Once upon a time there was Fidonet
(This post will make no sense to most people but I had to write it down somewhere)
A random link just sent me over to some BBS-era graphics on Flickr which in turn spurred a trip down memory lane. After quite a bit of searching, I finally tracked down my quarry: my Fidonet node address when I used to run the Enigma BBS was 2:250/555.
Fidonet nodelist from December 29, 1995
Region,25,United_Kingdom,UK,Keith_Wassell,44-1483-451540,9600,CM,H16,V32B,V32T,XA
…
Host,250,Northern_Net,Manchester,Paul_Heywood,44-161-796-1770,9600,CM,XA,H16,V32B,V32T,V34,VFC
…
Hub,5000,Cheshire/Midlands_Hub,Nantwich,Bob_Wilson,44-1270-610455,9600,XA,V32B,V42B,V34,VFC,U,TUJ
…
,555,Enigma_BBS,Stoke-on-Trent,Andrew_Oakley,44-1782-633945,9600,XA,MO,V32B,V42B,U,TAI
There are some familiar names in that list too: Frosties BBS (2:250/510, David Frost, Alsager), Hacker’s Paradise (2:250/556, Simon Roberson, Alsager), Labrot BBS (2:250/563, Bob Wilson, Nantwich) and Quantum Shuffle (2:2502/18, Andrew Reid, Selby). I seem to recall having a ‘point’ off Quantum Shuffle for a while before setting up my own system.
I do wish I’d kept more details of the software, customizations and ANSI art that I seem to recall spending quite some time working on, perhaps they’re still around on an old floppy somewhere. It ran on OS/2 for a while (painfully slowly on my machine at the time) but I think later transitioned over to a dedicated box. The memories of hearing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ playing as a sysop page tone through a tinny PC speaker will remain with me for many years to come.
Just came across your post from Google when out of the blue I remembered my old Fido address, which was 2:250/563.16 – meaning I was “point number 16″ off the Labrot BBS! I even remember speaking to the sysop Bob on the telephone who kindly helped me set up my new “point”! I spent a huge amount of my time on Frosties BBS though (wasn’t it spelled mostly in caps like FROSTiES or something?), because it was the largest BBS in my local calling area. In fact I remember all of the ones you posted, including Enigma – oh the nostalgia!
Out of curiosity when did you finally shut down Enigma? Like most people I stopped using Fido and BBS’s when I discovered the Internet, thanks to a new local ISP in Nantwich (“Internet Central LTD”), but the internet just doesn’t have that “je ne sais quoi” or community feel that BBS’s and Fido did
Thanks for the memories…
C2
26 Jan 10 at 8:18 pm
Glad to be of service
I have some fond memories from those times especially the more one to one connection in conversations. Plus the whole netmail/echomail latency of sometimes days gave the conversations a somewhat more pedestrian pace which I rather miss in this age of Twitter and the like.
I actually can’t remember when Enigma BBS took its last call. I seem to recall there were more and more line disconnected tones as other systems shut down all while I was spending more time with KA9Q on Demon Internet and watching the whole new world on the internet open up…
Andy
26 Jan 10 at 9:49 pm