Shit is getting real.

hfcoma and masterhit are back on track
with their old "Hackerforce BBS". The bulletin board system was running througout the nineties in hfcomas kinderzimmer. the modem turned on whenever someone called for a little chat.

To revive this was on our bucket list for a long time. but we had no idea where to start. I've kept some backup disks, but lack a 5 1/4 disk drive, so I set up a complete new "Renegade BBS System".

If you want to know how easy this is in dos box, follow this link: https://www.instructables.com/Renegade-BBS-in-Ubuntu-Linux-Telnet-Multi-Node/ One thing is not described: Use the far advanced DOSBox-X and disable the Filesystem cache in DOSbox. Otherwise Teleconferencing will not work!

nocachedir = true

The thing is: You start as much dosbox instances as you wish (one for each node) It works and I really have no idea how this could have been done in the nineties under pure DOS.

The key combi for teleconferencing is '/M' and it'S not shown on the ansi screen you see as main menu, I had to edit the menu myself. To enter the mailbox you need to have a ANSI Telnet Terminal program such as netrunner, available here: http://www.toxicbbs.com/telnet.php
Syncterm is more user friendly, but it's Zmodem implementation is br0ken.
For ios use muffinterm

We set up so far: Message bases, Telechat, Filebases and onlinegames.
Uploading and downloading files works with the zmodem protocol.
Netrunner does a great job as you can drag and drop files to te terminal program to add them to the upload que. Onlinegames are socalled 'Doorgames': The mailbox starts an expernal program and exchanges through a file called door.sys - I have no idea how the communication works, but it does. The game Spaceship of Death was one of our favourites back then.

I still think about using a bigger server for this retro experiment, but for now you can reach me at

bbs.hackerforce.de:2323 (node number one)
bbs.hackerforce.de:2324 (node number two)

If you want to have the ultimate pre Internet retro feeling, join in on our BBS.

In case you have no option to get a Telnet client, you can try our experimental
HTML TELNET ANSI TERMINAL