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I found this backup tape while sorting through boxes — the final resting place of Sound Bytes BBS.

Turns out I can still fire it up in DOSBox and browse through everything as a time capsule.

Though the farewell message suggests the BBS would return in summer of 1996, the world moved on quickly, and the BBS scene — as it was — disappeared just like *that*.

By the time 1996 did roll around, we were busy building our area's first dial-up ISP, and there was no turning back.

#bbs #retrocomputing

DC2120 computer backup tape with sticky note label: Sound Bytes BBS 8/19/95 offline
Screenshot of the T.A.G. BBS software's waiting-for-caller screen for Sound Bytes BBS, captured here running in DosBox from a very old backup.
ANSI graphics screen with a message announcing August 18, 1995 as the end date of Sound Bytes BBS.
#retrocomputing #bbs

reshared this

in reply to Autumn Mahoney

mike
mike
• •
BBSing got better and better with each year until suddenly it wasn’t there anymore. And then the Internet got commercialized, and somehow wasn’t there anymore either. Only just recently is there starting to be hints of local community outside commercial spaces on the Internet, where I live.
in reply to Autumn Mahoney

nobletrout
nobletrout
• •
@TheGibson we need a defcon BBS
@The Gibson
in reply to nobletrout

Binder
Binder
• •
@nobletrout @thegibson
I've been very tempted... but I'm not sure if a BBS would actually work in todays age.
@The Gibson @nobletrout
in reply to Binder

Autumn Mahoney
Autumn Mahoney
• •
@binder @nobletrout @thegibson Maybe not, but I bet some of the ideas would translate well to something new. And already have, to some degree, with the community we're building here on our local instances.
@Binder @The Gibson @nobletrout
in reply to Binder

silverwizard
silverwizard
•

I ran a BBS people would "dial in" to via SSH and used it to do comma for a Shadowrun game

Worked fine

in reply to nobletrout

Autumn Mahoney
Autumn Mahoney
• •

@nobletrout @silverwizard @binder @thegibson Open this in a new tab for an appropriate soundtrack. :)

youtu.be/xalTFH5ht-k


Dial Up Modem Sounds, from 300 bps to 56K

The sound of dial-up at some of the most common speeds, including 300, 1200, 2400, 9600, 14,400, 33,600, and 56K. As noted in the video, the sound of a V.34 ...
YouTube
@Binder @The Gibson @nobletrout @silverwizard
in reply to Autumn Mahoney

silverwizard
silverwizard
•

I did have an idea for storing an SSH key on a record that you played into a microphone to convert it to data

Could enforce this

in reply to Autumn Mahoney

Les Orchard
Les Orchard
• •
@nobletrout @silverwizard @binder @thegibson I mean, you could totally set up a relatively modern SynchroNet BBS with a web telnet client and stick a wav file on the page that modem-screams on connect
@Binder @The Gibson @nobletrout @silverwizard
in reply to Autumn Mahoney

Phil M0OFX
Phil M0OFX
• •
wow, this is incredible! You should put this on archive.org, there isn't much of this about. Seems like it'd be right up @textfiles's alley.
@Jason Scott
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