CDROM TDBS Software Catalog Pricing Guide ------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) 1992 James E. Toro BBS Concepts All programs and files mentioned here are for TBBS Sysops only running TBBS 2.2 multiline with TDBS v1.1 or TDBS GamePak. All programs require ANSI to be used by your bbs callers. Prices below are for the "door" programs only that run under TDBS. The CDROM disks themselves are available directly from the manufacturers as listed in the detailed descriptions below: Program Name Price Current Version ----------------------------------------------------------- SigControl - $75.00 0991-10 PDSI-5 CDROM Control- $50.00 0192-10 GIFDB v1.0 TDBS - $40.00 0192-15 FAO-1 controller - $30.00 0292-01 FAO-2 controller - $50.00 0292-07 All prices for above programs require 8.5% sales tax if ordered by New York State residents. All orders processed with check or money orders only, no credit cards or CODs accepted. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Extended descriptions: SigControl : This is an incredible "door" to handle the PC-SIG #10 CDROM. This program will either allow direct download of files from the CDROM or will allow users to copy files from the CDROM to a holding area. This program will display the FULL TEXT of the disk descriptions for each of the 2,804 disks on the rom. Users can list all titles sequentially, list by number range, select single disks or display hundreds of the disks in a category format which makes it easier for new users to find disks on the rom of interest to them. This program is an absolute must have for this fully packed CDROM disk. Security levels can be set within the program to limit users to running the program but not actually accessing the files on the rom. This disk was created in the fall of 1991 and is the most recent version. The CDROM is available directly from PCSIG at 1-800-245-6717. The disk is available from many CDROM disk sellers seperatly or bundled with drives. The PC-SIG list price of the CDROM is $295, but can be found for around $200 elsewhere. Some CDROM disk/drive bundles also have it at $99 and PC-SIG will sell it for $99 if you are upgrading from a previous CDROM disk version. PDSI-5 : This disk is a compilation of files from the NiteOwl bbs. Approximatly 10,000 files are on the disk and cover the broad range of files areas normally found on a bbs. This disk has a incredible collection of music files (over 4,500) and that alone makes this a "must have" disk for your bbs. Our program will allow users to list all the disk areas, tagging files as they move along and then copy them from the cdrom to a download area. This program also allows you to limit users to not use specific files areas on the ROM, also allows limiting users to only a specific amount of file tags per run. This program also allows users to run an internal search-and-tag file search program which will accept key-words like "GAME" and display any hits and allow for copying of "hits" from cdrom to hard drive. The CDROM can be disabled from access within this program so you can remove the ROM if needed without worry of the program trying to access it. The ROM is available from NiteOwls BBS, 219 Potomac Ave, Buffalo, NY, 14213 or you can call their bbs at 716-881-5688 or FAX at 716-886-0545. The disk costs approximatly $65.00 GIFDB : This disk has roughly 5,000 G and PG rated GIF image files. The images cover the entire spectrum of interests. Our program allows users to select the exact file names of the GIFs they want for copy off the CDROM to their downloading area. We also include a TYPE=20 ippy search for keyword searching of the disks many images AND two full catalogs of the contents of the GIFDB image disk, one in an all-info format and another in just the exact same format as the ippy search. It is believed that there are no copyrighted images on this disk and that no images are of the XXX-rated format. The disk is available from Raynbow Software for about $50.00. Contact is at: Raynbow Software, PO BOX 327, Rapid City, SD, 57709 and voice contact is 408-425-1154 FAO-1 : This disk contains over 2,300 XXX-rated GIF images. All images are believed to be of adult models. 90% of the images are of straight sex, but some gay/bi images are mixed in and some "kink" is included. The copyrights on the images are unknown but are belived to not violate any copyright laws. Our program will accept the file name from the user and then copy the file onto a holding area for the user to download from. All images have non-descriptive names, such as PPEB0493.GIF, but we have included a type=20 ZIPPY search database and two types of downloadable catalogs, one which is censored and one not censored. This disk is available from Profit Publishing as part of the FAO-1, FAO-2, FAO-3 collection of 3 disks. The 3 disks cost only $99 if you buy all three at once, this is a limited time offer from the disk manufacturer. Profit Publishing is contacted at : Profit Publishing, 2956 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ, 85719. Voice line is at 602-577-9624. FAO-2 : This disk contains over 5,000 XXX-rated GIF images, programs games and text files. Roughly 90% of the files are images and the remainder are text and game programs. 90% of the images are GIFs with the remainder as animation images and some MAC picture files. This is an excellant collection of images that cover every aspect of the XXX-rated ADULT lifestyle. Straight, Gay, BI, White, Black, Oriental, Bondage and the "weird" types are available here. All images are believed to be of adults only. All files of images have somewhat descriptive names unlike the FAO-1 disk and may be offensive to some viewers. Copyrights on images are unknown but are believed to not violate any copyright laws. Our program will display the various categories AND then sub-categories by image matrix-map density and/or sub-category type. Animation images are of the GL, DL and FLI type. A downloadable catalog is provided with this program in uncensored format only !. This program will allow users to tag files while viewing the sections for moving to holding area for downloading. The disk is available from Profit Publishing. See the above disk "FAO-1" for contact information. All 3 FAO disks are available for $99.00 for a limited time. A special note about "copying off a cdrom": Many people want to run a CD-ROM online with their bbs. The cost of adding a 600mg CD-ROM can be less than $375 and will provide you with a storage medium that can never get bad clusters or general failures due to media disintegration. Even if the rom gets eaten by the drive, it only costs you the replacement value of the disk, usually a very low price if you can plead with the distributor for a deal due to your loss. A similiar amount of data on a fast hard drive can cost you over $1,500 PLUS you have to back it up to tape. God forbid you have a crash because you have to send the whole drive back for replacement OR repair (which can run $300 for a drive of that size) and when its back your backups may be no good. The MTBF on a CD-ROM drive is unusually high and most failures are due to dirty lenses or motor failures. Buying a backup CD-ROM drive makes good sense and can often cost less when buying it because you don't need to buy a replacement controller. Alas, a CD-ROM is not all the glory it appears to be. CD-ROMS are damn slow. So slow in fact that if several users are downloading DIRECTLY FROM THE DRIVE, they can actually slow down the systems clock. System performance generally goes in the toilet when 2 or more users are on a CD and your 80586/100 Turbo Monster becomes an Abacus. After a bit of watching CD-ROM's doing their thing I came to the conclusion that the worst part about accessing a CD-ROM is the initial re-calibration, seek and search of the directory and then out to the file. Once the "head" is file positioned, picking up the data is not all that bad. Even though throughput on a CD is very slow, TBBS won't get all tied up if you actually get to the point where you are at the file, and ready for copying. The place it gets tied up is where the "head" has to keep moving around for multiple users downloading directly from the drive. Once you make a request to the CD-ROM the bbs basically "freezes" up until either the CD-ROM reports back that it found the file OR TBBS hits its "device not ready timeout" and aborts. If the CD-ROM sends back the status of the seek (regardless of what it is), TBBS will begin its process of serving other users. This freeze will appear to be about 1 second or less to other users. Some wont even feel it at all. Once the CD-ROM has begun transferring data TBBS is back to normal, with perhaps only slight performance degradation during the file transfer. The key to making the CD-ROM efficient is to get the files you want OFF the rom and onto high speed storage such as a hard drive. These programs will copy files for the user onto the drive, as explained above, and will cause very little system performance impact. As a matter of fact, you do not need a super-high-performance CD-ROM. Any of the second generation ROM drives (400ms or faster) will work fine. I use the cheapest SONY CDU535 drives and I often have several users copying files while another six or eight users do something else. Again, there is some performance loss, but only for the few seconds it takes to copy the files. And the system "freeze" is usually less than 1 second. I don't suggest buying those expensive super-fast CD-ROM drives because they really are NOT neccesary and you will only be on them for seconds at a time. The Sony CDU-535 can be daisy chained on its special controller and runs well alongside ESDI, SCSI and IDE hard drive controllers. I am running 4 SONY CDU-535's on my bbs with a SCSI controller that has five 766mg Maxtors and have never had a lockup or system crash with many users copying files off the CDROMS. All our programs will copy the files your users want OFF the cdrom and onto a holding area on any of your hard drives. We suggest you have 1.5 megs free space for copying for each line of your bbs. This is only a rule of thumb measurement, you will probably need much less if you are running many lines and do not expect to have many users using the cdroms at the same time. All programs here come with full documentation on proper installation AND creation and maintenance of the "holding" areas of the copied files areas for the CDROM disks. ALL orders sent via mail. No orders can be downloaded UNLESS specially requested when ordering. Updates/Upgrades/Bug Fixes are downloadable from the ownload menu. All program orders get FREE bug fixes and updates of same version of CDROM disks. SigCntrl: The PC-SIG control system requires a major upgrade each time a new CD-ROM is released. Those upgrades cost $15.00. Regular upgrades or updates of SAME version PC-SIG CD-ROMs are made available at no additional cost. See the ORDER.TXT file for ordering info. For more info or ANY questions (there is no such thing as a dumb question) call: Voice - 516-938-1729 bbs - 516-938-6722 fax - 516-938-0675