Bulletin Board System
This is a completely random post but does anyone remember the old Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) we had in Kuwait before the internet took off? I am talking about the mid 90′s. I remember there was one I was a member of where the owner had a computer shop in the the mezzanine floor of Behbehani Building in Kuwait CIty. I think I was part of 2 or 3 different BBS’s not really sure since my memory isn’t that great. I originally had a 2400 modem but used to get kicked out of BBS’s until I splurged on a 28.8k Modem. If anyone here knows someone who used to run a BBS or if you participated in one please leave a comment below.
For those of you who don’t know what a BBS is, basically that was our internet before the internet. You can read more on it [Here]
I used it for downloading porn (if u can call that pixelated crap porn). There was also something called Phoenix, which was kind of like telnet. This was back when you could only had a net connection if you worked in Kuwait University or KISR. I also remember dialing in to a BBS in California to update my antivirus. On my 24.4 modem that would take 20 mins, and if u got interrupted in the middle you have to start over.
Ahhh the bad ole’ days….
my first digital porn experience was i think back in 91 or 92. Someone at school (KES back then) had a 5.5 inch floppy disk filled with black and white bitmap porn that looked something like this:
http://www.unex-t.com/bitmap.gif
http://www.unex-t.com/bitmap2.gif
(both safe for work)
I remember it was like the coolest thing ever back then right next to Test Drive III and The Adventures of Captain Comic
Test Drive III was awesome…
lololol
Haha I remember when my dad worked in KU using the internet at his office for the first time (This was I think… 93?)
He taught me what Yahoo was and that I could search for anything I wanted and the first thing I typed was SEGA CHEATS. Then I typed in DOOM CHEATS and a page came up with spinning skulls and flames and I got scared and closed it.
Kids today are so spoiled, looking up youtube on their phone. The only way we got videos was finding 50MB files at crap quality on Kazaa, downloading them overnight and finding out what they were in the morning, and that took years to come out :P
If you told me as a kid that not only could I look up sega cheats on my phone, I could play Sonic 2 on my phone I would call you a liar.
I went and told my friends and they thought it was dumb
I use to be part of CWBBS run by Islam Issa, I remember when he bought a USR 9600 baud modem that was top speed and he use to download stuff from the US and put it up on his Kuwaiti BBS. There was also a Fidonet node in Bahrain that I use to connect to until I got a 500KD phone bill, then I stopped going there.
Where is Islam now? I am curious to know how he started and how the internet ended up effecting him. I don’t know, there is something geekly cool about running a BBS in Kuwait before there were internet providers.
Did CWBBS have a large Kuwaiti flag when you first logged in btw?
I think so, it was using all the ANSI color schemes, other BBS where boring terminal green. HE programmed the BBS himself using clipper and some comma library.
yeah i used to hate that flag, on my 2400 modem it took a while to load the flag one line at a time lol
*comms
Heh, the first online service I ever connected to was Sierra online to a US number in Los Angeles… Problem was that I was in Bahrain with 28k modem…
There was hell to pay when the phone bill turned up, I tell you…
lol
LOL! When you said BBS I thought you were talking about the school for a second! I really like the picture btw!
LOL, BBS systems, that brings back memories… I remember I used to spend a lot of time on one called “The Hairy Troll”. It used to be really cool when you connected and there was actually email waiting :)
Mark, you reminded me of my first computer ,i.e., Sinclair ZX spectrum, i’m not aware how many people have used it or know about it. I was only 8 years old when I started using it. It was basically a type of keyboard which connected to our television and we used to download programs using a cassette player (the keeenn kaana kaaaa keeen sound). I still have it in India !!!
Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
lol that was my first computer as well. We also had sinclairs in schools, we had 1 ZX Spectrum and the rest were either ZX Spectrum +2
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3PR6shccbr8/TbzT6w7Z2jI/AAAAAAAAA0s/DBhSTNIjMew/s1600/sinclair_zx_spectrum.jpg
or the older ZX Specrtum+ which were being phased out in the lab back then
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/ZX_Spectrum%2B.jpg
This was of course in the late 80s and I was in Sunshine School which is now called BSK
Got lucky, first computer was an Apple IIc – my Dad bought it for himself, had no idea what to do with it and so it got stuck in my room and so began a life long affair with computers…went on to a Commodore 64 later and then the entire 386, 486, Pentium DOS Windows explosion in the 90s.
Mine is this one:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/ZX_Spectrum%2B.jpg
It is still working, I will try it out during vacation.
I remember we used to goto a street on sundays where they used to sell used books with pre-written programs for ZX spectrum and I used to spend hours, days typing line by line and wait for the output and was so excited to see or hear it.
We used to type lines of lines of program just to listen to our national anthem and that too in mono, incredible evolution of technology, everything is easy nowadays.
I’m what i’m today due to the ZX spectrum (understanding programming logic by using GWBASIC, BASICA,etc) and all credit goes to my father who brought it in our home in 1988-1989 when i was just 8 years and encouraged /supported to use it.
i keep telling people the 80s is when life used to be great
I miss the 80′s :(
+1
For me in being in Saudi where people were dialing Bahrain to get online – I dialed into my friend’s BBS in Dhahran and played door games.
My first computer was a top of the line IBM XT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_XT
Highlight specs:
1. Green “Turbo” button
2. Two floppy drives
3. 10 MB Disk
We also had an Atari and a “Sakhar” PC back in the day. The one that came with QBasic and the snake game.
Ah man those were the days -life was so much better.
As soon as I learned how to get on BBS and download stuff – I got my first virus called Stoned:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoned_virus
It pissed me off cause it affected my main hard disk so the system wouldn’t boot – that prompted me to figure out how tha hell it worked and as the say – the rest is history.
Sinclair rocked! A ZX spectrum was my first computer, though I think I was too young to really make much use of it (I was 8 and had trouble with writing command line instructions!).
You’re lucky to still have yours, its probably a collector’s item. Wish I had kept mine.
Sigh, good times. Thanks for this trip down memory lane, Mark.
I used it for a very short time. I think we had to type ATXT (number) to dial their server.
Mark you were in KES?
just 2 years, 91 and 92
Hi Mark,
Yep, a friend (and neighbor) and I set up a BBS that was hosted on his computer (a 486) when I lived in Bahrain.
Us and a few other friends played an RPG on it that was an ancient precursor to WOW and other MMORPGs.
Ah yes, those were the days…
our neighbors had a Mac IIc and I used to go over and play a karate game all the time. They also had an Atari I used to hog (I had a Coleco) plus Simon http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_I4JkjQ6rv_M/TCIJ0vBJllI/AAAAAAAAA78/rAwUiB8aybk/s1600/Simon.jpg
wow you can get a sealed Simon from 1978 for like KD100!
http://cgi.ebay.com/MILTON-BRADLEY-1978-SIMON-SEALED-BOX-MINT-/280558201880?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4152926c18
now thats cool
Haha was it text based? I used to play a MUD for a bit (text based MMO) because a friend got me into it.
Yes the entire MMO had absolutely 0 graphics
Back home in the Philippines I was a addicted to BBS before ever the Internet arrives, I even setup my own BBS portal but only at night till the early morning (My mother would kill me if I use the only phone line we have 24/7)\:)
I was a member of one when I was in college in the US. But you are a bit mistaken in your terms…it was the Internet before the World Wide Web (not the internet before the internet! LOL!).
I was just starting out in graphic design in the US (Accuweather) newspaper graphics in 90-97- I remember perusing message boards and email had just begun to take off on a larger scale. How far we have progressed!
i still have a zx spectrum. :p it’s soo much fun to use. :D and i was born in 1994 so it’s fun to experiment with technology dad used to use.
mark u went to kes ?
I had state of the art UsRobotics 14.4 Fax/Modem connected to my beloved Amiga 1200 back then. I remember the admin of the BBS was Yasser Behbahani, I can’t remember the name of the BBS though.
The British manager for Commodore’s distributor in Kuwait back then had a personal BBS with images demos and cracked games for the Amiga/Atari ST.
I remember Tejari bank having a BBS system to check on your account.
Oh those good old days, and Procomm :P