Back to the BBS

The documentary interviews some users and system operators, both young and old. Crazy as it may sound, BBS's are actually still around today and can be accessed via the net. BBS's offer information and provide mail systems that are away from the prying eyes of Facebook and Google. They're a very sociable place to be, with messaging & chat. They have art unlike any you've ever seen and some really cool games and mods.

In this part of Back to the BBS we introduce Games and Mods. There are interviews with the authors of some excellent brand new games, as well as talking to sysops that make add-on software (mods) to BBS's that give it some modern and fun functionality.

In this part of the documentary we introduce the matter of privacy, with all the erosion of privacy on the net, the #BBS might provide a real alternative for you. We also introduce BBS messaging, a fun forum and email service. Finally we cover hardware to get your retro equipment such as #Commodore 64 and #Atari machines to connect to a BBS via WiFi!

In this part of Back to the BBS, we focus on making your own BBS. I spoke with the authors of Synchronet, Enigma 1/2, Image 3.0 and Legacy/X BBS software and from Daniel Kelly and Shooter Jennings to hear their take on the great software out there and why you might want to run your own BBS!

In this episode of Back to the BBS, we take a step down memory lane to look at where the darker side of the Internet came from. We examine Warez BBSes and explain what HPAVC boards were all about (Hacking, Phreaking, Anarchy, Virii, Cracking & Carding).

This action packed episode takes you on the road from where it all began, with simple cracktros on the 8-bits, to the crazy parties and the professional side of it all. Some wonderful footage of some great demos too, old and new(ish).

Starting with the Commodore Amiga, Module tracker music was the first widely used consumer grade sampled audio. It made huge inroads in computer games and the Demoscene from the late '80s onwards. This episode of Back to the BBS starts off from where the last episode on the Demoscene left off. Interviews in this episode include members of the legendary Demo group, The Future Crew: musicians Purple Motion (Jonne Valtonen) and Skaven (Peter Hajba) join cTrix (Chris Mylrae), TDK (Mark Knight) and Trixter (Jim Leonard). We talk about the equipment, how the music was made, how the demoscene adopted the format as well as fame and fortune with the games industry. This is a bumper episode that you don't want to miss!

In the 80s and 90s, people found a way to make art from text. And they would share this art online on Electronic Bulletin Boards (BBSes).This episode talks about how art is made from text, the various art types, about what this art scene is like today, as well as what it was in the past. This episode also meets some of the people and art groups, and shows you how you can get involved too.