Tuesday, June 23, 2009

An anniversary

This month marks the 20th year anniversary of my introduction to the world of the BBS. For those of you not in the know, back before the internet burst on the scene there were these things calls BBSs (bulletin board system), and they were run by the system operator (Sysop). Basically, the sysop would have a dedicated phone line and run the BBS software on his computer, and people would use their modems to dial in. Once on, it was basically like a message board that one person at a time could read (unless it was one of the BBS’s with multiple lines). Some of them also had games you could play. I also played in a lot of RPGs on them. People would run AD&D adventures and such. Like the internet now, a lot of time wasters.

The reason BBSs mean so much to me is that through them I formed my best, most long lasting friendships. I even ran my own board for a few years: Schizophrenic’s Paradise which was mainly for me and my friends to play games like Global Wars (a Risk rip-off), and keep in touch with the ones who had gone off to college in Austin.

I wanted to give some shout-outs to some of my old friends from back in the day. Those that I can remember anyways.

The ones I still know:
Galth Ractus – My brother!
Eric the Red – Keep on keepin’ on
Avshar – We work together, so of course I see him a ton.
Lancer – Good to hear from you again, man.
Craven Raven – Good to see you again.
Vector – Congrats!
Larry – Sorry dude, I can’t remember what name you used.

The Rest:
Erik the Blue – It was great hanging out at your apartment. Especially, for a teenage punk like I was
Grandmaster – I loved playing the RPGs on Runestone.
Horseman – Hope you are doing well, Jason
Enchantress
Thunderkorr – What up, Chad
Quasar Pendragon – The last Eric.
Bullwinkle
King Arthur
Crayon
Black Dragon
Akasha
Slice of Australia – One of the funniest people, ever. A master of ANSI animation. You were on of the best, Daniel
Satin Knight
Scooter Rider
Pern couple – I remember their board, but not the names they went by.
Headhunter
The Flying Chicken – Wrote some of the best mods for the WWIV software, and then just disappeared.
Bluenose – I always like you and your old man.
Fox Fire – Probably the only person funnier than Slice of Australia
Tauran Knight – Is KCE still around? I bought my 28.8 modem from him, when that was top of the line.
Old Goat – It was fun playing tennis.
Vernor
Fido Dido – Tamara, you really put me in a pickle that one time. Outside of that you were a pretty cool chick.
Freddy Krueger – The one Fido Dido got me in trouble with, kinda. We ironed everything out.
Zed Le Elf – Ron, sure had fun hanging out those too few times.
Yasmin Stargazer – I truly hope you found some peace in your life.

I am certain I forgot a ton of people, but it had been a long time. Thanks to everyone for all of the good times! Catch all of ya’ll on the flipside.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, man. You made a ton of friends. THat is truly cool.

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  2. For a couple of years in the summer time we had enough people showing up to field almost 3 teams for softball.

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  3. Man, that's cool. Happy anniversary!

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  4. Hey! I remember most of those people .. maybe you remember my login on those boards - 'jello' or sometimes 'milo'. I still run the same board I was running back then 20 years later: sdf.org

    I bought a Apple Profile (5mb) from King Arthur and I think a 2400bps modem.

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  5. Wow, I remember Black Dragon, Akasha, Slice of Australia, Tauran Knight, and Fido Dido, but it looks like we probably didn't overlap so much in what boards we frequented. I was vulpus vulpus.

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  6. Dude, I am so glad you posted this, even though I wish I'd found it in 2009... This is Grandmaster. I miss everyone from back then. Although I have been in touch with Horseman(Jason)and Enchantress(Julie), and I've passed emails with Thunderkor (Chad). I know that Craven Raven and Eric The Red found some of my writing on Elfwood... but That was years ago. I miss RPGing all the time, which is probably why I run gaming for one of our local Conventions.

    I miss gathering at Medieval Inn or Joe Willies... (I believe Medieval Inn is no longer around...) and playing Battletech.

    All the names brought back many memories, thanks. It is much appreciated. I would still be running Runestone if my C128 had not been stolen back in 1989... I still have some of the old 5 1/4" floppys with the message base on em somewhere...

    I've been meaning to get a hold of Galth Ractus. I don't know if he's kept RuneChess alive or not, but I've been teaching anyone who is willing. :)I think I'll even share it on Facebook again, bout time for a renewal. :)

    Feel free to friend me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/shadowcon.gaming

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