::: Introduction to the X-Bit BBS :::
Short version:
Thanks to Captain Kirk I was bitten by the sci-fi bug at a very
young age. This show pointed me to computer game counsels that
progressed me to computers. Didn't know what to do w/ the modem
on my first computer until a friend told me about the BBS scene.
And here we are :)
Long version:
When I was very young i loved star trek. I remember
watching it with my brothers and geeking out on all of its
technology. I
remember drawing computer mainframes after most show's on paper
and then describing its functionality for the enterprise. My mom seemed interested at the time
;) So in short, I think that's where it all started. Yup, we can
thank James T. Kirk not only for the bbs's that i've ran over
the years but for what I do for a living today!
Needless to say being a young kid and loving star trek it
didn't take me long to discover the world of computer gaming
consoles. My first job allowed me to snag a Sega Master System,
I didn't want to go the Nintendo route due to the fact most of
my friends had one and I wanted something different. The Sega
Master System lead me to a Sega Genesis upgrade and this is
where my true interest in how computers worked started. The
Genesis was a 16bit system vs. the Master Systems 8bit and it
showed. I was very curious on what the 'bits' were all about so
my time gaming vs. self education started to even out.
Eventually gaming was no longer fulfilling and my gaming
magazines turned to computer.
I purchased my first IBM compatible system (almost a mac,
glad i didn't) in 1991. It was a $1500 EasyData 468/sx 25, 4meg
ram, 150m conner hdd, hayes compatible 2400bps modem running MS
Dos 5 and Windows 3.1. At this point I was off to the races. I
ended up selling my Sega and all its games for $110 and I spent
the money of a Sound Blaster for my computer.
Many months went by before I even knew what to use the
modem for but thanks to all the CD's that Prodigy and AOL were
sending in the mail i got the idea. After my 30 days of free
trial ran dry for Prodigy I eventually found the local BBS scene
and the day of becoming a sysop of a BBS was near. I'm not sure
why or how I found Spitfire BBS software but that's what I
picked and I named my system 32-BIT BBS (screen
shots of my first bbs). The name '32bit BBS' was inspired
by a motherboard replacement that had a VISA bus :) It had
nothing to do w/ the CPU/Software of course. It was a good
marketing move though as everyone wanted to call a '32bit bbs'
:) I had many callers, many people registered door games for me
and had quite a few "members" that payed for elevated access. I
ran 32-Bit BBS from 1994-1998. At this point my guess is you
know the story. It's imposable to hold back progression! The
Internet took over and the <near>death of the BBS was
inevitable. Many local sysops and all corporate BBSs like MS,
INTeL, etc moved to the web.
On Jan, 2001 I was feeling nostalgic so I dug-up all my
old reg-codes and membership letters for my first BBS. I decided
to re-install spitfire bbs to run a local system just for fun
but a few internet searches later I was amazed to find out you
could telnet to BBSs. Once again the Sysop bug bit when I found
Synchronet software. Synchronet is an awesome mix of
compatibility with old technology (door games) and offers modern
services like email, web, newsgroups, irc, etc. The name I
picked for the my reborn bbs was The X-Bit BBS.
Over the next few years I placed many hours into the xbit
adding 100s of games, interbbs leagues, ftn networks and
updating its ansi displays. The BBS became very popular as it
received over 100 calls a day everyday. I ran X-Bit from 2001 to
the end of 2006 when I was forced to close
its doors due to workload and family obligations. From 01 to 06
The X-Bit recorded close to 400k logons (top10,
top10 min, node).
This brings us to may 2011, the current time spam of this
memo where once again the X-Bit back On-Line! Why did we make
this comeback? In a nutshell: Time and workload allows and I
could no longer look at the backup disks :) Special thanks to
all the callers, door game programmers, ansi artists, fellow
sysops and syncronet programers for this hobby.
- xbit
