+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ##### ## ## ##### ##### ## ## | | ## ## ## ## ## ## ## | | ##### ### ##### #### ### | | ## # ## ## ## ## | | ##### # ##### ##### ## ## | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | SYSop's EXchange magazine - The Magazine for the exchange of BBS Info. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | JANUARY 1995 FREE!!! | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ********************************* +===================================+ | | * Editor: Charles McColm * I * Complete Door Software Reviews! I | | * * I * The Truth about Multinode! I | | * Please send any comments via * I * Top 10 Doors! I | | * INTERNET email to my address * I * BBS Software - PCBoard I | | * * +===================================+ | | * charles.mccolm@canrem.com * | | * or FAX (705)726-1740 during * | | * the hours of 8pm to 6am * | | ********************************* | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------ TOP 10 DOORS ------------ Rather than create a list of 10 doors that I find popular on local BBS's I thought I could use some space in this issue to list a number of BBS doors and get your opinion on each door. Please use the following rating system: 1 = Door is never used on my BBS. 2 = Door is hardly ever used by my users. 3 = Door gets some activity every day. 4 = Door is heavily populated each day. 5 = Most active door on my system. X = Door not on system. N = Never heard of door. Feel free to add your own doors to the bottom of the list! +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 1001 MUDD [ ] Advanced XORU [ ] Adventurer's Maze [ ] Avatars Of Screaming Steel [ ] Baron Realms Elite [ ] BBS Crash [ ] Bordello [ ] Card Sharks [ ] Caribbean Contraban [ ] Chain Reaction [ ] Chess Magic [ ] Complete Tarot, The [ ] Fantasy Land [ ] Food Fight [ ] Global Wars [ ] InterStellar Annihalation [ ] Keno [ ] Kannon's 'N Katapults [ ] Legend Of The Red Dragon [ ] Match Maker [ ] Phantasia [ ] Rescue [ ] RIP Solitaire [ ] Sex Quiz [ ] Sex Trivia [ ] Stack 'Em [ ] Studette [ ] Studs [ ] Super Rig [ ] Tradewars 2002 [ ] Usurpers [ ] Warlords Of The Balance [ ] Wheel Of Fortune [ ] This small list of doors doesn't even come close to the amount of doors that are actually available today, but it's a start. You're welcome to add your own doors; but for my sake, please add your list to the end of mine so I can properly sift through the doors. To send your list of doors please either send me INTERNET email at charles.mccolm@canrem.com or fax me at (705)726-1740. If you get a human voice on the fax line please try again, the person will turn on the fax. Generally it's best to fax during the evening hours after 8 p.m. I will try to acknowledge each INTERNET email message. ------------ DOOR REVIEWS ------------ +--------------------------+ Each month I will be reviewing at least | -= DOOR RATING SYSTEM =- | three doors. My goal is to provide you with a |--------------------------| good look at each door before you spend all | * = Very Poor | your time downloading the door. There's been | ** = Poor | many times that I've spent hours trying to get | *** = Good | a specific door only to find out that it isn't | **** = Above Average | really what I wanted or didn't work with my | ***** = Excellent | system. I've created a rating system much like +--------------------------+ what Home Office Computing uses. I think it's important to know registration information beforehand. Some door prices are absolutely ridiculous! Please note that for the sake of my poor phone bill I did not call any of these authors. If I encounter a later version of a reviewed door it will be posted in the DOORLIST area. I can't guarantee everything is accurate or that registration prices are still the same. You have to check the doors out for yourself. +-------------------------+ | The Complete Tarot Door | +-------------------------+ Version Reviewed: v1.1 Author: James R. Davis Registration: $30 U.S. Date Of Program: 1993 The Complete Tarot door is a single node fortune telling door. It is by far the best fortune telling door that I've tried to date. Although the graphics leave a lot to be desired, only tiny ANSI representations, the door is complete with all kinds of different Tarot spreads. If you're not familair with the TAROT, it's a set of 78 fortune telling cards. The cards consist of 22 Major Arcana and 56 cards from 4 different suits - much like the playing cards of today. According to Mr. Davis people have been using the TAROT to tell fortunes as far back as 1390 A.D. My knowledge of the TAROT is a far cry from any serious fortune teller but I know that many of the spreads available in CTAROT are spreads that are shown in TAROT manuals. The door is very easy to setup and comes complete with a configuration maker. As with any door software, reading the documentation is a good idea. Although the documentation could be more detailed it adequately covers how to get to the configuration program. Registered owners of CTAROT also get a bulletin generator which creates both ANSI and ASCII bulletins. The registration is a bit high but the door is quite unique and well done. I like CTAROT because I don't take it seriously. The answers are usually quite simple. It's fun for kicks once in awhile, but it's not my everyday ritual. QUALITY : **** [This door has many options] PLAYABILITY : *** [I load it up for kicks once in awhile] REGISTRATION : ** [Higher than normal for a single node door] DOCUMENTATION: *** OVERALL : *** [Worth putting up if your BBS is astrology related or contains a number of unusual doors. CTAROT is fun - but not somthing that will attract every user.] Support BBS: DavisWARE Support BBS (516)737-4637 +--------------------+ | Solar Realms Elite | +--------------------+ Version Reviewed : 0.992b Author: Amit Patel Registration: ??? Date: 1992 Solar Realm's Elite is the second door in what seems to be a series of doors programmed by Amit Patel; the first being Baron Realms Elite. Much like Baron Realms Elite, SRE is a game in which players try to build an empire and at the same time build up enough forces to defend against other players. SRE is limited in that only 25 players can build an empire in a galaxy. SRE is also not multinode compatible yet. On the brighter side, SRE does support many BBS dropfiles and runs without many problems once it's configured. SRE is highly configurable, letting you edit all sorts of ANSI/TEXTFILES to suit your BBS. There are no graphics but die hard Tradewars fans would tell you that graphics don't make an online game good. SRE fits this mould. It's very different from Tradewars 2002 but in many ways it's alike. Players can attack each other after a protective grace period. Or they can use secret agents to stir up trouble in other empires. My favourite tactic is building up enough muscle to attack the various computer controlled pirate teams then building up enough cash to advance my empire to the stage where I can start attacking players that have played for a longer period of time. Players can trade amongst each other and can sign various peace treaties; of course nothing is ever written in stone. [this is the space age lads] SRE works on a layered menuing system that presents options and sub-options. Like BRE the game is very complete. The only real problem I have had with SRE is the fact that none of the archive's I've downloaded, all from reputable places have had registration information included!!! QUALITY : ***** [The game has lots of options] PLAYABILITY : **** [If there's lots of players games are fun] REGISTRATION : ????? DOCUMENTATION: **** [Good Documentation] OVERALL : **** [Easy setup, detailed play. SRE is the most fun when played with many players.] Support BBS: The Solar Realm (713)855-1665 +-----------+ | Phantasia | +-----------+ Version Reviewed: v8.1 Author: Edward Boston Registration: $20 U.S. Date: 1992 Phantasia is a multi-node fantasy role playing game. Players roll up various types of characters to do battle with all sorts of powerful monsters and other plares. It lacks graphics but is menu driven and easy to pick up. One of fun features of Phantasia is the ability to play other characters. When a player first generates a character, he/she gives the character a password. This allows players to create multiple characters and play each character seperately. This option can also be set by the sysop so that players may only play 1 character at a time. Characters that are level 0 are not saved so players that try the game and leave immediately will have to create a character and at least do a bit of exploring. The documentation is INTENSE to say the least. Two sets of docs, one for the players (PLAYERS.DOC) and one for the sysop (WIZARD.DOC) contain detailed instructions on how to play and setup Phantasia. The Sysop can also designate one player to be the "WIZARD." The Wizard takes care of the various needs of the users and has control over many of the options in the game. The author gives a warning that the WIZARD should be someone the sysop trusts will be fair to all users. (We've all had our share of SYSGOD's and problem users) Installation is simple. A setup program is provided in the archive. Phantasia is highly configurable. Multi-node setup is a bit more difficult - though aren't most multi-node programs a little trickey to setup. Phantasia supports non-standard IRQ's, so if you have multiple nodes running on odd IRQ's you can add them in the command line. There is also Fossil and DigiBoard support. (DigiBoard is basically a board that lets you use 4 or more modems and only take up one slot in your computer - assuming external modems) Because of frequent disk accesses, something most multi-player games do, Mr. Boston recommends in the WIZARD.DOC that a RAMDisk be created to take some of the load off your hard drive. The game play is mainly about combating monsters. Players can pick up all kinds of treasures along the way, from swords to crowns. Amulets are one of the most common and important items players can get. It seems that there are more than a few cursed items in the game. Players that only kill monsters gain a lot of SIN. If they run into a priest and have too much SIN the priest may not help them. Like real role playing games there are sometimes rewards for killing monsters. Rewards such as gold, gems, holy water, charms, crowns, amulets and even virgins. No, this is not a sick adult game. Virgins are used to tame unicorns. Also, if your character dies when you have a virgin at hand you're given the option to spare your life by spareing or taking her life instead of yours. (In the unregistered version this can only happen once per character) As a character moves forward or backward, creatures become increasingly stronger. Some monsters possess the power to play with the players stats; which can be a blessing or a curse depending on how the monster toys with you. Beware of Trolls; they're nasty! Like most RPG's they can regenerate. Beware of Baconnians, their FART is very deadly! These are only the moderately dangerous creatures. I have yet to play Phantasia on a multi-node system. It seems that the author, Ed Boston, never really continued promoting Phantasia. I haven't seen it on many bulletin boards, in a file area or as a door. It's a wonderful RPG and really worth checking out! QUALITY : ***** [Very detailed RPG] PLAYABILITY : ***** [Simple to play and is multi-user] REGISTRATION : **** [Very good price for a multi-user game] DOCUMENTATION: ***** [More than adequate player and sysop docs] OVERALL : ***** [Phantasia is a little difficult to learn at first. The movement in particular can be confusing. However, there are so many hidden gems in this game which make it a very fun game to play.] Support BBS: Edward Boston's BBS (208)939-1350 +------------------+ | Domain Bulletins | +------------------+ Version Reviewed: v1.10 Author: Domain Entertainment Registration: $10 U.S. (FREE) Date: 1993 First, this door software is for Synchronet BBS Software only. Synchronet uses a proprietary door dropfile (although it supports at least 10 other door dropfiles) which Domain Bulletins uses. DB is multi-node compatible and is capable of handling up to 20 bulletins. If the sysop has previously purchased software from Domain Entertainment registration for this version is free. Otherwise all shareware principles apply and the registration is a very reasonable $10 U.S. In most cases you'll want to set this door up as a logon event so that once a user has logged on the bulletins appear. Sysops have the option of setting DB up so that it asks a user if he/she wants to see the bulletin menu. The bulletins program keeps track of which bulletins the user has read, which have been updated since then. Domain Bulletins is an excellent utility for Synchronet Sysops that have all kinds of bulletins to post. Although the Synchronet BBS software does provide an area (G) Textfiles for bulletins, Domain Bulletins is great because it lets the Sysop setup the bulletins so they appear everytime the user logs on. There is also a switch that may be used so that users MUST read all bulletins. This is especially good if your system has a NUP (New User Password) or set of rules that need to be read. Overall Domain Bulletins is a quality program and for the price, you couldn't go wrong. QUALITY : ***** [Complete program, ANSI/RIP/ASCII] PLAYABILITY : N/A REGISTRATION : ***** [Very Low Registration] DOCUMENTATION: ***** [Synchronet sysops are blessed with easy door setup] OVERALL : ***** [A worthwhile addition, well worth registering if you're a Synchronet Sysop!] Support BBS: Domain Entertainment (714)529-9525 ********************************************* THE TRUTH ABOUT MULTI-NODE/MULTI-LINE SYSTEMS ********************************************* There is a lot of confusion about multi-node/multi-line systems. For years companies have argued about what works and what doesn't. Most use the terms multi-node and multi-line interchangeably. I think it was Jack Rickard, editor of BoardWatch Magazine that first made the distinction clear. Multi-node systems consist of 2 or more computers hooked together via ethernet cables. One computer serves as a LAN file server and each of the other computers on the network are nodes. Each node has a modem hooked up to the computer. This makes multi-node systems very efficient because there's a full computer to service one phone line. The drawbacks are obvious. A network of 5 computers runs about $6000 CDN. Add the price of your BBS software, your networking software and you're looking at about $8000 CDN. Multi-line systems are much more common. Multi-line systems run off one computer. Since there are only 4 COMM (Commpunications) ports in a computer there's a problem because only 4 COMM ports can be used. If you're familiar with computers then you'd know that COM 1 & 3 and COM 2 & 4 share the same IRQ's which limits us to 2 modems unless you use non-standard IRQ's. If you use non-standard IRQ's you might not be able to run some doors which only accept standard IRQ's. To rectify this problem and to allow you to use more COMM ports companies have made what are called multiport serial cards. These cards take up a slot in your computer and hook to external modes via octopus cables. (A cable that hooks to the multiport serial card and each of the 4, 8 or 16 cards) Typically, multiport serial cards can handle 4, 8 or 16 modems. Since performance is a key factor in running a BBS a good system is needed to run a multi-line system. A 486Dx33 with 8 megs of RAM is about what you'd need to run an 8 line system; although I have no doubt some have run their 8 line BBS on less. Multi-line systems also require special multi-tasking software to run each node under. The most common multi-tasing software in the BBS world is DesqView, a dos based multi-tasking software package. OS/2 is increasingly gaining popularity among sysops although it still has a few bugs and requires some tweaking. Jack Rickard scoffs at windows as a serious multi-tasking software platform for BBS's. Having used terminal software in Windows I can see what he means; although I think they're trying to improve...they have a long way to go. Let's consider the cost of a 4 node multi-line system assuming you have a 486Dx33 with 8 megs of RAM: Synchronet 4 node BBS Software.....................$199.00 U.S. PC/4 w/16550's (Multi-port serial card)............$360.00 U.S. PC/4 Cable.........................................$ 40.00 U.S. DesqView Multi-Tasking Software....................$ 91.10 U.S. 4 x US Robotics External Modems (@ $XXX ea)........$139.50 U.S. ------------ Total $829.60 U.S. Lets say for the sake of us Canadians that we can get all this for $950 CDN. We haven't counted taxes, the cost of phone lines, a power supply (who wants an investment like this going down the drain because of power surges?) While we haven't equalled the multi-node system; it's easy to see that investing in anything more than 2 lines gets pretty expensive. Sure you can cut corners, buy cheap BBS software, cheap modems, cheap multi-port serial cards. What happens when you have problems? Running a multi-line BBS or a multi-node BBS is not a cheap investment. If you're thinking of running a multi-line or multi-node system, make sure that you can handle the financial end of the system. ***************************** BBS Software Review : PCBOARD ***************************** Version: 15.0 I remember quite a few years back when I was deciding which software I should run my first BBS on. I knew someone that ran a 5 line PCBoard BBS so I decided to check PCBoard out. I think the version then was something like 14.5 or so. The person I knew talked about how wonderful PCBoard was and how easily it ran. Was I ever disappointed when I downloaded PCBoard and tried to install it. Files didn't install properly, parts of the archive seemed to be missing, it was a nightmare just trying to get PCBoard up. Then for kicks I downloaded version 15.0. It was in the FREE FILES/ NO TIME area of a BBS so I had nothing to loose by trying it out. I was very pleasently surprised. After all the horrors I had with the old version of PCBoard I had serious doubts about this version; I guess many other people did too and voiced their opinion. Clark Development has done a great job of making the installation process a matter of less than 10 minutes of your time. The installation even checks your config.sys to see if your setup for single or multinode and optimizes your config.sys! Like most BBS software, the sysop account is created first. Next a program called PCB modem runs and detects what kind of modem you have and determines the proper initialization string. PCBoard has RIPscrip support and comes complete with a set of RIP menus. Menus are customizable but like all software you have to remember that if you change an ANSI/ASCII menu, you should be changing all your menus. Sub-menus can be ran off main menus which lets you create many levels and paths to commands. The file system is very nice. Users can flag files and PCBoard automatically imports FILE_ID.DIZ. (A file in some archives describing what the archive is about) Clark Development has increased the support for CD-ROM. Sysops with Caller-ID on their phones will be happy to learn that PCBoard has support for Caller-ID and FAX modems. PCBoard is one of the best multi-line/multi-node BBS software programs. Clark Development has included Multiport Fossil Support to allow the sysop to run a multi-line system and use a fossil driver to keep doors from hanging. The messaging system permits users to enter up to a 400 line message and includes space in the TO field for INTERNET addresses. A built in QWK reader rounds off the message support nicely. Of course my favourite feature is the multinode chat. I love talking it up and PCBoard has a relatively nice chat features. Users can change chat handles, topic, make the discussion private, send private messages to other nodes and more. The only thing I missed in PCBoard chat was ACTION commands. (ACTION commands let a user enter 1 word and a full phrase comes out, i.e. KICK, Node 1: Charles Kick's you in the head) I think PCBoard is a wonderful BBS software package. Although the price is a bit higher than most two node BBS software packages, Clark Development Company has done a great job at revising PCBoard so that it is a credible multi-line/multi-node BBS software package. NOTE: I don't think BBS Software should be "rated" as doors are. BBS Software is designed with different things in mind and some software packages are completely different from others. It's with this in mind that I'm not rating BBS software. ****************** CLOSING COMMENTS ****************** Well, it's short and sweet! Next month there'll be much more to print. Hope everyone has a wonderful 1995!