This directory is an outgrowth of the BBS documentary. To help in my research about BBSes, I am attempting to make a canonical list of all the BBS Software Packages there ever were for any platform, excepting one-off "custom" sets that weren't distributed. The priority is on dial-up software created before 1995, although additions for any and all BBS programs are welcome.

To save time, if a hardware platform had no modem made for it or lacks any known BBS software, it will be greyed out. Information for the rest of the entries are being grabbed from many disparate sources and may be in dire need of fixing.

If you see a lot of empty space, that probably means I haven't given that OS or Software my full attention. In some cases, I am finding lists of BBS Software online, shoving the names, and getting back to it all "later". Either way, feel free to send me information if you have it nearby.

Please mail in your corrections, additions, and suggestions.

CUSTOMIZED
	S-100 KIT COMPUTER
		CBBS
			Author:	Ward Christensen (With Randy Suess doing the Hardware side)
			Author Contacted:	Ward has written in! Huzzah!
			Interviewed!	Ward Christensen Interviewed on February 16-17, 2002
			Additional Notes:	Ward Christensen writes "The world's first BBS, CBBS/Chicago. Conceived to mimic a "cork board and push pin bulletin board" ona computer - thus "Computerized Bulletin Board System". Ran on CP/M-8080 with a 300 baud modem. About 20,000 lines of CP/M assembly language. It received almost a quarter million callers on its one phone line over the course of its life."
			Source and Info Files:	26
MULTI-PLATFORM
	CP/M
		BBSC
			Author:	Mike Kelly
			Source and Info Files:	1
		CITADEL
			Additional Notes:	Of the Citadel Source file below, Gene Buckle writes "This is the source code to the original Citadel for CP/M, written by Cynbe ru Taren (Jeff Prothero) in 1981. All room systems are decended from either this exact code base or based upon the "room system" concept that it expresses. There are two other known versions of the original CP/M source code out there. Versions 2.15 and 2.20 have been "seen in the wild". This archive includes all documentation as well as menus and help files. A compiled Citadel is also included. It requires BDS C to compile if you're going to try it under CP/M. Leor Zolman, the author of BDS C, has make this compile available on his website http://www.bdsoft.com for free. See the entery under the "free tools" link."
			Source and Info Files:	2
		CLASSY
			Author:	Richard Wheeler and Dan Zehme
			Additional Notes:	Richard Wheeler writes "My name is Richard Wheeler, and myself, along with Dan Zehme, were the authors of "The Classy System" BBS software that ran under CP/M, athough it was optimized for the Epson QX-10, a Z-80 based computer produced in the early 80s. The system was the first BBS that we were aware of that used escape codes for full screen cursor control. The system originated in 1982, and was fully operational by early 1983. There were more than a few Classy Systems (on the order of 12, at one point). Each was assigned a name chronologically, in the form of a latin number. The orginal system was "Classy System Primus", which ran on my system, while Dan Zehme's system was "The Classy System Secondus", and so forth. As mentioned, there were as many as 12 numbered system, but there were rarely that many operating. The systems did not operate in any kind of node system like Fido. The software itself was written in Cbasic, and mostly ran on QX-10s with 2 5.25 floppy drives, although some systems ran on early Comdex hard drive systems. It had the typical BBS message board functions, as well as the traditional download area. On systems without hard drives, it was custom to allow the B: to contain the download library, and this was rotated on a daily basis. There was also a mini-version that allowed use with an Epson HX-20 (with a very small screen). There was a 2.0 version developed, but never implemented. It had more advanced full screen control for features such as word wrap, a menu driven download page and consideration for a node type system."
		DBBS
			Additional Notes:	Gene Buckle writes "This is dBBS v4.1 It's the only bbs I've ever seen written *in* dBase II for CP/M (for any platform for that matter). It was written in the '86-'87 timeframe by Ryan Katri. This version has been modified by Larry Slattery according to the documentation. All the source code and database files are included."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		MBBS
		MINIRBBS
			Source and Info Files:	18
			Additional Notes:	CP/M completely confuses the structure of this directory. Since it could be run across many different hardware platforms, programs affiliated with one specific platform might actually run on more than one. I've done my best to make sense of it all, but reader beware.
		PASBBS
			Author:	Bryan A. Nace (1984)
			Versions:	Verison 1.3 (1984)
			Additional Notes:	Calls itself PASCAL BULLETIN BOARD SERVICE. Interestingly, the program contains the following notice: "(C) Copyright Westinghouse Electric Corp 1984". Brian Nace writes "I would never have guessed this program was still floating around in cyber-land. Just a note, the Westinghouse Copyright was a procedural requirement that I had to execute at the time. I worked at Westinghouse and took the old rbbs.asm (Z8080 assembler) version of the then popular rbbs.com program and converted it to Pascal. I needed to do this for inter-office communications for our field offices. This was before the commercial advent of the internet. I added some improvements in messages that gave the program virtually a form of email. So when I was done, in order for me to re-release it back into the public domain, Westinghouse required that I put the copyright notice in the header."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		PICS
			Additional Notes:	"There was PICS (standard) and PICS v1.6 (multi-line and multi-user)." - Jim Bianchi
		QBBS
			Author:	Lawrence R. Davis
			Additional Notes:	"A unique entry in the world of CP/M programs, as not only is it shareware, but it's a binary only distribution. Version 4 is from 1987. It requires BYE v5.08 to operate." - Gene Buckle
			Source and Info Files:	2
		RBBS
			Author:	Howard Moulton, Trveor Marshall (1985), Bruce Ratoff (1980), Ron Fowler (1980) (Many Others)
			Additional Notes:	RBBS turns out to be one of my great personal embarassments of my own experience of the history of BBSes. While I though the BBS was specifically written by Tom Mack and nobody else, it turns out that the program has an unbelievably rich history going to before IBM PCs into the world of CP/M. It gets somewhat muddled but names definitely appear, such as Howard Moulton, Bruce Ratoff, and so on, who all did work on this program in the late 1970's, long before the IBM PC even existed. It was in the form of a BASIC program, meaning porting it to the new platform is much simpler. From its time on PCs it gains even more momentum and additional features, making it the well-known program it is in History. But the initial strides are made in the CP/M world, and should not be forgotten. RBBS appears to have a predecessor/ancestor in a program called SJBBS, which Howard Moulton declares to be the source of the program which he converts from. There are only two SJBBSes I can find: Bearsville Town SJBBS in Bearsville, NY, and Johnson City SJBBS in Johnson City, NY. C. R. Bryan III writes "There was a version of RBBS for CP/M: RBBS 4.1 edit 02. Written in C, it compiled under BDS C on CP/M machines. I ran it on my Ampro Little Board 1-A (a Z80 single-board computer that bolted onto the side of a 5-1/4" floppy drive and came with CP/M 2.2 with a ZCPR3 CCP; the 1-B had a SCSI port and could use a hard drive in 5M partitions) 1984-86 using BYE's ring-back option (ring once and hang up; ring again in 30 seconds and the BBS would be booted and waiting... made for some panicky file-saves if I was doing some editing at the time)."
			Source and Info Files:	10
		SBBS
			Author:	Tim Redden
			Additional Notes:	Stands for "Super" Bulletin Board System. Released to the Public Domain in 1984.
			Source and Info Files:	1
		TBBS
			Author:	Phil Becker
			Additional Notes:	Brice Fleckenstein says "TBBS for MS-DOS was originally a port from the CP/M TBBS, by Phil Becker (esoft). It originally was a single-line BBS program, but in time evolved into different versions up to 64 lines. Supported UseNet newsgroups and FidoNet mail/echomail via several different methods."
		TPBBS
			Author:	James Whorton abd Eddie H. Curlin
			Versions:	Version 1.0 (April 30, 1984)
			Source and Info Files:	1
		TURBOBBS
			Author:	Robert Maxwell
			Versions:	1.05 (1985)
			Additional Notes:	Gene Buckle writes "A rare beast, a CP/M board that is self-hosted. That is to say, it provides its own internal communications routines and doesn't require BYE for this purpose. This particular board is the only example I've ever seen that is cross-plaform between CP/M and MS-DOS. All that is needed to build for a platform is changing out the source file that does the serial port access."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		XBBS
			Author:	Robert Crump
			Source and Info Files:	1
		ZBBS
			Author:	Alfred K. Carr
			Source and Info Files:	1
	METAL
		METAL15
	MP/M-86
		TREEBOARD
			Author:	Ported to M/PM-86 by Nick Andrew
			Additional Notes:	"The Treeboard was the jewel in the crown of Zeta BBS. It was a public message board, as all BBSs needed, but with a difference. It used a tree hierarchy of topics and users could create their own topics. Like the "room" idea of the Citadel BBS, which came well before Zeta, but a little more nerdy as a person who didn't like, say, sports, could skip sports at the top level and that would avoid all sporting-type discussions." "The topics were organised as a tree. In the first incarnation I used a single 8-bit byte for each topic code, organised bitwise as AAABBBCC, where AAA represents the major category of the tree: 00100000 was a top-level category, 00100100 was a second-level category under that, and 00100101 was a third-level category. You can see that the system is limited to 7 top-level categories, 7 x 7 mid-level categories, and 7 x 7 x 3 third-level categories, for a grand total of 203 if the tree was filled evenly. In the second incarnation I realised that keeping the hierarchy information in the topic code byte itself was inefficient and so I made that a simple integer (extending the range of the system to 255 total categories) and made some other arrangement to store the category structure." "Treeboard, or BB as it was called on the system, also had quite an advanced user input routine. One could use line commands (pressing enter after each line) or one could press the key while the menu was being output, and cancel the menu and jump straight to the requested function. One could also string commands together in line-input mode, by separating them with semicolons." "Getting my Z80 software running on this system was quite an achievement for me; I did a direct instruction-by-instruction translation for the bulk of the code, and the operating system differences were handled by a compatibility layer." - Nick Andrew From Jason: The code below is not the exact original code that was written for the Heathkit, but it's the same author and a port, so it's the best we'll be seeing. Every indication is that Nick used most of his original code, anyway.
			Source and Info Files:	15
ACORN
	ARCHIMEDES
		ARCBBS
			Author:	Original Author Hugo Fiennes, Highly Customized Version by David Dade.
			Author Contacted:	E-mail discussions with Hugo F. regarding Acorn and general UK BBS History
			Additional Notes:	Hugo ran "The World of Cryton". There appear, at this point, to have been less than a dozen ARCBBSes run in total. At least one of them (The Arcade BBS at http://www.arcade.demon.co.uk/) is still running. "My arcbbs was the first multi-user system on acorns; one site ran with 16 lines I think, though 8 of these were telnet connections. I don't think there were more than 30 copies of arcbbs ever sold, but about 15 active BBSes sounds right." - Hugo Fiennes
		ARCHIBOARD
			Author:	Supreme Software Systems
			First Created:	October 15, 1995
			Versions:	1.0 (October 15, 1995)
			Additional Notes:	This software appears to have only been distributed as a demo and then sold commercially. This and the relatively small distribution of the Archimedes ensures that there weren't very many version out there at all.
			Source and Info Files:	2
		NFBBS
			Author:	Alex Howarth
			First Created:	July 5, 1995
			Additional Notes:	NewsFlash HH Edition is the latest release of this very powerful and flexible ANSI BBS software package for RISCOS machines. NFBBS is coded entirely in ARM code for speed. The powerful 'BASIC' like script language allows you to create any conceivable BBS system, the scripts are then compiled by the included compiler to ensure the system will run smoothly. The package includes a utility and door manager to allow easy updating and upgrading of your bulletin board. A demonstration bulletin board has been included with clearly commented scripts to allow you to get used to the software quickly. Full technical specifications and developers documents are included.
			Source and Info Files:	1
		RISCBBS
			Author:	Carl Declerck
			First Created:	November, 1991
			Source and Info Files:	1
		VHOST
			Author:	Gareth Babb (Port to Archimedes from James Coates and Hugo Fiennes)
			Source and Info Files:	1
	ATOM
	BBCMASTER
		ACMB (LATER KEYDATA)
		EBBS
		NBBS+2
		OBBS
			Author:	Rob O'Donnell
			Additional Notes:	Rob O'Donnell writes "Distributed by Pace Microsystems (Bradford, UK) for use with their 'Nightingale' modems. (So not sure I can provide source or anything, but might be able to check.) Was inspired by TBBS, for the Tandy, which was used by most of the BBSs I called at the time, but optionally provided 40 column Colour and block Graphics using the videotext graphics capabilities of the BBC micros. Used to run my own BBS on this, of course, but was used by many others in the UK, and in turn inspired a number of copy cats, including NBBS (Jon Freeman). Was partially compiled and compressed, and ran completely in memory on the BBC (about 20-odd K) and used floppy discs for data access only."
	BBCMICRO
		CARBBS
			Author:	Christopher Andrew Royle and Ashley Frieze
			Additional Notes:	"CARBBS stood for "Chris Andrew Royle Bulletin Board System". Ran on a BBC Micro, would even run just using floppy drives. Written in BASIC with bits of machine code in a complementary ROM. Notorious for dropping users into a BASIC prompt. System admin (sysop) interface was very clunky, people who ran CARBBS will have "fond" memories of the blue "waiting for call" screen. CARBBS was also one of the most popular BBC Micro bulletin board systems, if only for the amount of hacking and messing around you could do with the code to make it do your bidding." - Joel Rowbottom
			Source and Info Files:	1
		COMMUNITEL
			Additional Notes:	"CommunITel was a very basic bulletin board system - page display only, really. Ran from floppies. Commercial piece of software, common in schools and other educational establishments." - Joel Rowbottom
		EBBS
		FBBS
			Author:	Marc Anslem
			Additional Notes:	"Bits of FBBS started becoming VHost before Gareth Babb rewrote it completely." - Joel Rowbottom
		OBBS
			Author:	Rob O'Donnell
			Additional Notes:	Rob O'Donnell writes "Distributed by Pace Microsystems (Bradford, UK) for use with their 'Nightingale' modems. (So not sure I can provide source or anything, but might be able to check.) Was inspired by TBBS, for the Tandy, which was used by most of the BBSs I called at the time, but optionally provided 40 column Colour and block Graphics using the videotext graphics capabilities of the BBC micros. Used to run my own BBS on this, of course, but was used by many others in the UK, and in turn inspired a number of copy cats, including NBBS (Jon Freeman). Was partially compiled and compressed, and ran completely in memory on the BBC (about 20-odd K) and used floppy discs for data access only."
		PDHOST
			Author:	James Coates and Alistair Millard (Additions from Peter Shaw)
			Additional Notes:	Peter Shaw writes "I can help with the addition of info for PDHost on the BBC, not much info unfortunately but I was involved in the development and the system was originally written by James Coates and Alistair Millard. It was created to run `Procrastinaet BBS' which later became known as `Rudolphs Stable', this was in the Leominster area. I joined the team not long after with the attention of setting up and running `Electric Shed BBS' in the north east, but due to other commitments was unable to progress with this, so I restricted to advising on improvements to the software and helping with coding it. PDHost wasn't really a well known product, and to be honest I can't even recall any other people using it, other than the original 3. It was written mostly in BBC Basic on an unexpanded BBC B micro, and required a double sided disk to run, one side was the runtime code, the other side was the data system and page cache. With the addition of a second double sided disk, it was possible to offer more pages and a small file download area. The software was in use around about 1988 to 1990."
		PREMIERE
			Author:	Chris Andrew Royle
			Additional Notes:	"Premiere was what CARBBS became, from version 6 onwards. Network-compatible, although not many people really witnessed this, I only know one person who ran it. BBC Master-specific, with a slightly less clunky interface." - Joel Rowbottom
		VHOST
			Author:	Garth Babb
			Additional Notes:	"VHost was written for the BBC Micro by Gareth Babb, and was written in native 6502. Exceptionally fast, ran CCl4 in Hull before it moved to an Archimedes (the Archimedes version of VHost is still available and running http://www.ccl4.org/ which is accessible through a Java applet). Bits of VHost's file transfer ROM also made it into patches for CARBBS and later Premiere." - Joel Rowbottom This program was later ported to the Archimedes system.
	ELECTRON
APPLE
	CPM
		"Since CP/M was written to run on the Intel 8080 CPU (and, by extention, the Zilog Z80 CPU), Apple CP/M implies installing some sort of accessory card which provides this CPU. With this CPU card and supporting software, the Apple computer supplies the keyboard, display, mass storage and (in most cases) the working RAM to become a real Z80-based computer running the most popular 8-bit operating system ever devised." - John D. Baker
		DAISY
			Author:	Raymond Lowe
			Additional Notes:	The file system of Daisy (the Filer) was created by Dan Pun. Raymond Lowe is from Hong Kong. It may be difficult to get a copy of the software, or to reach him. - Jason
			Source and Info Files:	1
		ORACLE
			Author:	Ed Svoboda
	GS
		LITFAL
			Author:	Shawn P. Stanley
			First Created:	October 27, 1990
			Source and Info Files:	2
	II
		ABBS
			Author:	John Moon, later work by Thomas S. Warrick
			Additional Notes:	Also called "WAPABBS". Tom Warrick writes: "'ABBS' was the name of a program written not by me, but by an IBM employee named John Moon of Potomac, Maryland. In the early 1980's, before the IBM PC, John programmed large systems, and had one of the first Apple II's, one of which he used to run the bulletin board system for Washington Apple Pi (WAP), the local Apple computer user group in the Washington, D.C. area. IBM let him do this on the side, as it did not interfere with his, or IBM's, real line of business -- in those days. ABBS was written in Applesoft Basic and for the Hayes Micromodem II, which ran at 300 bps. John eventually had to move, and I volunteered to WAP President David Morganstern that I would take this on, provided, WAP paid for the second phone line into my townhouse in Chevy Chase, MD, which they were happy to do. "At first, I made only minor tweaks to John's code, but the demands of users for more features (like lower case!) and a desire to speed up certain functions led me to totally rewrite the code, writing most of it in Applesoft Basic and key modules in 6502 assembler. When the demand for Apple II BBS's increased, several people asked me to release this into the public domain. Washington Apple Pi put it on a diskette (5 1/4" in those days). I think that's the version you have. "Further demand for the program and the then-new Apple Computer, Inc. User Group program, then led by marketing expert Ellen Leanse, had me develop a fully documented version of the program. This was released under the title "WAPABBS" as a multi-disk set (still 5 1/4"). You can Google the word and it will return some hits, even today. "The end of WAPABBS came when the Apple II world moved towards the Apple Super Serial Card and the then-lightning speed of 1200 bps. Users were also demanding the ability to have error-correcting downloads. No one had at that time written an XMODEM protocol handler for the Apple II, which would have to have been written in 6502 assembler. These two tasks quickly became too time-consuming for me. One user, Paul Heller, challenged me to switch the Washington Apple Pi BBS to an IBM PC clone, for which commercial BBS software existed that supported both 1200 bps and XMODEM. For our user group, however, this was too close to heresy in 1985, and Heller went on to establish his own BBS, the Twilight Clone, and later became an extremely successful computer consultant and regional Internet Service Provider. I switched to the Macintosh in 1984 (and still have one). Washington Apple Pi developed the TeleCommunications System (TCS) as a multi-line, multi-computer network system in the late 1980's -- but this was the work of a dedicated team of about ten programmers and systems people. The days of a single-line, single-computer BBS were already lost in the mists of computer history."
			Source and Info Files:	2
		ACMENET
			Author:	Jory Anick, Richard Weinstock and Chris Thamm
			Author Contacted:	Jory Anick has written in, and gave this information.
			Software Website:	http://www.joryanick.com/werks.htm
			Additional Notes:	"AcmeNET BBS was a full-service high-performance system that offered message bases, x/y/zmodem file transfers and FIDO packet capability. Co-developed in Montreal by Jory Anick, Richard Weinstock and Chris Thamm around 1988, it was originally written and compiled using ACOS (Gbbs 1.3 compiler on apple //). At the time of its demise it had been recompiled using the taboo but incredibly fast "Metal" compiler, also referred to as "MACOS". AcmeNET ran OutCider BBS (514) for 3 years, and the source code was eventually sold off to a private party. Worth noting, AcmeNET was the first BBS software to offer full-screen navigation using Proterm Special Emulation (PSE)." - Jory Anick
		ACROPOLIS
			Author:	Ryan Gesler
			First Created:	v1.0 released in December 9, 1996, but worked on for years before
			Versions:	1.0 (Released on USENET by Frederick Gotfredson)
			Additional Notes:	Released by Fred Gotfredson, written by Ryan Gesler. This Apple II BBS program was billed as a work-in-progress that was being released simply because they had reached a critical mass in time and effort and decided to make sure the world got it. Files within the .SHK archive that was released by Fred Gotfredson in 1996 show some files going back to 1993. If the files inside are any indication, Acropolis BBS Software was in use from 1993 onwward on Ryan Gesler's BBS, "Apple Seeds". It appears to be a Citadel clone, which would make it rather unusual for the Apple II platform. Beyond that, the system appears to have inter-BBS networking capability with other Acropolis BBSes (that is, all the Acropolis BBSes call each other at 3am and transfer messages between each other).
			Source and Info Files:	11
		APPLENET
			Author:	Kevin D'Haeze, Larry Edwards, Erik Kloeppel, Derek Fong
			Source and Info Files:	6
		CITAMAD/LUMADEL
			Author:	Lum the Mad
			Additional Notes:	An implementation of Citadel software in Apple BASIC. Highly unlikely any more information will be found for it. Its main citation is the Citadel Family Tree, which has almost no information at all.
		COMMUNITREE
			Author:	John S. James (Programmer) Dean Gengle and Steven Stanford Smith (Manual)
			Source and Info Files:	5
		COMPUNET
			Author:	Brian J. Bernstein
			Additional Notes:	Brian J. Bernstein writes "This system was written with the //e in mind, as at the time of its development (June 1987 - March 1989) the //e was the ideal platform for running an Apple ][ BBS. The program works fine on a //c or IIgs, although their serial ports are not supported. For it to function properly on a IIgs, you must have an Apple Super Serial Card installed in place of the built-in serial port. Additionally, the program will run on a ][ or ][+ with an 80-column card, although the display may not always work correctly. This system had been used by several BBSs in the northern New Jersey area, including my own (naturally..) where the last system existed until around the summer of 1990."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		DDBBS
			Author:	Evan Molnar
			Additional Notes:	From RoadApples: "Evan Molnar, a sysop and programmer from Bridgewater, NJ has written a package which allows Apple systems to become part of this network. One of his two packages, Fruity Dog, is a set of modification files to the existing commercial BBS program, GBBS Pro (L&L Enterprises, Boulder, CO), and the associated software which connects the BBS to the network according to Fidonet communications standards, and handles translation of the incoming and outgoing message packets to the proper format. This package costs $60, and requires some familiarization with GBBS's integral compiler, ACOS. GBBS itself costs around $100. Fruity Dog will work with older versions of GBBS, back to at least version 1.3j, which I'm running. The current GBBS is version 2.1. As an alternative to GBBS, Evan has also written DDBBS, a package similar in construction, but vastly different in operation from GBBS. The package includes the Fruity Dog software installed. At $90 complete, it's a better deal for those that either don't own GBBS or have no interest in learning the GBBS programming language." Evan Molnar writes "(Regarding) DDBBSit was always maintained that although it ran under MACOS (a patched-up version of ACOS)I stated that in order to legally run it you needed to own GBBS/ACOS as well - ACOS was coded by Lance someone-or-other and was his intellectual property; my program being based on MACOS did not invalidate his claim to the IP rights of the base language in my opinion, and if my memory serves correctly was always stated in the documentation. BTW I have no idea where you got Bridgewater, NJ - the NJ part is correct but the only time I've been in Bridgewater was working there for a few years. When I was working on this stuff I wouldn't have even been able to tell you where Bridgewater was :)"
		DIVERSIDIAL
			Author:	Bill Basham
			Software Website:	http://www.ddial.com/
			Additional Notes:	Multi-line chat system for Apple IIs, required multiple phone lines. Very popular chat system starting in 1985, continues with a hard core group of folks at the website listed below (ddial.com). Later ported to IBM Compatibles. Daniel Bowers describes ddial this way: "DiversiDial (DDial) was software from 1984(?) by Bill Basham for the Apple ][ that allowed 7 modems to simultaneously connect to 1 computer to chat. It suppored 300 baud modems. One of the 7 'slots' could also be used to connect via POTS to other similar machines, yielding vast (for the time) networks of chat rooms that flourished in the US from 1985 - 1990 or so. It described itself as "CB for the computer". (In fact, you could jerry-rig the Apple's joystick port and get an 8th modem to work.) Many chat-related concepts we use today were found (but probably not invented) there -- emoticons, phreaking (to pay the horrendous phone bills), channel owners (called 'co's, actually short for co-sysop), etc." Jim Meyer says: " DiversiDial (DDial for short), an early Apple II CB simulator that worked by filling an Apple II with modems. Later versions could run across two machines, bridged by hardware, allowing 12 people (14 including both consoles) to chat at a time, as well as the ability to have one system call another and pass traffic between them (called "Links"). Most others charged flat rates of $15 or $20 per month; some had a basic and advanced price, differentiated by how long you could chat before "timing out" and being logged off, or how long you had to wait after timing out before you were allowed to log in again. The author, Bill Whose-last-name-I-forget, ran one or two in Houston, Texas; one of them, PennyNet, was so-named for its penny-a-minute rate. DDial was very popular in Texas in the mid-80s; there were DDials in Houston, Dallas, Austin, Corpus Christi. There was definitely one in Detroit, Michigan; I seem to recall other states as well, but not clearly. Before the linking feature was introduced, some users would call long distance to chat with people in other cities. This often led to long distance visits, parties, and romances (for myself included)."
			Source and Info Files:	8
		EBBS ][
			Author:	TFSP Systems (Joe Schober and Scott Sidley)
			First Created:	April 1993
			Additional Notes:	EBBS ][ (ModemWorks BASIC) was available for $120 from TFSP Systems.
		ECLIPSE
			Author:	Andrew Roughan and Richard Bennett
			First Created:	1990
			Additional Notes:	Released as Freeware in "the closest it will probably ever get to a final version" by Andrew Roughan in November of 1992.
			Source and Info Files:	12
		ELITE
			Author:	Robert K. Garth
			Additional Notes:	Vince Cooper writes "Robert K. Garth wrote 'Elite' BBS. This was the first, and to my knowledge only multi user BBS system for Apple IIs. It was quite a feat on those days to pull something like that off. Elite was also released into the public domain around 1989 by Mr. Garth." ~
		FREDMAIL
			Author:	Al Rogers (With Collaboration from Yvonne Andres)
			Software Website:	http://www.globalschoolnet.org/about/history.html
			Additional Notes:	Jacob Hunt writes: "I just wanted to let you know there was a BBS for the Apple // series of computers called FrEdMail, short for "Free Educational Mail."" "I was the assistant SysOp of the FrEdMail BBS in New Haven, CT long ago (1991?-1994?) before the network went down in the late 90's. The idea was multiple Apple // computers could form nodes and accept email bound for the Internet. Then, on a weekly or daily schedule (configurable) the BBS nodes would call up another node to exchange email. The nodes would cascade until the email reached a Unix computer connected to the Internet, and the email was sent out. Sometimes it took a week for an email to get to where it was going!" "The idea was to give email capabilities to those who could not afford Internet access back in the day when it all just cost so much."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		FRUITYDOG
			Author:	George Powell (Assisted by Evan Molnar)
			Additional Notes:	Evan Molnar says "First off, I would like to give credit where credit is due - the co-author of Fruity Dog was George Powell from Illinois, and it was actually his baby. I became involved by reading a message on a BBS asking for someone familiar with assembly/machine code to collaborate on the project. Thank God, George, and my parents for paying the hefty phone bills as I was 12 or 13 at the time :) The package was thoroughly tested and included a hefty amount of programming on both of our parts, and worked great at the time. There is no way it would have survived Y2K compliance as coded however."
			Source and Info Files:	3
		FUTUREVISION
			Author:	Joshua Thompson
			Additional Notes:	Software related in some fashion with "Metal BBS". Joshua Levitsky writes "You have that it was related to METAL. This is true. METAL was Mega Extensive Telecom Alternative Language. Basically The Captain made MACOS which was a hack on Acos that added arrays and better ways to compile all your scripts. Good debugging. When you bought Acos you get GBBS which was really not so wonderful but it got people going. MACOS got you able to do much more. But the creator of Acos did not really appreciate that people were running MACOS becuase most people would not actually buy Acos that ran MACOS. It was running many of the Apple II pirate boards. I actually bought a transfered license from someone for Acos to be legal. Anyways in an effort to avoid jail The Captain wrote METAL which had no code from Acos at all. (so far as we know).. but it had the same grammar for writing code. It had the arrays that MACOS gave us, and numbers could be as high as 8,000,000. (Acos only went to 32,000 in a variable.) So METAL was this wonderful thing as a compiler. It needed something to really demonstrate what it could do. So FutureVision was that thing. I ran Haz-Mat which was a FV board. I came to it after working some on OggNet which was a private network built off of GBBS boards. I helped fix some chunks of code in that. FV was very attractive because of FutureNet." "So FutureNet not only linked all the FVnet boards together for email / filemail / message boards, but it also gave us mail gateways to the internet and newsgroup gateways. METAL / FV boards were not really pirate boards the way that MACOS boards were. It was discussion that was the thing. We all enjoyed talking to one another and it gave us USENET access before most people had it so there were so many interesting academics on it and none of the garbage that pollutes the Internet today." "I miss the days spent writing this stuff. If I remember correctly I was the one that got filemail to work on FutureNet. Some silly boolean math error would make it so that the mail app wouldn't tell you that a file was attached. I spent the day figuring out boolean math in my parents house while in high school. In retrospect not so hard.. but back then it was problematic for me."
			Source and Info Files:	4
		GBBS
		GBBSPRO
			Author:	L&L Productions (Version 2.14)
			Source and Info Files:	5
		HBBS
			Author:	Matthew Dornquast (Mini Appler)
			Additional Notes:	Jeff Dell writes "HBBS was graphical BBS Software back in the 1985-1986 timeframe. I forget a lot about it, but it was cool for its time."
		HOPSCOTCH
			Author:	Eric Senior
			Author Contacted:	Eric wrote in with details!
			Additional Notes:	Eric T. Senior writes "I created this system when Jim Dixon told me a multi-user system could not be created for the Apple computer. Most old Hop users won't remember me by name, but remember my handle "Tyrian TDR". Development started in 1984 and the system first went on-line ~1985 (best guess). The system was run on an Apple IIe with a 1 Mb Ramworks card and LOTS of Super Serial Cards connected to 300-1200 baud modems. The system was developed entirely in assembly langauge (necessary due to the limited speed of the computer (.9MHz))." "The initial system allowed for a total of 7 users (6 remote, 1 console). A year or 2 later, I built a card that allowed 8 modems to be connected using only 1 slot (we called it the HopCard). The system allowed real-time chat, eMail and discussion boards." "The first, and largest install was Hop-KM (Kearny Mesa, a suburb in San Diego, CA). This system was Ron by Ron Donofero (aka "Yoda") and had 12 incoming lines. Ron was also a key participant in the development of the system. I went ahead and cc'd Ron on this mail hoping he might be able to add some additional information." "The second install was Hop-EC (El Cajon) that was run by Robert (aka SS Rat) and Mary (aka Love Goddess) Estes. Unfortunately, Robert passed away August 2002. The third install as Hop-PH (Paradise Hills) run by George and Judy Duchow." "I am fairly certain that all of the original source code is long gone."
		LOLA
			Author:	Jim Dixon
			Additional Notes:	Gary of hekal.org claims Jim Dixon wrote this software for the Apple II. Eric T. Senior writes "LOLA stood for Lambda-On-Line-Again. It was created by Jim Dixon (aka Lambda-Boy). It was run by Mike "Barney" Fishell out of his apartment in La Mesa, CA. The system was run on a PC that used a Menlo Park Phone Book to prevent the motherboard from shorting out on the bottom of the case. LOLA went on-line around 1983-1984 (if memory serves correct). A couple of years later, after LOLA, LISA came on-line (Lambda-Is-Still-Around)."
		MAGIC CITY MICRO BBS
			Author:	David M. Alden
			Versions:	4.1 (June 26, 1987)
			Additional Notes:	The software was sold around 1989-1990 to Niagara Software, who used it as the base for the Vantage BBS software. At that time, the MCM software was listed as belonging to "Softools, Inc."
			Source and Info Files:	3
		METALBBS
			Additional Notes:	Software is related in some fashion with "Futurevision".
			Source and Info Files:	11
		NETWORKS II
			Author:	Nick Naimo
			Source and Info Files:	1
		NEXUS
			Additional Notes:	The main citation for the existence of this software is a posting in a mailing list by Mike Szewczyk saying he wants a copy for his Apple II. (1998)
		PBBS
			Author:	John Pechacek
			Additional Notes:	John Pechacek writes ""Apple-Net" was written from scratch in 1982 to run the Safehouse BBS on an Apple II+ with two disk drives and a Novation Apple-Cat 300 bps modem (the software was written to mimmick my favorite BBSes like Loki's Corner and Mario's Hideout both in Minnesota running on the "Net-Works" BBS software). In 1984 I had to change the name to PBBS (Personal BBS) since the old name was obviously a major trademark infringement. This version of the software was bought by a few hundred Sysops around the U.S. and Canada. It was single-CPU only running on Apple DOS 3.x. By 1985 Safehouse ran on Apple's new ProDOS and was multi-CPU (4 phone lines at 2400 bps, 4 Apple //e's) networked through a massive(!) Corvus 45 meg hard drive using shared memory and semaphores on the hard drive to allow user's to see who's online and initiate multi-user chat to other users. This version of the software was called PBBS Pro and several customers had paid in advance for a copy. However after weeks of troubleshooting and support calls to Apple developer support I was unable to secure a fix for a fatal bug in Apple ProDOS that caused it to spontaneously crash at seemingly random times (I think it was a memory leak or buffer overflow). I knew I could not ship the software with that flaw so I canned the product, sent the checks back, and never developed Apple software again. I think Safehouse went off the air shortly thereafter."
		PEPSI
			Additional Notes:	Stands for "(P)roterm (E)mulation (P) (S)pecial (I)".
			Source and Info Files:	20
		PEOPLE'S MESSAGE SYSTEM (PMS)
			Author:	Bill Blue
		PRIME
			Author:	Version 1 by Robert K. Garth; Version 2 by Vince Cooper. Some routines contributed by John Hagen (Prime: Second Edition).
			Versions:	2.2 (Released October, 1989)
			Additional Notes:	From the PRIME Manual Version 2.2: "We would like to say Thank You for purchasing PRIME. We think you will find you now have the most advanced and comprehensive bulletin board software currently available for the Apple ][ computer series. The new PRIME offers options and control found in no other system currently published. If so desired, the system can virtually operate itself, with minimal intervention, thus freeing the system operator for more important tasks. The software includes a state-of-the-art line editor for generic terminal bulletin board systems, as well as automated board and menu generators, simplifying the expansion of any system. Of course, with all of these features, new system operators should plan on spending quite a few hours getting used to the system, and mastering all of its operations. In general, we would recommend that you spend approximately 20 hours working with the software before you open your new system to the public or your organization." Vince Cooper writes "Prime Version 1 was written by Robert K. Garth. Version 2 was written by me. I sold the software to Daniel Haynes in 1989 when I moved on to TML Systems and got out of the BBS business. John 'Softy' Hagan write some simple Applesoft Basic modifications to the program." Daniel Haynes purchased the software to release the code to the Public Domain.
			Source and Info Files:	14
		PROLINE
			Author:	Morgan Davis Group (V2.0)
			Software Website:	http://www.morgandavis.net/portfolio/mdg/
			Additional Notes:	From the excellent overview website: ProLine was the first communications product to truly link Apple II computers to the Internet (known as ARPANET back in the mid 1980s). Users connected via modem to exchange email and Usenet news. ProLine was essentially a version of Unix for the Apple II in less than 48K of memory. By the time I was 30, ProLine had consumed a third of my life. The leading Apple II and Macintosh magazine, inCider/A+, awarded ProLine five full stars in the December 1992 issue, stating, "ProLine is as powerful as many UNIX minicomputer-based systems, yet amazingly, it runs on a standard Apple II. ProLine is top-notch. You can run ProLine as an independent on-line system, but it gains a new world of capabilities if you network it with other systems." Hundreds of ProLine systems were scattered around the globe with sites running in every major country. This contribution to computer users of all denominations brought me more pleasure than notoriety or riches. The highly-respected Boardwatch Magazine (June 1991) admitted, "ProLine is a network of Apple II systems that are not only tied to each other, but routinely carry Internet News Groups . . . something we just didn't expect. The speed and power of this BBS running on an Apple II were quite impressive." ProLine shipped on two 3.5" 800K disks and originally sold for $259.95 -- a lot of money even today for an application. It consisted of scores of BASIC programs that presented a surprisingly accurate Unix-like environment, complete with a scriptable C-shell and online "man" pages. To produce a nice printed manual, I had to learn the PostScript language -- an investment that paid off again a dozen years later when it came time to make a PDF file out of the online manual. My own ProLine system, named pro-sol, operated continuously for over 12 years. In the mid 90s, it interfaced via serial cable to a PC running FreeBSD Unix, connected to the Internet via ISDN. Through that box, you could actually telnet into ProLine. I took it down in 1996 when we moved to a new home and decided not to keep it going. Incredibly, some people are still running ProLine systems today, nearly 20 years after its inception. Excerpt from the author's personal note on page 4: "I started writing a BBS for my brand new Apple IIe, because there were no bulletin board systems that supported my modem back then ... ProLine introduced me to many friends and acquaintances, some long forgotten, but many who are good friends today. It allowed me to start my own software business, and helped me buy my first home. It was the reason that I met Dawn, sysop of pro-simasd. We married a couple of years later and have two wonderful kids!" You've heard about people meeting on the Net and falling in love. I always thought they were kooky, until I realized that's exactly what happened to me, long before anyone had heard of web surfers and cyberspace. But, that's a story for another page. My fondest memory of working on ProLine was in 1984 when Joe Holt, who wrote code for Beagle Bros, Adobe, and now Apple Computer, spent the summer at my house. He stayed up all night hacking away on ProLine, then would turn over his work and notes (in email) to me the next day to continue coding in between college classes. I'd pass the token to him that evening, and on it went for several weeks. (Trivia: Joe was best man at my wedding in 1990.) ProLine inspired several other MDG products: ModemWorks, AmperWorks, OMM, and especially MD-BASIC. These started out as technologies used internally, only to be fashioned into commercial-grade, stand-alone products upon which ProLine depended.
			Source and Info Files:	5
		PROVING GROUNDS
			Source and Info Files:	3
		PSEUDODEL
			Author:	Shadow Warrior
			Additional Notes:	Pseudodel, a derivative of Citadel for the Apple, originally started out in April of 1985 as a program that looked more like Apple-Net than Citadel. It had a menu-based structure with a very extensive "main menu" and a rather rudimentary set of board commands. In July of 1985, since the message subsystem needed some more commands for more flexibility, the basic New, Old, Forward, Reverse, and Goto commands were added, and the message section was revised to take out some of the "klunkiness". By the end of the summer, many of the basic single-key commands of Citadel were in place, although from a sysop's point of view, the system was a bit difficult to run. (For example, old messages from each room had to be removed by hand with an editing program. Each room had a separate message file, and rooms had to be created and edited by hand.) That fall, changes were made to make things easy for the sysop and aides, such as implementing a common message file that automatically deleted the oldest messages to make room for new messages. By January of 1986, the program had reached most of its present form. There are four current operating nodes of Pseudodel. Second City, the oldest, started on April 7th, 1985 as Splinter of the Mind's Eye BBS. It has been rather popular since that time, although most of the users come from other Twin Cities boards and not from the Citadels. Wolf's Den, the second site, started in February of 1986 with Cryo Ruggie as the sysop. It has been popular with a younger crowd and it has gained a reputation for laid-back activity and occasional ruggishness. Pavilion of Dreams went up in June of 1986 with The Saint as sysop. It went down in March of 1987, but it is now back up. Pavilion of Dreams has been a place of serious discussion and reflection of life, and one of the features is a "friends list" -- users may post their phone numbers on a list of "friends", and when they do so they can get access to the list. Aaron Propes put up a fourth node of Pseudodel, called The Monastery, in January of 1987, but the system has not been up very much because of modem problems and abusive users.
			Source and Info Files:	1
		ROCKTALK
			Additional Notes:	Mark Hetke (who was one of the few folks who ran ROCKTALK) writes in "RockTalk was written in AppleSoft BASIC w/ a binary sitting underneath to handle the modem and other aspects.. The underlining binary was later shows to be "borrowed" from TProBBS, I don't remember the version. You should contact the author of TProBBS for more info, Guy probably remembers the various versions. The BBS itself was designed to focus support on the Apple II platform by supporting the various Apple special characters and codes to move the cursor around the screen. It included games, a t (text) files section, message boards, and the ever present file download section.. (including ratio's and special restrictions on a per user basis.) Not many systems used this, I only know of 3 or 4 of them. I ran it for about a year of my BBSes existance. (Prior was Pseudodel and post was TProBBS 4)."
		SNAPP
			Additional Notes:	Spelled "SnAPP", created by Rusty Hodge of Hodge Computer Research in Orange County, California.
		TELECAT
			Additional Notes:	Jeff Dell writes "Tele-cat // 2.0 : Novation Apple-cat bbs software. It was written by: The Electron, Guillotine, I forget the others.. it has been too long, They all lived in Palos Verdes, CA. At the time, it was one of the best Bulletin Board Software around and it was Free."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		TNET
		TPRO
			Author:	Guy T. Rice
			Software Website:	http://www.aurum-industries.com/~guy/apple2/
			Additional Notes:	Mark Hatle says "There were two versions of TPro both written by Guy T. Rice. (Do a google search and you can find him around still.. he's works for a company in St. Cloud MN now.) The "older" version reminded me of a "standard" BBS.. not really based on anything, it has T-files, file transfers, etc.. (but I had limited experience with it.) The "newer" version of TPro was based on all new code and the message system looked like the older TPro as well as Citidel (or Pseudodel). It has rudementry message networking, and I even wrote a (read-only) usenet gateway based off of a VAX connection a friend had at a local university."
		UNIVERSAL
			Author:	Universal Computers, Highland Park, IL
			Additional Notes:	"Email, message boards, date matching program, various text based games, text file downloads/uploads, individual user names/pw's, user limits (upload/download quotas, time use limit, day limits, etc.), links to external programs (vis a vis 'Doors'), user permission levels, Sysop paging, ability to see both sides of the communication in realtime (system console keyboard was always active - which made possible a so-called "AI Module")... Written in Applesoft BASIC. Interfaced with any Hayes compatible modem. I ran it with a Novation Apple Cat (1200 baud) and later upgraded to a US Robotics 2400 baud Courier modem. Software cost was about $149 - they gave you the source and a nice notebook-sized manual... 5.25" disks..." - David S. Greenberg
		VANTAGE
			Author:	Kerry Simmons of Niagara Software
			Additional Notes:	Vantage BBS started as a new version of MCM (Magic City Micro) BBS software. Niagara Software purchased the rights to MCM from SofTools, Inc. and renamed it Vantage BBS. - From the release
			Source and Info Files:	1
		VINYAMICIL (VM)
			Author:	Mike Owen
			Additional Notes:	"VinyaMacil (VM) is a ModemWorks-based bulletin board system for the Apple II series of computers. Originally based on Telecat software, VM has maintained its linear approach to messages, files, and electronic mail, while evolving each of these areas into easy-to-use, fast, and powerful modules. Behind the scenes, the sysop has a plethora of functions at his disposal to make running the VM system a snap." In his call for beta testers, author Mike Owen indicates he had been working on VMBBS for 5 years as of February of 1991.
			Source and Info Files:	6
		WAPABBS
			Author:	John Moon, later Tom Warrick
			Additional Notes:	Also called ABBS. Named after the Washington Apple Pi user's group, from Washington, DC.
		WARPSIX
			Author:	Jim Ferr
			Additional Notes:	Warp Six BBS public domain version 2.0. Requires a IIgs or IIe Enhanced with 80 column card, and a Hayes or compatible external modem. Added high speed modem support with hardware handshaking to 19200 bps. Warp Six is a full featured bulletin board program that is easy to use and modify. Source code also available. Written by Jim Ferr. Released April 22, 1993.
			Source and Info Files:	25
	MACINTOSH
		FBBS
			Versions:	There was a 0.91, apparently.
			Additional Notes:	Unfortunately, only a FidoNet communications document mentions FBBS for Macintosh and I'm having a lot of trouble finding it.
		FIRSTCLASS
			Author:	SoftArc
			Additional Notes:	Karl Eisenhower writes "First Class: First Class was the first GUI BBS software that approached the refinement of AOL. Unlike clunky software that relied on the RIP protocol (like Excalibur), First Class had a full-blown graphical client that looked clean and functioned smoothly. It started out as a Macintosh-only product in 1993 or 1994, but soon added a Windows client. I don't think they ever made a non-Mac server, though. The software was developed by a Toronto-based company whose name escapes me at the moment." "The software worked so well that a startup in Springfield, Virginia called "DigitalNation" hoped to use it to build an AOL competitor, and until the Web took hold, they seemed to be building a significant customer base for their First Class-based online service/community. DigitalNation morphed into a Web hosting outfit that is now part of NTT/Verio. My guess is that if you talk to the "dedicated hosting" group at NTT/Verio, you'll be able to track down the principals of DigitalNation to find out more about their business."
		HERMES
			Software Website:	http://www.hermesii.org
			Additional Notes:	"Hermes II is a full-featured general purpose Macintosh BBS. It allows simultaneous operation of 10 dial-in, network or local connections. It will operate on all CPU types from a Mac Plus to a Power Mac running System 6.0.5 or newer. Hermes general configuration consists of message conferences, file transfer sections, E-Mail, a general text library and provisions for external applications. No special client software is required for users to connect to Hermes, and communications applications from virtually any computer type can connect to the BBS."
			Source and Info Files:	3
		HIBBS
			Author:	XBR Communication, Inc.
			Source and Info Files:	1
		MACADEL
			Author:	Michelle Hoyle (Sifu)
		MACCITADEL
			Author:	Glen Heinz
			Source and Info Files:	1
		MANSION
			Author:	Mark Toland, as well as James Podlasek and Jim Creighton (aka Zsys)
			Additional Notes:	This from the description of Mansion 1.956: "Mansion 1.956 - Until the release of Mansion 9.1.1, the Mansion BBS software has been a commercial product. Mansion is a FULL featured BBS system, completely configurable, including a full scripting language allowing you to customize your BBS System to almost anything you want. Mansion BBS is highly supported anis used throughout the world. Mansion is an excellent choice for businesses, public systems, Fidonet, and much more. Mansion was changed to shareware with the only restriction being that you are limited to 2 users until you register your copy."
		MUBBS
			Author:	Bill Currie
			Versions:	1.1 (November 27, 1992)
			Additional Notes:	"MUBBS is a BBS program that run on all Macintoshes from the Mac Plus onward (although I have heard people claim that it will run on a 512K as well). It's highly configurable with an easy-to-use graphic interface for all computer users! However, it's not a plug-and-play typical Mac program. For those who were frustrated with the first version (0.5), you'll be pleased to know that this version contains a few bug fixes, some new utilities, a text editor, and more detailed documentation. "There is lots of support available for MUBBS, including many new modules. Most of them are available on AOL or on the MUBBS support BBS (The number is listed in the file). Best of all, MUBBS is FREEWARE! To my knowledge, it is the only available free BBS program for the Mac." - Bill Currie
			Source and Info Files:	2
		NOVALINK
			Author:	ResNova Software (Mark Weaver and Alex Hopmann)
			First Created:	1987
			Versions:	Version 1.0 appx 1987, rev'd through 1990 or so
			Additional Notes:	"Early use of threaded message trees, good basic text editor, resembling vi/emacs/TNET's editor. also could take advantage of special terminal software, "NovaTerm" (Mac only) that used icons, clickable links, etc. This was a huge step, as Berners-Lee and the world found out four years later. :-)" - D. Andrew Reynhout
		PANCAKE
			Author:	Darrell Turner (Ferrari)
			Additional Notes:	"Pancake is a shareware bbs system that supports UUCP mail and news, POP/SMTP, chatting, and telnet, among other things. It will run on virtually any Mac and is exceptionally well behaved." There is a BBS running Pancake 1.3 at obsolyte.com. (Specifically, telnet to 24.18.96.16) The author, Darrell Turner, writes "The basic story of Pancake was I had used Waffle on a MS-DOS based bbs we ran in High School. I tried Hermes, but was unhappy with it's USENET support, and so I wrote Pancake, the Mac version of Waffle, with a little bit of Telegard and WWIV/Hermes through in. I started when I was 17, and when I was 19 I decided to serve a mission for my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and when I returned, everyone has realtime internet access (not UUCP like before), and BBS's were on the outs. I never finished Pancake entirely, it's has file downloads but for uploads it needs the Communication Toolbox (which barely works)..."
			Source and Info Files:	5
		PRECISION SYSTEMS
			Additional Notes:	Used by the Adam's Apple BBS (Sysop: Peter Broadribb) in 1992, in Australia. Used in 1994 at Macatastrophe (Sysop: Spudly). Could interface with FidoNet in some fashion.
		PUBLICADDRESS
			Author:	Colen Garoutte-Carson and Greg Oberfield
			Additional Notes:	Colen Garoutte-Carson writes "There were some interesting stories regarding the development of Public Address BBS. At one time Lloyd Woodall, who purchased Hermes BBS from the author Frank Price, filed a lawsuit against me and Robert Rebbun, accusing us of stealing source to Hermes for use in PA. This was completely false, and was probably meant to scare me. Lloyd spent tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers, for a lawsuit that was eventually abandoned. (I spent nothing, so I figure I won.) The fact of the matter was that Lloyd had incorporated source code I had written (as Hermes external modules) directly into Hermes (my `Quoter' module, specifically). Robert Rebbun had previous worked for Lloyd, and had overseen the incorporation of my code into Hermes. I suppose after Lloyd and Robert had their `falling out', Lloyd suspected (and accused) the worst. Though, being a purist, and a very talented programmer, I would never have been interested in incorporating any technology from such an inferior product. " "Another interesting note was that, when I began writing Public Address, my initial co-author (Greg Oberfield) and I were invited to a visit a friend/customer of ours in Sunnyvale, CA, Martin Minoque. Martin was an employee at Apple. He convinced Greg and I to start developing our own BBS software. Learning of our plans, a group at Apple contacted us, interested in our ideas. Greg later took a job at Apple."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		RED RYDER
			Author:	Scott Watson
		SECONDSIGHT
			Author:	Scott Watson (Version 3.0 by Jeff Dripps)
			Additional Notes:	Second Sight is the new name for the Red Ryder BBS software.
			Source and Info Files:	1
		STARBASE7
			Author:	Ray Arachelian
			Additional Notes:	The general rule with software in this directory is that it had to be distributed and released to be added (otherwise, I'd have many, many custom versions of BBSes and never-released one-offs), but Mr. Arachelian was kind enough to include not just the package, but a large description of it, and he likely really intended to release it someday....
			Source and Info Files:	2
		TELEFINDER
			Author:	Created by Rusty Tucker (Spider Island Software)
			Software Website:	http://tfbbs.com/
			Additional Notes:	TeleFinder is a Macintosh BBS program that features a special graphical client for Mac and IBM (DOS) to interface with the BBS. It appears to be possible to interact with the BBS using a command-line connection, however. The BBS is still being commercially sold by Headgap Systems, who have taken it over from Spider Island Software. Daniel O'Leary writes in "Rusty currently works for Apple Computer, and as such, had to drop support for TF, probably as a condition of his employment. Rather than kill the product outright, he transferred the ability to sell it to Bob Nunn. Another programmer who worked on TeleFinder was Chris Silverberg. Chris previously created set of small programs that allowed TeleFinder to support the Taby Fidonet Mailer, as well as some other useful utilities. After he was hired by Rusty, Chris revamped the mail capabilities into a separate server program that could handle third-party mailers, such as Tabby, MacKennel, as well as SMTP and POP 3 based internet mail and of course, mail between local users. I think that Chris also added the styled text and speech support to the TeleFinder GUI clients for use in Multi-user chat. The styled-text feature also works for mail between users of TF systems, if their accounts are not configured to use POP3. Chris was also involved in CU-SeeMe, the Cornell University video based chat system, which is where he originally developed some of the TF chat enhancements. Chris is now working for Alladin Software." The credits for TeleFinder Server 5.7.3 give the following credits for TeleFinder: "Software by Rusty Tucker, Chris Silverberg, Jim White, and Bart Zandbergen. Technical writing and editing by Sharon Phillips. Package design and Spider Island "Mander" logon by Drew Dougherty."
			Source and Info Files:	2
		WWIV
			Author:	Terry Teague (Ported Original Software)
			Author Contacted:	Mail sent to Terry, inviting him to be interviewed. Neat site!
			First Created:	1986, maintained for "a number of years"
			Software Website:	http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/1057/atplay.html
			Additional Notes:	From the Author's Home Page: "In 1986 when I moved to the U.S., the Macintosh had been released two years earlier, and the online scene was starting to take off, yet there was little communications software available (Red Ryder by Scott Watson of FreeSoft, Inc. was the major package of the day; Red Ryder BBS later became Second Sight). I ported the popular WWIV BBS software for the PC (by Wayne Bell, who has now sold the rights to WWIV Software Services), to the Macintosh. I maintained and supported WWIV Mac BBS for a number of years, but it suffered from a poor port, and eventually another WWIV BBS clone, Hermes (by Frank Price of AOC Software, who sold the rights to Lloyd Woodall of Computer Classifieds, who marketed it as Hermes II), took over the Macintosh market, so I stopped supporting WWIV Mac BBS."
ATARI
	400/800
		ABBCS/BBCS (Bulletin Board Construction Kit)
			Additional Notes:	"The ANTIC Bulletin Board Construction Set. The user design of the ABBCS was very good. It sported features such as intra-line editors. Unfortunately, the coding of the ABBCS was really poor. You could practically blow on your keyboard and crash this BBS. The BBS would sometimes crash several times a day." - Atari FAQ
			Source and Info Files:	8
		AMIS
			Additional Notes:	The AMIS BBS was written in BASIC by people from the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts. It included designs for a ring-detector. You needed a sector editor and had to allocate message space by hand, hex byte by hex byte.
			Source and Info Files:	7
		ARMUDIC
			Author:	Frank Huband
			Additional Notes:	Greg Leslie writes "It was written (in BASIC with machine language subroutines) by Frank Huband, and the name came from the numbers used to dial the original BBS, which I believe was in Virginia -- (703) 568-8305. I adapted the software and ran a BBS called GREKELCOM in Oklahoma City for many years -- one of the first Atari BBS's in the state."
		ATKEEP
			Author:	Brent Barrett
			Additional Notes:	"An Atari 8-bit version of CITADEL BBS. I believe that AT-KEEP, like FOREM-XE, requires the use of the commercial BASIC XE cartridge to run. This BBS program was very popular around Louisiana, USA, from what I understand." - Atari FAQ Brent Barrett, newly out of high school and *very* interested in the new telecommunications world he had found, discovered a "different" type of BBS. This BBS was called a "Citadel" and it was such a unique experience for him that he decided he just *had* to have it for his machine. Owning only a TI-99/4A and an Atari 800Xl, he opted for the Atari, since he had more support hardware for that machine. Spending hours, even days at a time coding the original "shell" of the BBS, he sprang forth with MBBBS version 1.0 on March 24th, 1986.
			Source and Info Files:	7
		BBSEXPRESS
		BBS EXPRESS PRO!
			Author:	Orion Micro Systems
			Additional Notes:	"PRO! BBS demo program. This is the public domain version of EXPRESS!-BBS, which is the Keith Ledbetter companion project of the EXPRESS!-TERM terminal program of days gone by. I am not familiar with this program. I think that it is written in Action! and only supports XMODEM Checksum transfers. I have never called or seen this program demonstrated." - Atari FAQ "Probably the most powerful BBS program ever written for the Atari 8 bit series: Supported DOOR Programs (Games and other cool things), a fully networked message system with fmail, rivaling fidonet is power and stability, high speed modem support, YMODEM batch, FMODEM, and even ZMODEM support. Also supported QWK offline message downloads through a door program, good hard drive support, non fixed forum and filebase sizes, ATASCII, ASCII, *AND* ANSI/VT102 colour support. Also had a built in full screen editor with addressable cursor, even over the modem to a straight ascii terminal! A good frined of mine did some door and QWK development for this BBS package, and ran it unitl well into the mid ninties. His BBS (Billy Bob's Attic, 201-358-1276, which appears in your bbs listing) ran this sw. I was the co-sysop a long time ago, when I was much less tall than I am now ;) This package was so good (for its time anyways) that it was ported to the PC. The version for the PC had a different name but was both visually and funcitionally identical." - Anthony Iannone
			Source and Info Files:	7
		CARINA
			Author:	The Shadow and Shadow Software
			Additional Notes:	"CARINA BBS (telecommunications) Carina Software Systems, 12390 57th Road North, Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411, (305) 793-2792, $69.95, 48K disk "This expandable, module-based bulletin board software package is written in understandable BASIC and includes XMODEM upload/download transfer protocol, message editor with word processor-like functions and a total of 44 commands, including 17 sysop functions. It operates at 300, 1200 or 2400 baud and works with most DOSs and BASICs." - ANTIC Magazine, October 1986
			Source and Info Files:	3
		CARNIVAL
			Additional Notes:	"Carnival software is essentially AMIS with an overlay to allow for private messages and passwords. It's no longer available from regular sources, but presumably could be obtained from a private owner. Carnival fell from wide usage because it demands a large amount of disk space and requires every bit of memory your system has." - Atari Magazine
		FASTAMIS
			Additional Notes:	From ANTIC Magazine Volume 3 Number 9: "Fast AMIS has built-in modem commands for a Hayes Smartmodem. It requires some modification to run with an MPP, Signalman Mark 7 or Mark 12 modem. Fast AMIS requires a different method of auto-answer than other BBS programs, and demands a different setting of the modem's internal DIP switches. Fast AMIS is one of the easiest programs to run because it's virtually self-maintained. Message files compact automatically. The program does not require a printer on-line as FOREM does, and the only jobs the sysop must perform are erasing the caller log and rotating uploads and downloads regularly. Fast AMIS is available for downloading from the Valley Girl BBS at least once a week or by request."
		FOREM
			Additional Notes:	Friends of Rick E. Moose BBS. At the time, there were a lot of BBSes around called things such as "FORUM-80" and "BULLET-80", ergo the name. FoReM BBS was the first truly RBBS-like BBS for the ATARI 8-bit. It was programmed in BASIC and was somewhat crashy. Matt Singer writes: FoReM BBS derived from an early AMIS. When multiple message areas were added the name was extended to FoReM 26M. Then, When OSS released BASIC XL the program was rehacked and called FoReM XL... Bill Dorsey wrote most of the Assembler routines (where is he now?). Philip Lozier writes: "Rick E. Moose [was] the mascot of Wally World in which Chevy Chase and family were traveling to in the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation"."
			Source and Info Files:	1
		FOREM-XE
			Additional Notes:	"FOREM using BASIC XE. This version of FOREM BBS requires the commercial BASIC XE cartridge in order to run. It is in the public domain and can import and export messages from the Atari PRO! BBS EXPRESS-NET (7-bit text only, control ATASCII graphics are reserved for message data-structure bytes). FOREM-XE BBS is still currently in use as we speak, and may be reached via the PRO! EXPRESS-NET as long as the cross-networking "transnet" is still in effect." - Atari FAQ Forem-XE Pro is a public domain BBS program, being a rewrite of Matt Singer's original FoReM XE BBS. My first experience with it was late 1989, when version 4.5 had just been released. When I finally purchased a Basic XE cartridge and upgraded my 800XL to 256k, I was finally able to switch over from the old Oasis Jr. program to FXEP. What impressed me about it was the ability to run external programs and then return right where it left off, plus the message networking on this system was second to none, with information stored in the message data that allowed complete threading of messages and replies across different systems. There were also several excellent online games written for it, incuding Darel Schartman's 'Horror Castle', probably the best 'haunted house' game ever written for an Atari 8-bit BBS. The core of the BBS was the Automatic Modem Processor (AMP). This machine language core handled the sysop display screen, X/Ymodem block transfers, word-wraps and page-breaks on text files and messages, and was the main "traffic cop" for all I/O, automatically opening and closing the modem channel as needed, as well as watchdogging the carrier. By version 4.8, the program had outgrown even the extended memory capability of Basic XE, and the file transfer section was spun off into its own module. Version 5.0 saw AMP rewritten, tightening some of the code, especially the modem output. The last released version, 5.4, saw TWO versions of AMP, one for the SIO modem interfaces, the other for the PBI interfaces. The PBI version especially was optimized for 19.2k port speed. In the main program, some Basic routines were replaced with machine code, which speeded some functions up considerably. - Len Spencer
			Source and Info Files:	4
		FRANKWALTERS
			Additional Notes:	"I know nothing about this BBS except that Frank Walters wrote it." - Atari FAQ I am coming rapidly to the conclusion this was a one-off custom BBS software run by Frank Walters and no one else. - Jason
		MACEAMIS
			Additional Notes:	From ANTIC Magazine Volume 3 Number 9: "MACE stands for Michigan Computer Enthusiasts. And this large users group makes the software available from the Main MACE and MACE West boards at least twice weekly. It's a good idea to call ahead and find out what nights AMIS will be offered."
		MARSHWARE (MADRONNA MARSH)
			Additional Notes:	Brian A. Diaz writes "Just as I was thinking back on the old days of BBSing and doing some research, I came across your page and saw the entry for Marshware BBS. "In actuality the original version of the program was called Marsh BBS and was written by Matt Arrington (longtime contributor to Antic! magazine and creator of one or more versions of the the ProTerm telecommunications software for the Atari 1030 modem. He made the Marsh BBS program available for a very reasonable price at the time (around 1985 I think I paid about $24.95 for the two diskette set). "I was about 13 years old and went to his apartment, as I lived in the same city as him (Torrance, CA), to purchase the program. He was still debugging it and I went back one more time for him to update my disk with proper coding. The program was primarily written in Machine language and was a great BBS program. It was very structured and very customizable at the same time. You could always tell when you were on a Marsh BBS but each one had it's own unique flavor. "One of the classic Atari BBS sites of the time that used the Marsh BBS were "Fort Mac" run by Sarge (out of Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, CA). I also ran a few versions of the Marsh BBS that some people may remember; "Dodge City", then finally "The Farm". My handle at the time was Farmer John. "He actually gave his BBS its name after a natural untouched marsh that still sits in the middle of Torrance, CA, called the Madrona Marsh. Hence his BBS, The Madrona Marsh. "At any rate thanks for your time. The good old 8-bit days seem to have been a lifetime ago."
		NITELITE
			Additional Notes:	"Paul Swanson's BBS with RAM disk. Paul Swanson was a programmer from the Boston, Massachusetts, USA, area. I'm not sure whether his BBS for the Atari 8-bit has been placed into the public domain or not. This BBS was the first to support a RAMdisk, which Paul Swanson called a "V:" device for "virtual disk". This BBS was written in Atari BASIC and required a joystick hardware "dongle" device. This was notable as being one of the first Atari 8-BIT BBSes that could actually go for a week without having to be rebooted. Pointers to the message base were kept in an Atari "very long string" (for which Atari BASIC is famous). The BBS would only have problems (for the most part) if this string became corrupted." - Atari FAQ Steve Richardson writes "I wanted to provide some additional info for your big BBS list about an Atari 8-bit BBS called "Nitelite," which I ran (sporatically) and modified (extensively) from 1986-1989." "Paul Swanson was indeed the author. He was located in Billerica, MA." "The software was not RAMdisk-centric, as the description seems to indicate. Later versions may have supported RAMdisks natively, but I don't recall any version that I ran inherently doing them. I recall hacking RAMdisk support into the BBS myself somewhere along the way." "The software was indeed written in Atari BASIC. The "dongle" which the description mentions was actually not meant for security, but it was a "ring detector." The mid-life Atari 300bps modems (1030, and later XM301) did not have the capability to detect the phone ringing. When you ran a BBS using one of these modems, you needed to plug the dongle (which Paul included when you bought the software) from the phone line to the joystick port. This allowed the computer to detect when the phone was ringing, which would cause it to instruct the modem to pick up and offer a carrier tone." "I was later (1987-1988ish) the (un-)lucky owner of an early Atari 1200 baud modem, which was their first offering that supported normal Hayes modem commands and did ring detection. I recall that the BBS author had no interest in offering support for this modem, so I hacked support for that as well. This finally allowed me to get rid of that silly dongle device." "I shared a version of Nitelite with the above and several other modifications with the only other Worcester-area licensed Nitelite SysOp I knew. We re-branded it "NL/PRO BBS" (Nitelite Pro) and ran it on several of our own short-lived BBSes."
		OASISIV
			Author:	Z INNOVATORS (Including Glenda Stocks)
			Additional Notes:	"There is a commercial version of OASIS called "OASIS IV" that performs networking. There was an OASIS network between Boston, Massachusets, USA and Murfreesboro(SP?), Tennessee, USA. Occasionally word of the OASIS IV developers reaches the network from New Zealand or Canada." - From the Atari FAQ " OASIS IV supports networking. I assume that OASIS IV works much the same way OASIS JUNIOR III does. I don't know what became of OASIS IV as all work seemed to be halted on it once myself and other callers to OASIS BBSes made disparaging comments about how difficult the OASIS file libraries were to use. We were called ungrateful Atarians (which we were). Work in the USA was halted and the program was sold to someone overseas." - Winston Smith "OASIS BBS 4.2 (online software) Z Innovators, 1344 Park St., Dept. 187 Stoughton, MA 02072, $30, requires 2 disk drives and SpartaDOS 3.2D or X. "The newest version of OASIS BBS is now out from Z Innovators. Full of external modules, OASIS BBS lets you run a bulletin board complete with survey, callers log, trivia game, an Add-A-BBS number module and three different user listers. Included as an ARC file in the package with OASIS BBS 4.2 is OASIS.PAL, a programming aid package. "This disk-based BBS requires two floppy drives and SpartaDOS 3.2D or the SpartaDOS X cartridge. (A fully-functional public domain version, OASIS JR, is also available.) "Future updates to OASIS are in the works, including free updates of the current version, and late in 1989 a completely new version 5. Featuresplanned include built-in ANSI color, YMODEM batch protocol, and a file search module that will include descriptions of files. Message bases will be enhanced with message thread options and an external networking module for the exchange of new messages." - ANTIC Magazine, April 1989 Issue
			Source and Info Files:	1
		OASIS JR. (OR OASIS III)
			Author:	Leo Newman and Ralph Walden, later Z INNOVATORS
			Additional Notes:	OASIS BBS demo program. OASIS JUNIOR III is the --ALL MACHINE LANGUAGE-- demo version of the OASIS BBS program. OASIS is very crash-resistant and comes with a "dial out" screen so that the Sysop can use the BBS as a terminal program to call and fetch files without having to bring the BBS down and reload a terminal program. OASIS supports "Door programs" which it refers to as "OASIS PAL modules". This OASIS demo module comes with an excellent message system. The OASIS file system is one of the most complicated that I have ever seen. It consists of "file libraries" with suites of "file types". There is quite a bit of overhead involved in performing a download (which may be a good thing, as it discourages file hogs). There is a commercial version of OASIS called "OASIS IV" that performs networking. There was an OASIS network between Boston, Massachusets, USA and Murfreesboro(SP?), Tennessee, USA. Occasionally word of the OASIS IV developers reaches the network from New Zealand or Canada." - Atari FAQ
			Source and Info Files:	4
		PUFFBBS
			Author:	Robert Puff
			Author Contacted:	Telephone conversation with Robert Puff, March 2004.
			Additional Notes:	Created by Robert Puff, this Atari BBS Software came with a hardware component to both provide ring detect for the Atari (none existed in the modem) and to serve as a hardware key/dongle associated with the software. Mr. Puff indicated that the software was mostly confined to the Rochester NY area, and in his estimation less than a dozen copies were sold, and certainly not more than 8 or 10 were up at any given time. There was a multiple user version created by Mr. Puff, but he thinks that only he ran it on his own BBS. Robert Puff was also the author of a number of other notable Atari Programs, including BOBTERM, SUPER UNARC, and DISK COMMUNICATOR. Ronald Ayers writes "BBSses that ran it were Computer World, Computer World Jr, Moose BBS, and Eagle's Lair if I'm not mistaken."
		SMARTBBS
			Additional Notes:	"BBS written in BASIC by Marco Benton. This program is written entirely in BASIC. It expects to be running under a SpartaDOS environment. This was a problem until very recently, when the disk-based version of SpartaDOS was re-released as shareware. This BBS program uses a "modem clock string" rather than an R-Time 8 cartridge in order to retrieve the current time. It also comes with an Atari BASIC game door called "Sabotage"." - Atari FAQ
		TITAN
			Author:	Peter Torkleson (aka The Dragon)
			Source and Info Files:	1
		TITANIC
			Author:	Richard Finegold (aka Richard Goldfinder)
			Source and Info Files:	1