Break Into Chat
A wiki and blog about bulletin board systems
Who can forget an encounter with the Ferengi? Flirting with Violet the barmaid? Nuking a neighboring empire?
TradeWars 2002. Legend of the Red Dragon. Solar Realms Elite. Classic games that were played once upon a time on dialup bulletin board systems.
The Break Into Chat wiki was created to preserve the history of these and other BBS door games, after editors on Wikipedia began deleting door game articles.
Also, don't miss the Break Into Chat blog where I'm interviewing door game creators like Amit Patel and Austin Seraphin; creating new ANSI art animation techniques; sharing memories of door games; and much more.
Finally, Break Into Chat hosts a growing number of BBS- or retrocomputing-related special collections, such as 300,000 Fidonet messages from the 1990s or AtasciiTube, the ATASCII animation player.
Interviews
- Joe Reiss, creator of the “Spoiler-Free Opinion Summary”
- Paul Witte and Herb Flower, creators of Thieves’ Guild
- Gary Martin, creator of “TradeWars 2002”
- Jon Radoff, creator of “Space Empire Elite” and “Final Frontier”
- Shooter Jennings, creator of “From Here to Eternity”
- Hollie Satterfield, creator of “Space Dynasty”
- Kevin MacFarland, creator of “Assassin”
- Austin Seraphin, creator of “Barneysplat!”
- Joel Bergen, creator of “Global War” and “Global Backgammon”
- Amit Patel, creator of “Solar Realms Elite”
Articles on this wiki
- 1NS0MN1A
- ANSI art
- Alpha Colony VI
- Arrowbridge
- Assassin
- BBS Simulator
- BBS door
- BBS door game
- Barneysplat
- Barren Realms Elite
- BladeMaster
- Board Master
- Break Into Chat
- Cripple Smash
- Dark Fortress (Atari ST)
- Drugwars
- Dungeon Master
- Esterian Conquest
- Exitilus
- Falcon's Eye
- Falcon's Honor
- Fazuul
- Final Frontier
- Food Fight
- Freedom Train
- From Here To Eternity
- Galactic Warzone
- Global Backgammon
- Global War
- Instant Graphics and Sound (IGS)
- Kannons and Katapults
- Kyrandia (Major BBS)
- Land of Devastation
- Legend of the Red Dragon
- Lemonade
- Lore
- MajorMUD
- Mistigris
- Murder Motel (PC)
- Operation Overkill II
- Phantasia (video game)
- PimpWars
- Planetary Conquest
- Planets: The Exploration of Space
- Portal:Franconia/Head
- Pyroto Mountain
- Quest for Magic
- Remote Imaging Protocol (RIP)
- STellar Chaos
- Shadow Board
- Solar Realms Elite
- Space Dynasty
- Space Empire Elite
- Swords of Chaos
- Tele-Arena
- The Arcadian Legends
- The Clans
- The Pit
- Thieves' Guild
- TradeWars 2001
- TradeWars 2002
- Trade Wars
- Ultimate Universe
- Usurper
- VGA Planets
- VT52
- Virtual Sysop
- WWIV
- Yankee Trader
Let's get to work
I believe eventually academia will give BBS door games the scrutiny and research they deserve. I hope the articles on this wiki, as well as the posts on the Break Into Chat blog will be helpful in those future endeavors.
I have not been content to simply preserve those old Wikipedia articles. I have expanded them, and added new articles and more sources. But I could certainly use help!
Can you help find old interviews that will shed light on BBS door games? Do you have a collection of Boardwatch magazines with relevant articles? Are you a researcher who has investigated this genre?
Please get in touch. (Unfortunately new users must request access due to the scourge of spammers)
Here are the guiding principles:
- Any door game is worthy of an article (notability will not be a concern)
- The more sources, the better
- The higher the quality of the sources, the better
--Josh
Josh Renaud (talk) 12:00, 28 November 2012 (CST)
Reactions
- Jason Scott: The Quiet Wikideath of BBS History (Dec. 7, 2012)
- Benj Edwards: Wikipedia is Deleting BBS Game History (Dec. 8, 2012)
- Kevin Driscoll: Cooperative Mode for Amateur and Academic Game Histories (July 2019)