Also new in EleBBS is a UserBase and FileBase maintenance program (EleMGR) which is an exact clone of RAMGR with some extra features such as FILE_ID.DIZ support. It also includes a non-IEMSI split screen chat, faster speed, and many other features.

Maarten is currently considering offering two versions of EleBBS for Windows/32 systems. The current Win32 version is now named EleBBS/GUI, and a 32bit textmode console version for Windows is currently being beta tested. EleBBS supports 250 nodes and is still freeware.

tcRemoteAccess32 News:

Niels Schoot has also released a new public version of his RA Alike BBS for Windows/32 systems this week. tcRA32 is now available in two versions, a (non-expiring) shareware version, and a registered version with a few extra features. Registration is possible via credit card with Ed Meloan at [RA-USA]. This version of tcRA32 fixes some bugs and includes a few new features, but Niels says there is a major update on the way, wich is going to support 32-bit com handling and is Y2K compliant.

Searchlight News:

Pat Clawson has had to postpone the new beta cycle for SearchLight 5.01 for a few weeks, due to an unexpected series of events he has had to relocate his company into a new building in october, which is the main cause of the delay. He expects to begin the beta cycle by the end of this week.

ProBoard News:

Former ProBoard developer Philippe Leybaert is in a negotiation with an unknown party to finally sell ProBoard BBS. Unfortunatly there are very few proboard sysops left mainly due to bad public relations during the past couple of years, but ProBoard was an excellent BBS, very simular to other RA clones yet offering the unique PEX interface. Philippe plans to sell both the DOS version and the unfinished Windows/32 version he started developing in 1996.

X-Board News
There is a new BBS package under development in New Zealand called X-Board, which is planned to be released to the public on November 12th 1998. X-Board is written on Pascal using Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and will feature JAM, Squish, and Hudson style Message Bases, A unique Filedatabase system with a file manager, and will include a conversion utility to convert from RA, ProBoard, or Iniquity BBS's. X-Board will be Freeware.

Mystic News
Mystic BBS version 1.03 was released today. Most of the changes to this version will not be apparent to the sysop, but the code is being redesigned to allow easy migration to future 32-bit versions for both Windows and OS/2. JC says he already has a Win32 beta version working that accepts callers. Other enhancments include Squish Message base support (in addition to the existing JAM support). Mystic is still Freeware.

Other BBS News:
Both RemoteAccess and QuickBBS authors are hoping to release updated versions of their software by the end of this year. RA will be Y2K complient, and QuickBBS is finally going to have a FileDataBase. Hopefully we will have more news about these next month.

If you have any news about any other BBS software this month, please email mike@pcmicro.com