MSGID: 1:229/426 C7EA1456   
   REPLY: 1481.fido_bbscarni@1:123/115 28993f91   
   On 10 Apr 23  07:31:00, Dan Clough said the following to Nick Andre:   
      
   DC>  NA> This is true.. If you bought either MBBS or TBBS it was an   
   DC>  NA> investment that you wanted recouped. I never once saw a totally   
   DC>  NA> "free" one of those systems until much later, when the novelty   
   DC>  NA> wore off.   
   DC>    
   DC> Do you recall how much it was back then?  I ran a purchased/registered    
   DC> copy of PCBoard back in the 90's, and I think it was either $125 or    
   DC> $150, which was a significant cost for me back then.  Also registered    
      
   I can't remember exactly. I keep thinking MajorBBS was at least a few hundred    
   and they upsold you on the "Galaticboard" serial card which was another couple   
   hundred bucks.   
      
   Same with TBBS... You bought the license but needed the serial board for    
   anything beyond 2 nodes. Then Fidonet was an add-on. Remote access was an    
   add-on... I mean, any BBS that came with a freaking VHS installation video you   
   just knew was going to be a bit out of your league.   
      
   https://archive.org/details/1993-bbs-tbbstape   
      
   To be fair TBBS was absolutely fascinating. You could get your hands on a    
   pirate copy but it was absolutely useless without the printed manual. It was   
   "the mother" of all Rube Goldberg lets-make-it-freaking-complicated    
   contraptions. But when you really began to understand why it did things the    
   way it did... it actually made sense. The manuals were very professional.   
      
   I was a huge fan and wrote some crude textfile-utils for John Souvestre's   
   hub system in the 90's. It seemed like him and many TBBS Sysops jumped ship    
   and started their own ISP businesses when the author invented a router   
   appliance and began pitching the Internet as the future.   
      
   Nick   
      
   --- Renegade vY2Ka2   
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)