Old School BBS Games

[Nycturne]

So, I got an itch for some of the old multiplayer games from my old BBS days, and discovered it's not only possible to setup a BBS these days, it can be hosted in a Linux or Windows 10 VM and exposed to telnet and ssh. So I set up a few doors, and am looking to see what else to add to the pile. A lot of it is still stock, but figured some folks here might be interested in poking around. Don't know if I'll be able to generate enough interest to keep it going and do the customization I have in mind to give it its own identity, but if it becomes a small server for some TW2002, BRE, and LORD tournament style play (i.e. resets every so often), that'd be kinda neat.

The BBS does ask for a real name when registering, but I don't validate this field. So feel free to put whatever you want here. I mostly left it enabled so I can identify folks I know personally.

Also let me know if there's a specific door that would be worth tracking down.

Trade Wars 2002 (Classic & Gold)
Barren Realms Elite
Legend of the Red Dragon (This will be hard to get registered due to the current copyright owners, but I'm still looking into it)

Darkness 2.0
Falcon's Eye
Planets: TEOS (Same registration issue as LoRD)
Leech

Wordle (yes, someone made a door for this)

thecollective.biticus.net, port 1338 (telnet)

SSH is available on port 1337, but it requires an existing account, so new accounts can only be made over telnet for the moment.

MuffinTerm for Mac/iOS: https://muffinterm.app/ (Telnet only)
SyncTerm for Win/Mac: https://syncterm.bbsdev.net/ (Telnet and SSH)

 

[Alli]

Met my husband playing a game on a BBS. This brings back some memories.

 

[Nycturne]

Met my husband playing a game on a BBS. This brings back some memories.

Yeah, for me it was a way to burn a few minutes before having to run off in the mornings. Near me someone was running “Red Dwarf BBS” (local PBS station loved running marathons), and it was part of a InterBBS network for games like Barren Realms Elite. Was kinda interesting as it got the players on the BBS to coordinate rather than just eat each other.

 

[Nycturne]

I managed to get DOS Doors working on Ubuntu 22, along with TradeWars Game Server running under wine. Much cleaner than trying to run everything on Windows to be honest, and more reliable as services properly restart on a reboot. End result is that I also had to mess with the ports/dyndns while I was experimenting.

Also reached out to a retro Apple oriented BBS SysOp to share the TradeWars server between the two. Mostly because a couple of us that were playing were hitting issues with the door version and I figured I'd try to not make the poor guy mess around with it.

New Address: collectivebbs.biticus.net port 1337

Captain's Quarters II BBS: http://cqbbs.ddns.net