Arcade BBS is still running after 27 years

Arcade BBS has a new telnet and web URL – telnet.arcade-bbs.net/www.arcade-bbs.net

You may recall back in the 1990s Jurassic Acorn Age there was a BBS – a Bulletin Board System – called Arcade BBS, which enjoyed hundreds of users, hundreds of calls a day to 5 Modem-equipped telephone lines and later, telnet access from that newcomer, “the internet”.

Much time has passed, but “The Sysops”, Dave Coleman and David Dade have managed to keep Arcade BBS running on RiscOS 3.7 from 1990 to the present – that’s a whopping 27 years. Not a bad recommendation for its hardware, software and operating system designed in the last century!

As The Internet took over, and the techniques of distributed ‘Netmail’ and File Transfer pioneered by ‘Fidonet’ became standard practice on this new platform, users graduated away from Arcade BBS, so we gradually reduced the number of modems and lines down to one, and increased the number of Internet ports, first on ‘weekend internet’ using ISDN, then later as ‘Always-on’ became the normal mode for ADSL and Broadband, all-day access was introduced.

Our Internet ISP, Demon Internet which was originally the “Enthusiasts’ ISP” with great personal service has recently been taken over by Vodaphone, and Domestic Broadband customers are being discontinued. So we have decided to re-work our Internet presence with custom URLs, such as www.arcade-bbs.net and telnet.arcade-bbs.net. The BBS is now supported by a shared BT Internet ADSL connection. So for a taste of the pioneering 20th Century years of the Acorn world, visit our Arcade BBS time-capsule of the 1990s on telnet.arcade-bbs.net Your old account may still be there!

David Dade and Dave Coleman

the URL is currently unreachable … would love to see what it is like :)

During the good old times of Fidonet and Dial-in, I got quite a few files from Arcade via Fidonet’s file request facility and took part in the “Archimedes” echo (Fido’s name for newsgroups). Memories.

However, I somehow doubt that Arcade BBS ran on RISC OS 3.7 in 1990 :-)

I still miss Thomas Olsson’s great FidoMail software – in many respects, it is still better than the mail/news clients we have today. On any operating system.

Only just found this out from last year:

https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2023/06/30/rip-brightons-beardmaster-david-dade/

A very sad loss, he is much missed.