and then setting up telnet that way. I don't do emulation. Just not my cup of tea. So if you go that route you'll have to get others to help there because I'm clueless in that aspect. I'm 100% real Atari BBS software running on 100% real Atari ST hardware, all day long. 

 

I acquired the BBS games for DarkForce! over the years, from various CD collections, ftp sites, and the BBS Express! ST support board, which is closed down now. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can zip up some games and send them your way. Be advised you will go through a learning curve to get some of these games going. Some are fall over, dead easy and others will make you pull your hair out. To be perfectly honest, there are also a few that I've never gotten to run.

 

Anyway, I'll try to get them to you later this evening, okay? 

 

Edited January 14 by DarkLord
Correction... :)

[Tillek]

6 hours ago, cloverskull said:

Hey friends, I missed out on Atari BBSing back in the day, but recently I’ve called a few boards and it has piqued my interest!

 

I have a few questions/requests and was hoping someone could assist.

 

1. I’m leaning toward RatSoft. I see mention of a 2.1d but can’t find the archive. I assume 2.1c works fine but would like to find the latest ver if possible!
   1. Does this need any sort of registration?
   2. If running in emulation, how would I go about setting this up to work with telnet? I know it’s single node, I think that’s fine, but curious what the best method is
2. Is there some big archive of Atari BBS stuff anywhere? I’ve called a few boards and it seems rather hit or miss for what anyone is carrying
   1. BBS software, doors, mailers, etc. Would be cool to serve up a ton of BBS related content on my board
3. What’s the best way for connecting to FTN? And is there an Atari specific FTN?
4. Anyone got a bunch of doorgames they can share?  I know Dark Forces has a ton of doors but I can’t find the archives anywhere to try them out myself
5. In the PC scene, there were a lot of cracked doors/bbs programs, serials floating around, etc. Does this exist for Atari related stuff?

 

Thanks!

So in your travels, have you actually called the RatSoft BBS that's actually running?

 

We have a lot of places where these questions can be answered.  The BBS's are a good place (they tend to know things about BBSing... go figure).  Especially SFHQ, which is the RatSoft BBS (and the one I run).  You can find them on the list..  http://www.sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

 

As I said, the BBS's are the best source of information.  They know what they're talking about as they do it every day.

 

Also, the Atari BBS Community isn't all that large.  Consider the impact of whether you really want to devote the time to running one, especially if you're not willing to also devote the time to becoming an active user on at least some of the BBS's (something I really need to do a better job of on all of the BBSs myself... sorry guys!)

 

So, enough of the pre(r)amble, to the questions.

 

1. I run 2.1c.  I have never seen anything that looked like an official 2.1d archive and I'm not sure I would trust it if I did.
   1. Not anymore
   2. There has only been one person successful in running an ST BBS in emulation and he is long gone and made it clear he did not want to be anyone's Yoda.  I have made limited attempts to get ST BBSing running in emulation (especially with RatSoft) and have found some very unacceptable issues with it.  Currently all ST BBS's are "Real Hardware" systems.
2. There are many... and are all hit and miss as to what they contain.
   1. While it might be cool, the reason I haven't really done it yet is that downloading isn't always that reliable in the telnet age.  There are long threads about it here and there. People tend to prefer to download things off the internet and then just copy them to the ST.
3. There is only one BBS connected to FTN networks right now... and it's the RatSoft one (STar Fleet HQ). There is no Atari specific FTN.  It's been considered but just as the BBS community (as a whole, not just Atari) doesn't need another dead BBS, it doesn't need another dead FTN network.  You'd be doing a lot more good supporting existing networks.  Also, remember the Atari BBS Community is small, so it's pretty much going to be the same people calling the same BBS's, so while it might be "cool" it also might do more harm than good.
4. I believe at last count, SFHQ had more door games than DarkForce!
5. (And as a continuation to #4) You can find a lot of stuff out there, if you know where to look... but finding it is only half the battle.  Door games and other programs take quite a bit to set up and get working.  Things like mailers and FTN's take a ton of work as well.

 

Now in closing, I know some of this might have sounded less than encouraging and I apologize if that's the impression you got.  Also, this isn't all directed at you personally, it's kind of the new "stock answer" and I'll explain a little where this comes from.  Since I put SFHQ back up on Telnet over a decade ago (wow, yeah, it's been that long) we've (we = the Atari SysOps) seen people come up on the scene with messages like this.  People who were generally unknown to the Atari BBS Community who wanted to run a BBS.  Back in the day, I'd bend over backwards to try to help them, usually only to have them give up when they realized how much work it was going to be, or get mad when I wouldn't zip up my entire BBS and just send it to them, or get mad when I wouldn't spoon feed everything to them... or when we finally got them running, they keep it up for a short time and then get bored with it because "no one calls" (which back in the day, was normal... today it still happens, especially if you're not active in the community yourself).

 

If you're going to get help with this, people are going to want to be assured that you're going to do the work to put in the research and time, because helping you will require them to take time out of the things they want to do with their Atari hobby.  Show your support for the Atari BBS community and we will bend over backwards to help you!

 

 

[Tillek]

8 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

<answered via PM already but I'll repeat it here>

 

Hi! I'm not sure about RatSoft - I think it does require registration to get the full benefits but again, not sure. Contact "Tillek". He runs the Starfleet HeadQuarters BBS and it runs on RatSoft. It is very likely the only operational RatSoft based ST BBS still around.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about doing telnet in emulation unless you mean running everything on a PC (Hatari, STeam, etc) and then setting up telnet that way. I don't do emulation. Just not my cup of tea. So if you go that route you'll have to get others to help there because I'm clueless in that aspect. I'm 100% real Atari BBS software running on 100% real Atari ST hardware, all day long. 

 

I acquired the BBS games for DarkForce! over the years, from various CD collections, ftp sites, and the BBS Express! ST support board, which is closed down now. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can zip up some games and send them your way. Be advised you will go through a learning curve to get some of these games going. Some are fall over, dead easy and others will make you pull your hair out. To be perfectly honest, there are also a few that I've never gotten to run.

 

Anyway, I'll try to get them to you later this evening, okay? 

 

No!  Don't contact Tillek.... Tillek is very mean!

 

Oh, and it's STar Fleet Headquarters... ST ST ST (you know, since you're always correcting DarkForce!)

 

But just to tack on to what I was saying... I've been trying to work on exactly that big collection of things related to Atari BBSing (especially for the ST since there already is so much for the 8-bit) but between work and other things, it's dragged on and on.  I tend to rant about it on the Atari BBS Community Zoom chats (maybe you, cloverskull, should come to one... I think you'd enjoy hanging out with some like minded people... we also do working sessions to help out with these things).  The ST BBS on Emulation tends to come around from time to time... it spins around... there is a new effort trying some new ideas... (usually me blowing a weekend or two) and then usually the person asking gets fed up or disappears and I grumble a bit about the time wasted.

 

These distractions are part of why I've never been able to finish this project.

 

So again, I apologize if I came off less than encouraging.  I probably am the only person doing what you're actually wanting to do right now in 2024 (except for the emulation part) and I'll be happy to bend over backwards to help... as will others... I just need to know there is going to be a return on my investment that makes it worth pushing my projects yet again to the back burner since, as I have said... "I've seen this movie before and I don't like how it ends".

[Tillek]

Or... you know what?  Maybe send me a PM and we can arrange a time to talk... maybe even get DarkLord and a couple others.  That way you can ask questions and you can get a better handle on all this without seeing the messages that might look a little cold without the "human element" behind them.

 

Our next regularly scheduled community chat is this Friday, Jan 19th (more information at http://www.ataribbs.com/zoomchat )  you could also just show up for that.  It's at 8pm Eastern.  We hold them every 1st Sunday of the month at 3pm Eastern and every 3rd Friday of the month at 8pm Eastern.  They tend to go 3-5 hours but people are free to come and go as they please and it's certainly not mandatory (which is why I get a kick out of all those who apologize for not being able to make it!)  That way you'll get to know us better and we'll get a chance to know you.

[cloverskull]

Hey DarkLord, Tillek - thanks for the answers and the help here.

 

@Tillek - I assure you I'm not a part time casual BBSer. Just don't have much experience in the Atari scene as it wasn't around me in the 90s where I grew up, only DOS boards and a couple of Amiga boards.

 

For what it's worth, I'm the current maintainer of Daydream BBS for linux so I'm pretty involved and active. I'm also part of the Demonic BBS mod group that still exists to this day. Just...presenting some bona fides! haha.

 

Anyway I appreciate the dose of realism. I think for now what I'll do is set up something basic in emulation and work on getting it to answer telnet. I've been able to figure this out in Amiga emulation, and have run two DOS based BBSes in emulation that will not work in modern OSes, and all of these have been able to answer telnet calls. All this is to say, I can be pretty crafty, but this is uncharted territory for me so I don't want to get too optimistic. Nevertheless it's worth a shot!

 

Thanks again. Happy to be hopefully joining this community.

[+DarkLord]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:22 PM, Tillek said:

I believe at last count, SFHQ had more door games than DarkForce!

 

Really? I think I've got 29 listed in the Games Menu... 

 

[+DarkLord]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:33 AM, cloverskull said:

Hey DarkLord, Tillek - thanks for the answers and the help here.

 

For what it's worth, I'm the current maintainer of Daydream BBS for linux so I'm pretty involved and active. I'm also part of the Demonic BBS mod group that still exists to this day. Just...presenting some bona fides! haha.

 

 

No problem - always glad to lend a hand (if I can).

 

Yay, Linux for the win! I use Kubuntu Linux on my laptop.

 

Hmm, when you say "mod" do you mean mod as in moderator or music MODules? Or something else?

 

I love playing MOD's on my ST. I have my Mega STe hooked up with a 3 speaker/floor sub-woofer system

and I jam the living crap out of those bad boys. Drives my wife nuts. Oh well...  

 

Welcome to the community and while not a fan of emulation (everyone knows this about me already), I

look forward to your efforts/contributions.

 

Good luck!

 

[Tillek]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:33 AM, cloverskull said:

Hey DarkLord, Tillek - thanks for the answers and the help here.

 

@Tillek - I assure you I'm not a part time casual BBSer. Just don't have much experience in the Atari scene as it wasn't around me in the 90s where I grew up, only DOS boards and a couple of Amiga boards.

 

For what it's worth, I'm the current maintainer of Daydream BBS for linux so I'm pretty involved and active. I'm also part of the Demonic BBS mod group that still exists to this day. Just...presenting some bona fides! haha.

 

Anyway I appreciate the dose of realism. I think for now what I'll do is set up something basic in emulation and work on getting it to answer telnet. I've been able to figure this out in Amiga emulation, and have run two DOS based BBSes in emulation that will not work in modern OSes, and all of these have been able to answer telnet calls. All this is to say, I can be pretty crafty, but this is uncharted territory for me so I don't want to get too optimistic. Nevertheless it's worth a shot!

 

Thanks again. Happy to be hopefully joining this community.

Right... once I connected the dots to who you were in BBS land, it clicked.

 

And sorry I haven't had a chance to reply yet... I ended up coming down with something this weekend and I've pretty much been in bed since about 9:30pm last night and just got up an hour ago (about 21 hours) so let me get my head together and I'll try to get to more tomorrow, especially about the "what's wrong with emulation".

 

[cloverskull]

9 hours ago, Tillek said:

Right... once I connected the dots to who you were in BBS land, it clicked.

 

And sorry I haven't had a chance to reply yet... I ended up coming down with something this weekend and I've pretty much been in bed since about 9:30pm last night and just got up an hour ago (about 21 hours) so let me get my head together and I'll try to get to more tomorrow, especially about the "what's wrong with emulation".

 

Yikes - best of luck. No rush on this stuff. For what it's worth, I just impulse bought a 1040STE, so if I can't get this to work in emulation I'll just use hardware

[cloverskull]

14 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Hmm, when you say "mod" do you mean mod as in moderator or music MODules? Or something else?

 

I love playing MOD's on my ST. I have my Mega STe hooked up with a 3 speaker/floor sub-woofer system

and I jam the living crap out of those bad boys. Drives my wife nuts. Oh well...  

 

Welcome to the community and while not a fan of emulation (everyone knows this about me already), I

look forward to your efforts/contributions.

 

Good luck!

 

Re "mod" - bbs modding, or making modifications to bbs software. In the 90s there were a number of "mod groups" that were pretty popular, but mainly for PC and Amiga BBSes. There are two active mod groups left - Demonic and Phenom. I'm in the former

 

As far as playing music modfiles, I loved doing it back in the day but haven't thought about it for a long time. Perhaps I should give it another shot. Hell, mod files are super small in modern computing so I can probably have thousands...lol.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome!

[Tillek]

3 hours ago, cloverskull said:

Yikes - best of luck. No rush on this stuff. For what it's worth, I just impulse bought a 1040STE, so if I can't get this to work in emulation I'll just use hardware

Schweet.  Now you have to get the Wimodem232 Pro from www.cbmstuff.com

 

[+DarkLord]

6 hours ago, cloverskull said:

Re "mod" - bbs modding, or making modifications to bbs software. In the 90s there were a number of "mod groups" that were pretty popular, but mainly for PC and Amiga BBSes. There are two active mod groups left - Demonic and Phenom. I'm in the former

 

As far as playing music modfiles, I loved doing it back in the day but haven't thought about it for a long time. Perhaps I should give it another shot. Hell, mod files are super small in modern computing so I can probably have thousands...lol.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

Ah, that kind of "mod". Gotcha.