The BBS Software Directory

AN OVERVIEW OF BBS PROGRAMS

CLICK HERE FOR A FULLY EXPANDED VERSION

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
ACBBS
Author: Howard Stateman
Additional Notes:
This appears to be the source code for an S&M BBS that ran in California on a Televideo 802H CP/M machine.

Source and Info Files: 1
BBSC
Author: Mike Kelly
Source and Info Files: 1
BYE3
Author: BYE was originally hacked together by: Dave Hardy, Keith Petersen, Howard Moulton (I think), Bruce Ratoff, and Ben Bronson. -pst 10/21/85
Additional Notes:
BYE is a program that relocates underneath the CCP of your CP/M 2.2 system. It parallels modem I/O to the BIOS console I/O jumps. It also monitors the system for breaches in security and loss of carrier. BYE can be used to run a BBS under CP/M or a RCP/M (Remote CP/M) system. NOTES: BYE3 is not surpassed by the BYE5 series. These are two different programs, which were desigend with two different philosophies.

Source and Info Files: 46
BYE5
Author: Wayne Masters, Irv Hoff, and George Peace
Source and Info Files: 84
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: 4
THE CLASSY SYSTEM
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
EMX
Author: Simon Ewins, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Source and Info Files: 6
HBBS
Additional Notes:
HBBS was written by Irv Hoff, based on Russ Pencin's PBBS, based on Simon Erwin's EMX.
This software was used to run the Public Remote Access Computer Standards Association (PRACSA) in San Jose, CA. From the welcome.bbs file: Hello and welcome to the PRACSA RCPM, Los Altos Hills, CA (415) 948-2513 85 Mb system with 300-1200-2400-9600 bps Sysop Irv Hoff (415) 948-2166 voice PRACSA President David McCord (415) 948-3820 (work hours) This system is operated by the Public Remote Access Computer Standards Association (PRACSA) and is intended for the use of its members. Mem- bership information is available on A0: drive. Membership applications can also be obtained from: PRACSA, P.O. Box 1204, San Jose, CA 95108 PRACSA is an organization of Sysops and interested computer enthusiasts. We cooperate fully with local telephone companies and law enforcement agencies to pursue the prosecution and conviction of any person attempt- ing unlawful access or anyone using this system for unlawful activities. First-time users will be limited to 15 minutes access. They are able to leave the Sysop a private note by using the 'E' (enter message) command.

Source and Info Files: 4
MBBS
Source and Info Files: 4
MBYE
Author: Kim Levitt
Additional Notes:
MBYE (MODULAR 'BYE') REMOTE CONSOLE PROGRAM FOR CP/M AND MODEM (includes optional support for MBBS(tm) msg system) See mbye45.inf for more information.

Source and Info Files: 32
MINIRBBS
Source and Info Files: 20
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: Version 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
PBBS
Author: Ian Cottrell
Versions: Version 5.00 (1990)
Additional Notes:
The Public Bulletin Board System (PBBS) is written in Z-80 assembly. PBBS requires BYE in order to operate - it does no modem I/O itself.

Source and Info Files: 29
PICS
Author: Les Archambault
Additional Notes:
(*****************************************************************************) (* *) (* PICS - Pascal Integrated Communications System *) (* *) (* Version for CP/M Computers *) (* Copyright (c) 1986,1987 by *) (* Les Archambault *) (* *) (* All commercial rights reserved. *) (* *) (* This program is based on ROS Vers 3.4 by Steve Fox. It is released *) (* into the public domain for private use only. Additional thanks to: *) (* Irv Hoff whose 1k protocal in KMD was invaluable in writing the *) (* Turbo Pascal routines. The authors of DEARC for the basic code that *) (* deals with Arc files. The author of ASYNC.ARC for the code to make *) (* possible the interupt service routines. *) (* Special thanks to Lindsay Jones, Eric Daniel, Freeman Bradford and *) (* John Van Hengel for beta testing and support. *) (* *) (*****************************************************************************)
"There was PICS (standard) and PICS v1.6 (multi-line and multi-user)." - Jim Bianchi

Source and Info Files: 11
QBBS
Author: Lawrence R. Davis, Christopher McEwen
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: 6
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: 25
RCPM
Additional Notes:
This is a collection of programs designed to assist in running an RCP/M (Remote CP/M) system. ZIP files have been created out of the LBR files for easier perusal.

Source and Info Files: 103
ROS
Author: Steven Fox
Additional Notes:
ROS was written by Steve Fox in order to provide a "complete" BBS program for CP/M systems that didn't rely upon external programs for file transfers or modem I/O. Note that most of the documentation in the archives presented here are in WordStar format. Because of this, the documents are littered with "high bit" characters that can make the information slightly problematic to understand.

Source and Info Files: 13
SBBS
Author: Tim Redden
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Super" Bulletin Board System. Released to the Public Domain in 1984. Requires BYE to run.

Source and Info Files: 1
T-ROOM
Additional Notes:
T-Room BBS is a Citadel-like room system written for CP/M using Turbo Pascal. It requires BYE.COM to use.

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
Author: Tim Gary
Additional Notes:
Files ending in ?Q? have been compressed with the CP/M SQUEEZE utility. UNSQUEEZE is required to decompress.

Source and Info Files: 12
Author: Tim Gary
Additional Notes:
Files ending in ?Q? have been compressed with the CP/M SQUEEZE utility. UNSQUEEZE is required to decompress.

Source and Info Files: 12
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. (link points to archive.org copy of the site)
"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
Source and Info Files: 1
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
Website at archive.org: https://joryanick.com/werks.htm

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 :)"

DIALYOURMATCH
Source and Info Files: 1
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
Author: Greg Schaefer
Software Website: https://gbbs.applearchives.com/
Additional Notes:
GBBS ][ was released as open source in 2017.

Source and Info Files: 3
GBBSPRO
Author: L&L Productions (Version 2.14)
Software Website: https://gbbs.applearchives.com/
Additional Notes:
GBBS Pro was released as open source in 2017.

Source and Info Files: 15
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."

KNET
Author: Rich Bresnahan
Additional Notes:
Matthew Larkin writes "There was a BBS software package called K-NET. The author was Rich Bresnahan, and his BBS was Krackline. It was a bulletin board full of odd posts, "neverending" stories that users contributed to, a virtual brothel, and a fighting arena where you battled monsters and other users. Matthew Larkin ran a BBS with this software, a BBS called Remington Steele Eliminations. Matthew Larkin was friends with another SysOp named Aaron Propes who ran The Monastery."

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
MODEMWORKS
Author: Morgan Davis
Software Website: https://www.morgandavis.net/portfolio/mdg/proline/
Additional Notes:
Some of the BBS programs for the Apple II series of computers used ModemWorks and require it to run.

Source and Info Files: 3
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)".
The files below are UUEncoded text files and can be combined & decoded in order to form the archive that contains the BBS.

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."
Archive.org link for the website: http://www.aurum-industries.com/~guy/apple2/

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
BETABOARD
Additional Notes:
From a Usenet posting: BetaBoard. This is a shareware board written in MS-BASIC; sources are readily available. It was the first; it's pretty primitive but is relatively easy to customize. I don't know too much about its abilities, but I'm certain it supports at least checksum XMODEM. --- From the author, Todd Nix: I was the author of BetaBoard - worked on the code in my dorm room at Rice University in 1984-1985 instead of going to class and earned a semester of scholastic probation for it. I ran a site using BetaBoard in both Houston and Lubbock Texas in 1984-1986 before finally shutting it down when I returned to college. It was written in MSBasic - I still have a few MSBasic handbooks on my bookshelf. I remember I got the base modem code from another BBS software, but I did a lot of work enhancing the menus and customization options. I accepted shareware payments - probably only received 20-30 payments - but there were definitely other folks hosting sites using it. I don't believe I have a copy of the code anymore, but there might be a copy hidden somewhere in the attic.

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.hermesbbs.com/
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: 6
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."

MOUSEEXCHANGE
Source and Info Files: 1
MUBBS
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
"Bill Currie only wrote that review and isn't the author of MUBBS, you can use stuffit expander on the PC and maybe open the .hqx file or just put unknown as author. MUBBS became somewhat popular because it was free. Everything was modular, everything was a module. There were plans to write a bunch more modules for it but it was really only a hobby project. It was a innovative concept never seen again in BBS software. Not sure why the modular idea never caught on. The multi user software was only limited to the number of serial ports you could add (there were mod kits and boards) and memory." - Anonymous

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: 5
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)
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."
Terry Teague died in 2005.
Archive.org copy of Terry's website: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/1057/atplay.html

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
ADCM
Additional Notes:
The ADCM/ACDM Systems is a Canadian company (that apparently could not decide on their acronym). They produced software for Bot Engineering's 300 baud "Pocket Modem" exclusively for the Atari home computer line during the 1980's. Both the terminal software (which came packaged in a cartridge) and the disk based BBS were written by Julius Oklamcak. I don't know how many copies of the BBS were sold, but I think the number was quite low. I know of only two for sure - one hosted the HBO (Hamilton Burlington Oakville) Atari Users Group, and the second a BBS called the Scran Locker that I ran for 3 or 4 years in the mid-eighties. To test the BBS, boot the "ADCM BBS Program Disk" disk, type "BBS" and when it has finished loading, insert the "ADCM BBS Files Disk" and press RETURN. To login, press the START button and login with Username: SYS and a blank password. enjoy! Jim Wilkinson

Source and Info Files: 3
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
Source and Info Files: 3
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."
John Hardie writes " I ran a BBS on the Atari 8-bit called the Earthport 2 BBS in San Antonio Texas. I ran the BBS on Marsh software but the BBS was definitely in Basic, not ML as you have listed. I always remember that was one of the great things about it, that I could edit it and add my own code for functions that didn't exist."
It would be good to get a copy of this software, and its various versions.

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: 5
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
XEBBS
Author: Jonathan Taylor
Additional Notes:
Jonathan Taylor writes "I wrote XeBBS+ for the Atari 130XE / Expanded 800XL computers in the mid 80's. It was written in and required the OSS Basic XE cartridge. It used the Automatic Modem Processor (AMP) code from FoReM XE, but was otherwise written from scratch. XeBBS+ had a relatively advanced file download/browse/search/management system that was designed to work with the Supra 10 megabyte hard drive for the Atari XL / XE computers. It also featured a "banking" system that awarded points for uploads and message postings, deducted points for downloads, and let players bet points when playing XeBBS+ game modules. The Core BBS + games would not all fit in memory at once, so the add-on game modules were loaded on-demand from the disk and included blackjack, hangman, and a nifty ATASCII game called Jewel Quest, which was ported from another BBS - the name of which I can't remember. XeBBS+ was run by the Disk Bank in Longwood, Florida; and two other BBS's in TN and VA."

ST
BBS! Express ST
Author: Keith Ledbetter
Additional Notes:
Programmed by Keith Ledbetter, who has previously done BBS Express Pro previously.
From Z*Magazine (September 4, 1987): "ICD, along with the Keith "Mr.Express" Ledbetter, was showing their newest addition to the Express line of modem software, "BBS Express ST". Only for the ST, "BBS Express ST" is probably the best ST BBS program around today. "BBS Express ST" is just starting to ship for a list price of $79.95. It features 40/80 column support, XMODEM and YMODEM protocols, threaded message bases, full descriptions on all UL/DL files, and COMPLETE sysop maintenance. Some lucky show purchasers got a personally autographed copy of the new program (at no extra cost)."

BBST
Author: Steven Grimm
Additional Notes:
Greg Swarthout writes "There was another one by the name of BBS/T. It was programmed in C by an acquaintance who became a friend, who is now lost in time. I can't recall his name, but he was a prodigy in that he wrote the software, as well as a fantasy novel, by the time he was, I think, 16. BBS/T was rather unique in the ST BBS world at the time because its message boards were based on a tree structure, rather than the linear boards that were the norm for the time. This tree structure (where a reply became a leaf and a reply-to-a-reply became a grandchild of the original message) was probably the cause for its small adoption and usual abandoment within a few months by the few boards that adopted it. I don't know if it ever became a commercial product."
"The best thing about BBS/T was its wonderful scripting language in which modules could be created. I ran an Atari 8-bit BBS at the time (The Movie Connection, in the San Jose 408 area code) and after 3+ months of housing the noisy thing (disk drive, printer), I wanted to give it up. Luckily for me, I was able to code the whole thing as a BBS/T module and include it on another BBS (Starbase, I think) where it lived on for a year or two."
Paul Chinn writes "I was reading your entry about BBS/T for the Atari ST and it mentioned that you only have a single letter regarding its existence. So I'm writing to confirm that the program did indeed exist. I used it on my short-lived bbs around 1986-1987. As the emailer mentioned, it was especially notable for the threaded structure of its message boards which did indeed really seem to freak out the posters of the day. I can also provide a little more info- the author's name was Steven Grimm and I "knew" him from occasional on-line chats and a couple meetings at atari expos around Silicon Valley where we were teens. He gave me the bbs software in person- I don't know if it ever had a commercial release though. Anyway I figured I'd drop in a note to add my 2 cents. I can't believe it's been 20+ years since then! Thanks for the little trip down memory lane."

FIFO
FNORDADEL
Author: Adrian Ashley (aka Elim), Royce Howland (aka Mr. Neutron), Arthur Dent
Source and Info Files: 2
FOREMST
Author: Matthew R. Singer
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Friends of Rick E. Moose".
"It was written and maintained by a guy named Matt Singer. I believe he was in located in MA. I still remember having to mail him my shareware fee. After he gave up on it, he passed it along to another guy - Bill something or another. I'll try and remember. Anyway, the name is an acroymn for Friends of Rickey Moose - why I don't know. A whole collection of ST boards grew up around FoReM and created a Fidonet like network of BBSes called FNET (FoReM Net). This was all run by a guy down in Houston (again, it's been a long time, the name escapes me). There were about 1000 BBSes on FNET if I recall. I was FNET Node #613. It was complete with cross-board mail and cross-board "Message Bases" (another name for boards or SIGs)." - Brian J. Saville
Frank Klaess points out that FNET was created by David Chiquelin of Atari-OH! BBS in Houston, TX, who actually coded the utility to work with FoReMST.

Source and Info Files: 4
FORESIGHT
Author: Brian Hauer of TSO Software
Source and Info Files: 2
FORTRESSST
Author: Draiden Bansted
GSPOINT
Author: Fidgit Greylock
Versions: 0.61 (September 13, 1988)
Additional Notes:
According to the one announcement I could find, GS-Point is a package that allows an Atari ST to act as a FidoNet Point and recieve and send network mail and echomail. This is not technically a BBS, but GSPOINT sometimes shows up cited in Fidonet News as a way to recieve Fidonet. Development was done by one "Fidgit Greylock" of "Greylock Software".

Source and Info Files: 1
HELLSBBS
Additional Notes:
HELL'S BBS 0.0 pre-release 99.2 Fast and complex BBS software, GEM-ANSI driver, runs under multitasking and MagicMac/MagicPC. Fast direct-screen colour ANSI-drivers. Everything can be configured/changed. Powerful scripting language to include new functions... Include unix mail-files/newsgroups.... Easy to install. Completely set up for use in ENGLISH/DEUTSCH/FRANCAIS For any questions contact: anlikerl@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch [Apparently requires Atari Falcon to run.]

INNERSANCTUM
Author: John Walker (aka Ganelius)
Source and Info Files: 3
JOYBBS
Author: Petr Stehlik
Software Website: http://joy.sophics.cz/
Additional Notes:
"A very simple but powerful Bulleting Board System. It's based on LazyBBS source code but I have made some changes (SCC serial ports support - so Modem2 and Serial2 work) and enhancements. The JoyBBS is fully Fidonet compatible and can work together with AtariST mailer (Semper/Binkley) and Fido mail tosser (Jetmail/IOSmail)." - Petr Stehlik

Source and Info Files: 1
MICHTRON ST
Author: Timothy Purves and Gryphon Software
MINIBBS
Author: Lars-Erik 0sterud
Additional Notes:
"ShareWare BBS-system for the Atari ST. It will run OK even on a 520 with 1 disk-drive. System has Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem file-transfers and it's possible to pack new mail with ARC or LHARC and download it to save time (and money) when calling."

Source and Info Files: 1
MSGED
NITELITE
Author: Paul Swanson
Additional Notes:
Some have called this a Citadel clone. The jury is still out. The author indicated in his program that he wouldn't use version numbers because it would be "cumbersome", so the versions have to be tracked by date of release within the archive.

Source and Info Files: 1
OCTOPUS
Author: Koos Kuil
PANDORA
Author: J.P. Middelink and Jack Kersing
Source and Info Files: 8
QUICKBBS
Author: Jon Webb and Theo Runia
Source and Info Files: 4
RATSOFT
Author: Steve Hughey (Rat Master)
Source and Info Files: 1
STADEL
Author: David Parsons
Source and Info Files: 5
STARNET
Author: Eric Drewry
Additional Notes:
This software for the Atari ST was later ported to the Amiga, where it entered into a bit of controversy as a paid product, switching between several maintainers over the course of 1990-1992, until eventually being renamed and repurposed to "MEBBSNet" by Bill Bowling.

Source and Info Files: 2
STKEEP
Author: Andrew Studer
Source and Info Files: 3
TRANSCENDENCE
Author: David Brown and Wayne Watson (Southern Software)
Additional Notes:
"TRNSDEMO is the complete formerly shareware now freeware version of the Transcendence BBS v.2.4.01 by Wayne Watson (dated Feb. 19, 1994). If you are ever thinking of setting up a BBS (a tremendous amount of work--BBS SysOps are the saints of the computer world in my opinion!) this program would be well worth your investigation. It works on any ST-TT with at least one meg of RAM (2.5 meg of RAM and TOS 1.4 or better is better, of course). The program and support files require at least 20 meg of Hard Drive space as well. Note, this archive's name implies that this file is a demo. It is NOT. It's the full-blown version released by the author. Thanks! (Send him money anyway!). 527K."
From the preface of this freeware version:
The Transcendence BBS package was originally conceived by David Brown in 1986. He began researching BBS programs, how they work, and how they don't work. At this time he did not know the first thing about computer programming (His first computer was a 520ST, in Oct. 1985). He began teaching himself how to write this type of software by programming online "door" software.
In mid 1987 He began work on the "STark" BBS program. Soon he was joined by Jason Dickens. They worked on the program for about 2 years, and due to some problems, had to terminate their joint-effort. For a one year period he was without the source code to the STark BBS program. Since BBS programming was his work away from work, He started a new one. This program was entitled "STairway" (it was never completed). He then obtained the source code to STark, and used the two programs to create what is now "Transcendence."
Soon after starting on Transcendence, he asked me to help re- write many of the old STark routines. I began work on the File Areas and wrote the transfer protocols along with many other support modules for the BBS.
Since David and I started working together, we haven't stopped to take a breath. The program has gone through massive rewrites and modifications. The current program is beyond what we ever thought we could do. We feel that we have succeeded in creating the most flexible, powerful, user-friendly, and sysop-friendly BBS system ever. Our sysops seem to agree.
In January, 1993, David decided to get out of development of Transcendence and asked me to take over marketing, selling, updating and supporting the program. I will miss the times that we spent working together. David has taught me a lot about programming telecommunications software and other things. It was a very good partnership. Although we keep in touch, it will not be the same. I wish David the best of luck in all his efforts and in life. Thanks David for so much!
I wish you luck in your adventures as a Sysop and hope that Transcendence will make your experience a pleasant one.
Wayne Watson

Source and Info Files: 7
TRIPLINK! (Also called Front End BBS/FEBBS)
Author: Mike Caldwell
Source and Info Files: 1
TURBOBOARD ST
Author: William J. Miller
Source and Info Files: 1
COLECO
ADAM
ADAMCastle / ADAMBBS
Author: SHAWN MERRICK
Additional Notes:
I would like to offer information on my Coleco ADAM BBS software known as ADAMCastle BBS (1986) which was recently updated and rebranded simply as ADAMBBS (2021). This software is for Coleco ADAM Family Computer System (1983), and was written entirely in Z80 Assembly Language for Coleco ADAM CP/M 2.2 operating system with an ADAMLink internal 300 bps dial-up modem. It was sold directly to Coleco ADAM customers. Information about the BBS was shared on the CompuServe forum as well as various ADAM community newsletters. There were about 5 years of continual improvements to the software before it was shelved for other career opportunities. During this time, probably a dozen copies ended up going to enthusiasts to run their ADAM dial-up systems. Today the resurrected BBS (now known as ADAMBBS) continues to be shared and discussed in the Coleco ADAM Facebook group, where I can be found. - Shawn Merrick

Source and Info Files: 2
ADAMCHAT
Author: Gordon Meyer
Additional Notes:
Full-featured bulletin board system with messaging, file library, and Sysop paging. - Description from Gordon Meyer's home page.

A-NET (ADAMNET)
Author: Alan Neeley
Additional Notes:
Full-features Coleco Adam BBS that recieved updates into the 1990s. Information is currently sketchy about it. At one point there were at least 8 A-Net (Adamnet) BBSes running, at 2400 baud.

PBBS
Additional Notes:
There is a record of a number of Coleco ADAMs running PBBS in their CP/M environment. The PBBS software was run on other platforms as well.

Source and Info Files: 2
COMMODORE
AMIGA
4DBBS
Author: CornerStone Software
Source and Info Files: 7
ABBS
Author: Geir Inge Høsteng
Source and Info Files: 2
ADBBS
Author: Rick Kent, Paul Davis and Weston Fryatt
Additional Notes:
Weston Fryat writes "I'm one of the orginal author of ADBBS (Acropolis Development BBS) for the Commodore Amiga system. The names of the original authors were Rick Kent, Paul Davis and myself. We all started the project in 1988 to 1992.Although the project never reallysaw the light of day (as far as an official release) we set the standards that other big name BBSs soon followed.. We had one of the first full screen text/message editors and full screen graphical (ANSI) file transfer utility."
"Paul Davis and I went on to work for Mustang Software in 1992, One of the reason why we stopped developing on ADBBS. And we shared alot of our orginal ideas with Scott Hunter and Jim Harrer (Scott and Jim were the orginal developer on the Wildcat BBS) and these idea were later became part of Wildcat BBS v4 and v5."

AFLGALAXY
Source and Info Files: 1
ALINE
Author: Innovative Solutions (Bob Dallape and Vince Renaud)
Source and Info Files: 1
AMBER
AMICON
Author: Paul Roffey
AMIDEL
AMIEXPRESS
Author: Mike Thomas, later work by Joseph Hodge/Light Speed Technologies
Additional Notes:
"Was originally a clone of "PC Board" for IBM/PC; but allowed for great multitasking/mulitline BBSing using a single Amiga platform. Supported multiple dialin lines, unlimited "conferences" (message boards), suppored all known file transferts (X Modem, Xmodem CRC, Y modem, Y Modem 1k, Z Modem, Zmodem 32), resumable downloads, resumable uploads; ratio enforcement; new user, vs pay user accounting systems. Full ANSI screen support/graphics; plus used a proprietary Amiga message-relaying mailing system (much like FidoNet) for communications with other AmiExpress BBS's around the world; both public and private messages. Also supported external "Doors" for online games. I was sucessfull in writing my own version of "Tradewars 2002" for AmiExpress/AMiga BBSs.
"Joseph Hodge was the latest "curator" of the software at last time I checked; I was on the development board of this system; and ran it for over 3 years on an Amiga 3000 w/ 3 dialup lines. Very stable. Very secure. A rather popular BBS system, next to using BBS-PC on Amiga and MaxBBS." - Chris Kawchuk
Mike Thomas writes "I am the original author: Mike Thomas, you can verify this by just doing a google on AmiExpress and Mike Thomas. My software company is called Synthetic Technologies. I worked on AmiExpress for a period of two years, selling it directly from my BBS. (I've kept all the letters I got from people all over the world who purchased my product). I eventually sold the source code and left BBSing behind. It's been so long that I can't remember who I sold the code to. BTW I did indeed model AmiExpress after PCBoard because I first ran PCBoard on a PC and just really didn't like the PC at the time, really loved my Amiga so I wanted to make a comparable product on the Amiga. Thanks for the great memories.."

Source and Info Files: 8
AMIGABBS
Author: Ewan Grantham
Additional Notes:
This archive says the files are from June of 1986, making it one of the oldest if not the oldest BBS Program for the Amiga.

Source and Info Files: 1
AMIGALINE
AMIGALINK
AMMS
Author: Marquardt & Scheler GbR
Source and Info Files: 2
ANET
ANUBIS
Author: Oliver Graf, Thomas Globisch und Marc Schröer
Source and Info Files: 2
APTBBS
Author: Andy Grifo
Source and Info Files: 2
ATEREDES
Additional Notes:
Original Marketing name of SKYLINE BBS. (See Skyline BBS Entry)

AXSH
Author: Pasi 'Albert' Ojala
Additional Notes:
AXsh's main purpose is to let other users have access to your Amiga and still be sure that nothing inappropriate can happen. AXsh ensures this by allowing access only to directories that are defined accessible and only accepting commands and arguments that are defined legal.
AXsh supports multiple lines, multiple users logged in simultaneously and 8 different user levels. User actions can be saved into a log file. Each user has his/her own home directory, and the used disk space can be/is restricted.
AXsh can be used as a bulletin board system with or without UUCP or as a door program in a 'normal' BBS. It has its own mail, news and file transfer programs. However, AXsh is not restricted to remote access, it can be very well used as a local shell.

Source and Info Files: 2
BAUDBANDIT
Author: Richard Lee Stockton
Source and Info Files: 5
BBS-PC!
Author: Micro Systems Software (Steve Pagliarulo)
Additional Notes:
Lance Lyon writes "You mention "BBSPC" in the Amiga section, it's actually BBS-PC! & two versions came out 4.13 & 4.20 that were identical to the MS DOS versions. BBS-PC! was commercial software & was quite popular in the mid to late '80's. It was produced by Micro Systems Software (who wrote several titles for the Amiga) & even had third part rudimentary networking (BBS-PC! systems only) & a few doors for it."
The roots of this package are believe to be a TRS-80 package called BBS-80, written in BASIC.

Source and Info Files: 7
BBX
Author: Steve Tibbett
Author Contacted: Mr. Tibbett contacted me!
Additional Notes:
Steve Tibbett writes "Not sure what to say about it - it was a very flexible multi-user BBS for the Amiga that was on the verge of being commercially released for most of it's life. It still is actually.. :) As far as I know, there are no longer any copies of BBX running anywhere, though it was flexible enough that folks figured out how to runn it on the Internet and you could connect to it through Telnet.. pretty slick."

BOARDMASTER
Additional Notes:
This may in fact be a hardware product from Black Belt Systems.

CBBS
Author: Pete Hardie
Additional Notes:
From the documentation:
"This program is basically a CBBS 6.1 version of the W0RLI BBS. It was originally put together for the IBM-XT by K3RLI, AG3F and others. It is written in the 'C' programming language which made it fairly easy for me to port to the AMIGA because I have been using C since 1974. However, it has had to be modified somewhat to make it work on the AMIGA. It has been used extensively on an AMIGA with the V1.2 Kickstart. It starts up and appears to work OK with Kickstart V1.3 but has not been tested extensively. It will work on a system with 512K of memory. I have run it on a single floppy drive, although that required limiting the number of files on the BBS. With such limited disk space you will only be able to handle transfer of mail rather than running as a full-blown BBS. But if you have a hard drive you can run a full-blast BBS with this program. If you are already familiar with the CBBS or W0RLI (or even MBL) systems you should have little trouble getting this thing to go."

Source and Info Files: 3
CITADEL68K
Author: Tony Preston
Source and Info Files: 10
CITADELXPR
Author: A. Preston
Source and Info Files: 2
CMA
CNET
Author: Ken Pletzer (Rights Purchased by Ray Akey of Perspective Software and Todd H. Knight of ZenMetal Software)
Additional Notes:
Professional multi-node Amiga-basd BBS software package. Has Internet applications such as Telnet, NNTP news retrieval/posting and an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. Also has WWW support via AWS (Amiga Web Server) and FTP Daemon.
Andrew Alexander of Window of Illusion BBS writes "Ray Akey Purchased the rights to the code of the orignal 3.05c version which was the most stabe version of CNet Amiga BBS software. The orignal author was Ken Pletzer who lived in Canton Michigan at the time of it's creation. Ray A. Akey is not the creator and CNet was not made in Canada. Ray A. Akey in fact brought all development of the software to a screatching halt and has angered many in the Amiga BBS community. Ray A. Akey's true part he played in CNet BBS software should be correctly disclosed. Any research on this topic will be hard to find but it's out there in news groups. I would as a CNet BBS sysop perfer to see the correct creator get the credit for this excellent software he made BEFORE AKey got his hands on it."
Ray A. Akey writes "ZenMetal Software purchased the CNet source code and rights to the CNet name from Ken Pletzer in 1996. Previous to this date, CNet Amiga had no native internet connectivity. It was Ray A. Akey (me) who implemented a native IRC client (based on ORC; a 3rd party IRC client, the source of which ZenMetal purchased). Under the auspices of ZenMetal Software, I also implemented built-in FTP, telnet and internet email functionality and other widely praised internet connectivity features and fixed many of the outstanding 3.x series CNet Amiga bugs. As for the "killing" of CNet Amiga, that was not by choice. The reason CNet Amiga is no longer is due to a failed partnership in which I, as the developer, relinquished ownership of the source code to my former partner, Todd H. Knight, who has done absolutely nothing with the CNet Amiga source code. I have moved on and am now working for Amiga, Inc."
Todd Knight, who was involved with the C-NET Project in various fashions, has written in with his own rebuttal to Ray Akey's writings. Its' length required it to be put in the file area for this entry.
Jason Scott says "It is obvious from the various tones and writings about this software that it contains a lot of bad blood and angry feelings on the part of various parties who were involved with it over the years. While I am in no position to play referee, I thought it best just to add all sent information and let folks decide for themselves; I think the decision most people could come up with is that something as small a thing in life as a BBS Software program could still represent all the world to those involved intimately with it. This is often forgotten."

Source and Info Files: 5
COMMLINK
Author: Scott Martin
Source and Info Files: 1
COMPUNET
Author: Brian J. Bernstein
Source and Info Files: 1
CONNECTLINE
Author: Oliver Wagner and Mathias Mischler
Source and Info Files: 4
CONTACT
Custom BBS!
Author: Celestial Data Systems (Joseph Gutwirth, David Donley)
Versions: Version 2.7 (September 12, 1989)
Additional Notes:
From an Amiga Chronology: "(1988) Celestrial Data Systems introduces the Custom-BBS! software for the Amiga. Price is US$100."

Source and Info Files: 3
DAYDREAM
Author: Antti Häyrynen & Mattias Nilsson
Source and Info Files: 6
DEADLOCK
DLG
Author: Mike Oliphant, Tom Conroy, Crystal Conroy, and James Hastings-Trew (Original Authors)
Author Contacted: Author Jeff Grimmett has been contacted and will be interviewed.
Software Website: http://www.grimmlabs.com
Additional Notes:
Originally developed by a Canadian company called Telepro Techologies, consisting of Mike Oliphant, Tom Conroy, Crystal Conroy, and James Hastings-Trew. Eventually licensed DLGMail written by Steve Lewis (later was ATIS Technologies)
Bought around 1992 by ATIS Technologies of Pheonix, AZ. Primary developers were Bob Stouder and Steve Lewis.
Bought around 1993 by 'Digerati Dreams / DLG Development', developers were Jeff Grimmett and Bob Stouder.
Licensed for development in 1994 on Unix and Linux platforms to Scottie Swenson (Now named Leeland Artra) and Bob Stouder, respectively. Those licenses have never been exploited to my knowledge.
In 1999 development of DLG was formally halted (before then it was fairly spotty). In 2001 was proclaimed abandonware. The full final version AND source code were made freely available.
"DLG began as Dialog BBS for the Amiga and was based on the unique concept of creating an extention to the Amiga operating system (OS) for BBS communications (thus the term BBS/OS or BBOS). This in turn was based off a C-64 online game system called TSE (The Stock Exchange), which simulated an interactive stock market that users called in to.
"DLG, as it became known, consisted of a number of small, compact modules that presented a minimal memory footprint while in operation. The core of the software is a serial port handler that binds the serial port to an interactive shell session, a resource manager to coordinate locking and releasing of important BBS resources (file and message areas, etc), and a core runtime library containing the most important and widely used functionality in the BBS. This provided the sysop with a powerful means of integrating the BBS with the operating system, including the creation of custom scripting using the Amiga's own scripting resources. Eventually the BBS was extended to utilize the AREXX interpreted scripting language as well (AREXX being the standard high-level scripting language of choice on the Amiga).
"A number of Fidonet mailers were available right from the start, and illustrated the power of the concept: as new mailers became available, it was all a matter of getting the scripting right to use it.
"Fidonet mail really took off on DLG with the introduction of Steve Lewis' 'DLGMAIL' utilities. This, coupled with TrapDoor (included with the BBS on a limited license), proved to be an incredibly powerful and expandable mail processing platform. A DLG BBS with DLGMail could process mail more effeciently than most MSDOS-based mailers on systems with many times the raw CPU power." - Jeff Grimmett

EAZYBBS
Author: Andreas M. Kirchwitz
Additional Notes:
"EazyBBS is a Bulletin Board System (aka Mailbox) with UUCP Network support. Online help, very easy to use for sysops and users. Fullscreen oriented input masks, batch-upload and download. Up to 9 languages. Needs AmigaOS 2.0+. Only german documentation (yet)." - The Readme File

Source and Info Files: 4
ELITEBBS
Author: Nick Smith
Additional Notes:
"An online message and file handling system. Features include a message base, private mail, file library, support for xmodem, ymodem, and zmodem, fully buffered serial I/O routines for top speed, time limits, and more."

Source and Info Files: 2
EXCELSIOR
Author: Sycom (Possibly Roger Clark)
Source and Info Files: 2
FALCON
Author: Brian Fehdrau
Source and Info Files: 2
FAME
Author: David Wettig
Source and Info Files: 15
FREEFORM
Author: Ken Schenke (Paralogic Software)
Additional Notes:
In 1991, Laurana Bailey announced Freeform's impending arrival, saying "This new BBS software not only allows every config value imaginable to be set/changed by the SysOp, but the entire design and flow-of-logic that operates the bbs can also be altered.
"It will eventually be able to emulate menus/msg-bases/file-bases/etc of all known (42) Amiga BBS software packages (as well as those of your own design).
"SWHQ is currently beta-testing this software."
This product may or may not have actually been released.

GATEWAY5
Author: Michaela Pruess
Source and Info Files: 1
GFA
GMCBBS
Author: Gerhard and Christine Moerth
Source and Info Files: 4
HACKANDSLASH
Author: Mark Montminy and Robert Hurst
Source and Info Files: 10
HYDRABBS
Author: Dominic Clifton (Also known as Hydra)
Author Contacted: Dominic wrote in to give some great details.
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20020417012109/http://come.to/HydraBBS
Software Website: http://come.to/HydraBBS
Software Website: http://www.boarder.plus.com/computing/amiga/hbbs/
Software Website: http://aminet.net/package/comm/bbs/HydraBBS
Additional Notes:
Spelled as "HydraBBS" (notice the case)

Source and Info Files: 13
ICEBBS
Author: Stephen Vermeulen
Source and Info Files: 4
IDS
INLET
LINK
LOGICBBS
Author: ParCon Software
Source and Info Files: 2
MAJESTIC
MAXSBBS
Author: Anthony Barrett
First Created: 1989
Additional Notes:
"This program is the result of three year's worth of programming. It was developed due to the lack of true Amiga BBS programs ie. not ported from the IBM." - Anthony Barrett
It is possible there is a variation of this program called MAXsPRO.

Source and Info Files: 6
MEBBS
Author: W.C. (Bill) Bowling
Additional Notes:
Bill Bowling acquired the rights to StarNET BBS Software, and repurposed/rewrote it into what was eventually sold as MEBBSNet BBS Software.

Source and Info Files: 1
METRO
Author: Percy L. Broadnax
Versions: 5.1 (October 7, 1989) 6.5 (February 18, 1990) 6.6 (March 17, 1990)
Source and Info Files: 3
MICROBBS
Author: Peter Stegemann
Source and Info Files: 4
MICROHOST
Author: Michael Cox
Source and Info Files: 2
MULTIPLEX
NCOMM
Author: Daniel Bloch and Nils-Arne Dahlberg
Source and Info Files: 1
NIKOM
Author: Niklas Lindholm
First Created: February 4, 1991 - January 1, 1997
Software Website: http://www.nilin.se/nikom/
Software Website: https://www.nikom.org/
Additional Notes:
BBS program is in Swedish; from what I can make out on his web page, Niklas had something like 50-60 BBSes running his software, at least.

NOVIA
Author: Thorsten Gehler
Source and Info Files: 2
OMNILINK
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/19970216084154/http://www.olnk.com:80/omnilinkbbs.html
PACKETRADIO
Author: Randy Lilly
Source and Info Files: 2
PARAGON
PBBS
PETRA
Prometheus Mailbox System
Author: Rudolf Lau
Source and Info Files: 2
PONS
PROBBS
QUEBBS
RECCOON
Author: Henric Andersson
Source and Info Files: 2
SERSERVER
Author: Michael R. Mossman
Versions: Version 1.03 (1990)
Additional Notes:
Command-Line "BBS" that was more of a remote access program. From the documentation:
"Maybe a better name would have been CliBBS, but I started with SerServer and so it will stay. It is a personal (with the lack of a better word) BBS program. It gives the user a full CLI with restrictions setup by the sysop. I don't like the word BBS in this case, because, any program that offers a CLI to strangers, can be a lot of trouble. I wrote the program so that I can log on to my computer from work and do all of the things that I do from home in a CLI. I do not recommend that you let any Tom, Dick or Harry in to use this program. You will end up with formatted hard drives and sleepless nights. It has three user levels, and full Zmodem UP/DOWNLOAD. It could be a very useful program for a few friends and your self to use, when working on a common project. A place to share files. It offers limited message sending and receiving."

Source and Info Files: 2
SHADOEGATE
Author: Zoo Development ("Rick")
Source and Info Files: 2
SIGMAEXPRESS
Author: Stephan Schiemann
Source and Info Files: 2
SKYLINE
Author: Michael Cox (Later Scott Lee)
Author Contacted: Scott Lee has written in.
Additional Notes:
Scott Lee writes "Skyline BBS, for the Amiga, was originally marketed under the name "Atredes BBS". It was written by someone named Michael Cox who lived in El Paso, TX in the mid/late 80s. He had contracted with a company, which I can't remember the name of, to market and sell the software and they did so under the name Atredes. Michael Cox eventually wound up selling the software himself and he renamed it Skyline. After about two years he grew tired of working on it and looked for a buyer. During that search, I did maintenance and housekeeping on the code for a few months before a user of the software that ran Omnilink BBS in Queens, NY bought the rights."
"It was, BTW, cool software which allowed for plain text, ANSI graphics, as well as a proprietary graphical point and click "SkyPix" UI using special terminal software ("SkyTerm"). This was all around the '87 time frame which I think pegs it as the first graphical point & click BBS UI..."
Les Jenkins writes "The company Michael had contracted with was called Incognito Software located in Troy, Michigan. Now defunct, this company had intended to become THE software publishing house for Amiga software and in addition to Atredes they licensed various other software for the Amiga such as Dave Ashley's game Popman (a clone of Lode Runner) which they sold under the name Targis. The reason Michael eventually reclaimed the rights is mainly because the two guys who ran Incognito Software where less than intelligent and somewhat morally questionable. Dave writes a bit about it on his website at http://www.xdr.com/dash/dave.html. In short, Michael never saw much if any money from the sales of his software on the Amiga until he took it under his own wing and the same is pretty much true of all the other folks who licensed their projects to Incognito. Why do I know all of this? Because I used to run the Pontiac Area Amiga User's Group (Pontiac, Michigan) and was one of the "official" beta-testers for Atredes when it was first released. I ran it and Skyline for awhile before switching to DLG BBS and eventually Amiga CNet Pro. I'm the former sysop for Les's Place stretching from 1983 or so until 1991."

Source and Info Files: 4
SOFTSPAN
Author: Mark Wolfskehl
Source and Info Files: 4
STADELAMI
Author: Eric A. Griff
STARNET
Author: Jon Radoff (Original Port Author), Eric Drewery (Amiga Maintainer), Bill Bowling
Additional Notes:
A version of Paragon BBS Software, renamed to STARNET.
Has its share of controversy. From a 1991 Usenet Posting by Laurana Bailey:
"Paragon has gone through some major ups and downs over the years. Jon Radoff was porting it from the ST and the original author Eric Drewry. Well, Jon sort of dropped out of sight and left owners hanging for quite a time. Eric stepped in and bought out Jon's rights to the software and has since been re-writing it. It will change it's name back to what it was on the Atari ST, namely StarNet. From what we have heard from the beta-testers Eric has done an excellent job in cleaning up the code and getting it running faster and better than ever before. Still, however, the first release of StarNet isn't out and Eric's been at it since January or so. Slow development time seems to be a problem with Paragon/StarNet..."
Reading through the Usenet postings becomes a bit soap-opera-y. The story as it seems to be is the original name was Starnet and it was made for the Atari ST. Jon Radoff purchases the rights to the software and ports it to the Amiga. Eric Drewery purchases the rights BACK, and maintains it haphazardly until it is purchased out by Bill Bowling.

Source and Info Files: 1
STASIS
Author: David Stanton
Additional Notes:
David Stanton writes in "I wrote BBS software in the 80's for the Commodore Amiga. Stasis (the name of the software) was one of the first multi line/multi threaded BBS applications for the Amiga. The software originally started as a cooperative effort (I was helping a friend fix the BBS software he was writing). Funny thing was when I started coding the software I realized that he had introduced a bug 3 months earlier that prevented the modem from answering the phone (that's when I realized that his beta testers were not actually running the code, and neither was he). After a while I realized that I was the only person writing and fixing code, so I gave him the current version of the working software and said I was going my own way with the code from that point on, (I named my branch Stasis - To achieve a stable state).. for a while I ran a 3 line BBS on my old Amiga 1000 (was still faster than PCBoard at the time. I had handwritten an interface to FidoNet and to the qwk packet (PCBoard networks), I had written a Door interface, and many ports of popular PC game doors. The software supported X, Y, Y-batch, and Zmodem transfers, and actually took the Fido file feed from the Planet Connect satellite system. Eventually Stasis died when I had to expand and could not get more serial ports in the Amiga."

STELLAR
STERLING
SYSTEMX
Author: Peter Zelezny
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20020206221026/http://www.mentasm.com/~zed/
Source and Info Files: 6
TAG
Author: Patrick E. Hughes
Versions: 1.02 (1986)
Source and Info Files: 3
TECHNOBBS
Author: Harri Tolvanen
Source and Info Files: 2
TEMPEST
Author: Michael Bockert
Source and Info Files: 4
TeleFun BBS
Author: Lawrence McClafferty
Source and Info Files: 2
TRANSAMIGA
Author: Timothy Aston
Source and Info Files: 10
TRINITY
Author: Rodney Martin
Versions: 2.0
Additional Notes:
The README by Rodney Martin, the Author, says "A very well written multi-user BBS program which offers all standard BBS functions as well as: AREXX standard door (OLPs) support which is compatible with most CNET arexx pfiles. Excellent multi-user conference section which is called PartyLine with custom configurations for the users. 100% detailed SySop configurable. Features not found in other BBS packages such as the ability to completely speak all partyline conference and online messages between users to the Sysop -- when the sysop is not logged in, he/she can hear all confersations between users. A unique multi-node control program which will display detailed information about all users on all nodes as well as the ability to do certain functions to each node.. (add time, level, open, close, ect...) I feel you will find this BBS program very useful."

Source and Info Files: 6
TRION
Author: Paul Spijkerman
Source and Info Files: 4
VBBS
Source and Info Files: 4
WAK
Author: Kris Hudson & Andrew Ward
WWBBS
Author: Arthur Choung
Source and Info Files: 4
WWIV
XENOLINK
Author: Jonathan Forbes (Later Bruce Lawson)
Additional Notes:
According to Mat Bettinson, Xenolink's author, Jonathan Forbes, developed the LZX compression scheme used in Microsoft's CAB Format, and works for Microsoft.
Mark Henneyey writes:
"Xenolink was created by Jonathan Forbes in Toronto here, and was later sold to a group that included Bart Schraa and a bunch of guys, including Bruce Lawson, who ran a california-based support board. Jonathan was a brilliant programmer who sold Xeno as well as creating his superior compression code LZX, which was later made public domain when the code caught Microsoft's eye. They captured him. :)"

Source and Info Files: 2
ZEUS
Author: Nick Loman and Alex May (Later Marc Bradshaw, Neil Williams & Ian Chapman)
Additional Notes:
Alex May writes "I'm one of the original authors of the Commodore Amiga's Zeus BBS. Three years of hard work and innovation mostly wiped out by the pincer movement of an unstable future for the Amiga and the introduction of the Internet in the home. But hell, it was great fun, and our users were so very supportive and committed to the project."

Source and Info Files: 9
C128
128BBS
Author: Phil Yellott
Source and Info Files: 1
ALLAMERICAN128
Author: Nick Smith
Source and Info Files: 2
CBASE128
Author: Dan Drury
Additional Notes:
Peter Elsner writes "C-Base 128 was written by a friend of Gunther's, Dan (I think it was Patterson but am not sure)."
"When Dan gave up the C-Base 128 version, a person in California (who I can only remember as Dark Overlord) and myself took over programming for the C-Base 128 program.'
"We created dozens of door games and made hundreds of modifications (not to sell but to give away to anyone who was running C-Base 128), and we fixed numerous bugs that we found at the same time. Dan gave me the source code and told me I could do with it whatever I wanted, but Gunther still owned the rights to the name "C-Base", and he ended up selling the code to the author of Color 64/128 BBS (also for the Commodore)."

Source and Info Files: 1
CENTIPEDE
Author: Adam Fanello
Source and Info Files: 17
CENTIPEDE LITE
Author: Adam Fanello
Source and Info Files: 2
Citadel-128
Author: Vince Quaresima
Additional Notes:
"Citadel-128 is an EMULATION of a mixture of CP/M CITADEL, CITADEL-86 and IDEATREE (sorry, but they DO have much better ".A" commands, and most of them have been incorporated here). The system is coded using BASIC 7.0 with several machine-code overlays to handle modem I/O and fileserving, in addition to a totally machine-code "online terminal" (we do not use CHATmode as the terminal...at least, not yet)." - Vince Quaresima

Source and Info Files: 1
CNET128
Author: Ken Pletzer of Perspective Software
Source and Info Files: 2
COLOR64-128
Author: Adam Fanello
EBBS128
Author: Ed Parry and Mike Pugliese
Source and Info Files: 3
FRONTIER128
INTELLIGENTSIA128
Author: Robert S. Murawski
Source and Info Files: 1
OMNI128
Author: Brian Bell
Source and Info Files: 10
SEARCHLIGHT
Author: Frank LaRosa
Additional Notes:
Toober writes "There is a BBS software that I did not see on your list and consider it to be one of the best written for the Commodore 128. You actually have it listed under DOS however it started out on the Commodore 128 platform. It was Searchlight BBS (which eventually supported RIPpaint). I use to run a system on a C128D and a 20 gig drive running Searchlight. The 20 gig was only model made that I know of for C128, although I can't remember or find the model number. I do remember that it had a seagate drive under the hood and at the time it was blazing fast. (There was no waiting, twidling-your-thumbs time to load anything)"

STAR128
SUPRA128
Author: Julian Burger (docs list Jim Abraham)
Source and Info Files: 3
TALISMAN
Source and Info Files: 2
VORTEXNET128
Author: Stephen Kunc
Source and Info Files: 6
ZELCH128
Author: Elite Software
Source and Info Files: 6
C64
6480EXCHANGE
Author: David Tingler
Source and Info Files: 2
6485EXCHANGE
Author: Ivory Joe
Source and Info Files: 4
6487EXCHANGE
Author: Nick Smith
Source and Info Files: 2
64EXCHANGEBBS
Author: "The Breaker"
Source and Info Files: 1
64MESSENGER
Author: Jerry Balk and Joe Hess
Source and Info Files: 2
ACELINE
Author: Gilligan
Additional Notes:
From Bo Zimmerman's site: "In the grand tradition of minimalist BBS programs; the prototype FTP server, it did not get much more minimal than Ace-Line. How anyone could have gotten 3.5 versions out of this I have no Earthly idea."

Source and Info Files: 1
ALL AMERICAN BBS (AA-BBS)
Author: Nickolai Smith
Additional Notes:
Maximillion El Kem'St writes in "The Crypt in the 414 area code ran it along with several others. It was the *fastest* code out there which resulted in input buffer overflows when using CCGMS-5.5 as the client terminal. File transfer rates were unaffected when there was no on-screen display. One could easily see the difference between Color 64 at 2400 baud and AABBS at 2400 baud. I imagine AABBS might have run fine using a client terminal in black and white mode. Perhaps it was something to do with the C64 color and graphics set."

Source and Info Files: 4
Apollo64 BBS
Additional Notes:
Apollo 64 is a Commodore 64 BBS system that provided message boards, download areas, online games, and text files. It required very little RAM to run and could run on an unmodified Commodore 64 that did not have a RAM Expansion Unit (REU). The complete basic code, 6510 assembly code, and D64 images have been released as LGPL.

Source and Info Files: 7
ARB
Author: Arthur Brock
Source and Info Files: 1
BBSCONSTRUCTIONSET
Author: Will Gaddy
Source and Info Files: 1
BLACKBOARDII
Author: Calvin Martini (Calcom Software)
Additional Notes:
Blackboard II BBS software for the Commodore 64, circa 1986. This is a software released under the MIT license, so free to use and modify per the license. A manual in PDF and Word formats and two versions of the software (d64 images) are included. This is assembled BASIC. Unfortunately, the original BASIC source files could not be located.

BLUEBOARD
Author: Martin Sikes, alias Beelzebub
Source and Info Files: 1
BOBS
Author: Unknown (Bob, Ostensibly)
BONEBOARD
Author: Randy Schnedler
C64BBS
Author: Mikael Lennroth
Source and Info Files: 2
CBASE
Author: Gunther Birznieks
Author Contacted: Gunther wrote in!
Additional Notes:
"CBase64 - commercial software, ran at up to 2400 Baud, full ANSI/ASCII capabilities. Ran it off a CMD 20 Meg external SCSI HD specially designed for Commodore 64/128 machines. Had door games, limited file transfer, chat, messages. Ran it for about a year in a city called Hamilton, one of the most popular BBS's at the time due to it's supposedly strange computer platform, and slow speed [a bit of a novelty when 14.4 modems were common!]." - Kane Archer
Gunther Birznieks writes "C-BASE 64 was born out of CMBBS influence and officially became a product about 4 years after CMBBS came out. CMBBS came out when I was 14. I released CBASE when I was 18. I kept it going til I was 23 and then gave the rights to someone else in Canada.
"C-BASE 128 was born out of C-BASE 64 influence and was written by Dan Drury when I was 20."

Source and Info Files: 3
CBMBBS
Additional Notes:
Grandpa Chuck writes, "CBMBBS, Commodore Business Machine Bulletin Board Software was used with the C64 and C128. The software was sold via mail order for Commodore User Groups in the US and Canada. Later a TDD version was made as used by the University of Califorina for the hearing imparied. The software was sold in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 300-baud, those were the days!"

CHATBBS
Author:
Source and Info Files: 4
CHATEAU
Author: Eugene Tiffany
Source and Info Files: 1
CIRCLEOFWIZARDS
Author: Steven Derby
Additional Notes:
Matthew Kuhn writes "*Steven Derby* from Livermore, CA created the "The Circle of Wizards BBS" software for the C64 in 1985. It was amazing software and one that I'd love to get a hold of even today! It was distributed/forsale and I remember calling several boards running the software. It definitely deserves to be on your list."

CITADEL64
Author: Vince Quaresima (K2NE Software)
Source and Info Files: 2
CLASSICSWAPSHOP
Source and Info Files: 1
CMBBS
Author: Don Snider
Additional Notes:
Commodore Mania BBS

Source and Info Files: 1
CNET64
Author: Ken Pletzer of Perspective Software
Source and Info Files: 9
CNETDS2
Author: Jim Selleck
Source and Info Files: 2
COLOR64
Author: Greg Pfountz
Additional Notes:
According to Andrew Wiskow, Greg Pfountz, the original author of Color 64 BBS software, has authorized the release of the final version that he wrote of Color 64 (v7.37) to the Public Domain. This version is the color64.zip file below.

Source and Info Files: 9
COMMLINE64
Author: Vince Quaresima
Additional Notes:
Andrew Bernhardt writes "Vince Quaresima (CITADEL64, CITADEL-128 and CITADELK2NE) had a C64 program he wrote/sold called COMMLINE64 back in the mid-1980's. It was a 300bps-only system. This is what I ran before I wrote DTJ. It was written in BASIC compiled with Blitz!, and I wrote some assembly code for it to make it more crash resistant. I think I still have the disks I ran it from, but all my C64 equipment seems to have died."

COMMODOREMANIA
Author: Don Snider
DARKSTAR
Author: D.S.S.
Source and Info Files: 1
DEADLOCK / DEADLOCK BBS CONSTRUCTION KIT
Author: Deadlock Software (Jim Johnson and Kevin Masucci)
Additional Notes:
Jim Johnson writes "I am the author of that system. The package was known as the "Deadlock BBS Construction Kit". We have not supported or developed it for many years, it faded away in 1986-7. As a bit of history: The software was written in compiled basic and the source code was so large that it could only be edited on a Commodore 128. The company was a 2 man operation, myself, Jim Johnson, and my partner, Kevin Masucci. We operated out of our homes and sold the system nationwide via PC magazines."

Source and Info Files: 1
DIRCON
Author: Jay Winick
Additional Notes:
K. Chase writes "Written in Toronto, used by at least 50+ boards at one time. Was fairly popular at least in Toronto circles -- Punter had just come out with his netmail stuff, so we copied him :) Made our own protocol for message sharing, and even file sharing. (This was on top of Dircon itself, which was written by... god, I cannot remember now. I cant even what we called our mods group now! All I know is that Chris Lang, Wayne Ogaki and a few others of us were the authors of the mods...) Dircon must have appeared around 84 or so... and we wrote our mods in 86/87 I think... I was Punter by the end of it tho because there weren't enough Dircon nodes out there to keep it interesting and Punter and Fidonet were taking over..."
On his webpage (http://frogstar.com/history/index.asp), Jeff Goebel mentioned his involvement with the software: "I bought the resale rights to the Toronto written DIRCON BBS software for the Commodore 64. It was an powerful BBS program which ran using a 1541 disk drive. At the time, the more famous BBS64 (Steve Punter's software) required costly IEEE disk drives. Sadly, we had some difficulties with the copy protection, and couldn't produce a stable enough version to sell."

DISCOVERY
Author: Murray Keen (From New Zealand)
Additional Notes:
"Discovery BBS software: Author: Murray Keen, New Zealand, written around 1987 or so. Modified 1993 for my use. 1200 Baud, ran off a single-sided 360K 5 1/4" floppy disk... Had messages, door games [of a sort] and viewable/printable text files [there was no file transfer ability]. Plain ASCII only." - Kane Archer

DMBBS
Author: Lee Van Doren (ARTIsoft)
Author Contacted: Lee Van Doren wrote in to submit further information about his software.
Additional Notes:
Gunther Birznieks says "The primary original author of DMBBS was Lee Van Doren who Christianed it that way because his alias was Depeche Mode (DM-BBS). But he sold it off to Chris Stevens 4 years later who renamed it to "Dynamically Modifiable" and erased the Depeche Mode signature from it."
Lee Van Doren writes: "DMBBS was officially launched on Sept. 1, 1987. It, along with other BBSs of its time had roots in CMBBS which opened up an amazing world of computer graphics for the time by taking advantage of CBM's unique character set. DMBBS introduced many innovations including:"

an 8K sequential text editor managed by machine language subroutines (hidden under the BASIC ROM)
a multi-message per file message system that significantly enhanced reading speed between messages
a module loading system allowing for the loading of external games and utilities, including an open source module construction kit
built in support for RAM disks, fast loading cartridges, SFD devices (parallel port drives), 1200/2400 baud
self-healing features that would correct message synchronization errors and trap disk drive lockups
a vast library of online games and other programs available to BBS operators
"DMBBS was sold to another group in early 1989 sometime in the v5.x series. At its peak, DMBBS had over 200 registered owners in the US and Canada. The author (handle: Depeche Mode), is still in the area of DMBBS's birth (Maryland) and can be contacted at leevandoren@gmail.com."
Jay Kappel writes "Hi, I just came across your DMBBS information page and thought I would send you a little more info. Lee sold DMBBS to Chris Stephens and Jay Kappel (me). Together we renamed it Dynamically Modifiable BBS. Chris handled all the sales and marketing and I was the programmer. I re-wrote the BBS from the ground up, as part of the re-naming and placed a HEAVY emphasis on support for 3rd party module creation to justify the name change. I also integrated the dongle software protection as part of the re-write. The copy protection prior to the dongle had to do with physically scratching the disc, then having the software look for errors on that sector of the disc. Was a pain in the butt, but was effective. In 1989, we sold ARTIsoft to Angelo DePasquella (not sure on the spelling). I don't know what happened after that."
Other versions of DMBBS can be found at CSDb.

Source and Info Files: 3
DOESTHEJOB
Author: Andrew Bernhardt
Source and Info Files: 3
DTJBBS
Author: Andrew Bernhardt
Software Website: http://dtjsoft.com/index.php?disp=dtjinfo
Source and Info Files: 7
DIAL-YOUR-MATCH
Additional Notes:
Sold for $199. Matchmaking BBS software, where users would fill out a questionaire about themselves and then use that to check for probable "matches" along the rest of the userbase. Research indicates this was available for both Commodore 64 and IBM Compatibles.

EBBS64
Author: Ed Parry
Source and Info Files: 2
ELECTROCOM
Author: Bill Bowers
Source and Info Files: 1
ELITEBBS
Author: Bill Fink
EX1
Author: Stevyn Prothero
Additional Notes:
Stevyn says "EX1 BBS Software was sold nationwide for $25 (included all future updates free and instruction booklet), version EX1-185 was released on "qlink" and BBSs as a shareware version. Created in BASIC(blitzed) & ML By Stevyn Prothero aka IronFeather. I took ideas from C-net (like mci commands), ideas from COLOR64, Ivory, etc. I had a "spec" file it loaded first and that contained all the settings, I tried to make everything an "option". This of course confused many people, and made setup a workout. I also had some template files for questionnaires, new user apps, etc. Towards the end i added ANSI translation & was converting "adventure" like games over to work with it. Dam, if I had more tyme i would tweak it even now ;)"
The author has supplied a scanned PDF of the manual. -gb 08Nov21

Source and Info Files: 3
FANTASYRP
Author: Deep Pan Software, David Whatley
Additional Notes:
"If I remember correctly FRPBBS was a 300 baud only BBS system. It was a text only BBS and the author (never knew his real name) was a guy who used The handle of .SpLiTiNfInItY. (Split Infinity). It was a nice little bbs that allowed the Sysop to set up .rooms. for any number of self contained role playing games. A user was made .master. of the game he wished to set up and had control of everything in that room. The master would create a text file to .advertise. the game he wished to host and other users on the system would Submit a request to join. It was the master of the game who decided who would play. It was a very unique concept and was well written. It was a shame he never updated it." - Roy Ayres

Source and Info Files: 6
HALS
Author: Richard Buchanan
Source and Info Files: 1
ICEBBS
Author: Scott and Eric Green (Bayou Telecommunications)
Additional Notes:
Created by brother Eric and Scott Green in 1987. According to Andrew Wiskow, Eric Green has released this software to the GNU General Public License.

Source and Info Files: 3
IMAGE
Author: New Image Software
Source and Info Files: 2
INFOQUICK
Author: Lew Lasher
Additional Notes:
Jeff Berard writes "The original software was distributed through Ariel Computer in Massachusetts. Interestingly, this software required a dongle, one of the first to do this. Lew had them made especially for the software.
"The software was released to public domain through QLink or Compuserve or one of the first "Online Beasts", some time after. Infoquick was released around 1984, so it is old. It was written with Lew's assembly language, and was cool because it disguised REL files as SEQ files. Standard Xmodem for file transfer. It supported the Commodore hard drives, as well as SDF-1001's, 1541's etc. It had issues with some modems. It worked with the 1650 and Westridge, but did not like the 1660. It was designed for Hayes Smartmodems, and had a max speed of 2400 bps. No graphics or color, just standard ASCII."

Source and Info Files: 4
IVORY
Author: Bill Jackson (Ivory Joe)
Source and Info Files: 3
LASERBBS
Author: Chris Timmerberg
Author Contacted: Chris Timmerberg sent in notes.
Additional Notes:
Chris Timmerberg writes "The program never was for the c64. It was written in c128 basic, and used practically all of the ram the basic editor would allow. I had to remove all of the spaces in the source. And it wouldnt even run until I fed it into a compiler. This program was in rather heavy use by c128 owners, at least it seemed that way to me as it was selling really well and funded my hardware upgrades for quite some time."
Nextly, I got an amiga and ported the code over. After a brief frustration with amiga basic and dabbling into languages most people never heard of (Comal, anyone?) I finally gave in and learned C. The C version of the bbs was also sold, although not quite as well due to the numerous other good choices of software the amiga had. I added compatibility with paragon's door system and wrote a dungeon-like game for it. I also enhanced the Prism ansi editor software for the amiga adding a very optimized save/load routine based on codefrom the bbs and a few other things.
The next computer I got was a 486, and I did port the code over for both dos and later os/2, although these were just personally used by myself as far as I can remember. There were quite many GOOD packages for dos and os/2, and I didnt stand a chance of competing with them. After a few years at this point, I just started nudging people to use the internet instead, and eventually I switched to Linux and just left MY computer connected to the net continually, allowing friends to contact me that way, via the IRC or YTALK services, TELNET, and so forth. (Being able to talk to several people at once and while downloading stuff without running multilines was certainly a deciding factor there! heh.)
I myself�have been looking around the net from time to time and can't find acomplete/newer copy of laser, either for the c128 *OR* amiga. The old floppy disks were left sitting in a rather harsh environment and after going through all that heat and cold I highly doubt any of it is recoverable. Sigh. But considering the amount of people I personally sent 'registered' versions to, not to mention the undoubted amount of pirated copies and so forth, someone out there *HAS* to have it. I even gave a copy of the source for the amiga C version to someone at one point.
I always was running a slightly newer version than everyone else, as most people didnt always bother�mailing me a floppy disk for an update and I dont recall having it availible for download (modems were slow, and my c128 and amiga didnt exactly have much storage space to keep much availible for download). So chances of getting the FINAL versions are almost nil, but surely a full copy of a somewhat more recent version must be out there SOMEPLACE."

Source and Info Files: 1
M1/MECHAN1 BBS SYSTEM
Author: David Mason and Marc Moorcroft
Additional Notes:
David Mason writes "The M1/Mechan1 BBS system was created originally by myself and Marc Moorcroft in 1985. It was for the c64, written in compiled BASIC with assembler for efficient username lookup, and was released and enhanced to support some internode connectivity by others. It was run by a total of about 13 systems."

MARKPARITY
Author: "Mark Parity"
Source and Info Files: 3
MATCHMAKER
Author: Unknown
MEMORY
Author:
MIDGARD
MINDSET64
Author: Paul Viscovich
Additional Notes:
Paul Viscovich writes "The software was a multidisk overlay program that ran on the c64 and the c128 it utilized additional drives to store online games and messages. The main system was housed on one disk and would load and bank in different parts of the BBS from ram under roms. This software sold 45 copies and at one point in 1983-4 had at least 11 systems running nation wide. The software was born out of the need to have a BBS to support the 1200 baud VolksModems that at the time had little or no support on the C64 other than the bundled terminal software that was buggy at best."

NCBBS
Author: Stephen Chan
Source and Info Files: 1
ONLINE
Author:
Additional Notes:
Often described as a Diversi-Dial Clone for Commodore 64s.
Steve Laisch has a lot of information to impart:
"Online - This was almost like DDial except a few differences: 1. It ran on a Commodore 64, not an Apple. 2. It got REAL slow sometimes. Why? Because unlike DDial, Online used a diskdrive instead of RAM to store everything. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. In the case of a power outage - everything was saved - in DDial it wasn't. You were at the mercy of the power company. However when a bunch of people went for email and such it may slow down the system. 3. Unlike the Apple IIE which had slots for modems, the C64 version had a custom board. This board was custom made. I don't remember what the costs were but it wasn't cheap."
"The only other information I can think of is the actual hardware board that was used for connecting 6 modems to the c64 was $500. That is what was charged for it. The only 2 Online Chat systems that were available in my state of Illinois were "Magic Mirror" and "Black Magic". Magic Mirror died first I think it lasted no longer than 89-90 at the latest. Black Magic lasted a bit longer, say 93-94. I will see if I can find anything else about it but I doubt it."
"I do have a faint remember also that while DDial was written in 6502 Assembler, 'Online' was written entirely in Forth."
"Also Online was "unhackable" - I'm pretty sure about that. In otherwords, in DDial there was a command that allowed you to perform "POKES" to the system. In other words, you could in theory write machine language programs with DDial."
"This allowed you to do things like crash the system or other illegal stuff. One of the last hacks I remember is being able to turn your /P's off for individual ports. So if someone poked the system write, they COULD see ALL /P's that were being sent back and forth. Ofcourse, you had to becareful and not respond to the /P's that were not intended for you :) One of the users actually figured out that someone did this by faking a /P. You also had to UNPOKE everything before you logged off the system otherwise the next user that got on that port would have the same benefits. I think I can get you a complete listing of the commands if you like them for DDial. Online didn't have any poking capabilities as far as I know. I also know that Online did not have networking capabilities. In DDial (and with DDials big brother "STS") you could network the systems together so that you could have a whole bunch of users online instead of the maximum 7. Online did not have that feature."

ONLINE64
Author: Jeff Vacha
PUNTER
Author: Steve Punter
RADBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
RAVICS
Author:
RIBIT
Author: J. W. Fulmer
Source and Info Files: 4
SATELLITE
Author: Shaw and Backer
SCBBS
Author: Chad Stansel
Source and Info Files: 1
SPECTRUM
Additional Notes:
S. Strangee says "The Spectrum BBS software and the Vision BBS software -- both were very popular in Oklahoma (USA), Texas (USA), Arkansas (USA), Kansas (USA), and some other surrounding states from about 1984 to 1988-1989. Vision BBS was written by Larry Ross and Sean (last name unknown). Sean and Larry Ross split several months after the release of Vision BBS. Larry Ross continues to work on Vision while Sean worked on Spectrum."

SPENCEXP
Author: Ken Spence and James MacFarlane (And Jason MacInnes)
Additional Notes:
"The Spence XP BBS was the first BBS program for the Commodore 64 that could operate using one 160K floppy drive. It was originally written in Basic but as the program code grew to occupy all of the 32K available RAM portions of it were written in 6502 assembler, with focus on the I/O allowing it to support the newly introduced speed of 1200 baud. The program supported ultiple message areas, downloads and a bulletin section and a full screen editor."
"The program was known to be crash-proof, and was very easy to be up and running within minutes. The program used some nifty tricks in order to get the whole thing to fit in limited memory like loading part of the 6502 code into the cassette buffer, screen ram and other locations. Hundreds of copies of the program around the globe whilethe authors were still in highschool." - Ken Spence and James MacFarlane

Source and Info Files: 4
SPICENET
Author: Darrell Spice, Jr.
Additional Notes:
Veeger writes "At the time he developed the software he was a 'computer science' student at the University of Texas in Houston I think. He used the 'Lads' assembler exclusively. I bought and ran Spicenet-128 for $50.00 for almost 4 years. It was the only BBS software I have any experience with but in my mind was very innovative in the sense that it had 're-defined/animated characters' (via mini-buffers), color of course, online games (I wrote a Blackjack game for it that was very popular in this area), online music (if caller was using his Musicterm software), a music editor for creating and uploading music to the 'music sub', unlimited subs, AND (after he came over to my apartment and I watched him re-code the M/L routine, leaving only about 300bytes free), it had 2400baud capability. I used a 512k REU for storing the core program and other parts as well, so that it was self-bootable in case of a power failure."

STELLARZONE
Author: "Mr. X"
Additional Notes:
This may be a hack of 64EXCHANGE.

Source and Info Files: 1
STR
Author: Douglas McLaughlin
Source and Info Files: 1
TRACK
Additional Notes:
"The Track BBS, a C64 Punter BBS with lots of nice features."

Source and Info Files: 1
TTS BBS V64.4E
Author: Trans/Net
Additional Notes:
TTS was created in the 1980's by Charles Van Lingen - in the London Ontario area. It was a quite popular BBS software used by individuals, companies (even commercially), and by hackers. It was very customizable by editing the associated files. The original was "blitz" protected, and I've included the unblitzed code as well. Note: some versions had a bug where the code attempted to use load ,8,1 where it should just use ,8 - if you run into this issue, just hit run-stop and use load ,8 manually. Note: there MAY be a backdoor in this code that allows someone to bypass sysop password at login, but BBSes are all but dead now, so it's unlikely this is of any importance any more.

Source and Info Files: 1
UES
Author: "Willie"
ULTRACOM
Author: PW
Source and Info Files: 1
VISION
Author: Dan Dillulio & Bob Weiss
Additional Notes:
visionaire99, in e-mail, indicates the authors were 15 years old when they created Vision BBS, styling it afte TBBS. Later, it was rewritten into Vision Color.

Vision Color BBS
Author: Vision Software (Kerry Messana)
Source and Info Files: 1
XAVIAN
Author: Star Tech Software
Source and Info Files: 1
ZBBS
Author: "Mr. Bill"
Source and Info Files: 1
ZELCH64
Author: Planet Ink. (Bo Zimmerman)
Source and Info Files: 1
PET
PUNTERNET
Author: Steve Punter
Author Contacted: Yes, have talked with Steve Punter by e-mail.
Software Website: None
Additional Notes:
"My very first program was for my own use only. I put it online in 1981, and I called it the "PSI-Wordpro BBS". The name reflected the word processing program for which I was known (WordPro) and the company I was involved with selling it (PSI)."
"I later added networking capabilities, and I sold the BBS under the name of PunterNET, though later versions of it ran on a PC." - Steve Punter

Source and Info Files: 1
VIC-20
RAVICS (Remote Access VIC System)
Author: Adam Jacobs
Source and Info Files: 1
DRAGON
DRAGON64
OS9
HEATHKIT
H89
CITADEL
Author: Jeff Prothero (aka Cynbe ru Taren)
Additional Notes:
"Citadel was written in mid-December 1981 by CrT. Miraculously, it ran three days unattended over New Year's, collecting some remarkably favorable reactions. During the months that it ran at 633-3282 (ODD-DATA), Citadel became one of the more popular BBs in town, and there was some disappointment when a hardware failure forced the system down in February of 1982. But in January CrT had published the source code in BDS C, putting it in the public domain."
"David Mitchell brought up the next incarnation of the Citadel program in April of 1982, running on hardware provided by Richard Knox. Called the Island Communication System, it is located on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. ICS has about 30 regular users and about 120 log entries. Newcomers find it easy to learn, and often leave messages praising it. Some of the system's daily users are in Boston."
"Citadel is descended from DandD.pas, an adventure game editor/driver. It is arranged as a series of rooms, starting with the LOBBY. In each room the user can read existing messages and leave more. There may be up to 128 rooms in the current implementation. The system was brought up with only one room, the LOBBY. Additional rooms were created by the users, with room names appropriate to the topics covered."
"Citadel has had a checkered past. It first ran on a 64K Heath H89 with Magnolia CP/M."

Source and Info Files: 2
IBM and Compatibles
BEOS
BEBS
Author: Geoff Benson
Software Website: http://www.bebs.net/
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20020331060830/http://www.bebs.net/
Additional Notes:
About BeBS: BeBS is the first BBS software available for BeOS. BeBS is a Citadel-86 clone, rewritten from scratch in C++ to take advantage of all that Be has to offer. It supports a (theoretically) unlimited number of simultaneous connections, and is one of the only online citadel clones I know of that supports door games. Administration is simple--most common tasks can be handled from the console. Otherwise, all users/posts/rooms are directories or files, and are easily moved about or deleted as needed.

Source and Info Files: 1
DOS
.MBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
AA4RE
Author: Roy Engehausen (KL7GNG) Later Y2K Fixes by Mike Fahmie (WA6ZTY) and Bo Lindfors.
Versions: 1.4 (August 29th, 1988), 1.5 (September 5th, 1988), 2.0 (September 25th, 1988), 2.1 (September 25th, 1988), 2.2 (November 8th, 1988), 2.3 (February 1st, 1989) (2.3 was for test only), 2.4 (February 1st, 1989), 2.5 (May 1st, 1989), 2.6 (July 22nd, 1989), 2.7 (Novemeber 10th, 1989), 2.8 (Novemeber 16th, 1989), 2.9 (April 25th, 1990), 2.10 (May 15th, 1990), 2.11 (March 3rd, 1991), 2.12 (March 31st, 1992) (Converted to Turbo Pascal Version 6).
Additional Notes:
AA4RE is called the Packet Bulletin Board System. It is oriented towards Packet Radio and Amateur Radio.
"The AA4RE, PBBS software was written by Roy Engehausen. If you are an experienced user of the W0RLI or WA7MBL systems this one is compatable. The BBS provides the following resources and functions: Personal mail identified by callsign can be sent and received. Automatic Hierarchival addressing of mail traffic. Upload/Download of files, programs, documentation, maps, etc. Activity monitored (stations heard) on each port. Automatic forwarding of bulletins to other PBBS's. Automatic forwarding of mail via HF/VHF PBBS Gateway stations. Multitasking, multiport configuration. Phone modem access with automatic mail fowarding."
In the instructions: "During the American football season (September, October, and November), I usually not a home on Friday nights and all day Saturday."

Source and Info Files: 16
ABBS
Author: Larry D. Loiselle (Kingdom Enterprises)
Versions: Version 2.5 (1988)
Additional Notes:
"The software was developed with simple operating requirements in mind. We wanted it to be easy to implement, easy to maintain, easy to make it what you want quickly, and most of all we wanted it to be bug free."
"We have accomplished all this, and more. ABBS has grown to be a huge program of thousands of lines, and continues to grow. Tightly written routines are continually being modified to enhance the speed and efficiency of the program. We sincerely I hope that you enjoy this sophisticated communications program and find many ways to use this versatile software. We also appreciate any suggestions or comments regarding this program and ways to improve performance."
"We are also considering writing a Christian BBS system and a BBS system (Omegacomm) which will link with a Local Area Network and have encryption and heavy security. If you are interested in these products please write and explain your projected plans and needs. Custom work can be done, but is expensive."

Source and Info Files: 3
ACCESS
Additional Notes:
I have grave doubts I will be able to find any information about a program called 'Access BBS', especially with "RemoteAccess" being out there as well.

ACIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Richard Finegold (aka Richard Goldfinder)
Additional Notes:
"From 90Dec13 (perhaps 90Dec12; it was a long day) to 92Jul25 I worked on ACit, making around 688 changes to the code that Matt gave me (he made DragCit 3.11 compilable by Microsoft C). First thing was to make it disable call-waiting when answering a call, which eventually evolved to the #DIAL_RING command. There were a bunch of other things that I wanted to do, and I did many (perhaps most) of them. There were some contributions, but I did maintained most of it, until later. DragCit 3.12 was released, and Matt got interested. He again made DragCit compilable by Microsoft C, and started fixing bugs and adding features. There was a lot of development sharing between GremCit and ACit among the current "GremCit Team". I was fairly conservative with my changes, Brent was fairly radical, and Matt took the middle road (still true today).
My job took a lot of my spare hours away, and the time I devoted to ACit development dwindled. Matt spent plenty of hours on GremCit development. GremCit was getting developed faster than ACit, and some BBSes were switching. I finally gave up competing, and wrote a conversion program, telling the sysops still using ACit that they should switch to GremCit for the best support." - Richard Finegold

Source and Info Files: 2
ACROPOLIS (CITADEL CLONE)
Author: Robert Bequette
Additional Notes:
"It started out last September as a question to me from another man (Will Bennett) on one of the local DYM's asking if I knew of any BBS for gays in Sacramento. I replied that there were none and then the conversation evolved into a discussion of the need for one and the general shortcomings of DYM. It started out with Will supplying the hardware and me writing a custom BBS for it.
Since I have been a fan of Citadel since first running into them about two years ago, it was natural for me to select it as the format of choice. And on November 1, 1986 Acropolis, Sacramento's first and only BBS dedicated to the interests of gay and bisexual men, was up and running. As for one supplying the hardware and the other software, it no longer matters since on Acropolis's first month anniversary Will and I moved in together. For those of you wondering where the name Acropolis comes from it means "A Greek Citadel" (there is a joke in there somewhere)." - Robert Bequette

Source and Info Files: 1
ACS
ADTBBS
Additional Notes:
Stands for either "Abstract Data Technologies" or "Aaron David Thompson".

Source and Info Files: 1
AFFINITY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Vivisector (Robert Deed)
Source and Info Files: 1
AFTERDARK
AFTERHOURS
Author: Bill Cooke and William Kostoglou
Source and Info Files: 1
AFTERSHOCK
AIBBS (Artifically Intelligent BBS)
Source and Info Files: 1
ASGARD86 [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Gary Meadows
Additional Notes:
"So in essence, Asgard-86 software is a direct descendent from Citadel-86 that attempts to keep within 3 months current of any Citadel-86 release, and attempts to offer back changes and features (door code is a good example) in exchange, as well as new features that the programmer and Sysops of Asgard systems desire." - Gary Meadows

Source and Info Files: 2
ASTRODOME BULLETIN BOARD SOFTWARE
Author: Thomas Boutell
Source and Info Files: 2
ATLAS [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: John Dempsey (aka Angela Davis)
Additional Notes:
"Atlas never really got far. It seemed to mostly be a way for John to implement h is pet project at the time: an auto-router. In the network used by systems deriv ed from Dragon's Citadel, routing e-mail from one user to another relied on syso ps keeping track of network connections manually."

Source and Info Files: 2
AUNTIE
Author: Wes Meier
Source and Info Files: 8
AURORA
Source and Info Files: 4
AUTOBBS
Author: Ray Yeargin
Additional Notes:
From the Documentation:
AutoBBS is an Electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) written for people who don't want to dedicate their lives to the many mundane chores surrounding the administration of a BBS. AutoBBS can automatically validate users, purge inactive accounts, manage the message bases, optimize the use of the upload/ download space, and back itself up at 4:00 am every night. Practically all system maintenance is performed from within AutoBBS. From the remote Sysop menu it is possible to edit user records, change time limits, move files between conferences, and many others. From the local Sysop menu it is also possible to add or delete conferences, change the modem strings, modify the call-back validation parameters, and generally reconfigure the BBS. About the only thing you'll need to do in DOS is build batch files (for your doors) and make bulletins. In addition, AutoBBS takes up very little disk space and is surprisingly configurable for a BBS of its small size and simplicity.

Source and Info Files: 2
AXIS
Author: Zip Code of Z-TEC
Versions: Revision .c (November 24, 1995)
Additional Notes:
Motavar writes: "I am the author of the Axis BBS software written in the early 90's. AXiS is a WWIV hack completely rewritten to support multithreading support allowing multiple copies to run at once.
"You may wonder where AXiS and other "Forum Style" bbs softwares came from. Well.. half the forum style boards are actually WWIV hacks. With the purchase of the WWIV bbs software admins would receive a free copy of the source code for "Modding". While many of us "kids" (ages 14-18) did not have jobs ( or a dollar to our name ) we would download the latest copies of the source code from friends and play around with it changing features. There was a huge following of people who did changes (mods) to the WWIV source code. They would release pieces of code on how to add new features to WWIV including detailed information on how to make the change, such as: "On Line 254 in the modem.c file change modem=1 to modem=2", etc etc. This allowed anyone the ability to download WWIV, add a few lines of Mod code and change the look of WWIV to something cool looking (Because the basic wwiv software looked like ass). Eventually I became hooked on modding and learning C programming. This became the start of AXiS. AXiS was designed from the ground up to be a pirate bulletin board system to support the warez scene.
"I started with the basic WWIV source code and downloaded all the common / favorite mods out there for it. I would rewrite each mod to fit into my style of coding to make sure mods worked with each other. I would usually end up enhancing the mod and/or fixing the bugs in them. So much rewriting went into the WWIV framework that it was above and beyond what WWIV ever was. While the mod community was pretty open on how to do changes to the WWIV source there were a few bbs's that wouldn't reveal their secrets on how they did their mods. So I would spend a lot of time on other boards learning what their mod did and duplicating it. Eventually I found two people (two boards) that had the best mods out there and started trading custom th them. One kid who I shared code with created the RiP-X bbs software. He eventually changed RiP-X to QUiVER and claimed it was a forum-hack. The other was (fallen angel?) who wrote Dominion.
"We shared a lot of code and had some fun times doing it. If I ever find my old-ass floppy with AXiS 1.9c final on it i'll email you."

Source and Info Files: 2
B0BADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: B0b Lee (Robert Lee)
Source and Info Files: 2
BACKDOOR [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Who Cares (Quoted from the Source)
Additional Notes:
A Complete Hack of Telegard with a few new features. Included for completeness.

Source and Info Files: 1
BAPHOMET [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Absalom of Dismember Productions
Versions: Source Code Hack, Unversioned, 1995
Additional Notes:
Apparently this is a hack of VISION BBS. From the Readme File:
Here's my Baphomet source code. Wow. You may be asking yourself, "Am I going to get laid tonight?" But you may also be asking yourself, "Why is this dude giving away his source code?" Or maybe not.
It's out coz it was never really my source code in the first place. It was all hacked from Vision, anyway. Except for the quoting routines, which were given to me. Besides, I really don't have time to do much revision to the software these days.
So, if you want it, it's yours. Be cool and make a Baphomet-X or something. Make a software called Gabriel v 7.77 to be the anti-Baphomet software.
Have a blast with it.
B'Shalom,
Absalom [This BBS program (as well as Vision) has its origins in Forum PC, written by Ken Duda.]

Source and Info Files: 1
BBASM
Author: Patrick Ellison
Additional Notes:
From the documentation:
"BBaSm+ is a BBS, not a your normal bbs. There was a lot time spent on the research to do functions the way that the users seen fit, but in a way to 2keep the Sysops' maintenance simple and quick. BBaSm+ was started as a mere "can I do it" project but turned out to be a popular and very quick and easy to use bbs. BBaSm+ is not my first Assembly project but it is my best so far. Because BBaSm+ is written in 100% Assembly, It should be the fastest bbs on the market! A system that will not bore, or waste characters informing users about things that only a sysop needs to worry about. It is easy to prove that most users don't even read the menus let alone information that is unique to your particular operation or setup. BBaSm+ is for the sysop that does not want to waste time with the tasks of managing uploads and messages."

Source and Info Files: 1
BBBS
Author: Kim Heino ja Tapani T. Salmi
Software Website: https://www.bbbs.net/
Additional Notes:
BBBS is still being updated periodically. The home page is at https://www.bbbs.net

Source and Info Files: 2
BBS4C
Author: MarshallSoft Computing, Inc.
Source and Info Files: 2
BBS-PC!
Author: Steve Pagliarulo
Additional Notes:
Version of the Amiga BBS-PC! package, ported to DOS. A 99 node version called NBBS-PC! is thought to exist, according to the author. The roots of this package is a TRS-80 BBS program called BBS-80, written in BASIC.

Source and Info Files: 2
BBSXpress
Author: Richard B. Levin
Author Contacted: Yes, wrote in to provide newer code and information.
Source and Info Files: 6
BERNIE HOST
Author: Bernie Gallagher
Source and Info Files: 1
BLACK LIGHTNING
Author: Owen Emlen
Additional Notes:
I don't know if this BBS program is complete. The source code is written in Turbo Pascal - v6 or higher. The BBS appears to be oriented towards the Solar Realms Elite game.

Source and Info Files: 1
BOYAN
Author: Mark and Cindi Sherman
Source and Info Files: 1
BRANDX [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Purloin Illusionist (Jason Pondsman) and Silent Lord
Additional Notes:
Re-writing of original Forum Code (often called a "Forum Hack").
In the source code, the authors say: "Brand-X is a heavily modified Forum-PC 2.1 which was written by Ken Duda. We here at Brand-X would like to thank Ken for the shell (Forum-PC) in which made Brand-X what it is today. The Brand-X authors take *ALL* credit other than the original small pieces which used to be called Forum-PC."

Source and Info Files: 1
CAPTAIN'S CITADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Audin Malmim
Source and Info Files: 2
CELERITY [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Additional Notes:
Ken Sallot writes "Celerity was a forum hack based on the TCS 1.50 source code. It eventually supported multiple-nodes as well, and was probably the most popular forum hack in 1990."

Source and Info Files: 6
CENTAURI'S CITADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: CENTAURI
Source and Info Files: 3
CHAIRMAN
Additional Notes:
An anonymous writer says "I bumped into this POS.... It's without a doubt the single worst BBS product for the DOS market ever. It was overpriced, badly designed, very badly documented, and had incredibly bad commands. There was a de facto standard of expected commands for BBSes of the RBBS/FIDO style in those days that the folks at Chairman were too good to bother with. (I phoned 'em and talked to 'em at one point--they were real jerks.) The example I remember specifically was that H was almost always help on most of the other BBSes but on Chairman it was "Hang up." Well, after messing with their software, that was probably the most helpful thing they could do for you."

CHANGE
CHARISMA
Author: Grip MicroDesigns Inc, Hamilton, Ontario
Source and Info Files: 1
CHOICE [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Ove Nielsen
Software Website: http://home2.inet.tele.dk/okn/
Additional Notes:
"CHOiCE BBS is based on the old ViSiON/2 code but with a very optimized code." - OKN

Source and Info Files: 2
CHOST
Author: John Wiegley
Source and Info Files: 2
CIRRON [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: DungeOn Master of Cirron Enterprises (Plus Others)
Additional Notes:
Cirron source code is based on Forum PC by Ken Duda.

Source and Info Files: 2
CITADEL+ [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Source and Info Files: 11
CITADEL++ [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Jim Earl
Source and Info Files: 2
CITADEL86 [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Hue A. White Jr. (aka Hue Jr.)
Additional Notes:
"Having obtained Citadel 2.10 from CUG through SuperComp, and then having helped upgrade it to Citadel 2.40 using, at various times, a H89 and a Z-100, Citadel-86 for MS-DOS 2.xx was developed in order to ... um. Well, in any case, the first version of Citadel-86 went up on the 8088 side of a Z-100 in the Fall of '84, using MS-DOS 2.13." - Hue Jr.

Source and Info Files: 3
CITADEL86E [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Farokh Irani
Source and Info Files: 3
CITADELK2NE [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Vince Quaresima
Source and Info Files: 2
COCONET
Author: Brian Dear
Additional Notes:
Brian Dear writes: I wrote the COCONET HOST bbs software beginning in 1987. It was the first graphics-only (EGA) BBS product on the market, getting a rave review in a 1989 Boardwatch article. Starting in 1990 my company (Coconut Computing, Inc., based in La Jolla, CA) began advertising in numerous BBS magazines including BBS Callers Digest, Boardwatch, etc. We eventually created Mac and Windows client programs (the server software ran in Unix platforms like SCO XENIX). Some of the firsts for COCONET: * First fully bitmapped and vector-based graphics BBS software (client/server). * First to support bookmarks in message forums * First to support real graphical emoticons embedded in messages (ultimate BBS and other web based products started doing this years later) * First company to support PDF files (Adobe Acrobat) - in 1993! * First text file browser -- I wrote an HTML-inspired browser and released it in 1991 for COCONET -- it was not connected to the CERN WWW project, but I was aware of that, and inspired by the HTML/SGML work that Berners-Lee was doing on NeXT machines. The TextFileBrowser in COCONET enabled you to create "pages" which had embedded markup language in them for font changes, underlining, as well as image placement. Only thing it did not have,alas, was clickable hyperlinks. Oh well! * First BBS to have built-in support for playing MIDI music over the modem * First BBS client to have builtin JPEG/GIF viewing complete with Zoom capability (feature creep galore! :-)

COLLIE
Author: Dan P. Plunkett
Source and Info Files: 1
COLOSSUS
Author: Dan Plunkett, John Friel III, Jim Harrer, Scott Hunter
Author Contacted:
Additional Notes:
Colossus: The Forbin Project was a rather advanced BBS program created by a very young Dan Plunkett. Well-documented, fast, and extensible, the program had great potential.
A falling-out between Plunkett and his beta testers resulted in the testers forking the project and starting what would eventually become Wildcat!, from Mustang Software.

Source and Info Files: 2
COMMONS
Author: Kirk Moore (Grey Mouser)
CONCORD
Author: Pasi Talliniemi
Additional Notes:
From the Documentation: "Development of this product started in December 1993, when Aki Antman decided, due to his service in the Finnish army, not to develop SuperBBS any further, or at least not in the near future. Pasi Talliniemi did not want to wait for a new release of SuperBBS and decided to start writing his own BBS software."

Source and Info Files: 4
COOPCITADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Jeremiah Johnson
Source and Info Files: 1
COPPERCIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: John Luce
Author Contacted: John Luce wrote in.
Source and Info Files: 3
CRISIS [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Dark Force of Rune
Source and Info Files: 1
CYANIDE [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: MaggotMan and Cyanide Developing Team
Additional Notes:
Cyanide is based on source code from Forum PC by Ken Duda.

Source and Info Files: 1
DARKSIDE
Author: Adam Simnett (Mr.Happy)
Source and Info Files: 1
DARKSTAR
Author: J. Thomas Hunter of Paragon Technologies, Inc. and Generator Technologies, Inc.
Versions: Revision 1.01C (1993)
Additional Notes:
Jason Scott, here. An example of a very messy situation that may never be totally untangled, so consider all of this information in transit and still being researched.
The DarkStar BBS software was considered ahead of its time and impressive by many people who came into contact with it. Towards the middle of the 1990's, a beta version of the software came available, but was ultimately not released as a full production system. This caused a good number of hard feelings, including feeling defrauded or burned.
Jerry Thomas Hunter (J. Thomas Hunter, occasionally) wrote the software, and the names Ken and James McDowell have come up, although it is not clear in what capacity.
When trying to determine a version number for the files in darkstar.zip, I found a symbol table that's closely associated with compiled BASIC compilers of the era. -gb 08Nov21

Source and Info Files: 9
DBBS
Author: Dan Domin
Additional Notes:
Paul Begley writes "dBBS was Dan Doman's (NYC) package. It was one of the first multi-user BBS packages that was database driven. I was a member of PACS (Philadelphia Area Computer Society) and the IBM SIG (special interest group) used dBBS as our BBS software for several years."
The MAS Computer User's group of NY credits DBBS this way:
"dBBS (Daniel Doman). Dan wrote the dBBS software that MAS has used since 1984 to support the direct-dial BBS. Dan provided outstanding support, and he added various features to dBBS to meet MAS' specific needs. Dan stopped developing dBBS in 1986 and we have lost touch with him since then, but the quality of his work has permitted his software to continue in service for all these years. Wherever you are, Dan, thank you."
Louis Kairys says "I was a member of PCLI which was a BBS run under dBBD, a package written by Danny Domin. Danny sold his package to a number of BBS and later started out on his own with Danny's Domain BBS (when he left PCLI, a PC repair company that is still around), BTW this all happened in the 1981-1985 timeframe. I was beta testing for TELIX (a communications package) written by Collin Samepleau (spelling) which he later sold. I Also was a beta tester for Spark (Sparkware still has a I-net site, but he is long out of the business). Sparky devised the QWK packet which was the basis for all of the mail in those days, as well as two mail programs, first Deluxe Reader then 1st Reader. I have met all of the above people as well as the late Phil Katz. Also I was a "Roady" (Thunder Road BBS, one of the first very large BBSs) as well as the NYRunning Board (the first and the last one on each of the above systems). As a consequence of the latter I was also the first user of RIME. Howard Belasco (who passed away last year and my best friend) and his sister Bonny Anthony founded RIME (Or Relay international as it was originally known) in order to be better able to talk to each other."

DCI
Author: Marianne Cowley (Nordevald Software)
Software Website: http://www.nsis.org/ns-about.html
Source and Info Files: 1
DELTA5
Author: Shahar Hajdu, Amir Mirenberg
Source and Info Files: 2
DEMENTIA [WWIV v4.x]
Derived From: WWIV v4.x
Author: Midnight Sun
Additional Notes:
Based on text strings found in the BBS.EXE file, Dementia is quite likely based on the source code of WWIV v4.x.

Source and Info Files: 2
DESIRE
Author: xROADs
Source and Info Files: 1
DIE
Author: Dan Droppa, Charles Ying, Jason Mockel
Additional Notes:
Stands for DeltaSystems Integrated Environment. "Originally created out of a need for more flexible color ANSI, we also wanted to have a BBS that ran in the background on DOS 5.0. The software was able to run both in the foreground, and as a TSR in the background, and played MOD music files in the background. We never charged money for it, just gave it to friends who asked for it. Full featured, with split-screen chat, and an ANSI "graffiti" message of the day type system." - Charles Ying

DISORDER AND DISARRAY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: King Jamez
Source and Info Files: 2
DLX
Author: Richard Gillmann
Additional Notes:
From the Author's Webpage: "In Los Angeles in 1983, I founded a software company that I called "Inner Loop Software." For most of its existence, the company was located on McConnell street near Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles county. At its peak, I had two employees (Andy Witkowski and Kathleen Sullivan) working with me. We closed the doors in 1987. I sold a few DLXes as late as 1994.....In 1986 I wrote a BBS (bulletin board system) called DLX, for MS-DOS computers. DLX is a multi-line BBS that features extensive chat features, both one-on-one and group chat. After Inner Loop Software closed in 1987, I kept tinkering with it. In 1994 I stopped work on DLX (at version 7), gave up my copyright on the program, and placed it in the public domain. In other words, it's FREE and, in the spirit of public domain freeware, I have included the Microsoft Pascal 4.0 source code, too. Note that it's written in Microsoft Pascal, not Turbo Pascal, as some think. I sometimes get queries about where to find a copy of MS Pascal 4.0. I have sold my last copy. You might try used book / software stores."

Source and Info Files: 4
DMG
Author: Marcos Della, Shad Muegge, and Richard Gross
Additional Notes:
The Della, Muegge, and Gross Bulletin Board System ------------------------------------------------------ DMG BBS This BBS software was written by: Marcos Della, Shad Muegge, and Richard Gross The system was written in Borland's Turbo Pascal and consists of 17,000 plus lines of code. Some of the features which it offers: 1. Message conferencing, multible bases with mutible subjects. 2. An online Forum or Magazine section. 3. A file transfer section with multible sections and multible bases. 4. An electronic mail system. 5. Softmail: software mailing system. (Send software to another user). 6. A gaming section. Many more features are persent making this one the most complete BBS's currently available in the country. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [29Jul21] I discovered that I had a copy of the DMG BBS source code in my personal collection and wasn't even aware of it. dmg_source.zip contains the source code to version 2.2ß of DMG, dated January 28th, 1989. -gb [12Nov19] The "dmg-stuff" zip files included here were the result of pulling the only existing archive of DMGBBS from 30+ year old Usenet posts. The original author posted multi-part uuencoded files for the system. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with each posting - the resulting ARC files are corrupted, but in mildly different ways. He attempted reposting, but it also failed and due to the pushback received over the size of the files, no third attempt was made. The DMGSETUP.ARC file in "dmg-files-1.zip" was not corrupted and includes the source code for the setup program that DMG uses. -gb

Source and Info Files: 3
DNDBBS
Author: Erik J. Oredson
Versions: v2.7a (1990) v5.0a r2.0a (2019)
Additional Notes:
An attempt to bring Dungeons and Dragons to the BBS Experience. Can be run as either a stand-alone BBS or as a door.

Source and Info Files: 8
DOMINION
Author: Fallen Angel and Particle Man
Additional Notes:
"Dominion BBS was born about 2 years ago with the boredom and dissatisfaction of Fallen Angel and myself (Particle Man). We both tried out different softwares, and finally Fallen Angel decided to write his own. He named this software �psilo�. �psilo�, to say the least, was quite buggy and finally scrapped a few months later. Fallen Angel did not give up, however. He used that �psilo� source to come up with what is now Dominion and he has been working on it ever since. What you see before you is the product of over 2 years of dilligent work by Fallen Angel and Particle Man."

Source and Info Files: 2
DOORWAY
DRAGCIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Peter Torkelson (aka the Dragon)
Additional Notes:
Starting with the Gremlin's code, Peter added many features including networking. For several years, almost all Seattle area Citadels ran this program. When Peter started to release source code, many offshoots were born.

Source and Info Files: 3
DRAGCITY
DRAGONSOFT
Author: Ron Stanions
Source and Info Files: 1
DREAMBBS
DIGITAL DUNGEON
Author: Jerry Ash
DIAL-YOUR-MATCH
Additional Notes:
Sold for $199. Matchmaking BBS software, where users would fill out a questionaire about themselves and then use that to check for probable "matches" along the rest of the userbase. Research indicates this was available for both Commodore 64 and IBM Compatibles.

EAZIHOST
Source and Info Files: 2
EBBS
Author: Ed Parry
Source and Info Files: 2
EBBS+ (EBBS Plus)
Author: Bruce A. Murphy
Additional Notes:
Tim Nobody writes "I was actually surprized to see that you have EBBS on your list, as that was the software running on a majority of BBS's that I used to call out in the S. California area back in my day. But there is a small upgrade to EBBS that you missed. But then again, I can understand, as it wasn't written by the author of EBBS. It's called EBBS Plus (or was it EBBS +)." "I don't recall much about this software, but remember that I planned on using it for my own BBS, but was never able to get my copy to function correctly. But, basically someone managed to modify the original EBBS and made it modular, where it would load and unload various portions of itself. Once you were done in the doors section, it would unload the doors portion, and load lets say the files section."

Source and Info Files: 4
EDI-BBS
Author: Andr� Laurendeau
First Created: 1987
Additional Notes:
Andr� Laurendeau writes:
"In 1987, I started to write a BBS software called EDI-BBS. At first, it was a just proof of concept for full-screen communication over modem. Then, over the next three years, new features were constantly added until the source files reached more than 18,000 lines of Turbo Pascal (Version 3 to 5) and assembly.� The software was maintained until 1993, and one of the BBS running it stayed online until 2000. It was run on three (or four - I can't remember) BBS, all in the Montreal (514) area code (Mini-Bank, Infolie and PolyFolie).�
EDI-BBS had a lot of features then never found in other software:
1. It was the first full screen BBS software to run on IBM and to be accessible with full keyboard (functions keys, arrows, Wordstar-like commands etc) on IBM, APPLE II and Macintosh computers, as well as any computer running a VT-100 or VT-52 emulator.
2. It was totally bilingual (French and English) and converted automatically between characters set depending on the client platform;
3. It ran it's own network of BBS, the messages being automatically shared at night between the BBS; later, it was made compatible with FidoNet.
4. It had a plugin interface, enabling other software to be run online without having to worry about using the modem.

5. For users that wanted a faster access, it had its own client software for IBM platform, with specialized code and compression.
6. It had a Database-like feature (Rolodex), with Sysop defined fields, and a "Grafiti wall" board where user were able to draw anonymous messages.

ENHANCED DLX (EDLX)
Author: Jim Bakman (Based on Work by Richard Gillmann)
Additional Notes:
The Author describes the program like this: "DLX was a program written over a span of about a decade by a man named Richard Gillmann. It was designed to permit one computer to run a bulletin board system (BBS) that could accept up to thirty-two incoming modem connections and allow the users to interact with each other. "Interact" could mean anything from reading and writing messages to be read by the general public of the population, sending private messages to other users, conversing with other users both one-on-one and in groups (popularly known as "chatting"), and sending and receiving texts and programs in the file libraries.... Eventually, Mr. Gillmann decided to move on to other goals in his life, and released the inner workings of the DLX program into the public domain, with the thought of allowing others to pick up his work and do with it as they will. Thus was born the EDLX program - a "second generation" DLX program with certain enhancements and features in mind."

Source and Info Files: 1
EIS
Author: Justin Langseth
Software Website: http://www.langseth.com
Source and Info Files: 6
ELEBBS
Author: Maarten Bekers
Additional Notes:
Source code for EleBBS is available on github.

Source and Info Files: 9
ELEGIA
Author: Andrew Quinn
Additional Notes:
Does not seem to have actually been released in any fashion, but the jury is still out. The information file below seems to have a very negative opinion of it. Derived from Dragon's Citadel.

Source and Info Files: 1
ELFBBS
Author: Dino Nardini
EMULEX [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Additional Notes:
Scott Kassos writes "Emulex & Emulex/2 - Turbo Pascal 3.0, 4.0 - Distributed primarily as binary but source was eventually distributed. Started out as a "hacked copy of Forum" that a few friends ran. The original authors were Sam Brown, Rigor Mortis and Shadow Lord. Several other BBS were later based off Emulex's heavily modifed Forum code. Emulex was named as such because at one time it emulated other BBS types, such as PC Board and Forum. This concept was later removed but the name stuck."
Ken Sallot writes "Emulex & Emulex/2, probably the most influential "forum hacks". Most of the other direct descendants of Forum (TCS, USSR, LSD) took ideas from Emulex. The last binary version of Emulex/2 ever released incorporated a set of high speed modem and ANSI routines which made it much faster than any of the other forum hacks (LSD eventually incorporated the same code somewhere around version 1.50). The biggest problem with Emulex was Sam Brown; he was an incredible coder, but he'd disappear for a year or two at a time and then come back and start working on it again."

Source and Info Files: 4
EMULEX2
ETERNITY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Isaac Oates
Source and Info Files: 2
EVILBBS
Author: Image
Versions: v.52a
Source and Info Files: 1
EXECUTIVE
EXPRESS
Author: Mario Giordani
Source and Info Files: 1
EZBBS
Author: Gary M. Raymond
Versions: 1.1 (1993)
Additional Notes:
The documentation (all of it contained in self-running programs that display it) describes EZBBS breathlessly: "Finally, a feature-packed BBS has arrived that can be managed completely with an ordinary text editor. It's EZBBS! And like the name says, its so user friendly and quick to set up, you can actually be online in minutes! ... EZBBS is intended for those interested in SIMPLE easy to manage BBS systems for either hobby or business communications."
EZBBS charged $75 for registration, and $150 for registration with access to source code.
The documentation indicates that the software was written in Bob Zale's Power Basic Version 3.

Source and Info Files: 1
EZYCOM
Author: Peter Davies
Source and Info Files: 10
FALCON
Author: L.B. Neal
Source and Info Files: 1
FALKEN
Author: B.C. Software
Source and Info Files: 3
FAQ [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: The Shocker
Additional Notes:
FAQ is based on Forum PC by Ken Duda.

Source and Info Files: 1
FBB Packet Radio BBS
Author: Jean Paul Roubelat
Versions: v5.15 (1993)
Software Website: http://www.f6fbb.org/
Source and Info Files: 5
FEATHERNET
First Created: 1988 (Initial FeatherNET Version)
Versions: 3.9/xe1 (March 3, 1991) 3.9g/xe1 (March 11, 1991) 3.9j/xe1 (March 17, 1991) 3.9 (April 10, 1991) 3.9c (April 17, 1991) 3.9d (April 17, 1991) 3.9e (May 14, 1991) 3.9f (June 15, 1991) 3.9g (July 14, 1991) 3.9h (August 1, 1991) 3.95 (August 30, 1991) 3.96 (September 5, 1991) 3.97 (November 3, 1991) 3.97a (November 17, 1991) 3.97b (November 25, 1991) 3.97c (December 12, 1991) 3.99 (January 3, 1992) 3.99a (January 5, 1992) 3.99b (January 20, 1992) 3.99d (April 10, 1992) 4.00 (April, 1993)
Source and Info Files: 17
FELONY
Author: Sureptus
Versions: 4.7
Source and Info Files: 1
FIDO
Author: Tom Jennings
First Created: June, 1984 (Fidonet Network)
Additional Notes:
The source code included here was retrieved from Tom Jennings' website some time around 2009. The site indicated that the data was from a failed backup and that some of it was corrupted and unrecoverable. I can't verify the completeness or buildabilty of the source archives. The full trove of FidoNet "artifacts" can be found on the Internet Archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/20041010234045/http://wps.com/FidoNet/index.html

Source and Info Files: 13
FLYPAPER
Author: "Stephanovich" (Stephane Rouleau)
Additional Notes:
Written in Turbo Pascal, this BBS software, in the words of the author, only made it to a "handful" of BBSes in the Montreal area, and is basically unknown outside of Quebec.

FORA
Author: Jim Bowery
Additional Notes:
FORA is a multiuser chat system for the IBM PC and compatibles. It supports up to 17 people simultaneously communicating at up to 2400bps, chatting as a group and privately with each other. FORA 1.00 uses no special, single sourced, hardware components, and the FORA 1.00 system software is available free on a user supported basis.

Source and Info Files: 2
FORBES
FORCE
Author: Guy Smith and Jim Langley of the Phoenix Software Group
Additional Notes:
Stands for Flexible Online Remote Communications Environment

Source and Info Files: 1
FOREM
FORNAX
Author: Minh Ma
Source and Info Files: 1
FORTRESSPC [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Chris Camacho
Source and Info Files: 2
Forum-PC
Author: Kenneth J. Duda
Additional Notes:
Forum was one of the more copied source codes used to create later BBS programs. The following is a letter from Ken Sallot with a good attempt and putting the later lineage under one roof.
Ken Sallot writes: "First, I'd like to give you some background on the forum hacks and their lineage. All of the forum hacks (Forum, Emulex{*}, TCS, Celerity, USSR, LSD, Vision{*}, Oblivion{*}, Monarch) were derived either directly from Forum 2.5 or from another of the forum hacks.
"Ken Duda used to provide the source code for forum 2.5, and being in pascal it was easy for programmers to pick up and modify. The best thing about Forum was the io redirection -- Ken had worked up a hook to allow all output to go directly to both the local console and over the modem simultaneously while using a simple "writeln" statement; this made it incredibly easy to develop features in forum and it's progeny.
"To the best of my recollection, the forum hacks which were directly derived from Forum were Emulex, TCS, USSR, and LSD. It's quite possible that Monarch was also directly descended from Forum, but I'm not entirely sure. To the best of my knowledge, LSD was the last one to start with the stock Forum code; by the time I started working on LSD the source code to an early version of Emulex was already available and shortly after I started working on LSD the source code to TCS came out. I'm pretty sure I took the "DOS prompt matrix login" from TCS, but the rest was straight from forum.
"The other hacks (Celerity, Vision*, Oblivion*, and a few others) were derived from one of the other hacks. Celerity was derived from TCS, but it quickly surpassed anything that the TCS guys imagined as being possible, while Vision* and Oblivion* were descended from LSD. Politics caused the vision and oblivion groups to fraction a few times, and although initially bugladen (the version of LSD which got out had LOTS of bugs), one of the vision's became quite good over time.
"LSDBBS - "Lush Software Designs" based on forum 2.50 source but by 1992 the only remaining original code was for the IO redirection. The code was stolen and released when an account was compromised on the slaves den. The released code was used as the basis for many of the other forum hacks (Vision, Oblivion, etc). I believe it was the first forum hack to support fidonet echomail and multi-lines. My main goal was speed and features, so I often would re-write sections of code to try and optimize them. I eventually started a complete re-write which was 100% configurable and supported the JAM message format until I lost interest in 1994 (first exposure to the web).
"TCS - was a forum hack which copied a lot of ideas from Emules. Sam Brown wasn't the "author" (although he was the author for emulex). I think the last board that ran it was down in Ft. Lauderdale.
"Vision, Vision/2, and Vision-X were all forum hacks based on the leaked LSD 1.21 source code. They all were aesthetically pleasing, but only one of them was stable (I don't remember which). I had some serious pointer problems in LSD 1.21, and only one of the three "vision teams" was able to understand programming enough to fix the bugs.
"USSR - The author of USSR gave the BBS out to a few people that were not in $print, but there were never more than 7 boards that ran the software. The two things that made USSR unique were that it was the first forum hack to support 38400 port locking and it was very fast and aesthetically appealing from a users perspective. There used to be a great BBS in Buffalo that ran it for years (The Wall). The thing about the HD Identification is BS (I had a copy which ran fine on multiple different systems), but each version had a unique identifier ("serial number"), and all of the USSR sysops believed there was a back door which could format your hard drive.
"TAG - was originally based on the WWIV 3.0 pascal source code, although it's not a Forum hack I include this info just for reference.
"Celerity - it was a forum hack based on the TCS 1.50 source code. It eventually supported multiple-nodes as well, and was probably the most popular forum hack in 1990.
"Monarch was a forum hack that was developed by a guy in Toronto. I never was quite sure if it was derived from forum directly or from another forum hack (TCS or Emulex). The author quit working on it back in 1988 or 1989.
"Emulex & Emulex/2, probably the most influential "forum hacks". Most of the other direct descendants of Forum (TCS, USSR, LSD) took ideas from Emulex. The last binary version of Emulex/2 ever released incorporated a set of high speed modem and ANSI routines which made it much faster than any of the other forum hacks (LSD eventually incorporated the same code somewhere around version 1.50). The biggest problem with Emulex was Sam Brown; he would often drop the project for months or years and then come back and start working on it again.
"Take care and good luck with the project. Ken Sallot, LSD Author (1988-1994)"

Source and Info Files: 5
FRED'S CITADEL
Author: Fred McLain
Software Website: http://www.halcyon.com/mclain/fredware/pd/index.html
Software Website: (https://web.archive.org/web/20111117124524/http://www.halcyon.com/mclain/fredware/pd/index.html)
Source and Info Files: 3
FREESPEECH
Author: Tim Campbell
Additional Notes:
Written by the Author of the Sapphire BBS Program, Timothy Campbell.
Also known as "SASSy", standing for "Stark And Simple System".

Source and Info Files: 1
FROGCIT
Author: Keith (aka Zen Master)
FRONTIER
Author: Francis Gastellu (Lone Runner of AEGiS)
Additional Notes:
An open-source PC-Board clone, this GPL'd project was halted after two years with the Internet finally overtaking BBSes. As indicated in the web page, "We know that, besides the fact that French BBSes are to die soon, that a lot of countries don't have the same problem." A lot of work seems to have gone into making it very compatible with PC-Board, up to and including support for PPEs. Courtesy of the author.

Source and Info Files: 2
FUSION [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 2
FXBBS
Source and Info Files: 3
GAP
Author: Kenny Gardner
Versions: 6.6 (September 1999)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20200216175800/http://www.gapbbs.com/
Source and Info Files: 8
GBBS (GRAPHICS BBS)
Author: Eric Anderson
Software Website: http://www.happyhackingbulletinboard.info
Additional Notes:
Eric Anderson wrote in this description of the GBBS software (developed from 1989-1992 in Australia): "GBBS (Graphics BBS) was developed in Melbourne Australia in the late 80's and early 90's. The development was done as part of a student thesis at Chisholm Institute of Technology. GBBS was in direct competition to RIP graphics base systems. RIP graphics was easier to integrate into existing BBS software and thus became the standard. GBBS had better graphics capabilities because it could issue commands similar to BASIC's graphics commands to the remote system. It could send GIF files for logos etc. It even cached the BBS menus and graphics between sessions on the User's local machine. It checked file dates in the cache to determine if the menus had been updated which meant it ran as fast as a text based BBS! The whole Package ran from the DOS prompt and was mouse driven. The Package was used by a number of people in Melbourne Australia before the internet killed off most of our local Bulletin Boards."

GENESIS [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 1
GENESISDELUXE
Author: Carter Downer
Source and Info Files: 1
GENESISPROJECT
Additional Notes:
Genesis PC Version 1.5 (C)1986 Genesis Project Written by Kiriwuth Path and Jim Berg Language Compiler: Turbo Pascal 3.0

Source and Info Files: 1
GENOCIDE [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Nivenh
Source and Info Files: 1
GHOST
Author: Toby Simkin & Gregg Hommel
Source and Info Files: 2
GHOSTSHIP [Based on Turbo BBS by Bob Maxwell]
Derived From: Based on Turbo BBS by Bob Maxwell
Author: "Mongo Vargas" and "Chris Chronos"
Additional Notes:
Ghost Ship BBS v2.14

Source and Info Files: 1
GRAPEVINE
Author: Mike Hindle
Source and Info Files: 1
GREMCIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Matthew Pfleger (aka the Gremlin)
Additional Notes:
Starting with the Citadel-86 code, Matt duplicated all of Stonehenge's features, plus he also added many of his own. This code served as the root for almost all subsequent Citadel development in the Seattle area. He stopped work on it after 1.30 (which was never used), only to return several years later, starting with Dragon's Citadel code. This resulted in Gremlin's Citadel and Citadel+.

Source and Info Files: 3
GSBBS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Shadow Lord
Additional Notes:
"GSBBS version 3.0 is probably the most versatile and enjoyable Bulletin Board software for the IBM PC/XT or AT models. Many years in writing, development, and online testing, GSBBS is the ideal alternative for prospective system operators who like the FidoNet system of echoed message bases but are not satisfied with the limited programs generally used to access the network, such as Opus."

Source and Info Files: 2
GTALK
Author: David W. Jeske and Daniel L. Marks
First Created: July, 1992
Source and Info Files: 3
GTPOWER
Author: Paul Meiners (Rights Purchased by Bill Watts, Later Given to Dennis Berry, now sold to Tom Watt)
Versions: v19.00 (Most Recent Version)
Software Website: http://www.gtpowerbbs.com
Source and Info Files: 15
HARMONY
Author: Jasen M. Fici & Alex M. Bloom of Concord Software
First Created: Version 1.1a Released in 1992
Source and Info Files: 1
HAVOK [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Additional Notes:
Derived from Forum-PC

Source and Info Files: 1
HELIUM [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Screech & The Shaman
Source and Info Files: 1
HOLOCIT
Author: Dargos
HOST
Author: Bob Eyer
Source and Info Files: 1
HYPE/2 [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Zoob of Darktech
Source and Info Files: 4
HYSTERIA [WWIV v4.x]
Derived From: WWIV v4.x
Additional Notes:
Appears to be derived from WWIV v4.x

Source and Info Files: 1
IBM PC BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM (IBBS)
Author: Gene Plantz
First Created: 1983
Additional Notes:
This compiled BASIC program appears to be a modified version of one of the original versons of RBBS. The archive includes compiled binaries as well as the original BASIC source code. In the source code, the program calls itself RBBS. This is one of many branches from RBBS across its history.

Source and Info Files: 3
ICOMM
IDCCOM
Author: Gary Conway and Shawn Merrick of Infinity Design Concepts
Source and Info Files: 1
IDEATREE
Author: Protosoft, Inc.
Source and Info Files: 1
ILLUSION [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Kyle Oppenheim (Archer) and Jeff Christman (Liquid Concept). Billy Ma (Synthetic Time) joins after version 1.63g.
Versions: 1.x (May, 1992), 1.50, 1.62 (December, 1992), 1.63g, 1.70, 1.83, 1.93 (March 1995), 1.94 (October, 1995), 2.00 (August, 1997), 2.01 (August 1997), 2.03 (January 1998)
Additional Notes:
Illusion is a derivative of Telegard Version 2.5g. It was originally created (or more accurately, "modded") by Kyle Oppenheim and Jeff Christman (Also known as "Archer" and "Liquid Concept"). After version 1.63g is released, Christman leaves the team to be replaced by Billy Ma ("Synthetic Time").
Illusion BBS does not have released source code, ironic considering the software itself is based from released source code. From the documentation of 2.01: "SOURCE CODE - The Source Code for Illusion is not available to the general public under any circumstances. The Telegard 2.5g source code has been floating around. We don't plan on making the same mistakes." This position is accompanied by unusually draconian restrictions in the liscensing for Illusion BBS (or IBBS, as it was sometimes called): "Illusion is not a public domain program and is not free...The Illusion Development Team only guarantees that Illusion will occupy disk space... Illusion may NOT be modified in any respect, for any reason, including, but not limited to, decompiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering of this program.... Lastly, Illusion is BETA SOFTWARE! This means that old versions no longer be supported at ANY GIVEN TIME. We try to include vonversion programs (if needed) with each new version of Illusion, but we don't save them from old versions. Beta software also means versions are released with bugs, but hopefully the features outweight them."
The last version of Illusion BBS is v2.03, and Billy Ma goes out of his way to indicate that the software absolutely isn't Y2K compliant.

Source and Info Files: 13
IMAJICA
Author: Tidepool Software / Greg Siler
Source and Info Files: 1
IMPULSE [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 8
INFINITY
Author: Keith Brown
Source and Info Files: 1
INFUSION [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Grant Passmore
Source and Info Files: 3
INIQUITY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Michael Friker (Original Author), Michael Pike (Purchased Rights), dedchylde/Nathan Hyatt (Version from leaked Source Code)
Additional Notes:
From the readme version of Iniquity 1.00 Alpha 26r4:
"For those that do not know iniquity was first started by Michael Friker, it was then sold to Michael Pike after Friker no longer had the time and energy that was needed to continue the project. With the comming of Pike we all hoped that iniquity would once again develop into the software it was in the past.
"Things did not go as planned and as we had hoped, Pike was lacking one key that he would need to develop iniquity, he could not code pascal. After we releazed this things turned ugly after our devotion and commitment had been played apon my Pike, and eventually the source code itself was leaked to the public. Comatose suggested too iniquity's die hard supporters that the development should now be run by the iniquity sysops themselves and form a type of group or team of system operators that wish too continue the development and yet respect its original founders work and credits where they are due."

Source and Info Files: 8
INNOVATION [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 1
INSANITY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Raven and RoboZapp
Versions: 3.0 (February, 1993) 3.2 (November, 1994)
Source and Info Files: 3
INSOMNIA [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 3
INSTINCT
Source and Info Files: 4
INTERBBS
Author: Ronnie L. Pierce
Source and Info Files: 8
INVERSE
Author: Brian Zhou
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20021027031339/http://members.darktech.org/zoob/inverse.html
Source and Info Files: 1
IRONHENGE
JBBS
Author: Jay Kenney and Will Greenway
Additional Notes:
BBS program written in dBase language for Clipper. From the documentation for this software: "jBBS is a dBASE compatible BBS that can read and write Fidonet type messages. It has been in serious development since June '88 and has gone through many changes in the process. jBBS is compiled with Clipper (tm). jBBS requires BinkleyTerm as a front-end to answer the phone and check for mail. It is very sysop-configurable to any XT/AT/386 system. All output is routed through a "fossil". GETIO.C and GETIO.OBJ are included in the Jbbs.Lib source. GETIO is how Jbbs talks to the modem. jBBS does not require dBase III Plus (tm), or Clipper (tm) to operate."
"In San Francisco in the 1980's there was a BBS program called JBBS which was run by about 100 people. It ended up in Europe. It was based on DBASE, and was pretty nice. I ran it for a couple of years. It got modified so it could run on USENET at the time and not look like a PC System." - Mark B. Reinhold

Source and Info Files: 13
JDRBBS
Author: John Rohner
Additional Notes:
Source code for the BBS is a mix of compiled BASIC (likely QuickBASIC or PDS7) and assembly.

Source and Info Files: 9
JETBBS
Additional Notes:
"Hello! I am the current owner of JetBBS.com and am attempting to obtain the source code but have been attempting for a very long time. Anyway, I have some information on it and I can provide a more indepth write up tomorrow, after I get some sleep. It was written by Troy L. Beckstrom and Jason Haskins. Dan Sanderson (or Anderson, I will check tomorrow) was a kid at the time but helped type up the manual for it. I have the freeware fully registered version available for download at my domain and I will keep the domain for life. I've attempted to write an open source version but I can't write the interpreter. It's very hard to write. I'm looking for anything jetbbs related (older version, the message database, etc.) It was an extremely powerful BBS program. The people who wrote it lived in Washington State. It supported a fairly large message base with networking (it'd call a master server and your BBS would upload the user messages and download the new ones. It had built in games, and supported add on protocols, like z modem, y modem, etc. Some where built in. It supported doors and there was never a door I couldn't get to work with it. I do have some older versions of it, the shareware ones. I'm looking also for the older registered ones, source code, an original manual in good shape, etc. Any info i can provide, let me know." - Spork Schivago

Source and Info Files: 2
JRBBS
Author: Jim Ryan
Author Contacted: Met Jim Ryan's son at Rubi-Con and he put me in touch with his dad!
Additional Notes:
Jim Ryan writes "JR-BSS was written in turbo pascal (about 17,000 lines of source code) and ran on PC/MS-DOS. I was used by about 30 different sites... Most were open to the public, but a few were used by private companies... Had many "under the covers" features that made it unique, had all kinds of security (levels, access groups, who is, encryption templates, dial back, etc), you could customize all the menus, add your own commands, it also had end of day automated processing...."

K2NE [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Vince Quaresima
Source and Info Files: 3
KBBS
Author: Anderson-Williams
Source and Info Files: 8
KING
KINGNET
KISSBBS BY KISSWARE
Author: Keith Anderson
Source and Info Files: 2
KITTEN
Author: System Enhancement Associates (Thom Henderson)
Source and Info Files: 1
KWIKBBS
Author: Darren Ryall
Additional Notes:
This appears to be a binary release of EleBBS. The "author" didn't even rename the binaries...

Source and Info Files: 1
LIQUIDBBS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 2
LORABBS
Author: Marco Maccaferri
First Created: 1989
Source and Info Files: 8
LSDBBS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Ken Sallot
Additional Notes:
Ken Sallot writes "LSDBBS - "Lush Software Designs" based on forum 2.50 source but by 1992 the only remaining original code was for the IO redirection. The code was stolen and released when an account was compromised on the slaves den. The released code was used as the basis for many of the other forum hacks (Vision, Oblivion, etc). I believe it was the first forum hack to support fidonet echomail and multi-lines. My main goal was speed and features, so I often would re-write sections of code to try and optimize them. I eventually started a complete re-write which was 100% configurable and supported the JAM message format until I lost interest in 1994 (first exposure to the web)."
The source code for version 1.23Z is more explicit: "L.S.D. BBS Ver. 1.06 designed and hacked away at by The Slavelord and alot of help and ideas from other people.. Thanks go to The Oxidizer for being one hell of a good beta site.. Everyone else fuck off.. The L.S.D. BBS System.. This was a sick concept of mine that I did because I wanted an original BBS program. This is the work of TL, LR, Lord Zombie and Paradox. We are your gods. You MUST and SHALL obey us. THG Rules! Do not give this source out or you shall meet your death. Thank you."

Source and Info Files: 5
LUCID
Author: Judge Dredd and Team Lucid
Source and Info Files: 3
LYNC
Source and Info Files: 1
LYNX
MACH10
Author: Scott M. Baker
Source and Info Files: 1
MACROBBS
Author: Jeff Oberlee
Additional Notes:
MacroBBS is a BBS program written using the macro language in a terminal program called "COMMO".

Source and Info Files: 4
MAGNUM
MAGPIE
Author: Steve Manes
Source and Info Files: 1
MAJORBBS
Source and Info Files: 28
MAVENCIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Norman Hamer (aka The Maven)
Source and Info Files: 3
MAXIHOST
Author: Don Mankin
Source and Info Files: 1
MAXIMUS
Author: Scott J. Dudley
Versions: 1.0 (1990) 2.00 (October 4th, 1991) 3.01 (December, 1995)
Software Website: http://maximus.sourceforge.net
Additional Notes:
Maximus was rare among BBS software programs because it released in both DOS and OS/2 versions, often together. The documentation for Maximus 3.00 describes the software this way:

Maximus is a flexible bulletin board package for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. Maximus allows remote users to con- nect to the system by modem, read and write messages, par- ticipate in public conference areas, send and receive files, and much more. In addition to the standard message and file features found in most BBS programs, Maximus also includes: * MEX, an extension language that combines the best elements of the C, Pascal and BASIC languages. MEX includes support for advanced language features such as structures, arrays, dynamic strings, and pass-by-reference function arguments. MEX can be used to customize and extend Maximus in an infi- nite number of ways. * MECCA, an easy-to-use scripting language that can be used to colorize screens and add simple menus and prompts to display files. * Support for RIPscrip graphics. Maximus can detect RIPscrip capabilities, automatically size menu output based on the terminal window size, display most internal prompts using RIPscrip graphics, and much more. * Support for SM, a Presentation Manager LAN monitoring tool for OS/2. SM can be used to manipulate and examine multiple Maximus sessions running on remote workstations. * Full support for CD-ROMs and other slow filesystems. Maxi- mus will copy files to a staging area before a transfer and it will only access the drive when absolutely necessary. Areas can also be specifically excluded from new files searches. * A message tracking system for use in technical support en- vironments. Maximus can keep an audit trail of all messages in certain areas, assign "ownership" of messages to indi- viduals, and produce detailed reports regarding the status of various messages. * Support for an unlimited number of message and file areas. Maximus also supports "divisions" for constructing multi- level message and file area hierarchies.^L

Source and Info Files: 13
MEGAHOST
Author: Don Mankin
Source and Info Files: 7
MERLIN
Author: Mark Lewis
Additional Notes:
Richard Brumpton writes "Merlin was wrtten by Mark Lewis. He had a fidonet node something like 2:254/xx in 1988. His BBs was called Clapham Junction. there was another chap running Merlin, I think his BBs was called Pegasus Connection and he had something to do with Pegausus software and it ran their support bbs. He also ran a system called Cat Flap. Both had fidonodes."

METROPOLIS
Additional Notes:
Appears to be a Citadel-like room system.

Source and Info Files: 1
MICROCOSM
Author: Mark Weinstein
Source and Info Files: 1
MILTON
MINIHOST
Author: Don Mankin
Source and Info Files: 1
MINIKING
Author: Larry D. Loiselle (Kingdom Enterprises)
Versions: 2.6 (May, 1989)
Additional Notes:
Released to the Public for Free, from Kingdom Enterprises. Seems to be a pretty complete product.

Source and Info Files: 1
MODE
Author: Shane Johnson (aka Turtle!)
Source and Info Files: 1
MODULEX
MONARCH
Additional Notes:
Ken Sallot writes "Monarch was a forum hack that was developed by a guy in Toronto. I never was quite sure if it was derived from forum directly or from another forum hack (TCS or Emulex). The author quit working on it back in 1988 or 1989."
Steve Holiday has a different set of events: "I worked on Monarch for years. Your site mentions it was developed by a guy in Toronto, which is incorrect. Monarch was started, named, and worked on by me for a couple of years. This all went down in Aurora, Colorado in the 1980s. I did begin development from a very early Forum source and aggressively evolved it."

MONARCH2 [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: The Games Master and The Enforcer / Technologies Greatest Minds, Inc.
Versions: 1.00 (March 3, 1990)
Source and Info Files: 1
MORPHEUS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 1
MUBBS (Multi-User Bulletin Board System)
Author: Allen Howell (Software Construction Co.)
Additional Notes:
"The MUBBS is a multi-user bulletin board system designed for IBM PC/AT and compatible computers. The system supports up to 5 users at a time (including the local SYSOP). The system uses standard type menu screens that are totally configurable by the SYSOP. Up to 32767 menus may exist in the system, with up to 9 options per menu, for a total of almost 300,000 user options. Major functions include message bases (including private mail), Co-SYSOP's, ASCII and XMODEM checksum uploads and downloads, and a conference mode."
Sold for $79.

Source and Info Files: 3
MULTIBOARD
Source and Info Files: 1
MUTANT
Author: Tom Johnson
Source and Info Files: 2
MYSTIC
Author: James Coyle
Software Website: http://www.mysticbbs.com
Source and Info Files: 9
NANOBBS
Author: Gerald Albion (of Whirlwind Software)
Author Contacted: Yes, Gerald mailed me.
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20150222025116/https://www.artofhacking.com/
Additional Notes:
"Features: Internal Multi-User Chat! Internal Full Screen Editor! Language Files and the UFO custom script language let you totally redefine your BBS! INSTANT FILE TAGGING! High speed file searching! Squish, Fido and JAM message bases! Usenet and internet hooks! Many security features! No-nodelist netmail! Why go mainstream and bore your callers? Try NanoBBS and build a unique BBS experience! Requires DOS, 640k RAM." - v1.16 promotion

Source and Info Files: 7
NEOCITADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Hue A. White Sr. (aka Hue Sr.)
Additional Notes:
Full Citadel room system written in Turbo Pascal.

Source and Info Files: 1
NEOLITH
NEXUS
Author: George A. Roberts IV
First Created: Mr. Roberts says development began in 1993, with a release in 1997.
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20030203211308/http://nexusbbs.net/
Additional Notes:
George A. Roberts IV says "Nexus Bulletin Board System is now being developed as an open source project managed by myself. The DOS version is still available, however, we are in the process of porting it to 32-bit operating systems such as Windows and *nix. The website is located at http://www.nexusbbs.net/. I've been developing Nexus since 1993, the first version was released in 1997. The files that you have listed on your site are from that 1997 release. However, there have been serveral releases since then, the latest being June 2001, I believe."

Source and Info Files: 8
NIGHTCIT
Author: Dan Lieberman (aka The Night Stalker)
Source and Info Files: 2
NOCHANGE
Author: Jim Kloss
Additional Notes:
Tim Farley has written in with the following helpful information about NOCHANGE:
"Nochange was written by Jim Kloss, a quite brilliant programmer here in Atlanta, Georgia. There used to be several boards in Atlanta which ran it, including Jim's own and the official board of the Organization of Atlanta Sysops (OAS).
"Nochange had some really unique features for its time. I think it was one of the earliest BBS'es to have exchangeable language files so you could have the prompts appear in different languages. It also had some features I never saw in other boards like the ability to pop up random "banner ads" (just bits of text) at the user when he arrived back at the prompt.
"Jim later went on to do an automated file transfer program called XChange that had some commercial success for a while.
"He also wrote the automated program that we used to verify the Atlanta BBS List (ABBL) for a couple of years. This was a custom comm program that would automatically figure out how to log into new BBSes, log the results, and go on, so we could keep track of which BBSes were up or down for each months list. It was a very entertaining program to watch, as it would issue humorous error messages to the screen and even "chat" with the sysop if he put the session into chat mode while it was online. (Mostly it would just say "Hey I'm an automated program, not a person, please let me out of chat...")"
Jim Kloss wrote in as well! He says "I developed a BBS in the mid-late 80's called "Nochange BBS". I was living in Atlanta, Georgia (Roswell to be precise) at the time. Nochange wasn't particularly well-known, but I'm guessing there were 30-50 Nochange sysops at the peak. Nochange had many qualities that made it 'different' ... including 'points' (users played games trying to get on the point scoreboard), calling new users back at their phone number and beeping a special code to verify them, and a modular design (in Quickbasic) that allowed Sysops to drop in modules they'd written themselves. A Google search on Nochange will show a few hits showing old systems and a few comments here and there..."

Source and Info Files: 2
NOVABOARD
Author: Andrew Shoemaker and Brandt Braunschweig
Additional Notes:
For several years I ran a BBS program for Dos called "NovaBoard". It was written by Andrew Shoemaker and Brandt Braunschwag. The program was command line oriented rather than menu based, which made it a lot more powerful, but somewhat cryptic. I believe there were only about four NovaBoard BBSes that ever ran, as the program never got out of testing and into a release stage. Lloyd Eldred The Coconut Telegraph BBS Sysop 1987-1993 Fairfax and Blacksburg, VA ----

Source and Info Files: 1
NOVUCIVITAS [Citadel-86]
Derived From: Citadel-86
Author: Brent Barrett
Source and Info Files: 2
NYTI
Author: Ford II
OBLIVION/2
Author: Darkened Emnity (Eric Katz), Lord Tracer (Rony Daher), HEX, Shivan Bastard, Sir Roadkill, Murray Stokely
First Created: 1992
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20021016081152/http://members.darktech.org/obv2/
Additional Notes:
The OBV2-240.ZIP file is a false release, made using a hex editor of version 2.30. It is being kept for historical record. Sir Roadkill released a couple betas of v2.40, which had a number of security holes in the first beta.
Shivan Bastard writes "2.35r2 is the last I did. It had a number of cosmetic updates to 2.30 requested by MindCrime and others running art-oriented boards. It introduced new WFC screens, new menu options, maybe some new upload-checking functionality. Basically it was just something to get my head wrapped around the code. There wasn't anything really interesting about it. I was completely out of the BBS-scene during Sir Roadkill's efforts, so I can't comment on that."

Source and Info Files: 8
ODYSSEY
OLECOMPRO
Author: John T. Oleson, Jr.
Additional Notes:
From the documentation: "OLEcom is a host telecommunications system. Its fast, flexible and easy-to-use. OLEcom allows custom configuration and the advantages of speed and efficiency without the drawback of being locked into a canned structure. Even if you don't know the first thing about programming, it will allow you to implement your telecommunications ideas exactly the way you envision them -- through the use of menu-driven, window oriented editors."

Source and Info Files: 5
OMEGA
Author: Rick Harris and DataEast Software
Versions: v1.04 (June 1, 1991) v1.01 (March 30, 1991) v1.00 (March 1, 1991)
Additional Notes:
DataEast Software is proud to announce the OmegaBBS software package, the first BBS package with remote mouse capabilities! OmegaBBS is a new product, not a rip-off or remake of an existing program and has been written from scratch, top to bottom, over 87000 lines of code for OMEGA.EXE alone! OmegaBBS is written in C and great effort has been taken to produce the tightest, most efficient code possible. OmegaBBS is a unique BBS package that incorporates MANY new features not found in any BBS programs. The following is a list of some of OmegaBBS's features. OmegaBBS uses fast internal interrupt driven buffered serial I/O, with support for high speed modems and locked baud rates. OmegaBBS uses a fast internal ANSI video driver. Unlimited number of full featured, password protectable sub-boards / conferences. 200 message bases per sub-board or main board. Unlimited number of file areas per sub-board. 3 levels of graphics output- ANSI with color ANSI without color ASCII (mono) 3 levels of prompts- Regular: full screens and prompts. Semi-Expert: available keys displayed with prompt. Expert: prompt only. SysOp defined Menu Prompts and colors. SysOp defined Menu Keys and custom Menu Screens. SysOp defined paths for Menus, ANSI screens, Bulletins, and Help screens. SysOp defined colors for file listings, messages, and prompts. HotKeys or regular key input. SysOp defined Mouse Menus and custom ANSI screens. *** Local & REMOTE Mouse Input! *** Remote users can manipulate SysOp defined Mouse Menus using our special ModemMouse driver. The mouse support adds a seamless 'point & shoot' capability to your BBS! Local mouse input uses a regular mouse driver. System access password protection. Call-back verification of new user phone numbers if Verifier is enabled. SysOp defined area codes and exchanges for use with Verifier. Embedded control codes. SysOp can place control codes in ANSI/ASCII screens and OmegaBBS will replace the codes with the information they represent. For example, ^FW would be replaced with the current user's first name. SysOp defined chat paging hours. Split-screen chat. The SysOp and user can type at the same time! SysOp 'on next' function. If a user is online and the SysOp wants on before next caller logs in, OmegaBBS will hold the phone off hook when the current user logs off and audibly page the SysOp. SysOp defined Maintenance Events that are executed at a specified time. Events can be .bat files, stand alone executable programs or Omega Script Language (OSL) scripts. OmegaBBS is Desqview aware. See the Desqview Setup section on page 72 for information on running OmegaBBS under Desqview. OmegaBBS is a new product, and to stimulate growth we are offering OmegaBBS at the low introductory price of $75.00 U.S. plus $4.50 shipping and handling.

Source and Info Files: 3
OMEGACOMM
Author: Larry Loiselle
ONYX
Author: Jack Moffitt and Jared White
Source and Info Files: 1
OPUS
Author: Wynn Wagner III (Later Development by John Valentyn with Doug Boone, Ulf Nilsson and Trev Roydhouse)
Software Website: http://www.sentry.org/~trev/opus/
Source and Info Files: 12
ORACOMM
Additional Notes:
ORACOMM-Plus Multiuser BBS Release 5.00, April 9, 1990

Source and Info Files: 5
ORION
Source and Info Files: 1
ORKADEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Mickey Mouse (James Bly)
Additional Notes:
James Bly writes "I laughed when I saw Orkadel listed. I wrote that when I was in high school. I thought I'd let you know for your additional notes section, that Orkadel is actually a derivative of Hue Jr's Citadel-86 with some special features for a select few sysops from the area. (The Twin Cities.)"

Source and Info Files: 1
OSIRIS
Source and Info Files: 16
OTERA [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Bryan Murphy
Source and Info Files: 1
OVERCIT [Novucivitas (Citadel-86)]
Derived From: Novucivitas (Citadel-86)
Author: Jeff Waltzer (aka Overlord)
Source and Info Files: 2
PARADIGM [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 1
PARAGON [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Additional Notes:
"Paragon BBS: A cross between Telegard and RA includes matrix DOS logon, rumors, automessages, and much more. 4 nodes freeware version has all the features included. Very Elite style board, not meant for lamers."

Source and Info Files: 1
PCBOARD
Author: Fred Clark, David Terry, Clark Development Corporation
Author Contacted: Conversations have taken place with Steve Catmull, David W. Terry, and Scott Dale Robinson, all of the Clark Development Corporation.
Interviewed! David W. Terry and Steve Catmull of Clark Development Corporation were interviewed on February 21, 2003.
First Created: 1983
Additional Notes:
Created by Clark Development Corporation (CDC) in Salt Lake City, Utah, PC-Board was one of the first major commercial BBS packages available on the DOS Platform. Reknown for stability, ease of configuration, and general quality, it helped set the standard for what BBS packages should offer.
The BBS package was popular with both companies and pirates alike, projecting an image of quality that few could resist. While some balked at the price of the package (A 2-user version cost $150 in 1994), those who could afford it or used it as the foundation for a pay system were pleased with it.
The Clark Development Corporation BBS was called the Salt Air BBS, and always ran the in-testing version of PC-Board, giving a peek at upcoming features. Among these features were multi-node capability, which immediately caught the attention of Sysops. Other features included PPL, which was a BASIC-like language for adding commands and programs that would become part of the PC-Board environment.
Clark Development corporation pioneered the filename FILE_ID.DIZ to include description information in a file archive. Originally created to accompany their PCBDescribe Utility, the idea behind the standardized filename was to provide an expected place for the file's description, removing the need of uploaders to manually type it in each time they sent the file to a new BBS.
In 1993, US Robotics changed from TBBS to PC-Board software for their BBS, which caused a small stir in the BBS community.
The Clark Development corporation ultimately collapsed in an ugly fashion in the late 1990s, assigning a new president before going bankrupt. All indications are that the PC-Board code disappeared with the company.
Rumors abounded for years during the 1980s that the initial versions of PC-Board were based on code from RBBS. RBBS' ubiquity and freely available source might have been useful for taking ideas, and there is currently no easy way to prove definitively one way or the other. This rumor has also dogged a number of other commercial BBSes, so it could easily just be the nature of BBS Culture. PC-Board certainly began its life as a compiled BASIC program, but later revisions (there were 15 major versions) were rewritten from scratch in C.

Source and Info Files: 23
PCCONNECT
Author: Gary Smith
Source and Info Files: 3
PCEXPRESS
Author: Michael Feilen
Source and Info Files: 4
PCPN
Additional Notes:
Documentation mentions support for "PunterNet", which uses the Punter protocol designed by Steve Punter. Steve Punter may be the author of this software package. Files in the zip files lead me to believe that the system was written in QuickBASIC 4.5.

Source and Info Files: 5
PEGASYS
Additional Notes:
Based on file naming conventions used, this BBS program may be derived from either WWIV v4.x or Telegard. WWIV is the most likely candidate however.

Source and Info Files: 1
PHOENIX
Source and Info Files: 1
PHOENIXRCS
Additional Notes:
Phoenix R.C.S. (Remote Communication System)

Source and Info Files: 11
PICS [ROS v3.4]
Derived From: ROS v3.4
Author: Les Archambault
Additional Notes:
Pascal Integrated Communications System

Source and Info Files: 2
PILOT
Source and Info Files: 1
PIPELINE [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 3
POSTMASTER
POWERBBS
Author: Russell Frey (Author) Brad Friedman (Menu Generation Program)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20090225054138/http://www.ronny-brodin.com/powerbbs/powerbbs1.htm
Source and Info Files: 1
POWERBOARD
Author: Scott Brown
Additional Notes:
Mark writes in with the following information:
PowerBoard was written and maintained as a commercial BBS software package in the late 80's/early 90's (89-95) by Scott W. Brown. The software was written for use in an MS-DOS environment. It was written at first with Microsoft QuickBASIC and then was migrated to BASIC-PDS and used additional extensions from PDQ. PowerBoard was customized with a proprietary, BASIC-like language called "PCL" (PowerBoard Control Language). To my knowledge, it was one of the first, if not the first, commercial BBS software packages on the market to do so on such a scale.
Other major players in the market like PCBoard didn't have this level of flexibility for at least two years after PowerBoard became available.
Scott was inspired by the capabilities of of another software package called RyBBS that allowed BBS session menus to be altered in flat-file, but he was not completely satisfied with their level of power and flexibility, hence the creation of PowerBoard from scratch. I am not Scott W. Brown, he would know much more about the internals of PowerBoard than I as he wrote it.
The software was available in single-node and multi-node configurations, with multi-node being possible with the use of a task-switching environment such as DesqView or OS/2 2.x or later.

Source and Info Files: 12
PPOINT (PROFESSIONAL POINT)
Author: Harvey Parisien
Additional Notes:
From the info file: "Automatic Setup and Maintenance. Automatically accepts and sets up new areas. Simple to use. Sets up and interfaces transparently with Binkley. 4d or FakeNet addressing. Efficient message database system. Optional Modules available for QWK or LAN support."

Source and Info Files: 3
PPPBBS
Author: Roland De Graaf
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/19990302074827/http://www.ameritech.net:80/users/pppbbs/index.htm
Additional Notes:
From the BBS Corner: "PPPBBS is not really a BBS software, but an add on to other BBS software or as a stand alone program to provide PPP (Point to Point Protocol) to dial-up customers. Works with DOS, 32-bit Windows (9x, NT, 2000) & OS/2"

Source and Info Files: 1
PROBOARD
Author: Philippe Leybeart
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010620075405/http://www.telegrafix.com:80/products/proboard/
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20161114194940/http://winramturbo.com:80/pbi/
Additional Notes:
The original author, Philippe Leybeart, sold ProBoard to Telegrafix corporation.
It's still being worked on as of 2001.
[02Aug21]
ProBoard source code is now on github:
https://github.com/proboardbbs-com/ProBoard---2.22
https://github.com/proboardbbs-com/ProBoard-2.20
https://github.com/proboardbbs-com/ProBoard-2.16

Source and Info Files: 4
PROFLEX
Author: G-A Technologies, Inc.
Versions: 1.0 (November 1992)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20000815195444/http://www.vnet.net:80/
Additional Notes:
The company that produced this software, G-A Technologies in Charlotte, NC, has since renamed itself (with same phone number) to VNET Internet Access, Inc. And THAT company appears to now be known as "CTC Internet Services".

Source and Info Files: 3
PROPHECY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Yojna, Inc.
Additional Notes:
Prophecy defines itself as "A delicate mix of PC-Board, Renegade, Telegard, and OBV/2."

Source and Info Files: 1
PUP
Author: Tom Jennings
First Created: December 10, 1987
Additional Notes:
Pup was an attempt by Tom Jennings to get away from the trend of more and more complicated BBS software that FidoNet and its equals were heading towards, and put together a package that could be used on smaller systems. His concern was that BBSes were quickly becoming a hobby/domain of the elite and others need not apply.

Source and Info Files: 3
PYROTO MOUNTAIN (R)
Author: Timothy Campbell
Author Contacted: Yes! Timothy has it together!
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20200108013615/http://www.pyrotomountain.com/
Additional Notes:
From the documentation:

WHAT IS PYROTO MOUNTAIN?
Fantasy role-playing games are all the rage, these days. Pyroto takes the concept one step further: a never-ending battle for domination of the magic-laden slopes of a mystic Mountain. The players are locked in a struggle to reach the Pyroto Pinnacle. Over the weeks and months, they rise higher by answering the skill-testing questions posed by the Mountain's extraordinary Guardians. As they climb, they gain the ability to cast new, more powerful spells. But first, they have to learn how to use them! One careless move can spell disaster!

Timothy Campbell ported his Pyroto Mountain program to an internet application, where he sold the rights to Pyroto, Inc. (http://www.pyrotomountain.com) This group is not affiliated with Timothy Campbell and it should be considered a separate product. It has also been maintained by Pyroto, Inc. to the present day, is a commercial product, and has updates beyond the archived versions below.

Source and Info Files: 4
QBBS (BASICA Version)
Author: Matt Leber
Additional Notes:
Written in BASICA Language by Matt Leber. Can only work in 300 Baud.

Source and Info Files: 1
QHOST
Author: Steve Lyle
Source and Info Files: 1
QUANTUM
Source and Info Files: 1
QUICKBBS
Author: Adam Hudson (With Assistance by Phil Becker)
Additional Notes:
Jeff Harvey writes "When Adam Hudson wrote QuickBBS, he was only 14, and was hailed as one of the better systems at the time. Adam did a truly wonderful job considering his age and worked dilligently on the system until about the time he got interested in girls. :) I believe that QuickBBS is where the idea and general format for Wildcat! came from, which became strictly a commercial endeavor. QuickBBS originated a means of transferring data from the system to "doors" which for a long time became a standard that many other systems implemented."

Source and Info Files: 22
QUIVER
Author: Koosh
Additional Notes:
Main Programmer Koosh, Co-Programmers FusioN and Rusty. Described in the documentation as "Forum style BBS software. Features include: Popup and pulldown menus, conferencing, soundblaster support, strings editor, file by number feature, forum like message section, highly configurable, and much, much more."

Source and Info Files: 2
RAPTOR [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: LAIRWare (Bud and Brian Younke, Dale Ficken, Dale Ficken, Timothy Barney, Sandy Chidester and Don Clapper)
Source and Info Files: 5
RADIOACTIVE TELEGARD (RAT) [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Dan Metcalf and Mike Mitchell
Additional Notes:
A Derivative of the Telegard BBS Software.

Source and Info Files: 2
RBBS
Author: Russ Lane (Original Author), later Brad Hanson (2.0), Tom Mack
Additional Notes:
Pete Smothers writes: The first version (Copywrited - 6/21/82) was written by Russ Lane.) In 1983 Brad Hanson added xmodem protocol to Russ Lane's Version 1.0 of RBBS-PC and called it RBBS-PC Ver 2.0 and added a note to the program source code that he was copywriting RBBS-PC. Other Capitol PC user group members who add or changed RBBS-PC add their own names and their own Copywrite notice to the top of the source code. I talked to Russ Lane in Telluride CO where he went to drop out from Chicago IL about why what some of his code was suppose to do. He was writing code and skiing and did not complain about others did to his code. Tom Mack was a sysop for a bbs of the Capitol PC users group and did head up the control of the code from about version 9 on. Have the original code from Russ Lane to back this all up. I also made changes to RBBS-PC with Russ' permission for my board NOPC - RBBS, that I put up on 8/21/83 for New Orleans Personal Computers Group. History should correctly credit the work that Russ Lane did to get the IBM RBBS explosion started.

Source and Info Files: 18
REALM OF CHAOS BBS [Pipeline BBS]
Derived From: Pipeline BBS
Source and Info Files: 1
REMOTEACCESS
Author: Andrew Milner
Source and Info Files: 9
RENEGADE
Author: Cott Lang (Original Author) Patrick Spence & Gary Hall, Jeff Herrings, Corey Snow, Chris Hoppman & T.J. McMillen, Lee Palmer
Software Website: http://renegadebbs.info
Additional Notes:
From Cott Lang's Webpage: "I've worked on Renegade on and off for 6 years. On April 23, 1997, I turned it over to Patrick Spence. It's a freeware package that I keep working on because I wanted something I could modify, I wanted something I knew was backdoor free, and because I think all the commercial packages are crap... Those that want support for Renegade throw a few bucks at Patrick's BBS to help him out."
From Ariven's Webpage: ""Renegade BBS is a dos based dial communication system (BBS) that includes message areas, interactive chat, file downloads and a sense of community, originally created from the Telegard 2.5 source code by Cott Lang. After Cott Lang stopped working on Renegade, he passed it on to me to work on. Soon I became very familiar with some of the reasons that caused him to make his decision to cease working on Renegade. Renegade is currently in the hands of Corey Snow, who is working on a project to spawn Renegade as a rewrite into an open source project. It looks promising, and has my full support."
I was contacted by Chris Hoppman and T.J. McMillen and told that they are also developing a version of the Renegade software. Their website is the current listed one for the software.
Note from Jason Scott: For a number of years while I worked on the BBS documentary, I came into contact with a good number of the developers for Renegade software. To say there's some miscommunication between different parties is an understatement. Part of the problem (if it can be called that) is that first of all, Renegade was a popular BBS program, meaning there was significant worth and value placed on feature development and work, meaning more pressure for whoever announced they were working on it. Second, the software's source code has been tightly controlled since its creation, meaning that only authorized parties could develop it. This meant a small web of trust, and also meant that if whoever was developing the software wasn't doing so to the satisfaction of the large (non-paying) audience, they recieved an awful lot of grief. Finally, Windows' acceptance and dominance of the x86 platform meant that Renegade's development was stalled at several critical junctures. As mentioned above, work has continued, but there are a lot of broken hearts and bad feelings left behind with this program.
Update for November 2009: Contacted by T.J. McMillen; he says Lee Palmer and himself are working on the Renegade software, and that Chris Hoppman stepped down from the project in 2004, and that 99% of the source code has been rewritten since the 2003 handoff from Patrick Spence. http://www.renegadebbs.net is no longer the official homepage.
[02Aug21]
The source code for Renegade can be found here: https://github.com/Renegade-Exodus/RG119SRC https://github.com/rickparrish/Renegade

Source and Info Files: 26
REVELATION [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Author: Gary Gann and Rick Hadsall (Some Assistance by Jeff Routledge and Mike Wood)
Additional Notes:
Rick Hadsall writes "Revelation was a DOS-based BBS originally based upon Telegard 2.5g source code, but most of it was scrapped and replaced over time."
"Versions up to v0.85 were progressing in one direction, with a focus on adding features similar to the Forum-hacks that were popular at the time (Celerity, Velocity, LSDBBS, Alacrity, etc etc). The author of Paragon contacted us, and his software, also a Telegard 2.5g based effort, had focused on rewriting the message system and other subsystems, as well as writing in multi-node support. We decided to merge together, and he soon dropped out of it, leaving us the integration of the code as well as all remaining tasks. We added several built-in games, new message bases, new menuing system, 100% fully configurable text files (like Major BBS had!), improved file systems, and more. We even had a teleconference program like Major BBS, but it was never released as it was lost in a source update (oops!)"
"The last ever officially released version was v0.96 beta 4, which you have on your site. The authors were Gary Gann and me (Rick Hadsall). Some bug fixing during version 0.95 was done by Jeff Routledge and Mike Wood, but no major enhancements. They were never authorized to release versions, either..'
"An OS/2 port in C++ was being worked on, but it was very early Alpha and never saw the light of day."

Source and Info Files: 3
ROBOBOARD
Author: Seth Hamilton
Source and Info Files: 7
ROS
Author: Steve Fox
Source and Info Files: 1
ROVERBOARD
Author: FreeLance Programming
Source and Info Files: 4
RYBBS
Author: Greg Ryan
Source and Info Files: 6
SAM (Slick Answer Machine)
Source and Info Files: 1
SAPPHIRE
Author: Tim Campbell
Author Contacted: Yes! He E-mailed me!
Source and Info Files: 10
SAURON
Author: Simon Horton
Source and Info Files: 1
SEADOG
Additional Notes:
SeaDOG was the first "front end" mailer for FidoNet systems.

Source and Info Files: 2
SEARCHLIGHT
Author: Frank LaRosa
Source and Info Files: 7
SECRECY
Source and Info Files: 1
SHADOW [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 1
SHOCKWAVE [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 3
SHOTGUN
Author: Brent Shellenberg
Source and Info Files: 6
SHSYSTEMS
SILICOSIS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 1
SIMPLEX
Author: Chris Laforet Software
Source and Info Files: 2
SLBBS
Author: Zak Smith
Additional Notes:
Utilities for SearchLight BBS by Zak Smith.

Source and Info Files: 1
SLICK
Author: Gary M. Raymond (Simple Software Company)
Additional Notes:
There's 2 "Slick BBS" programs. There's this one, that according to the documentation was written in TurboBASIC The other one, (in the SLICKBBS entry) is source-code only and a derivation of Forum-PC.

Source and Info Files: 2
SLICKBBS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 1
SOCRATES
Author: Mike Jacobs
Source and Info Files: 3
SPHYNX
Author: Craig VanGorden, aka The Sniffler
Source and Info Files: 1
SPITFIRE
Author: Mike Woltz - Buffalo Creek Software
Source and Info Files: 9
SQUIGGLE
Author: Brent Bottles
Source and Info Files: 1
STADELPC
Author: David Parsons (aka Orc)
STAREMPIRE
Author: Antoine Le Huenen
Source and Info Files: 1
STONEHENGE
Author: David Bonn
Additional Notes:
"My 'nym was "Tempus" and I was the one of the folks involved with the (attempt at the) commercial development of the Stonehenge bbs software in the Seattle area. David Bonn was the primary author and architect. I helped with some of the architecture (mostly as a sounding board, and saying "what about if we..." to Dave a lot..); I coordinated all the alpha and beta testers, as well as software updates; and did a lot of work on the documentation. Somewhere around here I've got the disks we used to use to pass out each person's personalised version of the software. I've also got the original computer I used to run my 'henge on ("Sanctuary" was my henge node), and the message database and all that (assuming the ancient maxtor hard drive will power up yet one more time)."
"Seattle and environs had a very active and interesting BBS scene going on, with a lot of emphasis on "room" based systems all of which pretty much descend from CrT's original "Citadel" system. At the peak, between Citadel and Cit clones, Minibin, Stonehenge, etc. I'd wager we had somewhere around 40 or more 'room' based systems running out of the 206 area code."
"Of all the room based systems at the time, 'henge was unique in it's capability to network with other Stonehenge systems. The networking was very advanced for it's time, and modeled how much of current internet networking functions. Consider that at the time, the best known 'network' of BBS systems was FIDO, and their networking consisted of all their systems trying to frantically call each other, directly, during a hour or two window in the middle of the nite. Stonehenge by contrast had routing along with store and foward capability, and could call during idle time, at any time of the day. Systems did not have to call other systems directly, but could pass messages along from one system to the next. Our networking also understood about long distance, and rate plans, and allowed for systems to dial long distance numbers only during 'cheap' hours, while they dialed local numbers at any time of day."
"If you want to know more, let me know. likewise if you are going to do any interviews in the seattle area, I'm open to that also. Seattle had a very interesting scene at the time, including an active "Telecommunications Users Group "TUG", of which I served some time on the board of directors. Several of us 'old time' (mid 80's) seattle bbs users still communicate with one another, an interesting example of a bbs 'community' that continues to exist over 15 years since many of us called a bbs for social reasons." - Chuck "Tempus" van der Linden

Source and Info Files: 6
SUBBS
Author: Sue Widemark
Additional Notes:
Sue Widemark writes: "SuBBS was based on John Lorance's first version of QBBS written in turbo pascal 3.01a for DOS. At this time, the BBS (which used Wayne Conrad's low level communications routines and keystroke input library) had many 'glitches' which caused fatal errors, leading to file disruption and program abend.
"At the prodding of my son, then a teenager, I fixed the file errors and got the program so the places where it would abend were predictable and avoidable. A couple of years later when I ran the program myself, I found it was not stable enough for my tastes. Over the next several years, I re-wrote several parts of the program, including the message editor and the high level modem routines in order to make the program, not only very stable but also unhackable.
"This came in handy when the second BBS I ran, a free voice BBS encouraged the worst BBS war our town had ever seen. Every BBS was spammed and SuBBS was able to withstand the spamming and did not crash. After I re-wrote the high level modem routines, you couldn't modem crash it either. (sometimes the dirty phone lines modem crashed a BBS by itself).
"I did not add a files section (wasn't anything I cared about) and used the bulletins as a sort of text files section. I never moved it to another version of turbo pascal which means I had to work with the size restriction of TP 3.01a. This involved making ALL the code lean and mean. The final version still has the Wayne Conrad communications module in tact and a few other original routines but has mostly been re-written. AT the time I put up my last BBS, I realized a files section would be an asset (this was 1991).
"I checked into different options including shelling out to a black box which was working well for several other BBSes. But I also quite by chance, came upon a very nice commercial package called Wildcat which was almost as configurable as SuBBS. I decided to switch to Wildcat - not being into re-inventing the wheel. :) I offered SuBBS free for download and through the 1990's various users ran the software and enjoyed it. It was very fast and especially appropriate for under powered equipment. The last user to run it that I know about was a young man who later became the program director for a major TV station - he ran Subbs for about 6 months in 1995. ( http://www.suewidemark.com)"

Source and Info Files: 1
SUPERBBS
Author: Aki Antman and Risto Virkkala
Source and Info Files: 3
SUPERCOMM
SUPERDLX
Author: Steve Jason Quinn and Lester Waters
Source and Info Files: 1
SWIFTBBS
Author: Dana Bell
Versions: Version 0.45i (1992) Version 0.79j (1994) Version 0.81f (1996)
Software Website: http://www.texramp.net/~dbell
Additional Notes:
Dana Bell describes SwiftBBS this way: "SWIFTBBS is a simple and small bulletin board system program, with support for internal and custom menus. If you know a bit about programming, SwiftBBS' questionnaire command files can also be used to control access and navigation.With SwiftBBS you can even designate a custom main menu for each user, and for new users at the same site (families) to logon without having to hang up. The menu system allows the system operator to define the use and parameters of a hundred or so separate functions, including linking of menus. The documentation for SwiftBBS includes a general manual, reference manual and an application manual of suggestions on how to set-up and use SwiftBBS."
Dana Bell mentions in the documentation: "The development of SwiftBBS is a reflection of my preferences for the features of two other BBS packages, QuickBBS and Opus. QuickBBS for the quickness, hotkeys, database format and the customizing features, and Opus for the simple and professional operation and appearance. I hope the SwiftBBS similarities will be a credit to the developers of these two. Both systems have also been imitated since then by other fine programs in their own right, RemoteAccess and Maximus."

Source and Info Files: 3
SYNCHRONET
Author: Rob Swindell
Interviewed! Interviewed in the LA Area, 2002.
Software Website: http://www.synchro.net
Additional Notes:
Synchronet was released as open source on October 10th, 2000 and remains in development as of August 2021. Both Windows and Linux versions are available, including builds for the Rasbperry Pi.

Source and Info Files: 4
SYNERGY [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 1
SYSTEM75
Author: Clay McClure
Source and Info Files: 2
SYSTEM/X
Source and Info Files: 4
TACHYON [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Obsidian Knight
Source and Info Files: 1
TAG
Author: Paul Loeber and Robert Numerick (Later Victor Capton, Randy Goebel, and Paul Williams) (Assistance by Martin Pollard)
Additional Notes:
Victor Capton writes "I'd like to contribute what little I can to the project. I'm one of the authors who developed the TAG BBS software. Authors over the years: Victor Capton, Randy Goebel, Alan Jurison, Paul Loeber, Robert Numerick and Paul Williams. All live in the Detroit (MI) area except Alan Jurison who is in Syracuse (NY). Release period: 1986 through 2000. Platform: PC MSDOS based application which can run in DOS/Windows. Written in Borland Pascal. Availability: Free for business or personal use (we considered it fun to give the program away while others tried charge for them) Peak number of running systems: Just over 1000, mostly in the US and Canada.
"Areas of major TAG BBS concentration: Michigan: Detroit (where it started), Lansing, Flint and Battle Creek. California: Oakland. Connecticut: Hartford. Florida: Jacksonville and Cocoa. Maryland: Baltimore. New Jersey: Newark. New York: Syracuse. North Carolina: Raleigh. Ontario Canada: Windsor and Hamilton. Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh. Texas: Houston, Beaumont and Fort Worth. Virginia: Norfolk.
"We all poured countless hours into the development and support of people running BBSs. Even today I don't think the internet has come close to the sense of community and simple accomplishment that BBSing provided. Building and running a complete environment on your local computer and WATCHING people use it is a far different experience than putting up a web page on some remote server. We all made and still have a great many friends from being SysOps and BBS developers."
Ken Sallot writes "TAG is often mistakenly attributed as a hack of Forum Software."

Source and Info Files: 13
TBBS
Software Website: http://www.centrinity.com/
Additional Notes:
TBBS.ORG (archive.org copy), a support site for current users of TBBS software, created the following excellent history of TBBS, which describes the whole of TBBS's story very adequately:
"TBBS (The Bread Board System) is a multiline DOS based software package authored by Phil Becker, former CEO of US based company eSoft^®. TBBS started out as a single line Bulletin Board System (BBS) originally running on early TRS-80 computers. It's advantage was that it could be fully customised by the system operator, so that no two TBBS systems looked the same - other BBS packages at the time had their menu structures hard coded.
As time progress, Phil completely re-wrote the TBBS program to operate on IBM PC's running under DOS, and then proceeded to write a machine language multitasker that allowed multiple callers to access the TBBS system at the same time. Other BBS software packages could only achieve this by either running their software on LAN systems, dedicating one complete machine per modem, or under DOS multitasking software such as Quarterdeck's Desqview. TBBS achieved multiple lines all on the one machine. For those only wishing to run two lines, no additional hardware was needed - you only used COM1 and COM2. For those wishing to run more lines, special serial boards called Digiboards were used to allow up to 64 modems to be hooked into the one machine. At it's height, TBBS could allow 64 users at once (though it is rumoured that eSoft^® did provide customised 96 line version of their software to large companies like Microsoft^®).

Add-On "Option Modules" were then released. TDBS, a dBase3 emulator allowed multiline applications and games without having to exit the TBBS environment via batchfiles (or dropfiles) making it more stable than its competitors. TIMS was released to allow interaction with Fidonet technology. QSO was released to allow users to use the popular QWK message format for offline mail reading. SYSOM was released to give the sysop real time control over user levels and menu flags without bringing the TBBS system down. Interchange was released to allow the TBBS system to grab outgoing modem lines to dial other services, networking multiple BBS systems together. TIGER was released to allow users access to internet email and newsgroups. All in all, TBBS and it's option modules were far beyond the realms of what other BBS authors could dream of.

eSoft's next big step was the IPAD - The "Internet Protocol Adapter" - a seperate hardware/software solution that, tied to the TBBS machine allowed incoming telnet access to the TBBS system. It also provided outgoing access for those TBBS callers on dial in lines of the system to access the internet using the IPAD machine as a gateway. Eventually, many IPAD owners became Internet Service Providers (ISP's) as BBS usage on the whole began to wane, caused by the growing popularity of the Internet.

The IPAD was extremely popular. It had one major drawback - it was very expensive, and beyond the reach of most TBBS sysops who had already spent thousands on their particular TBBS line count versions.

Eventually, and understandably, eSoft^® and TBBS went their separate ways as eSoft^® pursued the Internet market. Eventually all technical support for TBBS and associated products were dropped and TBBS ended up in a "no-mans-land"."

Karl Eisenhower writes "TBBS: In the late 80s and early 90s I worked at a small electronic publisher that initially relied on Compuserve for distribution of our news service. By about 1990 it became evident that a BBS was a more cost effective way to go. We purchased TBBS, because they seemed to be the best solution for very large numbers of phone lines (at the time, no one else could handle more than 16 lines on one box). The early 90s version of TBBS was commercial software (unlike the freeware you've got posted on your site) and was written in assembler. It was so efficient that with "intelligent" DigiBoards, we were able to serve 64 modems out of one 486 with very little RAM."
"By the mid-90s, TBBS seemed to have become the software of choice for commercial applications such as ours. For example, I remember that the Hayes Modem tech support BBS ran TBBS software."
"The company that created TBBS still exists. They're now selling Web server appliances: http://www.esoft.com/"
Casey Sprangel gives further information about IPAD, including the IPAD owners association (www.ipadowners.org) which includes an official history of the IPAD (http://www.ipadowners.org/public/FAQS/IPADhistory.shtml) nad an interview with Phil Becker about the IPAD (http://www.ipadowners.org/public/FAQS/PhilHistory.shtml).

Source and Info Files: 12
TCOMM
Author: Larry Jordan and Jan van der Eijk
Additional Notes:
"TCOMM User Supported Version 1.6 is written in C and assembly language. The software was originally designed by Larry Jordan in 1983 and written by Larry Jordan and Jan van der Eijk based on several man-years of experience writing and testing unattended communications software. TCOMM was first published commercially as Version 1.15 in February 1985. Demonstration Version 1.5 and commercial version 2.0 were published in August 1985. All software modifications have been made by Jan van der Eijk since August 1985, including the changes required for Version 1.6 and the commercial versions of TCOMM and TCOMMnet."

Source and Info Files: 3
TCPS
Author: Mikael Kjellstr?m & Krister Hansson-Renaud
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20090624170844/http://www.algonet.se/~mikkje/tpcs.html
Additional Notes:
Stands for The Perfect Conference System.

Source and Info Files: 1
TCS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Author: Sam Brown & Shadow Lord
Versions: v1.50 (May, 1989)
Additional Notes:
All I can find are the Pascal Sources for this program.
Ken Sallot writes "TCS was a forum hack which copied a lot of ideas from Emulex. Sam Brown wasn't the "author" (although he was the author for emulex). I think the last board that ran it was down in Ft. Lauderdale."

Source and Info Files: 1
TELAVIV
Source and Info Files: 1
TELEGARD
Author: Eric Oman, Martin Pollard, Tim Strike
Software Website: http://www.telegard.net
Source and Info Files: 20
TEMPEST
Source and Info Files: 1
TERMINATE
Additional Notes:
Terminate is both a terminal program and a BBS program.

Source and Info Files: 1
TINYHOST
Source and Info Files: 2
TINYHOSTPLUS
Author: Bruce A. Krobusek
Versions: Version 1.11 (August 10, 1993)
Additional Notes:
An expanded version of the original TinyHOST Host and BBS Program, with additional features from TinyHOST Version 3.31, including activity statistics and personal directories.

Source and Info Files: 1
TOPQUARK
Author: Mark Firestone
Additional Notes:
Mark Firestone wrote "topQUARK is an updated version of QBBS, which was developed by John Lorance as a replacement for RBBS. Anyone who ever had to struggle with actually using, or even worse, running RBBS will understand why. He succeeded in producing a much superior program, a remarkable achievement, especially for a fifteen-year-old kid with no professional programming experience.
"It is closely related to WBBS -- the systems share many features and innovative ideas, including the best message reading system of the day, storing whole message bases in single files (important if you are using floppy drives where every cluster counts), and reasonably high reliability.
"Wayne Conrad and Sue Widemark both helped John debug the original version. My favorite bug destroyed a message base and crashed the system if a message base grew above 32k. Not very large these days, but quite large when you are running a system on one 720k floppy drive and a RAM disk to hold the actual program.
"After John got tired of maintaining the software, it split into two versions. Sue Widemark created SUBBS, and I continued to maintain QBBS as the software for TARDIS BBS.
"Eventually I sold a copy to Aetna Medicare, which they used to run the Aetna Medicare BBS. This meant I had to add many new features... so I added an innovative files section (with files stored as individual records in a database, instead of a flat ASCII file), ANSI color and a whole bunch of other features specifically for Aenta's requirements.
"topQUARK is currently being rewritten in Ruby and will be reborn as a multi-threaded, multi-user BBS system complete with on-line games. Why? Because we missed it. The source code is included in the zip file that you can download from this page. Many, many thanks to Laurence Starks for finding it for me."

Source and Info Files: 1
TORNADO
Author: nstantin Klyagin (Later Alexey Kljatow and Alexey Fayans)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20060708173827/http://musicstation.spb.ru/tornado/
Source and Info Files: 8
TOX
Source and Info Files: 1
Turbo Pascal Bulletin Board System
Author: James Whorton and Eddie H. Curlin
Source and Info Files: 1
TPBCOM
TPBOARD
Author: Jon Schneider & Rick Petersen
Source and Info Files: 6
TRIBBS
Author: Original Author: Mark Goodwin. Sold to Gary Price. Sold again to Joe Rollings and Frank Prue, current owners.
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20021125235532/http://www.tribbs.com/
Additional Notes:
"The software is still supported and still being worked on. New features include internal telnet support. Also noted a 32 bit version is due out within the next year. This software has always been supremely supported and has massive amounts of 3rd party support programs for it." - Dennis Haddox As of August 2021, it appears that TriBBS v11.6 dated March 23, 2002 was the last version.

Source and Info Files: 10
TRITEL
Author: Mark D. Goodwin
Additional Notes:
TriTEL was the previous name of TriBBS. After around version 2.11a, it was renamed.

Source and Info Files: 4
TURBOARD
Author: Shawn Rhoads of Software @ Work
First Created: May 28, 1992
Software Website: http://www.rhoads.com/~crhoads/shawn/turboard/
Additional Notes:
Warren Zatwarniski writes "I couldn't help but also wonder about Roboboard, so I checked that information out. I hate to kick a dead horse but, at one time I use to get a good deal of pleasure poking the Roboboard sysops with the fact that Roboboard was not the first graphics BBS, Turboard was. Shawn was selling it at (I believe) "One BBS con" in 1992."

Source and Info Files: 6
TURBOBBS
Author: Robert H. Maxwell
Versions: Version 1.05 (1985)
Additional Notes:
Robert Maxwell writes "The software was my first significant project in Borland's Turbo Pascal; when I received my copy of TP Version 2.0, I thought "This would be great to write a BBS in!". It was written from the start to be able to run on either CP/M or MS-DOS, since Borland had Turbo Pascal releases for both. I knew a few BBS Sysops in my area, and heard about their problems with crashes and security, so I built the modem support into the software: that way, if anyone crashed my BBS, they would be left with no response from the other end, instead of a command prompt. I saw a few attempts to break in, but I was the only one that ever crashed my own system, and it ran happily for weeks at a time unattended.
"Once the BBS was running, I announced its existence on Borland's SIG (Special Interest Group) on Compuserve, and I got a response from Bela Lubkin, one of the Borland Sysops there that they had implied to a writer for Compuserve's monthly magazine that they had a BBS on file for download and they didn't. Could I post mine? So, after a bit of tidying up, the version 1.0 Pascal source became a public release in 1985."
"I ported the BBS from my Kaypro to a used Osborne-1 because I wanted my bigger display back. The remote callers weren't bothered by the O-1 having a tiny 5" screen. A music writer in Vancouver also set up a BBS on his Compaq Portable with the MS-DOS version I ported. I also knew of several other systems - they're listed in the BBSLIST.TXT file in the Version 1.05 distribution package."
"When I was transferred from Vancouver to the Toronto area in late 1986, the TurboBBS project died, sort of. I received a check from Australia and it was also ported to Nokia's MicroMikko II computer in Finland - I received shareware contributions from the Finns, who had promised them if they sold any copies, months after my BBS has gone down. Evidently, they sold three."
"I ported a version to the TI Professional PC (MS-DOS, but with a non-standard serial interface) for a Michigan user group. There was a period when I could do a search on the Web and find a number of TurboBBS hits out of Russia - I suspect that the Finnish version had hopped across the border. Bless them, they kept crediting me. As you already have on-site, the software took on a life of its own in the US, and I was even contacted by one of the people working on a version, asking some questions."
"I still have my Kaypro, and it still has its hard drive, and TurboBBS is still there, just waiting to start up again."

Source and Info Files: 5
Turbo-BBS
Source and Info Files: 1
TURBOCIT
Author: Ray Johnson
Source and Info Files: 1
TWITCIT
Author: Louis Erickson (aka Mad Lou, aka Z'Ton)
Source and Info Files: 1
2AM-BBS
Author: Chris Gorman, Neil Clarke, Tom Vogl (2AM Associates)
Author Contacted: Yes, Neil Clarke has written and said he'll be interviewed.
First Created: 1986
Source and Info Files: 3
ULTIMATE
Author: Joshua Eckerman
Additional Notes:
This isn't actually a BBS Program, but a BBS "Simulator".

Source and Info Files: 1
ULTIMATEBOARD
Author: Oliver Siegmar, Robert Schuster, ThomasúObkircher
Source and Info Files: 1
ULTRABBS
Author: Bob Farmer
Author Contacted: Bob Farmer has written in.
First Created: November 22, 1990
Additional Notes:
Bob Farmer writes, "UltraBBS was basically intended as a PCBoard replacement; it felt very similar, but had a lot more builtin features, carried a lot less baggage, and was considerably less expensive. It was written in C. The version for which you have the files, 2.08, was the last version I released... I sold the rights to the software & code to John Chwatal around the beginning of '92 and I believe he released some additional versions, then he eventually sold it again to Craig Baker, who most likely released some versions of his own. I don't have any further details about that period."
Tom Ryan writes "UltraBBS was taken over by Craig Baker from Colorado who really tried to make something of it, but was (IMHO) not as skilled as the kid Bob Farmer; changing versions had no method of converting filebases properly; a friend of mine threw together a utility to scan the filebase, then scan the drives looking for each and every file. At that time I had around 23,000 files and if I had to write in the descriptions for each I would have quit right then and there."

Source and Info Files: 6
USSR (Underground Software Systems Revolt)
Author: King Cobra
Additional Notes:
Captain Caveman writes "I knew the programmer who wrote this software. USSR (Underground Software Systems Revolt) was written in 1986-88 (between then). It was based off the forum source code although much of it in the end was pretty well rewritten. It was the first BBS software to implement File, Byte, And Message Post/Call Ratios. I'm also pretty sure that it was the first bbs package to support 9600 (or 14400) baud. The BBS software was basically used in the piracy scene.. and was only given to sysops who were part of a game releasing group called $print. The bbs package would only work on systems that matched the correct hard drive serial #. If it didn't match, it ended.. so it was never really publicly available."
Ken Sallot writes "USSR - The author of USSR gave the BBS out to a few people that were not in $print, but there were never more than 7 boards that ran the software. The two things that made USSR unique were that it was the first forum hack to support 38400 port locking and it was very fast and aesthetically appealing from a users perspective. There used to be a great BBS in Buffalo that ran it for years (The Wall). The thing about the HD Identification is BS (I had a copy which ran fine on multiple different systems), but each version had a unique identifier ("serial number"), and all of the USSR sysops believed there was a back door which could format your hard drive."

VARITALE
Author: Timothy Campbell
Additional Notes:
This appears to be a door game and not an actual BBS.

Source and Info Files: 2
VBBS (VIRTUAL BBS)
Author: Roland De Graaf
First Created: 1990
Additional Notes:
I was just looking at the BBS Documentary website, and didn't see mention of VBBS for DOS. Written by Roland De Graaf. It was based on WWIV, but written in QuickBasic, making it nice for novice programmers. I ran a VBBS BBS in Charlotte, NC for about 8 years before switching over to Linux and writing my own. Just wanted to make sure that my old friend VBBS was represented. - Steve -- Stephen Gilbert Production Systems Manager The Charlotte Observer

Source and Info Files: 11
VIRTUALADVANCED
Source and Info Files: 1
VISBLAST [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 2
Vision-BBS (derived from Telegard) [Telegard]
Derived From: Telegard
Source and Info Files: 1
Vision-BBS [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 1
VISION2 [Forum-PC]
Derived From: Forum-PC
Source and Info Files: 3
VISION/X
Source and Info Files: 5
VOID
Author: Irrational
Additional Notes:
The documentation says " The Void Bulletin Board System package was programmed as a hobby of mine (Irrational). It is a well programmed package written and compiled using the Turbo Pascal v7.0 compiler by Borland International. Since it had began, it has grown significantly. Hopefully, when this software is released in a standard version, people will create third party software to support the Void BBS package. This package is very stable, and can only be configured by external utilities. This makes it almost impossible for a hacker to modify your data files, unless you have a menu command to execute the utility. Even through this way, you will still need to enter your SysOp password to get access to the functions."
The BBS was created in 1998, very likely for an experiment than for a serious release.

Source and Info Files: 2
WAFFLE
Author: Tom Dell
Additional Notes:
The Dark Side of the Moon BBS in San Jose, CA, originally ran as an AE (Ascii Express) line in the mid 1980's. Because Ascii Express was already demonstrating bugs and issues at that time, the maintainers rewrote the AE interface from scratch on a new program. After a while, they were constricted by the pure file transfer aspects of the AE Line, and announced they were going to become a BBS. This new software, called Waffle, took the line by storm and turned out to be a flexible, fun, well-coded piece of work. After a period of time, the creator (Tom Dell, Sysop of The Dark Side) chose to port his program over to the PC as well as UNIX and Xenix, and the program gained new life on the PC Platform as it was distributed as both a free and for-pay program.
What won many folks over to Waffle, however, was its ease of interface to the UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy) networks and protocol. With extreme ease, you could integrate newsgroups and e-mail directly into your BBS. In the late 1980's. Waffle could even be run as a pure mail tosser, rejecting the BBS aspect entirely. This caused a specific and large burst of interest.
Waffle formed the basis for the famous MINDVOX BBS service in New York City, and while Dell had little direct involvement, his code was used extensively to hook in many disparate elements under a single interface.
Ultimately, Waffle's distribution ended at 1.65, although a version 1.66 was in beta at the main website. There was work being done on CHROME, a graphical interface to Waffle, and so on. However, the encroaching of the Internet led the author to aim his skills in other directions, dooming Waffle as an ongoing project.

Source and Info Files: 3
WBBS
Author: Wayne Conrad
Additional Notes:
Wayne Conrad wrote "I wrote WBBS while living in my first apartment, which I rented shortly after I moved to Phoenix around 1986. I had a Sanyo 550, a mostly-sorta-DOS-compatible PC with two 1.2M floppy drives (no hard drive), and Turbo Pascal 2.0. What else did I need? I was doing data entry at Bank of America the time (I had no credentials that would prove I was a programmer, and knew nobody who could vouch for me); after I got home I would hack on the BBS until it was way too late and then go to bed. The coolest thing that came out of WBBS was IBMCOM, the communication routines that I released into the public domain (they're now under the LGPL license). I think that several BBS's used IBMCOM, including QBBS and SUBBS. Writing interrupt drivers is pretty fun stuff, and I like to think that my interrupt drivers are pretty clean.
"I spent a whole lot of time on WBBS making it responsive. Because BBS's were run off of floppies in that day, it was a common practice to make a big transmit buffer so that the modem always had something to send even if you were busy reading more stuff from the floppy. The problem, of course, was that this meant that a control-C (to stop the output) or a control-S (to pause it) would take a long time to actually happen, because the interrupt driver still had all this buffered output to send. That bugged me. The cheap hack would just have the keyboard polling routines talk to the interrupt driver, but there was some output I didn't want paused or interrupted -- the prompt, for example, should always show up. I was very concerned that the UI always appear to be cohesive and uniform, so I hated stuff like half-printed prompts. I remember spending lots of time learning how the UI could control the interrupt driver to the degree that control-S and control-C could happen right away instead of seconds from now, but only when it was a "good idea" from a UI point of view.
"I hope someone noticed the effort and thought it was a nice feature.
"I also tried hard to avoid lots of menus. Most everything in WBBS worked from the main menu. I hated having to go through lots of different menus to do something in other BBS's of the day. I think that message reading in WBBS was pretty easy, once you got used to it. At least for a programmer it was easy, and that's fine, because I mostly wanted my BBS to be a good place for programmers to exchange code and ideas. For a few years I ran Pascalaholics Anonymous, which had some good Pascal source in the file area.
"I also tried hard to make it fast. This was challenging, considering that it was all floppy based. I remember the password file giving me grief, because the BBS would have to read every record from the password file to check it against the entered password. And storing the password file in memory would take too much RAM. The idea I came up with was to compute CRC's on the passwords and store those in memory -- I already had a CRC routing to use for ZModem transfers, and a 16-bit CRC takes hardly any memory. When someone entered their name, I'd compute the CRC of it, compare it to the CRC list in memory, and only read from disk those records that had the same CRC. That reduced the number of disk reads for someone to log on to just 1 or 2."

Source and Info Files: 1
WILDCAT
Author: Mustang Software
Source and Info Files: 11
WINDOWED MODEM ENVIRONMENT (WME)
Author: Jason Fesler (Later Versions by European Cybernetics/Tom Ordelman)
Author Contacted: E-mail discussion with Jason Fesler.
Versions: 1.0 (October 30, 1992)
Additional Notes:
Regardless of the name this is a DOS BBS Package. The shareware price was "Noncommercial: $45.00 per 5 nodes ($35 before 10/31/92)". Jason Fesler had his resume up on the internet, and he described his work on this package this way: "WME", a full-screen TTY driven menued environment for accessing file and message based services. 400+ registered sites around the world used this package before it had to be decommissioned in 1994 due to higher priorities. (June 1991 to October 1994) .... Also, WME appears to have had speech support for visually impaired operators, a very forward thinking concept. In April of 1994, WME development was taken over by European Cybernetics (Programmer Tom Ordelman of the Netherlands), although a full version of this new branch does not seem to have made it into the real world beyond a beta. At this end point, the price had risen to $89 for 5 nodes. Jason Fesler writes: "It was fun while it lasted, it just wasn't enough to sustain a family. When my daughter was born, I had to get a real job :( . That was 10 years ago and 4 jobs ago. Now I'm at Yahoo!, able to support my family. Not nearly as fun as WME and GIGO were tho.."

Source and Info Files: 3
WORLDGROUP
Additional Notes:
Worldgroup is the latest version of MajorBBS (MBBS), the last version released by Galacticomm.

Source and Info Files: 25
WRBBS
Author: Wilson A. Rogers
Versions: 1.0 (February, 1993)
Additional Notes:
From the documentation:
WR-BBS is designed to operate on an IBM PC or compatible micro- computer. It operates as a single-port system, but its database foundation was designed to allow multi-port operation as a potential future development. WR-BBS utilizes the fully-integrated W-TREE Database Manager to rapidly locate and access database records, minimizing the "dead screen" time that would otherwise occur when a database search occurs. The W-TREE Database Manager is integrated at source code level for seamless operation and maximum flexibility for third party developers.

Source and Info Files: 1
WWIV
Author: Wayne Bell
Source and Info Files: 21
XBBS
Author: Mark Kimes
Additional Notes:
XBBS for DOS was written by one Mark Kimes, who hailed from Louisiana (Shreveport?). It is completely unrelated to the XBBS software available for UNIX/XENIX. Kimes gives the date on the 1.17 documentation as 1989/1990.
XBBS is extremely configurable, using menus that are a meta-language embedded in ANSI screens. The entire look and feel has to be built by the SysOp. I think this probably led to its lack of popularity -- the learning curve to get it running nicely was extremely steep. I don't recall any systems in my area (Pittsburgh) using it, though there were a few Shreveport-area systems running it.
XBBS 1.17 uses only the XBBS-format message base. Wayne Michaels wrote a FidoNet tosser/scanner for this format, it was called XST. The only two versions I ever remember seeing of this are 2.6a and 2.6b, and one of them had a nasty bug. Also, XST is 2D-only, it never did zones right at all, nor did it understand compression formats (thus requiring some external gizmo to unpack the arcmail bundles -- e.g. polyxarc)
Kimes himself wrote an echomail tosser/scanner called XGroup that bounced around SDS for awhile. I want to say the last version was 0.13 (???). It also did groupmail (hence the name). This guy was 5D aware and generally much better than XST even in its alphaness.
There was also a SysOp editor/reader for the XBBS message format called HeadEdit. Don't remember much about this except that it crashed alot.
- Greg Nesbitt
Mark Kimes (aka Hector Plasmic) originally wrote XBBS in Cfor his own use on the Commodore 128 in the early to mid-80s and operated a popular BBS called The Pit. His software was one of the most innovative of that time as he had also written a door program (more appropriately a plug-in than a door) called The Maze. The Maze was user configurable and although it was text based, it utilized colour! and, in retrospect, was actually one of the first incarnations of a MUD.
Sometime around 1986/87/88, Mark ported his XBBS software to the PC and made some refinements and additions to it. He was always tweaking and adding functionality. By 1991/92, Mark had moved on to the OS/2 operating system and once again ported his software. At one time Mark gave us a copy of his source code for The Maze but it has long been lost to us.
During this time, Wayne Michaels (a pseudonym for a man by the real name of Mike Berry) ran a NoChange BBS in Shreveport. I don't know, or remember, at what point he and Mark began working together on XBBS but I believe it was around 1990/91 when they created XST and not long afterwards I think Mike began running XBBS/2.

Source and Info Files: 4
XRBBS
Author: Linus Sphinx and Rahner James
Additional Notes:
Linus Crawford writes in: "XRBBS written in C by Linus Sphinx & Rahner James, published as freeware circa 1986, full featured multi-line capable, a dozen custom door games, "fleabag", message hotel. A WYSIWYG menu editor that would let you emulate t/rbbs, pcboard, opus and a dozen other sites look and feel. There was even a commercial version included in an accounting package as the, "Remote Data Collector", extension. The authors are still alive and programming in Sacramento, CA."
"Most famous installation was probably, "The Wall", I still have some of the ascii ads for it, the little dog peeing, "owwwooo, somewhere in the night a lonely hard drive cries out", I'll dig them out and send them along. I believe that is what really made those days, the art you'd graffiti other bbs's with to spread yours."

XRS
ZBBS
Author: C. McCurry and Bill Taylor. Rewritten by Len Johnson and Phil Cleaves.
Versions: 1.0 (1982), 2.0 (August, 1984)
Additional Notes:
BBS written for both the IBM PC and the Zenith Model 100. Entirely in basic and source code is therefore easily viewable. Excellent example of early 1980's BBS programming technique on PCs. Maintained by two different sets of folks through the early 1980's, and apparently dropped for greener pastures after 1984. Bill Taylor is from the Northwest and ran a BBS called The Post House BBS; as of the early 1990's he was running Maximus and was on Fidonet. (Apparently).

Source and Info Files: 1
OS2
ACROBAT/2
Author: V.R.B. Corporation (Bart Van Rillaer/Bono)
Additional Notes:
From the documentation: "I will never have the intention to write something as powerfull as Maximus or Pcboard or whatever... My only intention is a small host for OS/2 32bit which does the work! Easy to maintain, easy to install (unzip it and run) It isn't very customizable, but it has everything a small operator needs and it looks nice too. I use this for my own board too :)) (What did you thought) I will keep enhance it in my own capabilities... If I would want to make this as powerfull as Max/pcb.. I have to do a complete re-write of it. The big- gest problem is that I am the only one who is working on it, and I can tell you, creating a bbs is a very time consuming job (it isn't difficult but it's mental very tough)."

Source and Info Files: 2
ADEPTXBBS
Additional Notes:
AdeptXBBS is a rewrite of XBBS by Mark Kimes, ported to the OS/2 operating system. The work was done by Adept Software, who ported over the functionality and added some OS/2-related features. It was intended to be a commercial product.
In April of 1996, the license with the original author was due to expire, and the Adept Software developers decided they couldn't afford to extend the license, instead chosing to release AdeptXBBS as a freeware package.
Another author, named "Taz!", took some amount of claim over the released package and intended/intends to release updated versions of the software.
The ID file for 1.11y says " 32-bit, Multi-Threaded GUI, NNTP, SMTP, POP3, Telnet, Sockets, FTP, Integrated Mailer, REXX, Utils, multiple language, XMsg, *.Msg, Squish and JAM msg bases, localized date/time display and a lot more! Very customizable for almost any BBSing needs. GUI (PM) BBS for OS/2. FREEWare/2, 24 Node Version."

Source and Info Files: 2
BBBS
Additional Notes:
BBBS is a very powerful BBS system written by two Finnish programmers (Kim Heino & Tapani Salmi). BBBS has been developed since 1990 and still has a continous developement. BBBS is a fullfledged BBS system which incorporates all of your needs for setting up your own BBS. BBBS contains full Internet and Fidonet support. Fidonet messages and Internet news and email are embedded together with a versatile WWW-based, offline and online message reading system. BBBS is easy to customize to suit every need imaginable. It is configurable also from the user's point of view. There are hundreds of 3rd party utilities available, mostly coded with BBBS's C-alike script language. - thedirectory.org

Source and Info Files: 4
BULLETRON
Source and Info Files: 1
CONCORD
Source and Info Files: 1
ELEBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
FOSS
Author: Terje Flaaronning
Source and Info Files: 1
FREXXLINK
Author: Bj�rn Stenberg
First Created: Version 1.1 Released 1995
Software Website: http://bjorn.haxx.se/projects.html
Source and Info Files: 1
KBBS
Author: Anderson Research, Inc.
Source and Info Files: 2
KITTEN
Author: Thom Henderson
Source and Info Files: 5
LORABBS
Author: Marco Maccaferri
First Created: 1989
Source and Info Files: 4
MAGNUMBBS
Author: Gilmore Systems
Source and Info Files: 3
MAXIMUS
Author: Scott J. Dudley
Software Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/maximus/
Source and Info Files: 7
Omega Point/2 Bulletin Board System for OS/2
Author: Christopher A. Boaro
Additional Notes:
There's a file named "op2menu.zip" that appears to be missing. It's mentioned in the "README.TOO" file found in op2doc.zip.

Source and Info Files: 4
OMNIBOARD/2
Source and Info Files: 2
ORACOMM
Source and Info Files: 1
ORIONCBCS
Source and Info Files: 2
PCBOARD
RAPTOR
Author: LAIRWare (Bud and Brian Younke, Dale Ficken, Dale Ficken, Timothy Barney, Sandy Chidester and Don Clapper)
Source and Info Files: 1
RENEGADE/2
Author: Cott Lang, Patrick Spense, Gary Hall, Jeff Herrings
SIMPLEXBBS
Author: Chris Laforet
Source and Info Files: 3
SYNCRONET
TELEGARD/2
Author: Eric Oman, Martin Pollard, Tim Strike
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20021128231904/http://www.telegard.net/
Source and Info Files: 1
TORNADO
Author: Konstantin Klyagin (Later Alexey Kljatow and Alexey Fayans)
Source and Info Files: 2
TRIBBS
Author: Mark Goodwin
VBBS-OS2
Author: Roland De Graaf
First Created: 1990
Source and Info Files: 1
VBOARD
Source and Info Files: 1
XBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
WINDOWS
BBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
CITADELNET
Author: Daniel Bance
Additional Notes:
Citadel.NET v1.04 by Daniel Bance This is a multi-user Citadel written in VB.Net. Note that the "webadel.mdb" file mentioned in the readme was not included with the archive. Those that want to run Citadel.NET will need to reconstruct the database file and tables based on what the code is reading and writing to.

Source and Info Files: 1
EXCALIBUR
Additional Notes:
Excalibur BBS was an entirely GUI (graphical user interface) BBS system developed by Excalibur Communications. It requires the users to have a special GUI client to access the system - either dial-up or telnet. Operations ceased in 1999. - thedirectory.org

Source and Info Files: 2
GAP
Author: Kenny Gardner
Versions: 6.6 (September 1999)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20200216175800/http://www.gapbbs.com/
Source and Info Files: 3
LORABBS
Author: Marco Maccaferri
Versions: 2.99.41 (May, 1997), v2.9.41 FREEWARE (June, 1999)
Additional Notes:
"The most advanced BBS, FidoNet mailer and mail processor ever seen. If features multiple message bases (Squish, JAM, AdeptXBBS, Hudson and Fido *.MSG), multiple offline mail reader (ASCII, QWK, BlueWave and PointMail), Telnet and FTP clients, USENET news reader, internal file transfer protocols, ANSI Avatar and RIP graphics, and much more. Available for DOS, OS/2, Windows (NT and 95) and Linux operating systems."
This is a quintuple-platform system, with versions for DOS, OS/2, Windows and Linux. The last "official" version by the original author is from 1997, but in 1999 Craig Castle's attempts to take over the project and continue it, promising to turn it into a Version 3.0 and continue development. This does not seem to materialize.
Craig Castle writes "Yes, the 3.0 version was promised before I came to a very important realization: the only compiler that will actually build the DOS, Win32, and OS/2 versions is the Watcom 10.6 compiler because of a dependency on the pre-compiled CXL libraries. Newer versions will not build them because of a change in the way the compiler produced object code and the CXL libraries have been out of production for years. I actually found your site looking for the older GoldED open source project because Odin Sorenson had been working on getting rid of that dependency for the Linux version and was including the modified LoraBBS with the GoldED source once upon a time. I just can't find the blasted file on any of my old backup CDs.. Anyway, you don't have the final version I released, 2.60, which is the first and only basically stable and usable version out there. I did make 2.61 beta version which was never released but the only thing really changed was that it was able to run DOS doors and that was more of a "git 'er done" kind of fix as I recall. Here's the 2.60 installer. Enjoy!"

Source and Info Files: 3
MAJORBBS
Additional Notes:
From the excellent themajorbbs.com:
Galacticomm was incorporated in 1985 by Tim Stryker in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to run a network of multiuser game systems. Stryker had previously designed several game items, including a stand-up arcade game, and a two-player head-to-head game for the Commodore PET called Flash Attack, which was featured in a 1980 Byte magazine article.

In 1984, Stryker wrote a series of multiuser adventure games called Fazuul, Fazuul 9001, Freezuul, and Phazuul. Fazuul ran on a system called EnterNet (the entertainment network).

But the product that started the shift toward BBS software was the Galacticomm Software Breakthrough Library, or, the GSBL. The GSBL was a set of assembler communication routines that programmers could use to write any multiuser application - Galacticomm suggested things like credit-card verification systems, call-forwarding systems, multi-node energy management systems, file transfer systems, multiple listing services, etc. The GSBL provided a multiuser interface to multi-modem cards, multiport serial cards, and COM-port modems. It initially provided support for 32 users under DOS, and was expanded to 64, then 256.
In 1986, Tim Stryker developed the Model 16 multimodem card, which allowed for up to 16 1200-baud modems on one ISA PC card. And, to demonstrate the model 16 and the GSBL, Tim developed The Major BBS v1.0. Later in the year, Galacticomm released partial source code and a non-hardware version of The Major BBS v2.2 as shareware to demonstrate the 'behind the scenes' operation of the system. In 1987, the BBS' version 4.0 was released as a full commercial product. That year, the first ISV products started development.

The Major BBS started catching on; in 1988 version 5.0 shipped along with another innovative hardware product called the Galactibox. The Galactibox was a 16-slot ISA chassis that connected via a cable to an ISA interface card into a PC. Up to four Galactiboxes could be connected to a single PC, allowing 64 less expensive ISA-card internal modems to be connected to the PC. The following year saw the beginning of the explosion of popularity; ANSI support, extended editions to The Major BBS, software connectivity options, and more. More and more ISV products became available.

In 1992, Galacticomm released version 6.0 of the software, which included protected mode support that allowed systems to break the 640K barrier, and use up to 16Mb of memory (much to the relief of operators of very large systems). In 1995, the next major version of the flagship was released, calling itself Worldgroup instead of The Major BBS.

The company was faced with tragedy in August 1996, as founder, Chairman, and chief visionary Tim Stryker passed away. The company was struggling over that past 12 months with sales starting to slow, and trying to position itself favorably with the emerging Internet. Focus was missing, and after Stryker's death, the company was sold in late 1996 by his widow Christine to a group headed by Yannick Tessier, a top ISV. Tessier and Peter Berg led the company toward an IPO, which failed in 1998. By this time, most of the influential members of the company had either left or been let go; the company was bleeding money, and mismanagement forced it to fold in bankruptcy by 2002. The company had essentially shut down operations entirely in 1999. During this whole time, the only major release of the software was Worldgroup 3.0 in February 1997, which was largely completed before the sale to Tessier. Under Tessier, the company released two "point" releases of Worldgroup, and not much else.

A very unfortunate situation for one of the most innovative computer technology companies.

MajorBBS and WorldGroup source code and utilities can be found in the MajorBBS and WorldGroup DOS collections.

Source and Info Files: 14
MAXIMUS
Software Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/maximus/
Source and Info Files: 2
MEDIAHOST
Author: Seth Hamilton (possibly others, under the name DeepMetrix)
Additional Notes:
From the creators of ROBOBOARD, MediaHost was a further refinement of a strong client-server based BBS/Internet suite. The creators renamed themselves DEEPMETRIX and continue to produce software.

Source and Info Files: 1
MICROBBS
Additional Notes:
This BBS is interesting in that it *requires* users to use QWK offline reader! There's no other mechanism for reading or posting messages.

Source and Info Files: 1
MINDWIRE
Author: Durand Communications (Andre Durand)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20110129105416/http://www.durand.com/
Additional Notes:
Described by the Durand Communications website as 'A Complete Turn-Key Online Bulletin Board Platform for Windows NT', developed from 1993 to 1996 "back when BBS's where the Bomb!" On September 27, 2002, Andre Durand released the software for free download.

Source and Info Files: 4
MYSTIC
Software Website: http://www.mysticbbs.com/
Source and Info Files: 2
OMNIBBS
Author: Copsey Strain, Inc.
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20070222093204/http://www.copseystrain.com/omnibbs/
Additional Notes:
Copsey Strain, Inc. describes O-M-N-I BBS Software this way: "Now it's easy and fun to put your BBS online with full multi-media capabilities. That includes full color images, photographs, stereo sound, music, and an easy to use Microsoft Windows user interface. Works over dial-up modem connections or on the Internet." The software has been released free to the public.

Source and Info Files: 3
Osiris XLT
Author: Mike Bryeans
Source and Info Files: 6
POWERBBS
Author: Brad Friedman (Apparently)
Software Website: http://www.powwwerworkgroup.com/
Additional Notes:
The breathless PowerBBS Website describes itself this way:
PowerBBS is the only choice if you're considering starting an online system or upgrading your current BBS package to a superior platform. PowerBBS runs completely under Microsoft Windows(TM) and supports Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT! Put the power of 32 bit processing behind your BBS with PowerBBS96 32-bit for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Download a demo of PowerBBS. For sales information email to Russell Frey or order online now. For technical support please complete our technical support form.
PowerBBS supports full Internet connectivity including: FTP, Telnet, and winsock applications (Netscape, WS FTP, etc.) using DPPP - the internet connectivity tool for PowerBBS! Bring subscribers to your system like never before and satisfy the growing demand for access to the World Wide Web.
Create visually exciting screens for PowerBBS with PowerGenerator - the fully graphical 'WYSIWYG' design tool for PowerBBS! PowerGen is incredibly easy to use and will allow you to create professional looking screens and menus with very little effort.
Designing visually exciting screens is a snap with PowerGenerator - no artistic ability required! However, design services are available to get your system up in a hurry with a highly professional appearance.

Source and Info Files: 7
RACCOON
Additional Notes:
I can't make heads or tails out of this mess. Good luck, future person!

Source and Info Files: 2
SHOCKWAVEPRO
Source and Info Files: 2
SHOTGUN
Author: Brent Shellenberg
Additional Notes:
Windows BBS program, disassembled and abandoned by the developer. His personal website, www.larryathey.com, mentions several strong opinions on developing BBSes and the BBS world in general:
"Weren't you really thick into the BBS scene at one time? Yeah, at one time I was...I got tired of dealing with mouthy little kids that were always trying to convince people that they were somebody really influential in the computer world and starting flame wars with anyone who knew better (a'la Joshua Einstein). Face it, if you are a 14 year old kid, there are absolutely no big players in the computer world paying any attention to you, period...It doesn't matter if you've written the coolest BBS game in history, nobody outside of the dead-and-gone BBS world of DOS and batch files gives a flying fuck, no matter how old you are. Hell, the only people who even use BBSes anymore are those who run BBSes. So, you're a BBS sysop...Oh, isn't that cute...Get over it, grow up, and do something productive and impressive already, little boy!"
"Have you ever considered releasing your old source code? I've already released the source code to all of my old BBS related programs, with the exception of the old MAX Graphics GUI stuff (my RIP graphics replacement). I have no idea where any of that stuff ended up by now, but I'm sure that somebody out there has it stashed away someplace. The MAX Graphics GUI stuff was sold off to a small telephone equipment manufacturer in December of 1999, that's probably the only BBS related program in history that ever did anything worthwhile outside of the BBS world. No, I don't have any of that source code laying around here anymore either, even my Win32 port of the Shotgun BBS package is history now. Come on people, please quit asking me for my old source code because I simply can't provide it. My suggestion - do what I did, roll yer own..."

SYNCHRONET
Author: Rob Swindell
Software Website: http://www.synchro.net
Source and Info Files: 1
TCREMOTEACCESS
Additional Notes:
100% compatible RemoteAccess clone for Win95/98/NT (GUI) See WHATSNEW.985 for more information

Source and Info Files: 1
TORNADO
Author: Konstantin Klyagin (Later Alexey Kljatow and Alexey Fayans)
Versions: 1.70alpha (April 15, 1999)
Additional Notes:
Tornado is a primarily Russian BBS program for Windows (although it has plug-ins for support of various languages, including English and German). It is a little difficult to browse the documentation for features, as a result. The software has strong support for Fidonet, and actually maintains its support through a Fidonet Echomail.

Source and Info Files: 6
WINS (Wildcat! Interactive Network Server)
Author: Mustang Software (Now Santronics Software)
Software Website: http://www.santronics.com/index.php
Additional Notes:
Next-generation Windows product from Mustang Software, with some amount of Wildcat! built into it. The company blurb describes it this way: "More than just a Web Server...More than just a BBS... Wildcat! Interactive Net Server is the World's Most Complete Multi-Device Internet/Intranet package providing solutions for a broad range of Internet/Intranet and Remote Access needs. WIN Server includes and combines SSL (Secured Socket Layer), WEB, SMTP/POP3 (EMAIL), FTP, TELNET, RADIUS, NNTP (News) Server, PPP server, Terminal Server, direct modem dial up technology with a secured User, Mail and File Database to give you the most complete "intranet/BBS" system of its kind!" It retailed for $3,995.

Source and Info Files: 1
WORLDGROUP
Additional Notes:
Worldgroup is the latest version of MajorBBS (MBBS), the last version released by Galacticomm.
WorldGroup source code and executables can be found in the WorldGroup section of the DOS collection.

WWIV
Author: Rushfan (Port) based on code by Dean Nash and Wayne Bell
Additional Notes:
WWIV Software Services controls the rights to WWIV software, purchased from Wayne Bell. Action has been slow on it, but new versions do occasionally pop up.

Source and Info Files: 3
XENOTERRA
Author: Spellweaver (James Black)
Versions: v1.00b2 (April 14, 1999)
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20000304172807/http://pw1.netcom.com/~spelwevr/xenoterra/index.html
Additional Notes:
Xenoterra is a Freeware Windows-Compatible BBS system with hooks for both dial-in and TCP/IP connections.
I was able to find mentions of work on Xenoterra by Spellweaver as early as 1996. Work was done on a API for doors for Xenoterra as well. The version in this entry is a 1.00 beta released on 1999 and is the only available copy. The website for Xenoterra includes information that a further release is due in 2004; considering the software is first mentioned in May of 1996, a release happens in 1999, and the next possibility of a release if five years later, the schedule for this software is slow indeed.

Source and Info Files: 1
SINCLAIR
MK14: NO KNOWN BBS PROGRAMS
QL
PBOX
Author: Phil Borman
Source and Info Files: 5
QBOX
Author: Jan Bredenbeek
Versions: v1.19m (October 21, 1994) v1.19l (November 12, 1993) v1.19k (November 8, 1993) v1.19j (December 9, 1992) v1.19i (December 7, 1992) v1.19h (April 26, 1992) v1.19g (April 22, 1992) v1.19f (April 18, 1992) v1.19d (February 14, 1991) v1.19c (February 10, 1991) v1.19b (February 10, 1991)
Source and Info Files: 3
SPECTRUM
FIREFLY
Additional Notes:
From the October 1987 (#45) Issue of Crash Magazine:
"FIREFLY BURNS OUT: FIREFLY has been withdrawn. It was a way of creating a mini-Prestel (known as a bulletin board or BB) on your Spectrum with a Beta disk system and a Voyager 7 modem. Firefly was a good piece of software, but it was ridden with bugs and wasn't being updated. This looks like the end of standard BBs on the Spectrum - only Micron is left, and you need special software to access a Micron BB."

MICRON
Additional Notes:
Jason Brome says "This was a BBS server that'd run on the Spectrum. People running BBSes usually were using 'Microdrives' - strange tape-based 'mass' storage devices that were part of Sinclair's product offering. It required a special client to be installed on any user's machine, so the user base was pretty much Spectrum-centric. The only other piece of information I have about this software is that it was published by a company based on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland!"
Nick Goodall writes "The company behind it (Diamond Design Computer Systems) was based in the "Isle Of Lewis" off the north west coast of Scotland and not in Sky. It did require special clients (because it used the 1200 baud half duplex mode of the VTX1000 modem) and the clients were available for the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and BBC Micro. The BBS software was also available for the Commodore 64."

ZX80: NO KNOWN BBS PROGRAMS
ZX-81 / TIMEX-SINCLAIR 1000: NO KNOWN BBS PROGRAMS
TANDY
COCO (Color Computer)
The Best BBS
Author: Tom Babich
Additional Notes:
Tom Babich writes "I wrote a popular BBS for Gallery Software in 1983; they marketed it until 1989 (Spectral Associates also marketed the software). It ran cross platform on the Dragon 32 and 64 computers (England), the Prologica (Brazil), the Tandy TDP-100 and Radio Shack Color Computers 1/II/III (CoCo) here in the US. The vendors primarily advertised the product in Rainbow Magazine (Falsoft publishers). What I remember most: Unlike the webserver and mailserver programming I do today, all of the missing pieces of the OS (getting data on and off the wire - the webserver and mailserver components so to speak) had to be written by hand in assembly (machine language); very time consuming!"

Source and Info Files: 2
COLOR-80
Additional Notes:
Captain Quirk writes "Color 80 was a BBS written in "Color Basic", Tandy's brand of BASIC. It used a machine language layer that converted all incoming text to lower case and all outgoing text to upper case. Since Color Basic could not process keywords in lowercase callers, even if successful in "crashing" the BASIC program could not get access to the system. The BBS ran on one 180K floppy Disk Drive.
"I was one of the first Sysops using this software and ran a BBS called "The L.A. (Los Angeles) Color Connection" in the early 1980's. The software arrived with a cute story called "Save the Nauga's" written as DATA lines inside the program. It featured a 60 (sixty!) message file that had to be refomated when full, erasing all messages.
"I personaly found the message base to be unsatisfactory, so undertook to rewrite the message section. My changes wrote message 61 over the top of message 1, 62 over 2 and so on. While the message base was still small, at least I didn't have to throw away all messages when sixty was hit. I forwarded my changes to the author, who incorporated them into Color 80 ver 1.1 and started paying me a royality for sales after that!
"The L.A. Color Connection died after two major problems occured. First one was when track seventeen of one of my drives ( I was running two by then for more message base space) peeled right off the disk. Seventeen held the sector data, and left the disk unreadable. I've never seen anything like it since... I stripped the floppy out of it's sleave and could see light through the disk right where track seventeen should have been! Second one was when my Co-sysop was not careful and allow someone to steal his password who then used it to erase the disk drive with program on it, a heavily modded version and my only copy (what can I say? I learned a lesson that day)
Don Brown SYSOP, The L.A. Color Connection BBS, Southgate, Ca 1982 to 1985 (dates approx) AKA, Captain Quirk SYSOP, The Capitol Connection BBS, Salem, OR (WWIV Based) 1990 to 1996

MODEL 100
PBBS
Author: Dick Roux and Gary McDuffie
Additional Notes:
From the documentation: "The TRS 80 Model 100 can perform the function of a MINI-PBBS and does a good job of it. The program can store 16 active messages and more if the system has more than one message for one person. The program opens individual text files for each message under the call sign of the person the message is for. If a person has more than one message, they are all stored for him in the same file. In this way the system can hold messges untill it runs out of memory. The program constantly monitors available directory space and remaining memory and will not allow any more messages to be entered if it runs out of either. When someone checks on, his mail is checked and he is informed if he has any. He then can Read his mail and is reminded to Kill it after he has read it. There is a onboard HELP and INFO file. The program also gives local control to the SYSOP to read, kill and print ANY mail. The PBBS is set up to Receive AUTO-Forwarded messages from a "BIG" PBBS, but Sending has not been implemented. That requires keeping a large Forwarding list in memory and is not practical on a small machine of this size."

Source and Info Files: 3
TRS-80 MODEL II/12
BABECIT [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Bob Perigo
Source and Info Files: 2
COCO (OS9)
ACCESS COLOR BBS (ACBBS)
Author: Chris Serino & Ed Baisel, after Ezra Story (Creator)
Versions: 2.4 (1991)
Source and Info Files: 3
APBBS
Author: Mike Guzzi
Versions: 3.01.12 (1990)
Source and Info Files: 6
L2
Author: Keith Alphonso of Alpha Software
Additional Notes:
L. Curtis Boyle writes: "Thought I would give you some extra info on the "L2" BBS by Keith Alphonso (For TRS-80 Color Computer, OS-9). We actually ran a modified version of this at work for years, as it was completely multi-user, and easy to modify. I actually (briefly, couldn't afford the phone bills) ran it for a bit in the late 1980's at home, with 2 phone lines. It had online games (including multi-player), message boards, sysop chats, and multi-user conferencing, where you could invite any users online to join in (including the SYSOP on the host machine. Keith (the author) was also very friendly, and even supplied some source for us to use in the work environment (at one point, we had 8 serial port terminals hooked up to a 1 MB RAM Coco 3 at once!), but the conferencing etc. with up to 8 simultaneous users was pretty well stock from his package. When we had the 8 terminals hooked up, we ran them all at 4800 baud."

OS9BBS
Author: CoCo Pro! Software
Additional Notes:
This is a commerical product in limited distribution.

RIBBS
Author: Ron Bihler and Charles R. West
Source and Info Files: 4
STG NET (OR STG LOGIN PACKAGE)
Author: Scott Griepentrog of StG Software
Additional Notes:
Very Internet-like package that was capable of networking with other StG sites to exchange e-mail, "newsgroups" and files. It supported a proprietary bi-directional transfer protocol when doing network syncs making transfer time twice as fast as other systems of the day. - Allen Huffman

COCO (RS-DOS)
ACBBS
Author: Ezra Story
Additional Notes:
Ezra Story writes "I wrote the Original Access Color BBS (ACBBS) on RSDOS, then a more advanced version on OS9. I lost interest and gave the source away to Chris Serino, and I guess they took it from there."
In a newsgroup in December of 2001, Rogelio Perea wrote: "There was yet another CoCo 3 specific BBS package -> AcBBS. The original I am talking about is RSDOS based, an OS9 package bearing the same name appeared later and I think it was modeled after the RSDOS one.
"AcBBS was written by Ezra Story (that's the name in the credits) with the terminal driver being identical to the one used in Ultimaterm (don't recall the author's name... Ken Johnston?). I got that package from a by now fogotten BBS system, documentation was at the bare minimal so getting the BBS up and running was an adventure by itself, I actually set up a test BBS using a stock 512k CoCo 3 with two 5.25" drives and an external 2400 bps modem at the bit banger port.
"It worked great, it had ANSI support (cursor and colors... no extended ASCII characters though). The bundled software even included an ANSI screen editor. AcBBS ran just fine at 2400 bps and there was a driver included for the RS232 pak, something that would make the system move faster. By using 512k a ram disk was implemented and it speeded things up a lot when compared to the software being run in 128k ram.
"On the later years of the FidoNet CoCo echo I remember discussions whizzing by the likes of Carmen Izzy, where the topic was AcBBS under OS9. Maybe someone else has some experience with this BBS software package..."

ALL RAM BBS SYSTEM
Author: Allen Huffman
Author Contacted: Yes! Allen kicks ass! He went through and correced all the COCO entries.
Additional Notes:
Cassette based BBS system that stored messages and users in RAM. On startup it would load the data from cassette tape, and on shut down it would save them back out. - Allen Huffman

Source and Info Files: 3
CEBBS
Author: Kevin Berner of KB Enterprises
Additional Notes:
Stands for CoCo Electronic Bulletin Board System.

COBBS
Author: Richard Duncan
Additional Notes:
Widely used package, especially after appearing in a series of articles in Rainbow magazine. - Allen Huffman
Richard Duncan writes "CoBBS was written in reply to a challenge from a group of people running TBBS on a R/S Model I computer in which they said it was not possible. Well, it was even with the limited memory, processor speed, etc. All my documents, disks, etc have been lost. Was hoping to find it on the internet, but so far only a few links like yours."

Source and Info Files: 4
COLORAMA
Author: P. Banz
Additional Notes:
In 2005, the company/person that originally wrote this program still made mention of it on their software website. From www.ceratec.com:
"Even before IBM introduced the original PC, Ceratec was publishing and distributing software for Tandy Computers. Ceratec was the first to transmit color pictures over data lines for public access at a whopping 300 braud. In 1982, we bundled this feature in the commercial release of our COLORAMA BBS. It turned out to be an instant success. Bulletin Board Systems were the early versions of what we now know as Internet portals. The COLORAMA BBS included private and open messaging, forums, online shopping, news, downloads, online games and more. It was multi-language capable, highly customizable and fit in the 32K of what was then the Tandy Color Computer also known as COCO. At the height of the BBS era, over 300 COLORAMA systems were officially online world wide."
At the time this software was put out, the company was called Elgin Systems, since that's the town it was located in, in Texas.

Source and Info Files: 1
MUSTANG
Author: Curtis Boyle
Author Contacted: Yes, actually Curtis mailed ME!
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20020203095501/http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~af960/RSDOS.html
Additional Notes:
Curtis Boyle writes "My original Mustang BBS ran on a TRS-80 Coco 1, and then 3, between 1983 (J-Cat 300 baud modem) to 1988 (Avatex 1200 baud)."
From his website: "This is a BBS system I wrote for the Coco 1, and then the 3, between February of 1983 through till about mid 1988. It was originally based on a BBS from Rainbow magazine called RAINBOARD, although you wouldn't recognize it now. BBS.ARC (use TC31, TC40 or ARCHIVE to unarc it) contains the BBS software. It includes the main BBS, a SYSOP maintenance program, 3 online games, and an ML driver that can handle both 300 & 1200 baud modems (hit 'ENTER' to log in... this is from before I got a Hayes compatible). It is written completely in BASIC, so you can modify it. It even handles limited ANSI output for callers. It requires a Coco 3 with at least 2 disk drives (RAM drives are fine), but be careful if using a large floppy with ADOS, etc. - I used a couple of the last sectors on track 17 for BBS internals, and a large directory could overwrite the BBS stuff, or the BBS could overwrite the last part of your directory! If you just have larger files on the main drive, it should not be a problem."

RAINBOARD
Additional Notes:
Published in Rainbow Magazine.

SHADOWBBS
Author: Terry Todd of Sub-Etha Software
Additional Notes:
Citidel inspired "room based" package. It was one of the only BBS packages for the CoCo that ran at 2400 baud through the bitbanger serial port on the CoCo. (Most packages required a hardware RS232 pak for that speed.) ShadowBBS was in BASIC and made use of a remote terminal driver (link BASIC I/O to the modem) by Ken Johnson, the author of Ultimaterm (a very popular CoCo RS-DOS terminal program of the day). - Allen Huffman

TUBBS
Author: Brian Stretch and Chet Simpson (Worked on Portions Later)
First Created: 1987
Additional Notes:
From an interview with Chet Simpson:
TuBBS (1987) - I worked on a few portions of the BBS software TuBBS written by Brian Stretch. Most notably, some of the later security features which rendered it useless to break into BASIC. If a ROM was burned this would actually reboot the CoCo and restart the BBS.

TRS-80 MODEL I, III
BREEZE
Author: Kim Watt
Source and Info Files: 1
BULLET80
Author: Joe Simon (Authorship may be in Dispute)
Additional Notes:
The Complete Handbook of Personal Computer Communications (1983) lists this software as being available from Computer Services of Danbury, P.O. Box 993, Danbury CT, 06810

Source and Info Files: 2
BULLETINBRD
Author: Bernadette Kelley
Source and Info Files: 2
CONNECTION80
Additional Notes:
The Complete Handbook of Personal Computer Communications (1983) lists this software as being available from B.T. Enterprises, 171 Hawkins Road, Centereach, NY 11720.

Source and Info Files: 1
CRYPT
Source and Info Files: 1
DARS
Author: Don Kimberlin (Err Head)
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Don's Advanced Room System"

Source and Info Files: 1
DBBS
Author: Mike Perry
Versions: 2.1 (1981-1982)
Additional Notes:
Mike Perry writes "Written in interpreted BASIC for the TRS-80 computer under TRSDOS and was the only BBS known to the author at the time that supported Radio Shack's OS. Most TRS-80-based BBSes utilized other operating systems. The software was run mostly in schools and other educational institutions and included all the standard trappings: messageboards, registration system, chat, and downloading. The flagship BBS showcasing the software was based in New Orleans called "The DUNGEON"."

ERACS
Author: Karl Danninger
Source and Info Files: 1
FASTPLUS
Author: Mel Patrick
Source and Info Files: 1
FASTTERM
Source and Info Files: 1
FISHNET
Author: Paul Becker
Additional Notes:
Paul Becker writes "I wrote it in assembly language using Tandy's excellent ALDS (Assembly Language Development System). It could run on a Model III or a Model IV, but Node One was on a Model IV."

FORUM80
Author: Bill Abney
Source and Info Files: 1
GREENEMACHINE
Author: Eric Greene, from original code by Michael Friedman (Later revisions by Mike Berstein (1985), Tony Ferris (1985) and Timothy Sewell (1986))
Additional Notes:
GREENE MACHINE Software, named after the author, Eric Greene, is actually a nearly ground-up rewrite of R.A.T.S. (Radio Amateur Telecommunication System) by Michael Friedman, which Greene got from Friedman. As a result of this, Greene never considered it something to sell and gave it away freely, including the source code.
From Version 3.0's Documentation: "Greene Machine by Eric Greene of Atlanta, GA <404/972-7947> circa 1982. A BBS and file x-fer system for the Trs-80 model 1/3 under Newdos/80. This is version '3.0' with updates by Mike Berstein of Riverside, CA <714/354-8004> and Tony Ferris of Longmont, CO <303/772-7229> circa 1985. This version supports 300/1200 baud HAYES-type modems under Newdos/80. This system was sent to 8/N/1 #001, as being in the public domain, by Timothy Sewell of Sylmar, CA <818/367-6357> on 05/15/86."

Source and Info Files: 6
HAL84
Author: Keith Rupp
Additional Notes:
Keith Rupp writes "I wrote HAL84 when I was 16. I ran it on NEWDOS/80, if I recall correctly, on (then) new-fangled 80 track Double Density floppies."

Source and Info Files: 2
INFOEX80
Author: John Burgan and Larry Clements
Source and Info Files: 1
MESSAGE80
Author: Richard Taylor
Author Contacted: Mr. Taylor let me know about his program.
Additional Notes:
Brian Boyle writes "Message-80, written in the 1980 timeframe by Richard Taylor using modem drivers written by clay schneider (who was at Bell Labs). It was written in TRSDOS Disk Basic, and was able to fill a disk with messages, etc. I contributed some code to allow for downloading of programs (which had to be ascii-encoded...thus requiring the use of a binary-to-ascii conversion program and vice versa on the other end...) to prep the downloads for access by users. Tom Vande-Stouwe took Rich's source code in the 1981 time frame, rewrote some of the routines to straighten them up (M-80 was pretty basic...) and released Connection-80 in the summer of 81, Rich having given him permission to base his code on the original M80 routines and structures. Still used Clay's modem routines, adding in a hack to allow for automatic 300/1200 switching IF you were lucky enough to have scored an original AT&T Dataphone 300/1200 (I still have one lurking around somewhere...:))."
The Complete Handbook of Personal Computer Communications (1983) lists this software as being available from Microperipheral Corporation, P.O. Box 529, Mercer Island, WA 98040.

Source and Info Files: 1
MINIBBS
Author: Mike Bernstein and Kandy Shack
Source and Info Files: 3
MINIBIN
Author: Glenn Gorman
Additional Notes:
It has been said that Glenn Gorman was told that a Citadel BBS couldn't be written in BASIC. So he wrote MiniBin in BASIC on TRS-80 equipment as proof it could be done.
Gene Buckle says "Glen Gorman's MINIBIN software was being run on an LNW-80 with a pair of 8" drives by the time he took it offline. (and lnw-80 is a TRS-80 Model I clone). MINIBIN was run by the Seattle radio stations KJR and KZOK in the early to mid 80's. I think at it's height, there were at least 6 systems in the Seattle/Tacoma area running it."

MODEL4HOST
Additional Notes:
Considered to be a "Mini-BBS" program, with limited functionality.

MOUSENET
MSBBS
Author: Tom Lebens and Roger Mach
MTABBS
Author: Michael S. Livorsi
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Michael's Totally Awesome BBS"

Source and Info Files: 2
OMENBBS
Author: Peter McGrath
Additional Notes:
Nick Andrew mentions this australian-based BBS software, and says that the author believes the source code is lost forever.

POWERBOARD
RACS
Additional Notes:
Scott Ellentuch: "Tandy Model I, 48K, Expansion Interface, 15M Megadisk hard drive, 4 Percom 5.25 floppies, Epson MX-80 printer, Bell Dataphone 212A running NewDos/8i0 V2.5. The Software is "Remote Access Computer System" written in Tandy Disk Basic (With Apparat extensions) . Its reincarnation story is at https://racsiii.net/ and when I get the floppies back from being tuned up, it'll be on the public internet! - Remote Access Computer Systems"

RATS
Author: Michael Friedman
Additional Notes:
Michael Friedman writes "I am Michael Friedman, the author of the RATS BBS system which is listed on your site, along with the Greene Machine which was based on my original work. I don't know if I was more amazed that you collected all of this info, or that you managed to find references to my ancient TRS-80 program. I wish I had known earlier that you were collecting this stuff, but in any case I figured I would throw in my 2 bytes worth.
"RATS is short for the Radio Amateur Telecommunications Society which was formed by myself and James Gordon Beattie, Jr., sometime around 1978, though the exact year alludes me. Our goal at the time was to find a way to combine our TRS-80 computers with our Ham Radio stations. At the time the only other groups trying to do this were in Vancouver Canada and Tucson, AZ. (We were in New Jersey.) The BBS system was to be our way to focus our ideas in one central location. It was to start out over phone lines and later work over the radio, though this version never got that far. The RATS BBS had one feature which was, to my knowledge, unique amongst its peers. That was the "Discussion Groups" section where people could add their comments to a running thread on a particular subject. I suspect that Usenet might have already existed in some form at that time, but I was completely unaware of it. (and most other things, come to think of it)
"Somehow the word got around and the system was being called from all over the country. I began to give away copies to anyone who sent in a blank floppy and return envelope. I gave away hundreds of them to people all over the world. Unfortunately, I didn't keep any real records at the time. Eric Greene was one of the people who received an early copy, and he did a fantastic job updating it with file transfers, keyboard shortcuts and who knows what else. As I did, Eric gave the program away. From 1983 to 1986 I worked on the "Valdocs" program for the Epson QX-10, which was perhaps the greatest (and last) CP/M and Z-80 based machine. Naturally, I was in charge of modem drivers and the electronic mail system.
"I moved away from the RATS organization and Telcom in general after getting quite disillusioned over what became known as Packet Radio. In fact, I was so fed up with BBS's and such that I ended up being a late comer to the Internet. I just couldn't be bothered - been there, done that, etc. I've since recovered. For the past 25 years or so I've continued to work as a professional programmer, mostly in the process control and instrumentation area. I operate a company, Small Systems Specialists, which designs and manufactures automotive computers for road rally cars. (www.rally.cc) I have had the privilege of writing the code (mostly in Z80 assembler!) for the first handheld GPS Moving Map system for airplanes back in 1991ish. More recently I have been involved in machine vision for the real time control of printing presses. I guess magazines and newspapers are communications too, so I'm really still at the same old stuff in disguise."

Source and Info Files: 2
REMS-80
Author: Robert Ackerman
SOBBS
Author: Stan Barber
Additional Notes:
Allen Huffman writes:
SOBBS by Stan Barber. "Stan's Original BBS" ran in Houston, Texas on several systems. Stan was also known for a text adventure called "Burial Ground" which was ported to a variety of systems back then, and also available as an online game on his system.

ST80
Additional Notes:
The Complete Handbook of Personal Computer Communications (1983) lists the following software variants: ST80-X10, ST80-PB, ST80-CC. However, there appear to be no citations of these online. This is still being researched.

SUPPORT80
Author: Kim Watt
Source and Info Files: 1
TANDYTRADER
Author: James Howard
Source and Info Files: 3
TBBS
Author: Phil Becker (eSoft)
Versions: Version 1.1 (December, 1982)
Additional Notes:
"TBBS (The Bread Board System) was originally sold by eBert Personal Computers. the author of the software was Phil Becker and was writeen in 100% machine language, for the TRS-80 Model I computer. Bought version 1.1 in December of 1982."
"A year or so later, Ebert (can't remember his first name) was no longer associated with TBBS, the company was now called eSoft and was all Phil Beckers. Around 1984 they came out with a CP/M version and an MS-DOS version, both still in 100% ML. A year or so later, the TRS-DOS and CP/M version were dropped." - Tom Whittenburg
"Dave Ebert." - Zac Ryon

Source and Info Files: 4
TOTAL CONFERENCE LINE (TCL)
Author: Joe Potrebenko
THE ALTERNATE BOARD BBS SYSTEM
TOWNECRIER
Author: Stew Schneider
Additional Notes:
Stew writes in "I can't recall what year it was, but sometime in the 80's. I had written a piece for 80 Micro about self-modifying code. That lead to some other work, and in the course of it, I wrote a terminal program with a split-screen called Double Talk. At the time, terminals for TRS-80's had only a single screen, and, at 300 baud, it became a real challenge to chat.
"I wrote that one up for 80 Micro (I think) and then turned to a BBS. If you recall, TRS-80's had an interpreted BASIC. That made it pretty easy to write spaghetti code, and a lotta pasta got written. I was a primo pasta roller.
"We went through version 5 as I recall, and I wrote a series for 80 Micro called Towne Crier that ran for a year as we wrote and re-wrote the thing. To my surprise, it turned out to be VERY stable. Ten years after I trashed my last trash-80, and had long ago lost the code, I got a call from the University of Chicago. They had had a TC board running unattended in the back of the theater all that time which had NEVER crashed. They were calling because it would no longer work, and it would no longer work because they'd stored 32768 messages, all the message index space I had allowed. That's not bad performance for a program we sold for $15, shipping included!
"The final version I was most proud of. The BASIC I was using used a two-byte pointer at the beginning of each line to point to the beginning of the next line. The address the beginning of the code space was also stored in RAM. So...if I followed the pointers, I would know where the last line ended. If I poked that address into the "beginning of code" address, programs would load at the END rather than the beginning of the code space. That meant that I could write modules beginning with line number 32000 and load them in at the end of the bulk of the code, an important consideration for a system that read code from cassette tapes on a machine from Radio Shack!
Many thanks for the memories - Stew"

TREEBOARD
Author: Nick Andrew
VISTA
Author: Timothy Falconer
Additional Notes:
Timothy Falconer writes "Early BBS program for the TRS-80. Allows remote users to log on, exchange email, download and upload files, participate in discussions, chat with system operators, and take opinion polls. Home system operated for two years and received more than a thousand calls."

ZENET
First Created: 1989
ZETA
Author: Nick Andrew
Additional Notes:
I think this is the TreeBoard BBS software, set up for a BBS *named* Zeta.

Source and Info Files: 10
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A
CALTEX
Additional Notes:
Garth Wells writes "I was noticing on your BBS list in the TI-99/4a section there is a BBS Software missing. The softare is CalTex BBS. It was produced by CalTex Software out of San Jose, California. The Authors name was Frank Continolo. I am not sure of any other facts on this software, I am sorry. Also the spellings might actually be Cal-Tex Software and Cal-Tex BBS. I really don't remember if it was hyphenated or not."

FLIPTERM
Author: Mike Ward (Flip)
Versions: 1.3
Additional Notes:
From the documentation: "FlipTerm/FlipSide was originally coded in 1991 in Ottawa, where it ran until late 1994. It's a custom BBS package written largely in c99. It was called FlipTerm because originally it was meant to be a terminal package. FlipTerm BBS is pretty strongly hard-coded - making changes will generally require either recompiling the progra m, or hex-editting the files (in which case strings need to be kept shorter or the same length as the original). Sorry. It was never intended as a general purpose BBS. In addition, some of the executables are lost (although we have source), and setting it up is a mess. On the other hand, for the sake of history and perhaps someone learning a neat trick from the code, I've created this package."

Source and Info Files: 2
99BBS
Author: "Heavily Modified" by Ben Hatheway from Hoogerdoon
Author Contacted: Yes. Ben Hatheway considers himself a modifier of the source code and not an authority of any type on 99BBS Software, and is not interested in being interviewed.
PARADIGM (PBBS)
Author: Tom Wills, Mike Kimble and Travis Watford
Source and Info Files: 1
PRO99ER
Author: Gary Blydenburgh
Source and Info Files: 2
RAZORBBS
Author: Scott Morrow
Author Contacted: Scott Morrow alerted me to the existence of his software.
Additional Notes:
Scott Morrow writes "The program was called "RazorBBS" and was written by me, Scott Morrow, in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. At it's height, I believe there were approx. 40 or 50 TI99 systems running RazorBBS both in North America and Europe.
"The software was written in TI extended Basic, with calls to TMS9900 assembly language routines to access the serial port using a 300 baud manual modem wired to the joystick port for "ring detect". It supported multiple message bases with what passed for "word wrap" at the time, Xmodem and YModem as well as ASCII file bases. Originally released as freeware in 1982, and then "fairware" in 1984, I continued support till a year or two after the demise of the TI99/4A. Considering that it ran on a 32K computer with a minimum of one 360K disk drive, it was pretty basic in it's functionality compared to later, more complex systems, but in 1982, just having the ability to communicate from a "home computer" was pretty exciting.
"The source code for the program still resides (hopefully) in a box in my basement. It's been stored away for so long, I suspect the old 5 1/4" disks may no longer be readable, but it was made available in a number of shareware software packages as well over the years."

Source and Info Files: 3
S & T
Author: Tim Tesch and Scott Stasiowski, S&T Software
Source and Info Files: 1
SMALLTALK
Source and Info Files: 1
TECHIE
Author: Monty Schmidt
Source and Info Files: 1
TEXLINK
TIBBS
TIGBBS (TI GENERAL BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM)
Author: Mark Wilson
Additional Notes:
Mark Wilson writes "About 1982/83 I wrote a BBS for the TI99/4A. It was called the 'TIGBBS' or TI General Bulletin Board System. It was written in TI Extended Basic. I believe you needed the 32k expansion card, as well as the PE Box. What made this different from any of the other BBS programs was that it took advantage special features in TI's Terminal Emulator 2 cartridge. The only term. app at the time, that I was aware of. You could add color text (and graphics?) as well as speech if the end user had the TI Speech Synthesizer.
"I did market it via a classified ad in one of the TI magazines. I think I still have the ad somewhere. I sold about a dozen copies but gave up once school started in the fall. I was only 13, after all. I ran my BBS with it for a while but it was difficult with only the 300 baud acoustic modem. I'd have to run in and answer the phone every time someone called.
"I don't think I have copies of it anymore. I lost all of my TI stuff in college when I couldn't afford to pay my mini storage bill one summer. Still bummed about all the old IT mags I lost."

TINET
Author: Erik Olsen and Matt Storm
Additional Notes:
Jesse C. Slicer writes "TI-Net was originally authored by Erik Olsen and Matt Storm when they both lived together in Texas. Erik coded most of the communications pieces in TMS 9900 Assembly Language and Matt wrote the Extended Basic BBS management and Gameroom pieces. Circa 1991, Erik owned the software and transferred the ownership to Shirley Slicer, my mother. I extensively rewrote (and commented) the assembly to take advantage of some of the newer hardware advances at the time, notably the 80-column cards cropping up and XModem for hard drives. My mom still owns the software and distribution rights, but there don't appear to be any more BBSs running TI-Net software today. However, all the original equipment that was used to develop our portion of it and ran a BBS ("The Manhattan Project") is still in perfect working order."
From the TI 99/4a timeline site: "March, 1986: Gadego Software of Lubbock, Texas releases the TINet BBS. The program is authored by 14 year old Erik Olson of the Lubbock Users Group, and it wins notoriety as that group's first BBS."

ZYOLOG
Author: Bryan Wilcutt
Additional Notes:
Bryan Wilcutt writes "In 1985, a BBS named "Zyolog" was created and sold amongst TI 99/4A owners. The author (yours truly) was credited for adding "CRC" to Xmodem, hence "Xmodem-CRC". I worked this effort in conjunction with Ward Christenson who ran Country Cupboards. I ran Zyolog from 1985 to 1990, then ran Sirius Cybernetics [Hawaii] from 1990 to 1993 on an Amiga [you can still google for the name]. Numerous Zyolog BBSs were operated world wide. References to the BBS can still be made to this day by google'ing "Zyolog". The software is copyrighted, I still have the copyright TR sheet from the copyright office. There's a lot of google references to zyolog, I'm the one with "Byte Rider" mentioned."

Source and Info Files: 3
UNIX
GENERIC
BBS100 [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Walter de Jong
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20050228183624/http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterj/bbs100/
Source and Info Files: 2
BIX
CITADELUX
Author: Art Cancro, Nathan Bryant, Michael Hampton, and others
Software Website: https://citadel.org/
Additional Notes:
"History: Citadel/UX began in 1987 as a ground-up rewrite of the Citadel-86 system built for multiuser Unix platforms. In the decade that followed, the installed base of Citadel/UX and its derivatives overtook that of all other Citadel variants combined. The software is still in use today, headquartered at UNCENSORED! BBS [http://uncensored.citadel.org] and is now being developed as a messaging platform not only for Internet-connected BBS's, but for e-mail and groupware systems as well." - Art Cancro

Source and Info Files: 5
CIX
DAVECODE
Additional Notes:
Patricia Mergen-Adams indicates that DAVECODE is an early revision of Dave's Own Citadel (DOC BBS). The canonical version is DOCBBS software.

Source and Info Files: 2
DAYDREAM CAFE
Source and Info Files: 2
DOC
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Dave's Own Citadel". Derived from Citadel/UX and used as the software for the ISCA BBS since the early 1990's. Can handle many connections (over a thousand). Used as the base code for a number of late 1990's derivatives.
An earlier version of DOC software is called DAVECODE. Derivative names include JayDOC and vDOC.

Source and Info Files: 1
MICROMAGIC
Author: Jason Ward and Mike Loewen
Additional Notes:
Mike Loewen writes " Jason Ward and I wrote a multiuser BBS system for Microsoft Xenix (Unix for microcomputers) called MicroMagic. MicroMagic resembled a Citadel system in that it was room based, but it was written from the ground up without reference to the Citadel code. From what I remember, the system went online around 1984-1985, and ran on Jason's Tandy 6000 in Sumner, WA. We had 4 phones for the BBS, with 2400 baud modems, and a 15Mb hard drive.
"The MicroMagic software was written in C, and was a message board and a real time chat system. There were no files available for download, but the real time chat was very popular. During its heyday, all 4 lines would be busy from about 4:00 P.M. until about 2:00 A.M., with a connect limit of 30 minutes strictly enforced. Users could call back after getting disconnected but chances were someone else with an automatic dialer program would get in first, so users would rotate in and out.
"The MicroMagic software was used briefly by Bob Dinse at Eskimo North in Seattle, before he moved on to other software. The source code for MicroMagic was never released. I moved back East in 1986, and eventually ported the BBS to SunOS and then Linux. I added file uploads and downloads, and a R/O interface to USENET. I ran the BBS in State College, PA for several years as the Centre Programmers Unit BBS, before finally taking it down in 1999."

PHOTONBBS
Author: Andrew Wyatt
Source and Info Files: 1
PICOSPAN
Additional Notes:
Rick Root writes "Hi, Saw your BBS documentary web site, and I wanted to share some interesting information with you. One of your listed BBS software packages is PicoSpan. Picospan was written by Marcus D. Watts for M-Net, the world's first public access UNIX system - or at least so they claim. M-Net is still up and running after all these years (it went online in 1982). If you have any interest, you can telnet://m- net.arbornet.org or visit www.arbornet.org Marcus has since abandoned M-Net for another BBS in Ann Arbor known as Grex. Grex was an offshoot from M-Net from 1991 when a group of users got tired of the then owner of M-Net constantly threatening to shut it off. Grex has been operating continuously all this time as well, and in fact has historically kept *ALL* of its content available. they reset their general conference with the seasons, and I've been able to go back and read stuff that I posted way back in 1991. telnet://grex.cyberspace.org or http://www.cyberspace.org. Grex still uses Picospan. In the early 90s, M-Net actually converted to a program called YAPP, which stood for Yet Another Picospan Program, written by Dave Thaler. He wrote it as a project I think while working on his CS degree at the University of Michigan. The YAPP homepage is: http://www.armidalesoftware.com/yapp/yapp.html It's worth mentioning that The Well, quite possibly one of the most famous BBSes, was also an offshot of M-Net, someone indirectly, and The Well also ran Picospan. Jan Wolter wrote a very interesting piece relating to the history of computer conferencing in Ann Arbor. http://www.unixpapa.com/conf/history.html I've been using M-Net since 1986, and I still log in pretty much every day."

GNU Pipo-BBS
Additional Notes:
From the website: "Pipo is a BBS (Bulettin Board System). The features of GNU Pipo-BBS include: Text and ANSI interfaces with colour for ANSI compatible terminals. Online help. Telnet connection (socket one planned). Ability to talk instantly to a user connected at the same time as you. Long term messages which can be viewed by non-connected users. They can be seen by all users, a specific group of users or one specific user... Log of recently exchanged messages, available even after logout. Ability to view the list of currently connected users. Mappable keys. Customisation of colours. Robots. Lot of informations available on users (available only with that user's permission). Games. Easy-to-implement multi language system (see Atlantis-BBS implementation). Different types of messages, including ASCII-Art. Discussion lists (a little bit like IRC). A voting system."

Source and Info Files: 1
PYFFLE
Author: Sampsa Lain
Software Website: http://www.uuhec.net/pyffle-bbs
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20120320192315/http://www.uuhec.net/pyffle-bbs/
Source and Info Files: 2
SATURN
Source and Info Files: 2
UNAXCESS
Author: Brandon S. Allbery
Versions: 1.0 (1986)
Additional Notes:
"UNaXcess: UNaXcess is a bulletin board system originally started at Bradford University by Brandon S Allbery in 1984. During the early 90's it moved to the University of Manchester and was used for several years, mostly by members of the Computer Science department. Around about 1998, work started on a re-write of the code base overhaul the current system whilst keeping the quirky aspects that many users had grown to know and love (such as pressing 'G' to quit). By September 1999, the new system was ready to be rolled out. Today the system is known as UA2 to most people and is mainly haunted by current and ex students from the University of Manchester Computer Science department and members of its computer society, CompSoc. As well as the familiar telnet interface, there is also a web-based version of the client (uaHTTP) that is more friendly to beginners."

Source and Info Files: 4
UNIBOARD
Author: Ricardo Pizzi
Additional Notes:
Cross-platform Unix BBS from Rimini, Italy. Sold with a commercial license ranging from $50 (2 user) to $500 (unlimited), and an 8-user license for $140.

Source and Info Files: 4
UNIDEL [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Ken MacLeod
Additional Notes:
Unidel 1.0, a Citadel-style news/mail reader and BBS

Source and Info Files: 2
VDOC [Citadel]
Derived From: Citadel
Author: Neurophyre (Current Maintainer)
Versions: 1.7 (April, 2002) 1.71 (January, 2005)
Software Website: http://vdoc.evernex.com/
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20080114012342/http://vdoc.evernex.com/
Additional Notes:
From the vDOC website: "vDOC 1.7, pronounced "variant DOC 1.7", is short for DOC 1.7, Fbrd rev 0.3, m0n0, an ungainly name telling the revision levels of various programmers. This may change in the future. DOC is short for "Dave's Own version of Citadel"."
"vDOC is a Citadel-style Internet BBS. It is directly descended from code that the ISCA BBS runs on (or ran on at one time, I don't frequent it so I don't know). I've taken the time to write some very basic documentation for it which covers the main steps involved in setting up a BBS using this software. I've also made some changes to the code, fixed a bug or two, and added some missing menus and such -- the state of the documentation and included files was abysmal when I got ahold of the source, and is now approaching usable, at least for somebody with experience compiling software and such."
Patricia Mergen-Adams (Growf) indicates that vDOC is basically a derivative of JayDOC software, which itself is a derivative of DOC BBS software.
Neurophyre, author of the program, writes in: "I'm just writing to let you know that I'm no longer maintaining vDOC for public release. It's for all practical purposes a dead codebase, though for now it's still up for download at http://vdoc.evernex.com/ and will likely remain there for historical purposes. I have however obtained an independent study at my university to rewrite it from the ground up. It'll be released under a different name with a few significant changes, most significantly a modern client/server architecture and a database back end that doesn't suck. My current roadmap calls for a public beta, namely switching Utopia Dammit! BBS from vDOC to the new package, sometime in October or November. I'll keep you informed."

Source and Info Files: 2
WAFFLE
Author: Thomas Dell
YABBS (Yet Another BBS)
Author: Alex Wetmore
Software Website: http://phred.org/yabbs/
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010124092400/http://phred.org/yabbs/
Additional Notes:
From Alex Wetmore's Site:
Yabbs was conceived during my winter break in 1991 (my freshman year of college at Carnegie Mellon University). I wrote it because I was bored and because I wanted to run a BBS on the internet, but didn't know of any good software to do that at the time.
I started out being written under MS-DOS as a console program (I was going to add networking code later). My intentions were to get a system up that allowed for simple sending and receiving of public messages (no email, no talk, no g-files). It was only going to allow one user on a time (since MS-DOS doesn't have any good multitasking abilities). My plan was to merge in some MS-DOS networking code that I had hacked together for another earlier project (wall, which allowed users to telnet to a MS-DOS machine running PC/TCP and scribble one-liners). Once this was done I figured I'd have something online and hack it out from there.
I never did get the MS-DOS networking stuff merged in. When I got back to school I decided that Unix was the way to go with this stuff (MS-DOS is really braindead). I didn't personally have a machine that I could use to develop it, but a friend of a friend offered me an account on his NeXT workstation. I hacked in some unix networking code and got it running on that.

Source and Info Files: 4
YAWC
Author: Kenneth Haglund
Additional Notes:
Stands for "Yet Another Wersion of Citadel". Supposedly created to help the Author learn C. Descended from Davecode, itself descended from Daves' Own Citadel, itself descended from Citadel/UX.

LINUX
ADBBS
Author: Chris Crunch
Additional Notes:
"A BBS/Menuing system for linux, with ANSI colour support, file bases, message boards and much more. Easily modified and configured. Can be used for a variety of operations, from basic BBS to advanced administration menuing system. Many new features in this version."

Source and Info Files: 2
AMBBS
Author: James Tavares
Additional Notes:
"AmeriSoft is a down to earth, easy to use BBS software for the Linux operating system."

Source and Info Files: 2
BBBS
Author: Kim Heino
Additional Notes:
"Complete BBS package with full internal FidoNet and InterNet support. ISDN, mailer, mail processor, TICK, AllFix, Telnet, FTP, Finger, news, email, gateway, offline, VT320, ANSI, multilingual, multinode, Mg, full screen editor, multitask, CD-ROM, HYDRA, Zmodem, Kermit, BZLink, TCP/IP, voice, FAX, charsets, accounts, IRC, plus much much more. Everything you need to run a BBS!"

Source and Info Files: 2
BLACKBOX
Author: Walter Heukels
Additional Notes:
"Black Box BBS is a Bulletin Board System designed from scratch for Linux. It has ANSI colour, file transfers, sysop-to-user chatting, BBS<->BBS email, BBS<->net email, guest users, NNTP (a bit), Unix doors (sometimes), incoming Fidonet recognition (hopefully), caller ID, and programmable menus."

Source and Info Files: 2
DAYDREAM
Author: Antti H�yrynen (Original Author). Later a team: Hannu Lyytinen (Programming) Jani Majuri (Organizing / WWW) Antti Saukko (WWW)
Software Website: http://daydream.iwn.fi
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20150123105548/http://daydream.iwn.fi/
Source and Info Files: 4
DREALM
Author: Inge and Peter Jones
Software Website: http://www.drealm.org.uk/drealmbbs.htm
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20040702015926/http://www.drealm.org.uk/drealmbbs.htm
Source and Info Files: 2
EBBS
Author: Ray Rocker
Additional Notes:
Created as a successor to the "Pirates BBS" Linux BBS.

Source and Info Files: 5
FALKEN
Author: Burt Krier and Chris Whitacre (After Herb Rose)
First Created: Late 1996
Additional Notes:
In late 1996, Falken BBS Software became up for sale. Burt Krier and Chris Whitacre (programmer) decided to purchase this package, as they saw a potential in the software. B.C. Software was born.

Source and Info Files: 2
FIREBIRD
Source and Info Files: 2
FORUMS
Author: Colin Maroney
Additional Notes:
Forums is written in Perl

Source and Info Files: 1
FTBBS
Source and Info Files: 2
IBBS
Author: Justin Zygmont
Software Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ibbs
Additional Notes:
"This BBS program was written to take full advantage of the UNIX operating system's networking and administration features. Therefore, it is contained in the /usr/local directory structure and relies on UNIX as much as possible. I have not designed this program to pretend it's anything other than what it is, that includes what it's written in. The BBS world has changed signifigantly since the growth of the internet, so you have to expect that some things will be different than your typical 1980's style 2400 baud bbs. So don't complain that you don't think it could work with 1000+ callers a day, there are no fidonet frontends, or no make files. It was also designed to be as simple and flexible as possible."

Source and Info Files: 1
IX-MBOX
Author: Volker Schuermann
Source and Info Files: 3
JMR
Author: Jukka Vuokko
Source and Info Files: 3
LIME
Source and Info Files: 2
LORABBS
Source and Info Files: 1
MAJORBBS
Additional Notes:
Ian James Holt writes "Just a note to let you know the Galacticom did produce a version of Major BBS for Linux. I think it was phased out when they went from MBBS V6.25 over to Worldgroup V1.00."

MAXIMUS
Author: Wes Garland, based on original code by Scott Dudley
Additional Notes:
With the release of the source code for Maximus BBS for DOS and Windows, Wes Garland saw to porting the program to Linux.
From the release notes for this UNIX version:
"This archive contains Maximus/UNIX v3.03 and Squish/UNIX v1.11. Maximus and Squish are Copyright (c) 1989-2003 by Lanius Corporation and Scott J. Dudley. These sources have been released under the terms of the GNU Public Licence. Please see the file LICENSE in this directory for the text of the GNU Public Licence (GPL)."
"Maximus/UNIX and Squish/UNIX are ports for use by UNIX and UNIX-like (Linux, Mac OS/X) operating systems, by Wes Garland."

Source and Info Files: 1
MBSE
Author: Michiel Broek (with Ken Bowley, Redy Rodriguez, Scott Street and Phil Kimble)
Software Website: http://mbse.freezer-burn.org
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20030619182905/http://mbse.freezer-burn.org/
Additional Notes:
Most current version can be found on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mbsebbs/

MCONV
Source and Info Files: 3
MYSTIC
Software Website: http://www.mysticbbs.com
Source and Info Files: 1
NET4FREE
Source and Info Files: 2
NONAME
Source and Info Files: 2
ONEBBS
Author: Christoph Lameter
Source and Info Files: 2
Onyx Sidewinder Bulletin Board System (OS BBS)
Author: Sten Pôldma
Source and Info Files: 2
PARLORHOUSE
Author: Asu Pala and Loreen Lacy
Source and Info Files: 2
PIRATE BBS (PBBS)
Source and Info Files: 2
ROCAT
Author: Gregory Shaw
Source and Info Files: 2
SAURON
Author: SIMON HORTON & ALEX HENRIKSEN
Source and Info Files: 1
SHOCKWAVEPRO
Software Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20050212131522/http://www.nacs.net/~icebrkr/shckwave/
Additional Notes:
Ported from the ShockWaveE:PRO BBS MS-DOS code.

Source and Info Files: 1
TBBS
Additional Notes:
Note, this is not related to the TBBS BBS by eSoft.

Source and Info Files: 2
THEBOARD
Author: Darren Braun
Source and Info Files: 2
VMATIK [DayDream]
Derived From: DayDream
Author: Igor Wronsky
Source and Info Files: 2
VUBBS
Source and Info Files: 1
XBBS
Author: Sanford J. Zelkovitz (original Xenix BBS author)
Source and Info Files: 1
YABBS
Author: Alex Wetmore
Source and Info Files: 1
YAK
Author: Timo Sirainen
Versions: 1.08b (June 9, 1997)
Additional Notes:
From the LSM for this software: "BBS software with sources for DOS, OS/2 and Linux. Includes also tosser and tick program without sources."

Source and Info Files: 2
VAX
VMS
COOPERBBS
Author: J. Kevin Cooper
Fifth BBS
Author: Mark Resmer
Source and Info Files: 1
NOTES
UBBS
Source and Info Files: 2
Total of 878 BBS Programs.

Some of these BBS programs came from an excellent BBS Source Code Site run by Mark Firestone. He's done an excellent job of collecting many old BBS programs.
The documentation for SapphireBBS includes a "Why would you choose our software over these other 70?" and I used all 70 to increase the MS-DOS listings.
I stumbled along the absolutely astounding collection of Citadel-related software, lore, and lineage at http://anticlimactic.org/Citadel/. Bravo!
Bo Zimmerman's Commodore 64 page at www.zimmers.net has been a treasure trove for this and other parts of the site.
I got many of the more recent versions of DOS BBS Software from the COTBBS Page.
Lance Lyon found an old backup tape and gave me a good pile of vintage DOS BBS programs.