On 1/25/2013 10:12 AM, Captain Kirk wrote:

Interesting discussion about door programming!

FWIW - I am putting together a series of interviews with BBS door game authors.
The first is being conducted with Amit Patel, the creator of SRE. Of course he
wrote SRE in Turbo Pascal.

Anyone know how to get in touch with the authors of the game "Assassin"? Kevin
MacFarland and Wayne Myers... I have tried looking for them and so far have come up empty, but I wonder if anyone out there has a connection with either of
them.

Check with Doug at BBSFiles. http://www.bbsfiles.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94&highlight=assassin&sid=973bf4ab11c050aa4565e44c646f2c72

-Mindless Automaton
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On 01-25-13, Captain Kirk said the following...

Interesting discussion about door programming!

FWIW - I am putting together a series of interviews with BBS door game authors. The first is being conducted with Amit Patel, the creator of
SRE. Of course he wrote SRE in Turbo Pascal.

Anyone know how to get in touch with the authors of the game "Assassin"? Kevin MacFarland and Wayne Myers... I have tried looking for them and so far have come up empty, but I wonder if anyone out there has a connection with either of them.

--Josh

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

--- Mystic BBS v1.10 A22 (Linux)
* Origin: Cyberia BBS | Cyberia.Darktech.Org | Kingwood, TX (2000:281/324)

Re: Re: Door programming
By: Gryphon to Captain Kirk on Fri Jan 25 2013 02:47 pm

Anyone know how to get in touch with the authors of the game
"Assassin"? Kevin MacFarland and Wayne Myers... I have tried looking
for them and so far have come up empty, but I wonder if anyone out
there has a connection with either of them.

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

who knows. the bbs doc had like a minute of face time for devs, the rest were his buddies. i dont know if the bbs software developers were THAT bad of an interview. i wouldnt have driven across the country to just use a minute of footage.
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Re: Re: Door programming
By: Mindless Automaton to Captain Kirk on Fri Jan 25 2013 01:17 pm

Check with Doug at BBSFiles. http://www.bbsfiles.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94&highlight=assassin&sid=973

That's a great resource! Thanks for the link, I'll get in touch with him.

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Re: Re: Door programming
By: Gryphon to Captain Kirk on Fri Jan 25 2013 02:47 pm

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

No, not that recall. Games were mentioned, but mostly in passing in the documentary. The focus was on personal stories about sysops, users, and pioneers. That's why I think interviews with game authors would be a valuable contribution to preserving BBS history.

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Re: Re: Door programming
By: Mro to Gryphon on Sat Jan 26 2013 01:04 pm

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

who knows. the bbs doc had like a minute of face time for devs, the rest wer his buddies. i dont know if the bbs software developers were THAT bad of an interview. i wouldnt have driven across the country to just use a minute of footage.

Seriously? He interviewed BBS software developers. Wayne Bell was there, Rob Swindell, Ward Christenson, Frank La Rosa, etc.

The BBS doc covered a lot of ground *and* managed to tell a number of stories very well (Compression, etc).

Despite its epic length, it couldn't possibly tell *every* story, or it get into every BBS software or whatever. That wouldn't be entertaining to watch anyway.

But yeah, 200 interviews? Five and a half hours? It wasn't just his buddies.

(and regarding one minute of footage: most of the interviews have been posted to the Internet Archive, uncut. Anyone can grab 'em)

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Re: Re: Door programming
By: Captain Kirk to Mro on Thu Jan 31 2013 04:54 pm

Re: Re: Door programming
By: Mro to Gryphon on Sat Jan 26 2013 01:04 pm

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

who knows. the bbs doc had like a minute of face time for devs, the rest wer his buddies. i dont know if the bbs software developers were THAT
bad of an interview. i wouldnt have driven across the country to just
use a minute of footage.

Seriously? He interviewed BBS software developers. Wayne Bell was there,
Rob Swindell, Ward Christenson, Frank La Rosa, etc.

The BBS doc covered a lot of ground *and* managed to tell a number of stories very well (Compression, etc).

Despite its epic length, it couldn't possibly tell *every* story, or it get into every BBS software or whatever. That wouldn't be entertaining to watch anyway.

But yeah, 200 interviews? Five and a half hours? It wasn't just his
buddies.

(and regarding one minute of footage: most of the interviews have been posted to the Internet Archive, uncut. Anyone can grab 'em)

I wish they would have shown some visuals instead of 5 hours of talking. I mean
it was a great documentary and such by Jason but it would have made things a little more interestingly enough.


$ The Millionaire $
Park Avenue Place
Surrey, B.C., Canada █ ♠ █


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On 01-31-13, Captain Kirk said the following...

Re: Re: Door programming
By: Mro to Gryphon on Sat Jan 26 2013 01:04 pm

Did the bbs documentary already interview them?

who knows. the bbs doc had like a minute of face time for devs, the rest his buddies. i dont know if the bbs software developers were THAT bad of interview. i wouldnt have driven across the country to just use a minute footage.

Seriously? He interviewed BBS software developers. Wayne Bell was there, Rob Swindell, Ward Christenson, Frank La Rosa, etc.

The BBS doc covered a lot of ground *and* managed to tell a number of stories very well (Compression, etc).

Despite its epic length, it couldn't possibly tell *every* story, or it
get into every BBS software or whatever. That wouldn't be entertaining to watch anyway.

But yeah, 200 interviews? Five and a half hours? It wasn't just his buddies.

(and regarding one minute of footage: most of the interviews have been posted to the Internet Archive, uncut. Anyone can grab 'em)

What is the Internet Archive? You don't mean Youtube,do you?

--- Mystic BBS v1.10 A22 (Linux)
* Origin: Cyberia BBS | Cyberia.Darktech.Org | Kingwood, TX (2000:281/324)

Re: Re: Door programming
By: The Millionaire to Captain Kirk on Thu Jan 31 2013 07:27 pm

I wish they would have shown some visuals instead of 5 hours of talking. I mean it was a great documentary and such by Jason but it would have made things a little more interestingly enough.

If the raw footage is on the internet archives, make your own! That would be an interesting project if the licensing allowed it.

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Re: Re: Door programming
By: The Millionaire to Captain Kirk on Thu Jan 31 2013 19:27:18

I wish they would have shown some visuals instead of 5 hours of talking. I mean it was a great documentary and such by Jason but it would have made things a little more interestingly enough.

I don't think that was the point of his documentary. I remember it saying that he was trying to focus more on the people and user experiences with BBSing and not so much on the technology behind it, although that's certainly part of the experience.

Nightfox

Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Nightfox to The Millionaire on Sun Feb 03 2013 12:21 am

Re: Re: Door programming
By: The Millionaire to Captain Kirk on Thu Jan 31 2013 19:27:18

I wish they would have shown some visuals instead of 5 hours of talking. I mean it was a great documentary and such by Jason but it would have made things a little more interestingly enough.

I don't think that was the point of his documentary. I remember it saying that he was trying to focus more on the people and user experiences with BBSing and not so much on the technology behind it, although that's certainly part of the experience.

Nightfox

Well he could have thrown the odd thing here and there to make it look a little
more captivating. I mean 5 hours of talking is a lot of listening. Could you listen to someone talking to you for 5 hours with showing you anything? Trust me, you would be dying of boredom after all.


$ The Millionaire $
Park Avenue Place
Surrey, B.C., Canada █ ♠ █


---
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Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: The Millionaire to Nightfox on Sun Feb 03 2013 13:31:51

Well he could have thrown the odd thing here and there to make it look a little more captivating. I mean 5 hours of talking is a lot of listening. Could you listen to someone talking to you for 5 hours with showing you anything? Trust me, you would be dying of boredom after all.

Even without covering much of the technology, I watched the whole BBS documentary without getting bored. I thought the whole thing was interesting. I also think it would have been good to cover some more of the technology though.. But there's a fine line there where talking too much about technology could get boring.

Nightfox

Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Nightfox to The Millionaire on Sun Feb 03 2013 06:08 pm

Even without covering much of the technology, I watched the whole BBS documentary without getting bored. I thought the whole thing was interesting. I also think it would have been good to cover some more of
the technology though.. But there's a fine line there where talking too much about technology could get boring.

I think it would get boring even for us, just from the sheer volume of it. There's really quite a bit of technology in the BBS world. At least with the Internet, much of that is built one thing on top of the other. Most BBS technology is a hodge-podge of varying, often quite different technologies.

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Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Dreamer to Nightfox on Sun Feb 03 2013 20:44:04

I think it would get boring even for us, just from the sheer volume of it. There's really quite a bit of technology in the BBS world. At least with the Internet, much of that is built one thing on top of the other. Most BBS technology is a hodge-podge of varying, often quite different technologies.

I agree. Some of the technology can be so complicated that I feel quite a sense of accomplishment when I finally get things set up and working properly. It might be interesting to discuss the various BBS packages that were available, and familes of BBS packages that shared some traits with each other, some of the software that got FidoNet set up for various BBSs, perhaps some message editors and file transfer protocols, but not so much to make it boring.

Nightfox

(and regarding one minute of footage: most of the interviews have been posted to the Internet Archive, uncut. Anyone can grab 'em)

What is the Internet Archive? You don't mean Youtube,do you?

Try http://archive.org/details/bbs_documentary. You'll find all the
interviews there.

The Internet Archive is like a giant repository of digital stuff. It's the home ofthe Wayback Machine (archives of websites) and more. Jason Scott (the BBS Documentary and "Get Lamp" director) works there now and is in the
process of uploading tons of old magazines and documents.


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If the raw footage is on the internet archives, make your own! That would be interesting project if the licensing allowed it.

The licensing *does* allow it. Jason released the documentary with a very liberal creative commons, allowing anyone to legally distribute the film over filesharing networks, etc. And that is one of the reasons he put the interviews up on the Internet Archive, to enable people to make their own doc , focusing onwhatever aspects of BBSing they felt he didn't address adequately. It's a win win for everyone.


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Nightfox wrote to The Millionaire <=-

Even without covering much of the technology, I watched the whole BBS documentary without getting bored. I thought the whole thing was interesting. I also think it would have been good to cover some more of the technology though.. But there's a fine line there where talking
too much about technology could get boring.

We are the core target audience, though. We lived those years. I enjoyed the music as well as the nostalgia trip.

My wife spent her 80s and 90s never thinking she'd have a computer at home, She made it through 1 chapter before gicing up, and and finally realized
what I meant when I claimd I wasn't as nerdy as most of my friends. :)



... The inconsistency principle
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Nightfox wrote to Dreamer <=-

I agree. Some of the technology can be so complicated that I feel
quite a sense of accomplishment when I finally get things set up and working properly.

I've been running BBSes since 1991, and I still haven't finished setting
mine up!

I do remember one day in 1995 when I set up Binkleyterm, Maximus and all of the corresponding bits under OS/2, got polling working, files hatched into file areas, message area maintenance working, monthly auto-posts, and the batch file didn't crap out in the middle of the night. I felt like it all worked the way it was intended, then a week or two later took it all down
and put it back under Windows95. :)


... Do we need holes?
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Re: Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Poindexter Fortran to Nightfox on Mon Feb 04 2013 10:28:00

Even without covering much of the technology, I watched the whole
BBS documentary without getting bored. I thought the whole thing
was interesting. I also think it would have been good to cover some
more of the technology though.. But there's a fine line there where
talking too much about technology could get boring.

We are the core target audience, though. We lived those years. I enjoyed the music as well as the nostalgia trip.

I felt the same way when I watched it. I think we certainly are a target audience for it, but I think it was also meant (in some way) for people who hadn't used BBSs before, from the way it tried to convey the experience of using BBSs. Of course we all know what using a BBS was like. :)

Nightfox

Re: Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Poindexter Fortran to Nightfox on Mon Feb 04 2013 10:30:00

I agree. Some of the technology can be so complicated that I feel
quite a sense of accomplishment when I finally get things set up and
working properly.

I've been running BBSes since 1991, and I still haven't finished setting mine up!

Well I meant as as far as something like setting up FidoNet on a BBS, etc.. But I know what you mean - I often come back to something on my BBS and wonder if there's a better way to do it, or perhaps get bored with my current menu screens and decide to change them, etc.. :)

Nightfox

Re: BBS: The Documentary
By: Nightfox to The Millionaire on Sun Feb 03 2013 12:21 am

Re: Re: Door programming
By: The Millionaire to Captain Kirk on Thu Jan 31 2013 19:27:18

I wish they would have shown some visuals instead of 5 hours of talking mean it was a great documentary and such by Jason but it would have mad things a little more interestingly enough.

I don't think that was the point of his documentary. I remember it saying t he was trying to focus more on the people and user experiences with BBSing a not so much on the technology behind it, although that's certainly part of t experience.

Nightfox

In the 314 St. Louis BBS group at Facebook we said the same thing. Focus on technology more than people. Jason came in to defend himself claiming they did cover a lot of technology. But yes it was mostly people talking about BBSes and experiences with them.

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Re: Door programming
By: Captain Kirk to All on Fri Jan 25 2013 10:12:00

Interesting discussion about door programming!

FWIW - I am putting together a series of interviews with BBS door game authors. The first
is being conducted with Amit Patel, the creator of SRE. Of course he wrote SRE in Turbo
Pascal.

Anyone know how to get in touch with the authors of the game "Assassin"? Kevin MacFarland
and Wayne Myers... I have tried looking for them and so far have come up empty, but I
wonder if anyone out there has a connection with either of them.

--Josh

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