Thanks for the info, I had no idea there were so many options out there.

I wonder, back when they were run from phone lines, was it possible for multiple people to connect to one at the same time, or did they have to wait and take turns? Also, what exactly is a "door" game?

If you're a retro gamer at all, you definitely need to check them out. I haven't actually connected to any in a while, but this site has a list of some you can try: http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/

BBSes would usually support about 4 callers at a time, so there was a lot of leaving messages and waiting for the next day to get a response. There were some live chats between people, but I'd say by and large, it was more about sending e-mails (which were usually local to the BBS, not like e-mail today) or leaving messages on message boards. Since it used the phone line, you would get charged long distance if you called into a BBS that was far away, so most people dialed into BBSes that were in their city. Some BBSes even hosted in-person meet ups for everyone to get to know each other.

Legend of the Red Dragon, which was probably the most popular Door game, was, to some extent, built around the fact that you typically wouldn't be on at the same time as others. It was basically a text-based RPG. You could hunt for monsters to fight in the forest, which would build up your skills, but you could only do it so many times in one day before you had to sign off the BBS and try again the next day. Also, there was a list of other players, and you could choose to attack one, and if you were stronger than them then you'd kill them and get all their stuff. If they won the fight, then they'd get all of yours. Since they usually weren't online when you did this, it was an annoyance to them to find out someone had killed them and gotten their gold the next time they signed on. And there was a newspaper that listed the stuff different players had done that day, and then a place where you could leave short messages that anyone could read, and then someone might respond back. Good times.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I wasn't really "around' for the days of BBSes, unfortunately, though they do sort of pique my interest. I wonder, back when they were run from phone lines, was it possible for multiple people to connect to one at the same time, or did they have to wait and take turns?

In my experience, most hobbyist boards were just one phone line, and it was a kind of rare to run across one with more than one phone line that wasn't commercial. Some SysOps with disposable incomes ran free boards with two nodes but that was uncommon in my area code. And usually on these free/hobbyist boards you'd have a time limit per day, maybe 30 minutes to an hour, to play your games, post messages, download files, etc. Some BBSs offered "time banks" where you could store extra minutes that you could withdraw later on. The time limit was kind of essential for single line boards, to keep users from bogarting the phone line and to give everyone a turn.

On the flip side, there were commercial ventures, usually running commercial BBS software like MajorBBS (later renamed Worldgroup), that could theoretically run up to 256 lines. Imagine software running on a 386 in DOS, with that many people potentially interacting in teleconference areas, playing games, etc...it's impressive. Realistically you'd have to be in a big metropolitan area to find a board running with that many lines...I think my area code might have had a BBS with 50 lines at one point. But these boards had games that were designed for multiplayer interaction (Tele-Arena, MajorMUD, Crossroads, Mutants), unlike most normal door games, which revolved around turns and daily limits. And with this type of BBS, you'd usually pay an hourly rate, like $0.50 for an hour of time, or maybe $25/mo for unlimited access. (Finally, if you want to get down to the nitty gritty, MajorBBS games weren't actually "door games" but rather modules written specifically for MajorBBS. In order to run the standard door games, you'd have to hook a second computer up to your MajorBBS machine with a null modem cable and run the games from there.)

If you want to telnet to some boards (check out that list that was mentioned earlier), I recommend downloading SyncTerm. There's a version for Windows, OSX, and linux:
http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/

Legend of the Red Dragon has already been recommended (it's a classic)...other games I loved were Usurper, The Pit, and Operation Overkill. Trade Wars was really popular but I never got into it. Unfortunately at this point in history there are way too many boards and not enough players out there, so finding a single place with lots of people playing the same game can be difficult. Good luck!

This is a MUST SEE for BBS information : http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/

There are several bbs softwares that run on windows and linux. some of them are still being actively developed
I would suggest going this route instead of trying to re-re-re invent the wheel.

the most bbs softwares are synchronet and mystic
you can also run a dos bbs on linux with dosemu or dosbox (dosbox works but can be problematic)

here's a list of bbs softwares (they come and go so i need to update this)
http://bbses.info/bbs.softwares/

http://www.synchro.net
http://www.mysticbbs.com

bbs lists:
http://telnetbbsguide.com
http://bbsnexus.com
http://bbslist.bbses.info

telnet clients
http://syncterm.bbsdev.net
http://mt32.bbses.info

I run a Synchronet 2 system on OS/2 2.00 in a Qemu VM on a VPS. I've moved providers probably 6 or so times, and all I do is copy my Qemu & disk file, update the DNS record and I'm good to go.

The #1 reason I went with this option is that I can use SIO under OS/2 which provides 4 virtual modems that hook onto COM ports so doors and whatnot will work transparently with them. Also OS/2 does a great job of multitasking MS-DOS even in this day & age. It's plenty easier to setup a single node, the trick is the network back end for multiple nodes. But I've only had multiple users on a few rare occasions, the few break into chats and a couple of card games. You can live with a single node the novelty runs out soon after. But then again I've only been doing this just over 3 years. If I'd known about SIO's vmodem support I'd have done it a LONG LONG time ago.. I never could get phone lines for a BBS, but internet access was something else. Oh well.