BBS · Impressions

Impressions

Every picture of the mailbox in one place. Its screens, the machine it ran on, and its rescue thirty years later. Each image leads back to its own context.

Original screens

Straight from the recovered, reconstructed system.

      ____/\/\ /\__/\  
     / _  _/ // / __/           
     \// // _  / __/   
      / // // /_  /                       
      \/ \/ \/  \/  
     ________                _________  ____  _________   ________
     \    ___\  /\  /\       \    __  \ \   \ \    __  \  \    ___\
     /   /___  /  \/  \      /   /_/  / /   / /   /_/  /  /   /___  
    /   ____/ /        \    /   _____/ /   / /       _/  /   ____/
   /   /____ /   /\/\   \_ /   /      /   / /   /\   \_ /   /____
   \_______/ \___\   \___/ \___\      \___\ \___\ \___/ \_______/
           _________
         _/         \_                    B B S
       _/   -------   \_                                  
      / \\__ ----- __// \                     _
     |   \__\     /__/   |                 _ ( ) _  
     |..   _\\   //_    .|               /( )| |( ) _
      \:  //\\\ ///\\  :/     __________/_| || || |( )_____________            
       | (|_// | \\_|) |     /            \_/| || || |            /
       (      / \      )    /                \_/\_/\_/           /
        ||)_________(||    /                                    /
        || IIIIIIIII ||   /        Die rekonstruierte          /
         \\_IIIIIII_//   /        Original-BBS aus dem        /
          \ ::::::: /   /      Fuerstentum Liechtenstein     /
          (    .    )  /                                    /
           \/|___|\/   -------------------------------------
            \|___|/    GAST-ACCOUNT: Name: GUEST, Passwort: EMPIRE

The welcome screen on dial-in. Pure ASCII art with the Empire logo.

Main menu

     H A U P T M E N U   D E R   E M P I R E - M A I L B O X
     -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

     Dein Level: 30 (60)   Datum/Zeit: 02.03.96, 22:15

    Userfunktionen:                Allgemeine Funktionen:
    --------------                 ---------------------
    {S} Status                     {B} Bulletins
     {U} Userliste                  {D} Games, Infos, Datenbanken
      {P} Deine Einstellungen        {F} Files-Area
       {A} Wer ist Online ?           {C} Sysop rufen
        {L} Mitteilung an Sysop        {M} Mitteilungsareas
         {V} Wartende Post ?            {G} Ausloggen

                Du kannst noch 42 Minuten online bleiben.

The main menu with user and general functions. Level, date, and remaining minutes were filled in by the system at runtime; sample values here.

The mailbox running

Screenshots from the revived system. Pictures like these are almost gone from the web.

System startup
The moment the mailbox booted again after thirty years.
To the data rescue →
Startup script
The original script that gave the mailbox its directory names.
What is an assign? →
System Overseer
The sysop's control panel. Most of the time it read: Awaiting call.
To Xenolink →
User editor
One user record, from access level to daily limit.
To Xenolink →
SYSTEMS.CONFIG
Every counterpart across every network: nodes, hubs, and points.
To the network →
WilhelmTEL
The Amiga as an answering machine, every message a file.
To WilhelmTEL →
ISDN StateMon
Watching the line: signals, data volume, cost.
To the ISDN card →

The machine

The Amiga 3000T that Empire BBS last ran on.

Amiga 3000T-040
The machine Empire BBS ran on for its last third.
Inside
Two SCSI drives, ribbon cables, and the expansion cards below.
ISDN-Master rev2
The bsc card, removed. It gave the Amiga its ISDN line.
To the ISDN-Master page →

The data rescue

In 2026 the data came off the old drives.

Reading the drives
The old SCSI drives on a BlueSCSI adapter, powered by a PC supply. That is how the data came off without straining the original hardware.
To the restoration →

To the BBS story ▶ BBS demo