System History of CBBS
By Ward and Randy
September 14, 1978
Retrieved from CBBS v3.5 Distribution

System History: It was conceived in a phone conversation
between Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, on January 16,
1978.  At that time, rough hardware and software require-
ments were established.  Randy began working on hardware,
and Ward prototyped the software in MITS 8K BASIC, with
no actual message saving to disk.  As Randy got further
with the hardware, programming was done in assembler for
the final version to go online.  After buying a license
for CP/M, burning some PROMS (for scroll routine), and so
on, the system went on the air, ONE MONTH from the day it
was conceived.  It was totally financed by Ward and Randy
except for memory board contributions from Lloyd Smith.
It was originally thought to be connected to the CACHE
message recorder line as a way to get material for the
"CACHE Register" (newsletter of the  Chicago Area Com-
puter Hobbyist's Exchange) but turned into a more general
message exchange system.  Articles or comments appeared
in various publications: June ('78) BYTE's Bits, July
BYTE editorial, July 17 Computerworld, June Dr. Dobbs
Journal, Nov.  BYTE, etc.

Some people call this the "CACHE bulletin board system",
but it has never been affiliated with CACHE.  We decided it
would be faster and easier to do just between the two of us.