BBS‘s (Bulletin Board Systems) are a big part of the 1980′s and 90′s for me.

I spent a ridiculous number of hours dialing up local numbers to chat with folks and, mostly, to play BBS Door games (such as TradeWars 2002 and LORD).

Eventually I even settled in and ran a BBS from my bedroom (2 or 3 BBS’s if you count the various name changes it had over my high school years).

With the rise of the Internet, and the decline of the BBS, we’ve lost something special.  BBS’s provided a unique, focused environment that helped to quickly build a sense of community (this was often helped by the fact that you were dialing a local phone number to call a BBS that was sitting in a den, basement or bedroom only a few miles from you).  And the “restriction” of text and ANSI graphics forced us to improve our language skills and focus on the words.  Words are important.

Luckily the BBS is not completely dead.  Sure, they don’t have the usage they once did… but you can still “dial in to” a number of telnet BBS’s all over the world the enjoy that same experience of years past (only, nowadays, we don’t have to wait for text to slowly load over a 2400 modem).

For more information I recommend heading over to The BBS Corner.  From there you can find great information on finding, calling in to and even running a BBS.