I recall from calling AST, PC Magazine's BBS, 3com and some others in

Do you recall what was offered in PC Magazine's BBS?

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't make it in print? Subscription information to get the magazine? Were there messages, files?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

you could download a few things. i called every one i could find.
it's not overlooked. there's nothing to look at.

But you *still* called every one you could find!
So there *was* something unique these "boring" BBS had worth exploring ALL! :P

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 22 2026 08:48 pm

I recall from calling AST, PC Magazine's BBS, 3com and
some others in

Do you recall what was offered in PC Magazine's BBS?

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't
make it in print? Subscription information to get the magazine?
Were there messages, files?

are you running a bbs for the sole purpose of asking us questions for a newspaper article?


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to MRO on Sun Feb 22 2026 08:53 pm

you could download a few things. i called every one i could find. it's not overlooked. there's nothing to look at.

But you *still* called every one you could find! So there *was*
something unique these "boring" BBS had worth exploring ALL! :P

you might be retarded.
there was nothing to do back then. even cable tv sucked.
after i called each bbs i never called back.

it wasn't exploring.


---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

after i called each bbs i never called back.

Since you dialed many of these, do you recall if these BBSes required to create a user account, or you were accessing them as guest?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

Greek Times wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Do you recall what was offered in PC Magazine's BBS?

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't make it
in print? Subscription information to get the magazine? Were there messages, files?

I seem to recall message boards separate from the magazine and a lot of
older third party apps and shareware. Mind you, this was 1987 or so.



... Consult other sources
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to MRO on Mon Feb 23 2026 08:34 am

after i called each bbs i never called back.

Since you dialed many of these, do you recall if these BBSes required
to create a user account, or you were accessing them as guest?

I'm not participating in your article.
Talk to poindexter and he will give you some made up imagined shit to use.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"

---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: MRO to Greek Times on Sun Feb 22 2026 11:17 pm

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't make
it in print? Subscription information to get the magazine? Were
there messages, files?

are you running a bbs for the sole purpose of asking us questions
for a newspaper article?

I visited your bbs. you ignored my question but your bbs answered my question.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

are you running a bbs for the sole purpose of asking us questions
for a newspaper article?

I visited your bbs. you ignored my question but your bbs answered my question.

Just to clarify, I'm not writing an article. My question was historical in nature.

The hobby and art boards are well documented, but the vendor and corporate support boards seem to have faded without much visual preservation. I'm interested in understanding what the practical standard actually looked like in that space during the early 90s.

I operate a board myself, and I'd like to align certain presentation choices with how professional support systems were typically done at the time. That's really the extent of my interest.

If anyone has screenshots, printouts, or firsthand recollections of those vendor boards, I'd still appreciate the input.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 22 2026 08:48 pm

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't make it in print? Subscription information to get the magazine? Were there messages, files?

More than likely there was nothing on there ;). Boards have content when the Sysop is interested in the boards and the content... The sysops of those corporate boards had no interest in either.

This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart goes to the offices of MAD Magazine (or whatever the equivalent was in their universe).

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: phigan to Greek Times on Wed Feb 25 2026 07:54:55

This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart goes to the offices of MAD Magazine (or whatever the equivalent was in their universe).

And...?

---
þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

On Feb 25, 2026 07:41am, PHIGAN wrote to GREEK TIMES:

Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: Greek Times to All on Sun Feb 22 2026 11:00 am

So I'm curious: does anyone here remember what these boards looked like
firsthand? Even better, did anyone ever think to take a screen capture
or pr
a screen before hanging up? I'd love to see what the actual menu
structure a

Others may have responded about this already. I wasn't on many of these, but the few that I did dial into were always completely stock.
Companies, as far as I saw, didn't customize their BBSes at all. If they did, it was to disable features. They might've set a color different sometimes, if there was that option ;). Log in to a stock Wildcat!
install, and that's what it looked like.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO
TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)

lol

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

Others may have responded about this already. I wasn't on many of these, but the few that I did dial into were always completely stock.

Yes, Thank you phigan and all.
Thanks everyone for the input. The consensus around "stock install"
actually makes a lot of sense. The more I think about it, the more it fits with the purpose those boards served. Functional, minimal (And this is what I just did.... "Plain Text is beautiful" as a Gopher site has a slogan!) lol


While digging through Boardwatch and BBS Magazine issues from 93 and 94 on the Internet Archive, I stumbled onto something interesting. Quite a few of those publications were advertising an "online version" of the magazine available through their BBS.

Now I'm curious about how that was actually implemented.

Was it just plain ASCII text dropped into file sections?
Was it packaged as a Door program?
Or were issues posted into message areas, maybe one article per message?

Does anyone remember dialing into something like that? Even better, did anyone ever grab a screenshot of how those early online magazine setups were presented?

Feels like a really early precursor to what later became web publishing, and I don't see much documentation of how it was actually done in practice.

Would love to hear any firsthand recollections for some inspiration on my BBS!

Thanks again!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

On 25 Feb 2026, Greek Times said the following...

Does anyone remember dialing into something like that? Even better, did anyone ever grab a screenshot of how those early online magazine setups were presented?

you keep mentioning screenshots as if that was more common than it actually was.. let alone for taking screenshots of something so mundane as boardwatch.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

On 25 Feb 2026, phigan said the following...

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 22 2026 08:48 pm

Were there full articles to read? special articles that didn't make it print? Subscription information to get the magazine? Were there messag files?

More than likely there was nothing on there ;). Boards have content when the Sysop is interested in the boards and the content... The sysops of those corporate boards had no interest in either.

from the information about the official IBM OS/2 BBS they ran, it sounded like the forums were gated to compuserve and perhaps other places. it also sounded like it wasn't free, and with no price listed i'm guessing it also wasn't cheap. they listed those places as "monitored by IBM" or some wording like that. my guess is you either had to have bought something big or had a subscription to something expensive.. *shrug*

as MRO mentioned earlier though.. any bigger company probably didn't run their bbs very seriously because they wanted you to call their 1-800 numbers for per-instance support, which was expensive. they don't want to give support away for free on a forum if they can sell the same solution to the next guy that calls. both microsoft and borland for example made a lot of money with physical documentation. microsoft used to be a pretty large book company.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

you keep mentioning screenshots as if that was more common than it actually was.. let alone for taking screenshots of something so mundane
as boardwatch.

You're absolutely right. Taking screenshots in the early 90s wasn't common or straightforward at all.

Most people, including myself, weren't sitting there thinking, "I should document this." Especially not for something as routine as a stock vendor board. Totally fair point.

That said, it *was* done in some cases. From what I've been seeing flipping through Boardwatch Magazine in the Internet Archive, a lot of the screenshots in those magazines look like they were captured using those old screen capture setups with a camera mounted in front of the monitor. Quality was usually pretty rough. You can see the curvature and glare in some of them.

Another method was simply pointing a camera at the screen and hoping for the best. I actually saw a recent example like that posted from Juxtaposition BBS in Montreal. Plain text board, photographed straight off the monitor. Very much do what you can with what you have...

And then there were software-based methods. I was watching an old BBS Expo '94 interview with Dennis Fowler from Computer Shopper Magazine . At the 22-minute mark he mentions using a special program specifically to capture BBS screens for review (YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/7hzf9qOVkSM ). So at least in the reviewer world, there were tools floating around for that purpose.

So yeah, definitely rare, and definitely not everyday behavior. I'm just curious whether any of those oddball captures survived, especially around those early online magazine experiments.

Either way, appreciate the reality check.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Montreal Greek Times

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Mortar to phigan on Wed Feb 25 2026 10:04 am

This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart goes to the offices of Magazine (or whatever the equivalent was in their universe).

And...?

The receptionist says "Listen, kid. You probably think a lot of crazy stuff goes on in there, but this is just a place of business."

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

On Feb 25, 2026 02:33pm, GREEK TIMES wrote to Robert Wolfe:

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)

lol

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor. But, I might install a 32-bit version of windows so can use TheDraw and set up my bbs directory as a shared volume.
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

On Feb 25, 2026 12:17pm, NIGHTFOX wrote to DAITENGU:

From what I remember, MajorBBS had some products & software features to enable easily having a bunch of phone lines for a dialup BBS. I had
used some MajorBBS boards in my area in the early 90s that had a bunch
of phone lines, with active multi-node chat rooms. I remember seeing
some hardware they offered that allowed a lot more serial ports than
were usually offered on a PC.. From what I remember, a typical IBM-compatible PC had bulit-in support for up to 4 serial ports (and a couple of them shared IRQs, from what I remember, so if you wanted to
use all 4 simulteneously, you had to re-configure their IRQs). But I recall seeing that the company that made MajorBBS offered some hardware that allowed a lot more serial ports, and their MajorBBS software
naturally supported that. I'm not sure how the hardware accomplished
that, since typically there were limited IRQs available.

Yes, typically COM1-COM4. I remember that Mustang Software used to sell 16- port Stallion communications boards in a special VAR bundle back in the day. ---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to phigan on Wed Feb 25 2026 15:01:00

"Plain Text is beautiful" as a Gopher site has a slogan!) lol

Absolutely. I love seeing a nice, formated screen of text. No distracting images, animations, etc.

Quite a few of those publications were advertising an "online version" of the magazine available through their BBS. Was it just plain ASCII text dropped into file sections?

Pretty much. Like their BBSes, they didn't put much flair into their e-zines. Some mags were offered on commercial services like AOHell...er, "L", Prodigy, Compu$erve, etc. where they could add color and images, but you paid extra for those.

---
þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

Hey Robert!

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:54:00 +0000, you wrote:

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.
But, I might install a 32-bit version of windows so can use TheDraw and
set up my bbs directory as a shared volume.

Have you actually looked?

https://github.com/cwensley/pablodraw

https://github.com/mkrueger/icy_draw/releases

There's two you can try. I'm sure there's at least one or two more than that, even.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (723:1/1)
þ Synchronet þ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to GREEK TIMES on Thu Feb 26 2026 05:54 am

On Feb 25, 2026 02:33pm, GREEK TIMES wrote to Robert Wolfe:

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)

lol

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.

PabloDraw isn't?
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #81:
Catch the witness, catch the wit, catch the spirit, catch the spit
Norco, CA WX: 74.8øF, 43.0% humidity, 4 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

On Feb 26, 2026 07:04pm, ACCESSION wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Hey Robert!

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:54:00 +0000, you wrote:

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.
But, I might install a 32-bit version of windows so can use TheDraw and
set up my bbs directory as a shared volume.

Have you actually looked?

https://github.com/cwensley/pablodraw

https://github.com/mkrueger/icy_draw/releases

There's two you can try. I'm sure there's at least one or two more than that, even.

Thanks, that's a start. Now to just get connected to an ftn networkj or two :) ---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

On Feb 27, 2026 12:42am, DIGITAL MAN wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.

Never used it, but will have to give it a try.
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

On Feb 27, 2026 12:42am, DIGITAL MAN wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to GREEK TIMES on Thu Feb 26 2026 05:54 am

On Feb 25, 2026 02:33pm, GREEK TIMES wrote to Robert Wolfe:

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)

lol

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.

PabloDraw isn't?

I installed it, but it lacks support for Wildcat! @-codes though, So .BBS screens just open up as plain ascii.
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

Re: RE: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to ACCESSION on Fri Feb 27 2026 07:08 am

Have you actually looked?

https://github.com/cwensley/pablodraw

https://github.com/mkrueger/icy_draw/releases

There's two you can try. I'm sure there's at least one or two more
than that, even.

Thanks, that's a start. Now to just get connected to an ftn networkj
or two :)

I don't know why someone would rather use pablodraw than fireup dosbox and
use aciddraw or thedraw.

icedraw is pretty nice though.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to DIGITAL MAN on Fri Feb 27 2026 07:15 am

PabloDraw isn't?

I installed it, but it lacks support for Wildcat! @-codes though,
So .BBS screens just open up as plain ascii.

just use ansi screens with your bbs.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Greek Times to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 22 2026 08:48 pm

If your looking for old magazines "Internet Archive" is your best bet.

https://archive.org/

or

The Beta Search Engine for faster pulls

https://discmaster.textfiles.com/

Peace!
Dark
---
þ Synchronet þ Aneto

Hey Robert!

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:08:00 +0000, you wrote:

Thanks, that's a start. Now to just get connected to an ftn networkj or
two :)

I had mentioned this to you awhile back when answering you feedback, but you must not have read it yet.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (723:1/1)
þ Synchronet þ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Hey Robert!

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:15:00 +0000, you wrote:

PabloDraw isn't?

I installed it, but it lacks support for Wildcat! @-codes though, So
.BBS screens just open up as plain ascii.

Was there ever an ansi editor that supported Wildcat @-codes?

Here's another one you can add to your list to try, but I can't promise it supports what you're looking for. However, if any of the three I mentioned are still currently maintained, maybe you can ask for that feature:

https://blocktronics.github.io/moebius/

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (723:1/1)
þ Synchronet þ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Looking for screensho
By: Accession to Robert Wolfe on Fri Feb 27 2026 09:13 pm

Hey Robert!

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:15:00 +0000, you wrote:

PabloDraw isn't?

I installed it, but it lacks support for Wildcat! @-codes though,
So .BBS screens just open up as plain ascii.

Was there ever an ansi editor that supported Wildcat @-codes?

oh yes. don't you know wildcat! is the bbs software of true
millionaires?
thedraw and other ansi editors supported wilcat! color codes https://i.imgur.com/0hSwYLR.png

Here's another one you can add to your list to try, but I can't
promise it supports what you're looking for. However, if any of the
three I mentioned are still currently maintained, maybe you can ask
for that feature:

https://blocktronics.github.io/moebius/

he should just use a converter script.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to DIGITAL MAN on Fri Feb 27 2026 07:15 am

On Feb 27, 2026 12:42am, DIGITAL MAN wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Re: Re: Looking for screensho
By: Robert Wolfe to GREEK TIMES on Thu Feb 26 2026 05:54 am

On Feb 25, 2026 02:33pm, GREEK TIMES wrote to Robert Wolfe:

you mean stock,like mine :) except i have pull down menus :)

lol

Only because I've yet to find a decent Win64 compatible ANSI editor.

PabloDraw isn't?

I installed it, but it lacks support for Wildcat! @-codes though, So .BBS screens just open up as plain ascii.

WC Color codes? Send the author a feature request! He's responsive.
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #8:
I want Shania Twain to give me a tuggy. Guess what? That ain't happening either Norco, CA WX: 70.9øF, 53.0% humidity, 0 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

I had mentioned this to you awhile back when answering you feedback, but

you

I'm reconne cted to Fido just need to start requesting echoes.

... I'll have what the gentleman on the floor is having.
--- Wildcat! v10.0.500.1 (Oct 16 2025), Editor Mod v1.7
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

On Feb 27, 2026 09:10pm, ACCESSION wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Hey Robert!

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:08:00 +0000, you wrote:

Thanks, that's a start. Now to just get connected to an ftn networkj or
two :)

I had mentioned this to you awhile back when answering you feedback, but you must not have read it yet.

Oh sorry. Life's been keeping me busy lately. I am connected again courtesy of Ward Dossche.
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Over The Brink ¦ Grand Island, NY USA | brinkbbs.org

Hey Robert!

On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 08:08:00 +0000, you wrote:

Oh sorry. Life's been keeping me busy lately. I am connected again courtesy of Ward Dossche.

I don't think Ward Dossche has anything to do with the feedback you left me on my BBS..?

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (723:1/1)
þ Synchronet þ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)