During my time using BBSes in the 1980's, I would often make use of the Epson MX-80 line printer connected to my father's IBM PC XT, and print out messages and files for later reading. Usually, this was to be able to read the files in a place different than the computer room, like the backyard deck or in a car. How well this usually worked out escapes me, but it meant that I slowly built a very large collection of printouts, ranging from 1983 through to 1985.
In the early 1990s, to divest myself of my childhood, I gave the box of these printouts to a friend, and never expected to see them again. In 2001, that friend noted the amount of work I'd been doing with BBS textfiles and asked me if I wanted the box back, which I gladly accepted.
Many of these printouts are of files already existent on TEXTFILES.COM, and are already saved. But many others are not; they are printouts of the message bases of BBSes I was calling at the time, right from the screen as they scrolled by into the printer. They are therefore entirely unabridged handfuls of historical data from these BBSes, some of which were busted, others completely gone in memories and time. In some cases, these printouts, 20 years after the fact, may be the remaining evidence the board ever existed.
This collection consists of those printouts, captured using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software and then hand-edited to the best of my ability to accurately represent the printout they came from. As these writings of events decades past come to light, they give context, information, and insight.
| Filename |
Size |
Description of the Textfile |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
198404shmovie.txt | 18993 | MESSAGES: Movie Alcove (Movie Reviews) on Safehouse BBS (Minneapolis) (1984)
| 198406shcable.txt | 10194 | MESSAGES: The Cable TV Room Sub-Board, The Safehouse BBS (Minneapolis) (June-October, 1984)
| 19840825cracking.txt | 5519 | MESSAGES: Cracking Tips and Procedures Conference, from Unknown BBS (August, 1984)
| 198409utbbs.txt | 5816 | MESSAGES: BBS Number Sub-Board from the Utopia BBS (Chicago) (September, 1984)
| 198410phreak.txt | 24006 | MESSAGES: General Phreak Sub-Board from Sherwood Forest III (September-October, 1984)
| 1984hhileswel.txt | 2426 | Welcome Screen for the Hollow Hills BBS (December, 1984)
| 198502phreak.txt | 7713 | MESSAGES: Phreak Sub-Board from the Utopia BBS (January-February, 1985)
| 198503general.txt | 25622 | MESSAGES: General Message Base from the 1985 BBS in Minneapolis (March, 1985)
| 198503luding.txt | 23878 | MESSAGES: Luding Messages from the 1985 BBS In Minneapolis (March, 1985)
| 198504citadel.txt | 8210 | MESSAGES: Message base from unknown newly-built Citadel BBS (NY) (April, 1985)
| 198504shphreak.txt | 15336 | MESSAGES: Phreaking Sub-Board from the Safehouse BBS (Minneapolis) (April, 1985)
| 198505privsectp.txt | 45335 | MESSAGES: The Private Sector BBS, Main Board (Board was Seized Two Months Later) (May, 1985)
| 1985bbsboard.txt | 7042 | MESSAGES: BBS Advertisement Sub-Board on 1985 BBS (Minneapolis) (April, 1985)
| savedragonfire.txt | 715 | A Plea from the Sysop of Dragonfire BBS to Give Funds
| shsdchat.txt | 5563 | Chats Between The Slipped Disk (Jason Scott) and the Sysops of The Pirate's Chest and Satan's Hollow ][ (May 27, 1985)
| spstrategies.txt | 14793 | MESSAGES: Strategies Sub-Board from the South Pole BBS (Illinois) (1984)
| suspendfunnies.txt | 853 | Try Some of the Following After You Have Solved Infocom's Suspended
| |
| There are 17 files for a total of 222,014 bytes. |