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VCF 7.0: BBS Bonanza in Bay Area
RaD Man [ACiD] writes "Vintage Computer Festival 7.0 will be taking place November 6-7th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California! In addition to the tours of antiquities and computer history galore, VCF 7.0 will be hosting a unique Retro Video Game Programming Challenge and presenting a number of interesting seminar speakers, such as the inventor of FidoNet, Tom Jennings. The VCF founder will also be appearing on G4TechTV's "The Screen Savers" this Tuesday, October 19th, to demonstrate some of his favorite artifacts."
I heard they have the internet on computers now?
I'm not out of order! You're out of order! The whole freaking system's out of order!
How about designing pong on one of the original 'computers'? Something you can play pong on, and ping pong inside of! And what about vintage overclocking?
well, remeber war-gaems? My mom's had an IMSAI, a& my first attachment to the acadamia of it all... Amazing, mudding in sweden lof all places.. Link's to follow.... Oh wait, this is bout BBS's... I homebuild my schools first BBS, the geeks were learning pascal while I was wiring up laser's and hooking up cords, jack's, and what not. Promise: Links Soon!:
For those who don't remember the BBS era (all you youngins =) ), I'll fill you in on LORD. Basically, every modern MMORPG owes its existence, in my opinion, to LoRD. Created by Seth Able, it was the first popular "Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game". Granted, it wasn't very massive (I think it allowed up to 200 people max), and the number of people that could be on at once was limited to the incoming phone lines at the BBS, but it was still the first popularized game (perhaps the first period? I'm not positive, but it's the first I knew of) that featured MMORPG-type gameplay. It was decades ahead of its time.
Some of you may know Seth Able but not that milestone achievement, since he is also a pioneer in the Independant game industry these days. Anyways, Seth Able is not only a great programmer in this time, he was an innovator back when a 1200 baud modem was reserved for only the most wealthy of computer users.
Ah, old school memories... =)
-Vendal Thornheart
A friend of mine had a Kaypro Four which he overclocked. It had originally had (if I'm remembering correctly) a 4MHz 8085, which he replaced with an 8MHz Z80 (and a new crystal). He had to replace a few of the other big chips on the board, as I recall. When he was done, he had a machine that was way faster then the IBM PC with its measly 4.77MHZ 8088.
This was in about 1981. He was doing freelance programming, using SBasic, and claimed speeding up the compiles was worth the few bucks to took to do the work.
Them was the good old days.
See what I've been reading.
off to Vthorn... Uhm, trying to remember the name of a game I used to play that I helped set up, was based on black ice, shadowrun theme stuff, multi, and their was also, well, mudding is a whole new genera.
I've been going to the Vintage Computer Festival for years, and it's always a great time.The nostalgia factor alone is worth the cost of admission, PLUS you're sure to learn something new every time you go. Sam Ismail always does a great job.
And when you're done playing with historical microcomputers at the VCF, walk down the hall to see the "heavy iron" that led to PCs at the Compter History Museum.
This show kicks ass. Don't miss it.
Tom Geller
Clearly you haven't played MUD which (as far as I can tell from research) predated LORD by over 10 years. LORD according to one site I checked started in the "early '90s" whereas MUD...
> The history of MUDs all starts in the UK, about 1979. Roy Trubshaw, a student at Essex University, started writing MUD, a game written in BCPL on a DEC-10. Along with Richard Bartle, who tidied up the system and added a very crude database compiler for it, they produced a very good combat game for it.
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
I went to the VCF last year when they celebrated the Alto, and it was an amazing event. Both myself and my wife had a blast. Lots of great people, lots of awsome gear, and plenty of people to brag "I've got one of those at home!" to that actually give a sh*t.
Every bay area geek should find the time to stop by the event.
Of course, upon reading about a VCF bonanza, I immediately thought of this
Bay Area newspapers are reporting the congregation of a record number of virgins in Mountain View......
Legend of the Green Dragon
http://lotgd.net/
I really don't think Seth gave it the green light.
It's (almost) the same. Perhaps better in some ways.
And no, the JENNY codes do not work.
Tying into the underlying BBS theme this year, VCF will be hosting the first and only public screening of the long anticipated BBS Documentary which is due out on DVD late this year.
One other interesting fact about original MUD from the 1980s involving a VERY well known character:-
;)
One player of the Essex MUD was Alan Cox, also known as Anarchy. He wrote (with a bit of help) AberMUD, named after the University of Aberystwyth, Wales, which he attended at the time. It was originally implemented on a Honeywell mainframe running GCOS but was soon ported to UNIX. Its poor design and implementation (all game information was stored in a shared file, which meant that several processes were constantly accessing the disc) did not endear it to many system administrators. Nevertheless, it was the first MUD to gain widespread popularity. After the source code reached the United States, several people made enhancements and additions, notably Rich $alz. It now seems to have found a home at St. Olaf University, where a few dedicated hackers are keeping it alive despite its general grunginess.
I believe he's still programming somewhere & has improved greatly...
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
Has /. switched to the Wikipedia convention of bolding the title?
English is easier said than done.
In case you guys don't understand the significance of RaD Man posting this story, he leads the ACiD artwork group. ACiD was the biggest, and best, ansi art group back in the day. They had distro's all over the world at one point, and if you had original ACiD art on your board, you were leet.
I miss the BBS days. There was something appealing to me about playing B.R.E, L.O.R.D, Barneysplat, posting FIDOnet messages, and trying to figure out ways to scam the upload/download credit system. Bulletin boards definately helped inspire some of the basic fundamental utilities we have on the internet today - message boards, games, file transfers, we had it all.
It really was some of the best times i've ever had with a computer, period. I'm only 24 and this is literally part of my childhood. I urge any old sysops, or anyone who is curious to check out the BBS Documentary website for more nostalgia & information.
708/312 repruhzent.
And take my classic Zenith Supersport 286e. It would seem modern to some of the computers that will be on display there.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
Let's also not forget CDC PLATO's multi-user dungeons, which pre-date BBSes.
Yup, agreed.
;)
And nothing's better than a story on that being posted by someone with the name RaD Man [ACiD] =)
_And_ his website is called DarkDomain.
COOL!
Now, all that's left is a link to VCL and some ASCII pr0n
Short answer - No.
Long answer - Nooooooo.
i wish there was something like that remotely close to where I am, old computer systems are so cool. i think its a shame that there isn't something that we can do with all that old equipment
ACiD and iCE were the shit. I also liked CiA alot, I guess mainly because I was a member, although only for a few months. When I left it seemed like ANSI was fading away, as bigger and better things (web, hi-res graphics) were becoming much more mainstream.
"The VCF founder will also be appearing on G4TechTV's "The Screen Savers" this Tuesday, October 19th, to demonstrate some of his favorite artifacts."
Hopefully this guys hands will be steadier than the last guy.
Is this in the same place that use to have the flight simulators? Seems on the map to be the same place. Either that, or it's next door.
"Them was the good old days."
What!? No snow?
Lord was cool. I used to like laying the bone to Violet.
But Usurper was my favorite.
Pimp Wars was cool too.
I used to wait until 12:01 to start calling BBSes to make sure I got my BRE, LORD, and Usurper turn in early.
Damn I miss those days.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
From their "This Day in Computer History Page":
October 22, 1941
Microprocessor Co-Inventor Mazor is Born
October 28, 1937
Microprocessor Co-Inventor Hoff is Born
Odd isn't it? Although I didn't know who to credit with the invention of the microprocessor because Wikipedia tells me that Federico Faggin invented it.
Considering the page on Hoff says he invented it (without any other credits) I'm not sure who to thank. Stanley Mazor doesn't even get a page. Which Slashdot nerd will help us at Wikipedia fix this?
Get your Unix fortune now!
i've toured the computer history museum a number of times. i did some advertising for them a couple years ago when they had just moved to their new facility (which used to be the sun micro building). "visible storage" is the area where they have all sorts of great vintage computing items. if you're a fan of computing history, you really should take a trip out there to see the facility. i don't work with them anymore, but everyone there is very nice and some of the old computing devices will amaze you and some will crack you up (like the old air traffic controller computer that had built-in ashtrays!).
But Usurper ruled the most !
Nah... TradeWars 2002 ! I still have a license key for it. The rights to TW have been sold to "a new guy" and you can now even buy a network-enabled server.
Ursurper was the shit - LORD was cool, but sort of lame, the sort of thing that your parents would find "edgy", but Ursurper was the real thing, the fucking heavy metal of BBS doors. I spent way too much time on that game, but it was awesome - gangs, NPCs, drugs, etc. Fucking awesome. I did the whole 12:01 thing too - it was pathetic.
I have something similiar to this on my web site. Its "Legened of the Green Dragon" .. check it out!
http://www.joeslife.info/
As far as trade wars 2002 goes, I have a web game called black nova I'm trying to start up. Its almost similiar to tw2002. check it out! http://www.joeslife.info/
I remember the good o'le days of playing Usurper! Back then, I ran a Renegade BBS and had lots of door games. Maybe I should use DOSemu and set them up via telnet access from my web site and get 'em going again!
Check it out http://www.joeslife.info/
I remember starting up a BBS early early on. Was 2nd or 3rd in my area code. Oh the days of 300baud. Started up on an Apple ][. Saving and saving money for a 1200baud modem. Oh that Applecat Smartcat is still in my closet somewhere. I still find links around the net listing my old BBS, brings back very found memories. When I finally shut it down it was 8 phone lines with USR V.Everything modems running with 4 386 pcs, 2 lines each under Desqview with a Novell Netware file server on a 486 for all the software and downloads. What a trip that was. Some old favorites: Opus! QBBS, TradeWars, Hack, Dungeon. Loved them all. Oh and can't forget the ever favorite 2600 distributions.
Just the mention of vintage computers and BBS's brings out the nostalgic geezer in me. I remember playing Trek-73 on my high school's Teletype ASR33 in the late 70's. Later on we moved to Spacewar on the Apple II.
In the mid-80's I played Tradewars online using my Tandy Coco and a 300 baud modem. I think the name of the BBS was Microfone in Secaucus NJ.
I spent A LOT of money calling BBS's around the country looking for files and having interesting chats and message board discussions.
It's almost all too easy now with the Internet and Google.
Self awareness - try it!
At ApacheCon 2001, I met a guy who claimed to have created fidonet back in the 80s with a friend of his , which they sold to a few universities. I can't remember his name though. Anyone know anything about this?
The first computer I ever did an upgrade was to an old 4.77mhz 8088 (I think an Epson) that I had. Just popped in an NEC V20 chip. I think it just was a more efficient chip though, I believe my clock speed was the same.
:)
Not quite as cool as the upgrades you mention.
LoRD came out in 1988. By that time, there were already several MajorBBS games out which more closely paralleled the multiplayer experience seen in MMORPGS -- unlike LoRD, where players only saw each other during direct attacks or while both in the inn, MBBS games allowed players to see each other whenever they both were in the same room in the game world.
Furthermore, LoRD was just an iterative improvement over several similar door games that were around at the time. They all had the same notion of engaging in instant combat against NPCs where your options were to attack, flee, or use a special ability. Similarly, they all centered around using gold to heal yourself and buy better equipment from a very linear weapons/armor list. LoRD was merely the most polished of the simple version of these games, and it pales in comparison to games that reach the next level of complexity, like Operation Overkill.
Overall, LoRD was a nifty game, a nicely polished game, and even a memorably historic game, but it wasn't the ground-breaking masterpiece you're trying to make it out to be.
Hey.. I remember LORD.. and always trying to score with Violet.. She.. always slapped me. It didn't stop me from trying again the next day.. Oh the good ol' days at the Inn..
I liked it when the BBS sysops would let you try to score with her multiple times in one day..
*re-reads his post* Wow.. I am a looser..
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
when they had just moved to their new facility (which used to be the sun micro building).
Bzzzt! It used to be a Silicon Graphics building. It was their first funky-style building, actually. It was sold when they built 4 more buildings down the street closer to shoreline amphitheatre. Google now lives in those buildings, SGI now lives in a couple huge nondescript 4 story buildings a couple blocks further down the road, I think they built them a few years ago. Several other older buildings in the area also have "sgi" signs too.
Sun was close though, they had Adobe's old campus for a few years, just across the street from SGI/Google funkytown.
High Society of South florida was around for about 10 years, it's back now...hs.host.net
Where ever you go, there you are.
Did anybody else think at first that the title of this story was about some pilot having to ditch a Beechcraft Bonanza in the Bay?
You can do just that with Synchronet. I wrote the code to run external doors through DOSEMU.
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
When did it move from Moffett Field?
Anyone know just how many different locations the Museum has had?
What first drew me online and kept me excited for years was the sense of community that people had in the BBS scene before the rising popularity of the Web. Despite many attempts at creating this same feeling on the web from AIM, to Craigslist, Friendster, gMail to even Slashdot or Kuro5hin, I have not been able to develop the same type of relationships. It seems almost bizarre to suggest that a global online community could have a BBQ or meet for dinner at a local fast food restaurant.
People like Jom Jennings of FidoNet and Scott Converse of OneNet really deserve to be recognized by organizations like the VCF. The communities they fostered, perhaps because local dial-up networks kept everything provincal, are probably what I miss about the modern Internet with its spammers, phishers, con artists, Patriot Act, unsecure email and general lack of polite behavior. More than anything else, this misplaced sense of community is what I miss about the early days online.
"...What is good for General Motors is good for America." -Charles Wilson, Secretary of Defense and fmr President of GM
In truth, I never realized that MUDs had been around that long. LORD came out in... 89 I think it was? Maybe as early as 87, I can't remember... I remember the MUD scene becoming pretty popular in the early 90's, but I had no idea that it had dated back that far. Consider me corrected.
-Vendal Thornheart
Traded my Schwinn Stingray for a 1541 Drive for my C-64. + 300 baud to Rouge's Gallery BBS(My parents didn't care much for the $300 phone bills)
:P )
poke 53280,0
poke 53281,0
(I liked it black, thought Green phosphor was cool, never liked Cyan
"I wasn't using my civil rights anyway...."
Vintage Computer People.. Yeah.. I trust those that call a Web Forum a BBS. They know what a real BBS is, but lack the knowlegde to call thier forums.. forums.. So, are they going to call a apple ii/e a xerox machine in the same respect. These people need to double check thier facts.
C'mon crack open an old computer programming book, boot up an emulator (or for us collectors, dust off one of those micros you have stacked in the corner.) and practice writing your three-hour masterpiece.
Resources for Retrocoders:
Atari Archives bookshelf, includes many 6502/BASIC related books
Project 64's C64 Manuals & Programmer's Reference Guide
Here's some Apple IIgs manuals. :-/
Not much of any on-line accessible resources for Apple IIs, where are all the real Apple II fans!!???
As a retrocode winner, I would sugest looking at the stuff in the Atari Archives (the BASIC Games books) to get ideas of the type of games that are doable in three hours (no, not Super Star Trek, the smaller ones!) But I wouldn't write any of 'em verbatim, you get points for making it more modern, flashier, and/or vintage computer related.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
At last an occasion to show my best picture around : I'm proud of this one ! Taken in august 79, when I was less than 3yo.
I Guess I haven't changed that much, since I'm now a sysadmin.
Im 18, I remember LORD, especially violet. How many hours I whiled away killing things and flirting with a digital barmaid :-p
Three - it's obvious
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
Suggest trying without the grease. May provoke thought. You might want to think about what it means to repeat thesame silly comment over and over. Just a thought ....
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
Are you retarded? No, sorry, I mistook you for someone who is retarded. At least someone who is retarded has an excuse. You have no excuse. You're just an complete fucking idiot.