The BBS community is quickly fading into history.
I am attempting to preserve a piece of history, one BBS's story at a time.
It is not advertising anything, nor is it an article about a mere web page.
There are several other specific BBS articles on Wiki that have been present for years (Rusty & Eddies for example), how is this any different (minus the porno bust of course).
This is a work in progress, and content will be added/edited as local BBS users share their memories.
Notable for many reasons, the least of which being that it was one of the only very rare Demoscene distribution BBS's in Canada in the early 1990's.


Dark Systems BBS (DS BBS) was a computer Bulletin Board System created by SysOp Dark Warrior and later co-SysOp'ed by Dark Master.

Geographical Location

DS BBS was based out of Peterborough, Ontario Canada.

History

DS BBS was started in 1992 on an 80286 12MHz AT running Remote Access v1.10, and went off-line in 1996 running Remote Access v2.50.

At the time, SysOp Dark Warrior was in Grade 9 at Adam Scott Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

DS BBS initially had a 2400bps Hayes 8bit ISA modem.
In the summer of 1993, DS BBS was upgraded to a Boca 14.4Kbps 16bit ISA modem, making it one of the first to break the 9600bps barrier in the Peterborough area.

By the end of DS BBS's 5 year run, it had grown to be the largest single node BBS in the Peterborough area.

In late 1993 DS BBS had a change of address due to Dark Warrior's parents divorcing.
DS BBS was off-line for approx. 6 months while his family was moving into a new house.
The new house was literally across the street from the old one, however, a new phone number for the BBS was required.

DS BBS Features

DS BBS was known locally for it's huge collection of files and online doors (aka, games).
Software archives offered were not only for Intel architecture, but also featured file area for Amiga, Commodore 64 and Macintosh computers.

Some of the top user rated on-line doors (games) were:
- Solar Realms Elite (SRE)
- Barron Realms Elite (BRE)
- The Pit
- Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD)

Registration fees for Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) was donated by a husband & wife team who were active on all the area's BBS's at the time.

Another first DS BBS brought to the Peterborough BBS scene was the use of a Mitsumi caddyless single speed CD-ROM drive (as advertised in Sierra's InterAction magazine, where the entire drive slid out of it's housing when a CD was loaded).

The entire BBS (excluding the file base) was backed up to an Archive Corp. brand external tape backup unit on 40MB tape cartridges.

Demoscene Connection

DS BBS was a distribution site for the Demoscene.

Dark Warrior would connect to various BBS's across the UK and download the latest demos, music disks, tracker music, disk mags, etc... and make them freely available for Canadian enjoyment (as Canada was relatively isolated from the UK Demoscene at this time).

As a distribution site, people would call in long distance to access Demoscene content.
Demoscene content was very unique and exceedingly rare on Canadian BBS's in the early 1990's.
many other Canadian BBS's would contact DS BBS to "leech" Demoscene related files for their own archives (whiich was completely acceptable).

Dark Warrior created and released several small demos and .MOD music songs to the scene community, most of which are now lost to time.
However, he is still active on the free Demoscene radio station SceneMusic.eu under the handle "HappyDude".

Advertising

DS BBS helped offload it's monthly operating costs by selling advertising space to local businesses.

An ad consisted of a single ANSI page with the businesses logo, address, contact information and a brief message.

Some advertisers of note were:

- Summit Software

- Jim's Pizza

- Saturn Saab Isuzu of Peterborough

Technical Specifications

1992 - BBS went on-line running on a 12MHz 80286, 2400bps modem and Remote Access v1.10

1996 - BBS went off-line running on a 20MHz 80386, Boca 14.4Kbps modem and Remote Access v2.50

The fossil driver used was the X00 Fossil driver

Mail exchange with other BBS's was achieved using Front door