Commodore Free 31/Commodore_Free_Issue_31_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/bbs part 2

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 317 lines

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************************************
 Confessions of a BBS Sysop Addict
     Lord Ronin From Qlink
************************************
              PART 2

Despite the negatives that I
presented above, I had a lot of fun
with the BBS. Tried to do some
things, and fried the programme in
many of the games. Having to
reinstall from back ups. Only one guy
helped me and though he knows his
stuff. Even he admits that he
couldn't teach a bee to fly. Just
doesn't have the ability to present
the information. Found that out in
the BBS work when he tried to teach
me the basics of ML. I had callers
from around the states and Canada
call me. Some just once and others
several times.  I met them in chats
and talked about the C=. I had great
expectations that I would be able to
make the BBS into something bigger
and better. If I just knew more. OK I
didn't know of things called source
codes and all of that ML stuff. Still
don't to tell the truth. Yet I was on
the board each morning and each
evening. Adding files, keeping the
message bases going, doing my email
and doing the PBEM game turns. 1
averaged about three calls per day on
a weekly basis.

1st of January 2000. Something
happened to Omni. 1 had tried to call
the board on the first Sunday of the
month. That was my usual day for
packet transfer. No connection, I
tried the voice number and got the
same result. Tried e-mail and same
result. Big Chief in Germany had been
trying for a month to contact Brian.
Well I needed to send my packet. I
also needed help on how to fix the
dates on the files and on the message
bases. They were all buggered up. To
this day, there has been no contact
to me or as far as I have learned to
any of the Omni BBS SysOps. We were
dropped without a single word. Mad
Max sent me a file to install and how
to install it, that fixed the file
and message base area that he had
written. He also sent me a thing he
had written that did a special
events, and today in history thing,
that popped up on login for the user,
didn't work on my version of Omni. I
needed something else now.

Around the end of 1999 a guy called
Dr. Video was on line. He had been
contacting SysOps. Telling us about
this other BBS programme called
Centipede. Did some e-mails with him
about what Centipede had to offer.
Problem with this is that I had
around 5 years invested with Omni.
Not that I was all that found of
Omni. 1 just didn't know any other
form of operation. Like the code for
the up loaders comments to files on
Omni is the British pound symbol.
While it is the "@" symbol in
Centipede. Ever try renaming by hand
one at a time over 4,000 files? Not a
fun task and I never did get it all
done.

Still I grabbed Centipede and opened
it up. Printing out this strange
thing called a manual. Wow man there
really was a manual, and it started
me on my way. I had everything done
to start. Having it on a partition of
the HD that ran the Omni BBS, as it
doesn't need to be on Device 8 and
partition #1 as docs Omni. Everything
except the smegging files. I just
couldn't figure out how to make them
show up. Read the manual and tried to
do what they said. Just didn't stick
in my head the way it was written.
Till a SysOp I met on line said the
information in a different way and it
all made sense. Suddenly the couple
thousand files I had put in the
proper areas showed up. I went like a
mad man getting it ready to go on
line. Over 100 games, that I tested
out and classified. Ah I am really a
mean bugger at classifying things, I
over do it I am told. But I made the
menus and set them up. Tested them a
bit, as the guy that converted them
with the tool. Well let's say he
didn't do a full test on them. Add
here as a jump ahead, that I got
another game packet that isn't in the
DL version, from the Hub Op at the
time Dynamite. That I installed,
having about 115 games. 98% of them
playable by all platforms.

Well there came some tests. I had the
Centipede board up at pre-announced
times. Letting the regular callers
see the board. I had transferred
their account information, password,
level and login name to their number
and they took a look. All of them
said move to Centipede. So in April
2000 came the birth of The Village
BBS. Well I am a big fan of the old
T.V. show 'The Prisoner". Needed a
smaller name than I had used before.
Though there are many differences
between Centipede and Omni, and I
could spend pages explaining that
from memory. Point of it is first
that it took me time to convert my
mind. Second and more important;
Centipede is the BBS that a beginner
should use, and not Omni as I did.
Because there is a proper manual, and
there are other SysOps out there that
can and will help. As I have been
doing with one in California; also
this is the one that most people I
have heard from, use for the telnet
C= boards. Not saying that this is an
easy one to use, Just that it is
better than the Omni one that I
started with. Of course this is all
based on running the BBS on a 128. So
far the best that I have tried, seen
and heard about for the 64 is the
Color64 BBS system.

Well then for the next 5 years and a
few months. The Village ran 24/7. Had
a nice Moving star pattern screen
saver. I was again on each morning
and evening. Before going to the shop
and after returning On my days off,
something that I don't have any more.
I spent the day doing maintenance on
the board. Adding files that I had
saved along with the notes I had made
about the files in the up loader
comments. Played some of the games;
Empire ones being the most heavily
played around here. Went into the
message bases added to comments,
started new threads and at time made
new sub areas for hot topics. Even
with that, and the fact that my Geos
and Wheels for both the 128 and 64,
along with my Wave files for online
Internet stuff. All where on the same
HD. Causing me to have the board off
during my maintenance and Geos work
and online things. The Village
averaged in a week time around 5
calls a day. Not the gigantic numbers
of the 80s and early 90s. But there
were regulars that called for the
PBEM and online games. Others called
to see a real C= BBS again. I gained
many comments about that fact. Had
one guy that called from his laptop,
connected to his cell phone when he
was doing long haul driving. I
remember him stopped at Donner Pass
in the snow and calling the board.
Had an Amiga user many states away
that did the same with his A1200. I
would send every new caller a copy of
the newsletter Print at that time.
Showing them that there was an active
though ignorant group of C= and Amiga
users, started gaining long distance
members that way.

All was good for those years. 1
learned more on how to do some simple
base programming in the games.
Altering stats and print statements,
making it more and more configured to
our theme. In July of 2005 I had
ordered from Maurice some spare
screws and three power supply sockets
for my three CMD controllers. I
needed to replace the power socket as
they were malfunctioning. Having the
HD mechanism slow down and the after
stopping start again. If the socket
and cord where wiggled just right.
They arrived on 27th December 2005. I
remember that for no reasons. First
it would have been my mothers
birthday, and second the HD with all
the stuff on it, like over 5,000
files for user downloads and 2GB in
compressed files from Pink Panther
and the MHI crew that I had copied
with permission. Plus my Geos and
online stuff, and all the files for
the users group. Stopped just a few
days earlier.

Oh the parts were needed to make the
Zip drive project. I had started on
that, and with a borrowed passive
cable. Actually made around 20 zip
disks ready to be used with Mcopy to
transfer all the BBS data and the
other things to be preserved on the
Zip disks. Still have the disks, but
the cable was returned and the
project abandoned in despair. Since
obviously the parts took 6 months to
be sent and didn't make it in time to
backup the data In January 2006,
besides the very negative things my
adopted son Mark Reed did to the
users group and others. I had read on
homestead mail list that Maurice had
been able to do a data retrieval for
one of the list members. I contacted
him and he said he would look at the
Hard disk mechanism. As instructed I
posted it to him. He stated later
that one of the heads had become
stuck in an unused place. He
suspected the data to still be OK.
Ah, I still have that e-mail message.
Said the he had ordered and exact
duplicate of my mechanism and was
going to strip out the heads and then
copy the data to another HD and send
that to me. Great, I had offered my
entire savings of $300 usd for that
task. I write this in the later part
of June 2009. Still no mechanism, no
answer and in his most recent this
year postings on the homestead list,
he said he would get to it soon. You
can guess that I am not willing to
pay that sum or any sum after this
length of time. Most of that time
with no communication from him to
messages.

After waiting some months, I wanted
my BBS back on line. Over the past
couple of years, I have been helped
on this project with tips, ideas and
even hardware. Much of it coming from
a man online known as Eddie, He
gifted me with the power supply. Some
mechanisms for the controller. But
they had lovely problems like going
to sleep. Most recently we are trying
his hardware thing. That takes the
SCSI commands from the CMD controller
to the IDE thing and then to the SD
cart. As well as in reverse. Had some
problems with this, and found that
the jumpers where wrong. That was
corrected. But still no go, not on
the 2gb one that I had made, nor on
the 4gb one that he had made for me.
Guessing that in the installation of
the two boards,which was done
backwards at first. Something fried
on them. As his works well, and in
fact he runs Centipede on his SD card
on the same boards that he makes and
his board is the inner circle as well
as being telnet.

Well until I can get something
working on this end. The re-birth of
The Village BBS is stalled. But this
old BBS addict isn't down yet. Once
we get this worked out, I'll be
putting it back up as a direct dial
board run on real C= equipment. But
this time it will not share the Geos
and online tools, or the SCPU. As it
will be dedicated just for the BBS.
Will have a FD-2000 and at least one
5 1/4" disk drive. And the fanatical
C= using old RPG playing Sysop. Oh
yeah and a new pride of cats getting
on it and smegging things up like the
last group

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