Tag: bbs

  • Global War memories

    Global War memories

    Though I had never played the board game RISK before, I discovered that I already knew, more or less, how to play. I had learned years earlier by playing a similar game for BBSes called “Global War” by Joel Bergen.

  • Amit Patel, creator of “Solar Realms Elite”

    Amit Patel, creator of “Solar Realms Elite”

    In 1990, Amit Patel created the BBS door game “Solar Realms Elite.” In his other life he has worked with programming languages, scientific equipment, data analysis, visualization, geological exploration, simulation of complex systems, economic modeling, maps, trend analysis, artificial intelligence, and web software. He’s now working on interactive reference materials for game developers.

  • Solar Realms Elite memories

    Solar Realms Elite memories

    What made SRE magical was the number of people who were playing at the time I encountered it. These games were not meant to be played solo; they were meant to be social experiences as you tried to dominate other players and build the mightiest empire. And when I began playing, SRE was a popular…

  • BBS doors: innovative social games?

    I came across a fantastic essay written by Andrew Chen in 2009: BBS door games: Social gaming innovation from the 1980s He makes the case that BBS door games pioneered many techniques used today by social games. I think he’s right on, especially in this passage: You may notice from all of these screenshots that…

  • VT-52 demo: Beat Nick Part 2

    VT-52 demo: Beat Nick Part 2

    Since I began telnetting into Atari ST BBSes again regularly, I’ve gotten interested in VT52 which was the Atari ST’s native terminal mode. The Atari supported 16 colors in low-resolution, and 4 colors in medium-resolution (80 cols). If you know BBSes, you can think of it this way: VT-52 was to the Atari ST what…

  • “Why I love my ATARI Computer”

    “Why I love my ATARI Computer”

    Today I came across a really cool textfile that I wrote near the beginning of my BBSing days. What’s amazing to me is that it gives a date for when I began BBSing, and even explains how I got started (a story I had forgotten).