Got nostolgic for BBS's and Old Games and ... stuff

[Nathan Caroland]

Now most of the younger folks on the site, I would say ... anyone under .. 25? probably don't remember BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) as by then the Internet was up and running and very healthy, but I got to thinking today about BBS's and the old games and how the things used to be setup and was wondering if anyone on here used them much or remember them?

Myself, I used to run the largest BBS in the Bay area back in 92-93, called 'The Tavern' with two 24k baud modems and two 56k baud modems (whew we were blazzin'!) for those that paid for the access - I can still remember at all times of the day hearing the phone line going 'click' and the computer doing its thing as it allowed everyone access for 30 minutes before you used up your time and got kicked off till the next day.

Tons of online BBS games which is what everyone was really after, Legend of the Red Dragon, Baron Realms Elite ... etc. BTW, I really, really, miss BRE - if anyone knows if it has been ported over so that it can be setup on forums like these and folks can play that in some form, let me know - it was a real blast.

And of course there was the hidden sections on most boards, warez, where they stripped the sound out of games and the like just to make them downloadable (never did that mind you .. really!) and you would have to pick up some of the bigger files in about 70 1 meg files.

And all the artwork was in Asci, had tons of groups out there doing asci artwork, like ACiD and a few others which I don't even remember remotely now. Remember that it was such a big deal getting asci artwork.

Dunno what got me to thinking about it but I remember enjoying the heck out of that BBS - until it got hacked and everything deleted. That bummed me out pretty bad, then I moved on. Remember going by the name 'Pumpkin King' and 'Purple Asphalt' (don't ask, I couldn't admit to it publicly anyhow ...)

Still seems that some of it is around these days through telenet, not that I know much about that, but I don't expect many of them have survived these days.

Hrmmm .. I'm off to hunt for Baron Realms Elite ....

[Ritual]

I friend of mine ran a BBS I remember... Didn't use it much though... I was hooked on the Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest etc. games, if anyone remember those. I remember playing Kings Quest I in its first version (in the mid 1980s) with 4-colour CGA graphics and just internal PC speaker sound. Ii thought it was the coolest game I'd ever seen.

[Wren]

I frequented three or four BBSes my last couple of years in college. The majority were for fans of RPGs, some of which accessed Usenet posts so you could get spells and stuff from around the world! But I also hung out on one or two just social ones. I even became cosysop on one, trying to coax the unruly masses to behave. (Like the guy who started a huge flame thread trying to argue that chainmail bikinis were historically accurate...) Because they were local, meets of BBS users were not uncommon. We got together for a big group dinner for one board, and for another I hosted a video night (that was an RPG board a lot of my friends were on anyway). I even dated several guys I first met on BBSes. Never played the games really, though, so I can't wax nostalgic on those.

I used a program that would download the new posts, let you reply then upload your replies. It also let you keep a huge file of taglines and randomly insert one into the sig area of each of your replies. I kind of miss the whole tagline thing. My usual nick was KellyGirl, I actually was one for a summer. And although it seems pretty dorky to me now, I used to sign all my posts Ciao4Now. After college I moved in with some roommates, one of whom was a computer guy, and there was something about the setup of the computers there that just wasn't that compatible with BBSes. He got me a 'real' internet account and I got way into MUSHes (subset of MUDs with more role-playing) and the Web was coming up around this time, so I got distracted away from them anyway, but every now and then I'm struck by a fit of nostalgia for those days.

[Nathan Caroland]

Yeah I remember now that you mention it that you could download the packets, reply to them all and then upload them again. Was needed considering everyone had to use the phone lines. I remember having some dialing and dialing for a long time.

Used Renegade BBS myself to get everything setup, was just looking through it a few minutes ago actually. Seems they kept developing it up until 2004. Why on earth anyone would is beyond me but I guess some folks were still stuck on it. Oh .. and WildCat, that was the other one I used.

We had a couple of big meets through the BBS which I remember being a blast as well, some 40 or more people showing up at a spot in downtown San Francisco and BS'ing away the night. Good fun.

Remember that Kings Quest Anders!

Actually, talking about old computer games now really reminds me of how much I absolutely LOVED 'Eye of the Beholder' from TSR and ... was it SS .. or SSR .. hell I'm misremembering who made it I'm sure. Was so into those games it wasn't funny. I saw it for the game boy here recently and hooked it up to the gamecube thing my kids had and started laughing at how bad the graphics were. Still, that was 'cutting edge' back then.

[Wren]

Eye of the Beholder rocked! I picked that up for my Gameboy as soon as I saw it. While admittedly graphics have come so far, it was actually one I thought held up surprisingly well for what they had to work with. I can't remember if it was one of the SSI ones, though, I don't think it was part of the gold box series if it was. I don't think I ever really got into a gold box game the same way.

[Nathan Caroland]

SSI, yup, that was them. It wasn't part of the gold set but they put out a few games outside of that series/set. Loved them!

I remember when Lands of Lore came out, I went ape. That was for the computer by .. well, don't remember now.

[cdukino]

I am still looking for Eye of the beholder for my gameboy. Can't seem to find it anywhere, not even on e-bay.

I do have both Lands of Lore games for the PC (well unless there are more games of that name, then maybe).

I also played a few of the kings's quest games.

[Nathan Caroland]

I could probably find you one here in the states Cindy, lemme know. As for Lands of Lore, wasn't aware they made a second one.

[goblyn13]

I remember the old BBS a friend of mine ran one had a interstellar commerce game (can't remember the name) where you would go from planet to planet trading and what not.

As for the assort *quest* games, those rocked, I was always the big fan of Space Quest, after all Roger Wilco and his instant water, was hilarious.

along with Police quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Quest for glory and all of the old Sierra game. Along with one of my all time favorites, BattleTech: Crescent Hawk's Inception. and the orignal Origin games, like Ultima.

[lauth81]

There´s even a Lands of Lore III ...

An old game I really enjoyed and even play sometimes is Master of Magic --- it rocks!

[cdukino]

@FF: would be cool if you kept a look out for the game just in case. But no need to search like crazy. It all depends on how much it is gonna cost me too. I just like the diablo like games (like Titan quest, which i bought relatively recently), and a gameboy is nice and handy for the hollidays. Eye of the beholder seemed to fit the discription of a game I would find fun to do. I do have a diablo like gameboy game already (lord of the rings). But would like another. Reviews of the game were fair as well.

[Malebolgia]

Seems this thread has gone to "cool old 80's games" now. Here's a list of my favorite old games:

*Quest for Glory series (alltime favorite!)

*King's Quest series

*Leisure Suit Larry series

*Police Quest series

*Space Quest series

*Monkey Island Series (Rubber chicken with a pulley!)

*Stunts

*Zack Mackracken and the Alien Mindbenders

*Faceoff

*Transport Tycoon

*Civilization 1

*Ultima Underworld series

*Dune 1 & Dune 2

*...

And I could go on and on...

I also remember downloading small games from BBS with our modem. I can still remember those cool sounds coming from it when connecting. Downloading was slow as hell and most of the games weren't that cool, but the whole process was just cool at that time!

[Nathan Caroland]

I'll keep a look out for it Cindy, have a couple of places around the corner here. PM me what you are willing to pay for it and I'll take a look for it.

Hah, had to go look up the Lands of Lore stuff. I could swear the graphics were better than what they were, but still, loved the heck out of it. For that matter, Might and Magic was one I got into, but man, you could spend hours and hours on it and I don't think I ever did finish one of them to be honest.

Castles now .. still love that one. I think they came out with a new version recently. Loved building those things and doing the whole attack/defend thing but I have a feeling if I tried that now it would exasperate me just a touch these days with the time involved.

My kids have Playstation, GameCube and Xbox and I have to admit these days the only thing that I really like playing are the old Nintendo side scrollers like Super Mario 2 and 3, Mega Man or Bionic Commando. Dunno why but I get a ton more fun out of those than anything with a load of graphics these days. Wonder if its just cause I played them when I was a kid and enjoyed them so much.

[cdukino]

I just noticed there are 2 of the gameboy game eye of the beholder at the moment on e-bay. I'll try my luck there first. Though on doesn't take paypall (though the seller is in germany so i might be able to pay another way, but becomes useless if the game is in german), and the other charges to much for postage so i don't have much biddingroom.

[EricJ]

My best friend just got married to a woman he met WAY back in high school on a BBS (in the bay area about the same time you were there Nathan, different one though). We tease that they invented online dating.

And I just a few weeks ago loaded up Angband to remember the joy of living life in a game as an @

those were the days!

[Jubilee]

Taglines! I miss taglines. I seem to recall on the BBSs I frequented, you could have taglines that would auto-pop up when you logged off the BBS.

Through most of highschool, I spent more time online talking with my friends from school than with them in person.. I remember playing alot of MajorMud, Lord (damn that ugly stick!), and some kind of space-trading-game that was oddly addictive though terribly repetitive and mindnumbing at times..

/ali

[Wren]

FF, if you add a random tagline feature to Wyrd, we'll love you even more. ;->

I never played any of the main Might and Magic ones, but M&M: Clouds of Xeen is one of few games that I finished. (And then addicted one of my roommates to, the third roommate joked he didn't see either of us for two weeks.) I didn't finish the Darkside of Xeen, but I thought the way they comboed up if you had them both installed was a pretty nifty idea.

[cdukino]

Just found out that my main game i'm after was not Eye of the beholder for the gameboy. That one is on the wishlist, but not as wanted as Baldur's gate. That's the diablo like one.

[Nathan Caroland]

Just checked up on the taglines - someone wrote a hack for it at one time but its way outdated now. I'll take a look around and see if someone wants to update it though.

As for video games in general, I almost never finished any game, got bored, moved on .. etc. I was actually rather pleased with myself when I picked up PC games again about six months ago and finished my first one (Half Life II) and then picked up another (Titan Quest) and finished that as well. Made a pact with myself that I wouldn't pick up a new game till I finished the one I bought. Since then I've gone through Fable, Command and Conquer III and I'm working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. right now.

[Malebolgia]

Good choice FF! Halflife 2 is probably one of the best PC games EVER made. The storyline rules and the gameplay is just fantastic. I just wish my computer could run it

[Wren]

I'm pretty bad for finishing. Sometimes I get stuck and just don't bother, usually I just get distracted away by something else. Then when I want to come back to the game I feel I have to start over to refresh myself on the story/commands/whatever and reach a certain point and get distracted and so on. It's an annoying cycle. Maybe it's partly why I like MMORPGs, even if I am distracted and way out of touch starting over doesn't usually solve that so I just have to go from where I am. I also find the whole disk has to be in the drive thing on most games really annoying, which is probably quite silly of me.

I liked Titan Quest a lot when we first started to play it, but it got really samey and grindy for me by the time I hit the second main area. That's a rare game I haven't finished because I decided not to spend any more time with it, and I'll probably even sell it.

[cdukino]

I finished playing through the Titan Quest "Immortal Throne" add-on last week. I still prefer these type of game above any other. Something soothing about running around, upgrading and killing everything that moves by the truckload.... hmmm... that didn't come out right.

[Duende]

I could imagine Cindy more playing a game about riding around on magical ponies, saving cute tree frogs, and plucking posies to upgrade her floral arrangemants.

But noooo... it's "Cindran the Bloodthirsty"! :vb_devil:

[Wren]

I enjoy that type of game too, I really liked Diablo (both of them) and Dungeon Seige. All three games I finished or almost finished. (Okay, I got stuck and failed to kill Diablo in the first one, but I watched my roomie do it so I'm claiming that as a finish. ;->) Just something about Titan Quest kind of wore me out.

Viva Pinata seems like it might be a Cindy kind of game to me...

[Skya]

I never did BBS's, I was more an IRC person. I did play a lot of computer games though. My favorites were Arknoid which I had for my Apple2 GS, Civilization which I played for years and Diablo. I actually upgraded my computer for both Diablo and Diablo 2. These Days I'm with Cindy on really liking Titan Quest which is basically a more linear Diablo with up to date graphics. I never got into the computer RPGs, but I enjoyed watching my brother play em. He'd play while I sat in a chair off to the side and watched while I embroidered.