The latest concoction is setting up an echo network between a bunch of BBSes using vintage software.
Of all the technologies I've seen die in my lifetime, one of the top 5 missed are the echo networks of old. The bulletin boards (read forums) the kids use today are a somewhat suitable replacement, but no matter how much tender loving care someone gives to something like phpBB or vBulletin it can't match the intimacy of a BBS. You'd think introducing inter-board messaging would have shattered this illusion, but it really didn't.
Far from the instantaneous communication we all take for granted these days, the messages I posted wouldn't be processed until I logged off and then had to travel via modem from hub to hub until it eventually reached it's destination. Despite all this, it worked. And it worked damned well.
The other awesome thing about these networks was most of my favourite online games (BRE, Tradewars, LORD) could use them to transfer game data, so not only did you have to formulate strategies based on a set number of turns per day, there were more people snaking the sectors with only 1 exit. Either through skill or dumb luck there were always people ahead of you and never once did things come to a screeching halt because some spoiled brat turned off their PS2 while being tuned at SSX 3.
Ahem...
Right, so not only can you use RLFOSSIL for incoming connections, it can establish outbound connections by passing good old ATDT an IP address instead of a phone number. Say one was to craft a nodelist for a private echo network (I don't need to mention a specific zone, we'll just pretend it's 4:20 since, over the years, I remember my board belonging to a few) but with an IP address instead of a phone number. I know there are several things that'll do this in Windows and UNIX and I seem to recall Synchronet offering similar functionality, but that's all recent stuff. The only way to do this righteously is with FrontDoor instructing you to Press <ESC> twice for Telegard..., the way God intended.
Since everything's build to use a FOSSIL driver, it shouldn't have any problems living in qemu. Everything works in VMWare, but I haven't gotten it working as smoothly as qemu yet, which as I recall was how things turned out when I tried using VirtualBox on Linux as a host. I've already wasted quite a lot of time playing with that.
The entire tool chain would be the same, from the front end mailer right down to the tosser it wouldn't have any clue at all that it isn't 1992. Much of the software itself might not handle the year 2010 all that well, but why sweat little details that can be overcome by turning back the clock?
I can't be the only one with a barely used copy of mtelnet sitting around gathering dust (although lately I've been using FLansi in terminal mode) who wouldn't mind re-enrolling in the old school and watching it rise from the ashes. We could call it PhoenixEchoNet for no other reason than it's a horrible cliché.
Post new comment