So you know how fun it is to hook on to your local BBS (Bulletin Board System) and chat the night away with new friends. What if you want something more from your BBS experience? Maybe you want to command a virtual army, become a pimp, perhaps go on an exciting quest. This is where BBS door play comes in, allowing you to play fun and exciting multiplayer games through the world of the Bulletin Board System.
In the world of the BBS (Bulletin Board System) a door is a software mechanism which allows users of the BBS to hook up to an external program. Users of this external program can communicate with other users through the BBS through this door. The most common use of the door: play games of course!
During the golden age of the BBS such door play was extremely popular. While there were other uses for BBS doors (such as creating BBS polls or time banks, where users can trade rationed hours on the BBS), games were certainly the most common way to utilize the amazing door technology. After all, who doesn’t want to enjoy the fun and excitement of a multiplayer game?
Since the heyday of the BBS was during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, many a once popular door game might seem somewhat dated now. They are mostly text-based with few graphics to speak of, for the most part. But lack of graphics didn’t make them any less enjoyable, especially in a world before such explosive multiplayer games like Everquest and World of Warcraft.
So you log onto a BBS, open up a door, play a game. What sort of games were available? Due to the nature of the beast, most of the games were of the role playing or strategy variety. One of the most popular games was Barren Realms Elite, a BBS strategic war game.
In the game users would control part of a planet; these parts were known as barrens. The worlds were post-apocalyptic, and users would have to do their best to turn their barren into the strongest of all. In its most basic mode, users would compete with the other barrens on their world, seeking to overtake and destroy the others.
What made Barren Realms Elite so popular was one that it allowed BBSes to play against each other. Rather than competing with other barrens on your planet (all the barrens on a single planet would be made up from people of the same BBS), you would team up with the other barrens to seek to create the most powerful planet and destroy the other planets in the universe (populated by other BBSes). Inter-BBS door play!
Of course Barren Realms Elite (often abbreviated BRE) was not the only door game around. You also had many role playing games, such as Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) 1 and 2, Usurper and more. There was also the popular sequel to Barren Realms Elite, called Solar Realms Elite.
The world of BBS door play was advanced in 1990 when Scott M. Baker created Land of Devastation, a multiplayer science fiction game taking place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (there are a lot of those in science fiction games) which was the first to boast a fully graphical non-ascii user interface. In 2006 a new game was built on the “Devastation Engine” developed to create a 3D version of Land of Devastation, known as the Cerberus Incident.
As you can very well see, the world of BBS door play is one of endless possibility. Almost anything can be achieved, and because of the multiplayer functionality every game is completely different. Playing with other people will always create more possibilities than playing against a computer, because every person is different and has their own personality and their own way of playing.
http://articles.syl.com/allaboutbbsdoorplay.html
