June 2, 1999
EleBBS News:
Gamma5 also uses a completley new communications engine, which is
considerably faster and more efficient then the previous one.
Bekers is releasing the source to this new communication engine
to the public, to allow other BBS and door developers to create
multi platform code that can run under Windows32, OS/2 and DOS.
The Win32 communications even offers internal telnet support!
The com engine is written in Pascal, and will compile under
TurboPascal, VirtualPascal, Delphi 2-4 and FreePascal.
Several developers have already recieved an early copy of this
comm engine, including James Coyle (author of Mystic BBS), and
Korombos (author of the KDrive door development kit). The code
will be made publicly available later this month when Gamma5 is
released.
Other new features in Gamma5 include additional scripting commands,
support for 250 fido AKAs, ability to provide downlinks with usenet
feed via .PKT files, multiple keyword file search engine, enhanced
support for long filenames, and Windows2000 compatibility. Most
importantly dozens of minor bugs have been fixed since Gamma4.
A Windows fossil driver for COM/IP is currently being beta tested,
and performs very well under NT so far. This fossil driver even
allows a Native Win32 BBS to run DOS fossil driven doors under
the COM/IP virtual modems, and of course it also works with DOS
based BBS's under Windows.
In addition to the fossil support, the programmers at Tactical
are also considering adding the ability to display a list of
the IP addresses connected to each com port (as Netmodem does)
in an upcoming release of COM/IP 2.10. If you have additional
features you would like to see added you can email them at
support@tacticalsoftware.com
Ben is now working on several BBS doors, including a Rubiks Cube game,
a radio pager, and a split screen chat door, in addition to offering
a BBS news page simular to ours. :)
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Eautotron/x
Version 4.02 of LORD is already complete and awaiting approval from
Gameport to be released. This is just a cosmetic release recognising
the new owners and updated copyright info. Future versions will fix
some of the minor problems such as the currently poor CPU timeslicing
under Windows. Michael plans to offer multiple platforms of LORD for
differnt operating systems such as DOS, Win32, and perhaps others.
Michael is currently replacing the DDPlus door kit that LORD was build
around with the more modern Kdrive kit by Korombos. Michael says that
using Kdrive will be a big plus since the Ele Win32 communication and
telnet drivers are being incorporated into Kdrive. Michael plans to
keep the gameplay in LORD basicly the same, but would like to add
more role-playing to it. He would also like to re-work the registration
routines to protect his work, but version 4.02 will use the same code.
Gameport has not yet desided if they will also contract Michael to
bring the other Seth Robinson doors (LORD2 and TEOS) into the next
century as well, but this is a definate possibility.
These programs are all written in Borland Pascal 7, and all
require the FastGraph and Async Professional development kits.
He will be releasing one more update to the MAX Graphics programs
which will be the same as the current versions, but will be
recompiled with the latest version of FastGraph, and MAXpaint
will no longer require a registration.
Larry says he will start building a completely new BBS package
that is run under MS Internet Information Server (IIS) as well as
Microsoft Personal Web Server. Other web servers such as Xitami
and Apache that dont offer VBScript support will not be compatible.
Larrys project will be written using the Visual BASIC Script language,
and will be distributed with full source code (except for the system
manager component which is written in Delphi and will not be include
with the source code).
EleBBS Gamma5 (0.05g1) will be released to the public this month,
according to developer Maarten Bekers. EleBBS Gamma5 will offer
several new features, including an NNTP NewsServer. The NewsServer
will allow sysops connected to the internet to offer their JAM
messagebases as if they were internet NewsGroups. Users can read
and write to the messagebases using programs such as MS-Outlook,
Netscape Communicator, or Eudora.
http://home.wxs.nl/~elevator
COM/IP News:
Tactical Software released another version of their COM/IP Telnet
Server/Virtual Modem driver last week. COM/IP 2.02 fixes issues
under Windows NT and Windows2000, and offers improved performance.
http://www.tacticalsoftware.com
UltimateBBS News:
As of April 30, development of UltimateBBS has stopped.
This was the result of several factors, mainly that the current
developer no longer had sufficent time required for the project.
Rather then turning into another vaporBBS, they are looking for
someone to take over the (Pascal 7.0) source code and complete
it. Anyone intrested in can contact Siegmar@ultimate-systems.com.
UltimateBBS is esimated at more then 90% complete currently.
http://www.ultimate-systems.com
RGC BBS News:
RGC BBS is now in the first ALPHA stages while they develop the GUI
and server portion of the BBS. Currently development is very slow.
Developer Brian Tafoya is trying to get the command processor
completed, and talking to the com ports & telnet sessions. He had
originally intended to release a beta in late April, but is NOT
confident at this time that it would operate at what he feels the
beta stage should be. He plans to place the BBS online by the
end of this month for viewing & testing, which should be followed
by a beta release.
http://www.rgcomputing.com/rgcbbs.htm
Xenotetra BBS News:
Two more public updates to Xenotetra have been released in the past
10 days. Xenotetra now offers both a chat plugin and email plugin.
It still lacks some of the basic features you would expect in a
functional BBS such as file transfers, doors, or message bases,
but this Windows based BBS has a simple interface and shows a lot
of potential.
http://pw1.netcom.com/~spelwevr/xenoterra
X-Board BBS News:
Ben Marsh recently announced that he is too busy to continue working
on X-Board BBS for "a while longer", though he does hope to work on it
again someday. He originally planned to release X-Board back in
October, then November and December. One of the key features was that
updates would be released once a week.
Mystic BBS News:
James Coyle is about to release Mystic BBS version 1.05a in the next few
days. This will be a minor revision with a few new features and small
bug fixes added since the 1.05 release. Mystic is a freeware BBS with
native versions for DOS, Win32, and OS/2.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/9426/
Inverse BBS News:
zoob announced today that he has ported Inverse BBS over to OS/2.
He says there are still some bugs to iron out, but he will release a
public alpha soon which will include DOS, OS/2 and Linux ports.
web site currently down
Legend of the Red Dragon News:
Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) was the all-time most popular door
game in BBS history. Now after four years it is back in development!
Seth Robinson sold the rights to the game to Metropolis Gameport Inc.
last year, and they have recently allowed a programmer named Michael
Preslar to continue its development.
Update June 3rd: LORD 4.02 was released today!
http://lord.darktech.org
Max Graphics News:
Larry Athey has pulled the plug on Max Graphics development.
He has lost all intrest in the dial-up BBS or telnet BBS scene,
and has decided to release the source code for all BBS related
programs that he has written in the past.
http://www.maxgfx.com
If you have any additional BBS related news, please send to mike@pcmicro.com