Over the last few weeks we have been learning each evening about the wonderful world of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)
We have been undertaking our education through the cool set of BBS films known as BBS "The Documentary" made by Jason Scott Sadofsky
There are 8 parts to the documentary and for us it was a real eye opener that explains exactly how the BBS was the forerunner that led to the internet as we know it today.
The thing we found most amazing was how online multi-player was born in the world of BBS.
Some of the text adventures of the time enabled you to interact with other online gamers who were playing the same game as you.
A particularly scene from the documentary sees a text adventurer describe the delight as he found a fellow player in the game who guided him through one of the trickier parts of the game. The delight in his face sums up the same delight we all get today from playing online.
Later on in the documentary we get to learn about the cool sounding turn based online multiplayer game "Trade Wars" .
Again, Trade Wars was seen as the forerunner for a new gaming genre, this time though it was the MMO genre.
The fact that the BBS Games were free made them accessible to so many and really enabled these new genres to blossom into what we know them as today.
The more we work through the fantastic BBS Documentaries, the more we realise just how much ,as gamers and users of the internet, we owe to those BBS Pioneers of the day.
Take a look through the marvellous documentaries today, they are well worth your time ......... especially if you're a Geek like us! ;)
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
