Irish BBS'es of the late 1980's

DublinWriter

300 baud modems....terminal emulation software....jumpers for goalposts....etc.

Long before the Internet there existed a thriving BBS (Bulletin Board System) in Ireland. I remember one was called DUBBS (I think), run by a guy called Stephen Kearon (I think), another was a system run by Dr. Garrett Hayes out of the GP college in Dublin.

I remember I used several of these BBS'es back in the late 80's in the days when you could make an unlimited local call for 10p. There was a system called FIDOnet that allowed mail between BBS'es to be exchanged globally.

Does anyone here remember some of the early Irish Bulletin Board Systems?

dazberry

DublinWriter wrote: »

Does anyone here remember some of the early Irish Bulletin Board Systems?

I was well into the scene around 89/90, had a 2400 baud modem. Originally I had a loan of one, and in 90 managed to get my own - cost me around IR£150 if I remember correctly. Remember Wildcat! BBS

DUBBS somehow had something to do with SystemHouse technologies, tbh it was a bit sh1t because you had to pay for membership.

ICGP BBS was alright AFAIR - tended to be a bit quiet, but when everywhere else was engaged - it was worth a shot

One I remember, one was called Informatique - think it was run off an Amiga and 2 disk drives originally, I vaguely remember the story of a party and beer being spilt over it and it being down for a few days.

The last one had something like 4 lines and ran RemoteAccess BBS - can't remember what it was called - but because it had multiple lines you could chat to people online in realtime... Think you had a limit of 1 hour per day.

Remember how some boards were say 6pm to 8am boards, so if you got the wrong info, or they'd forgot to put it online, you'd have someone talking "hello, hello?" at you when you rang!!!

RemoteAccess BBS was really a great bit of kit, thru' a lot of blagging and the like, I'd managed to get enough bits to get a spare machine together - but in the end could never manage the phone line. But I got it all up and running with X/Y/Z Modem, Kermit etc, and all the ASCII Art.... Called it The Hermits Cave.

I was actually so into it that when I started college in 1990 I started my 4th year project in 1st year (never actually made it to 4th year) writing a DESQView aware BBS using Turbo Pascal and the Turbo Power Async Pro Library. Got most of it done too, by the end I knew DESQview inside out - it was a truely fantastic product in its time.

D.

carnsteve

I still run my BBS here in Co. Donegal, you can access is via the web or Telnet as there is no longer a requirement for a Dial-Up http://bungeecreek.no-ip.org or telnet [url]telnet://bungeecreek.no-ip.org[/url]
Check it out and join in the craic!

Steve TcK Sysop of Bungee Creek BBS - Co. Donegal.

dubb

I know it's an old thread, but still an interesting read for those of us who dialed up at 1200/75 or 300/300 in the late 80's. For reference I thought I might copy this list in too.

=========================================================================

- List of Irish Public Bulletin Boards -

Last Updated 10/04/91 by Sysop of Toppsi

Name/Location SysOp Speeds Times Phone No.

TOPPSI Dublin v21/22/22bis/HST(MNP5) 24 01-711 047 TOPPSI is FidoNet node 2:263/151

STYX Limerick John McKeon V21/22/22bis (MNP2) 24 hrs. 061-332229 STYX is FidoNet node 2:263/271

Infomatique Dublin Liam Murphy V21/22/23/22bis/32(MNP5)24 hrs. 01-302970 Run on an AMIGA using BBS-PC!

DUBBS Dublin Stephen Kearon V21/22/22bis 24 hrs. 01-288-5634 (line 2) V22/22bis/HST(MNP5) see below 01-283-1908 DUBBS is FidoNet node 2:263/167 - HST line not available 2:30am - 3:30am

ICGP Dublin Garret Hayes V21/22/22bis 6pm-8am 01-785866 Run by Irish College of General Practitioners - Medical Slant

Electric Ice Cube Dublin Marc Whisker V21/22/22bis/HST(MNP5/V42bis)24 01-2834660 Amiga based / Paragon support BBS for Ireland / FidoNet node 2:263/163 ******* Please note - The Electric Ice Cube is DOWN for a while ******

Nemesis Dungeon Andy Mowatt V21/22/22bis/HST(MNP5) 11pm - 8am 01-324755 Amiga based uses Paragon / FidoNet node 2:263/150

decbbs Declan McArdle V21/22/22bis/HST(V42) 24 01-288-2454 Focusing on Amiga software/news FidoNet node 2:263/198

RA Dublin Greg Coyle V21/22/22bis/32 24 01-325480/501 FidoNet node 2:263/172

ICON Dublin Dean Murphy V21/22/22bis/HST(V42) 01-971660 Arc based - specialises in Arc Software... FidoNode node 2:263/162

TransAmiga Martin Browne V21/22/22bis/MNP5 (8pm - 9am) 01-205135 Amiga based *NEW*

Diane's BBS Diane Duane Mail-Only BBS Fidonet 2:263/164 Yukon Ho! Mark Kerr V21/22/22bis/HST 24 084-768163 Based in Belfast this is FidoNet node 2:263/301

ROS Connemara Sean Rima ***** This BBS is now DOWN! *****

=========================================================================

dubb

And one last link - a mention of the DUBBS board in the pages of Popular Computing Weekly, November 1986. DUBBS was the top BBS in Ireland at the time, and sported a modem with a top speed of 2400 baud and costing £500 (yes, that's 0.0024 Mbps!)

Popular Computing Weekly Issue 1986-11-06 page 35

carnsteve

Hi ALL,

The details for Bungee Creek has now changed

It can now be found at www. MickyBay (dot) com
There is also telnet access at the same address

Steve

Marlow

Resurrecting this old thread ...

I used to run a BBS in southern Denmark in the 90s. With Fidonet and it was accessible via analog, ISDN and packet radio on CB.

Well .. with a little hand on my time, I'm in the process of resurrecting it in the midlands.

But more interestingly ... which BBS are actually still alive in Ireland ?

/M