GB Feature: GameBanshee BBS Launches, BBS Door History Interviews

Over two decades ago, pre-dating the explosion of the Internet and well before I ever started GameBanshee.com, I ran a small bulletin board system powered by WWIV in the rural community where I grew up that hosted all of the latest online games (mostly role-playing game doors) and shareware files. It was a considerable amount of fun, a great learning experience, and something I’ve looked back on fondly despite the technological advancements that have come along since.

And so it’s with much enthusiasm that I announce the launch of the GameBanshee BBS, which will serve as a place where a nostalgic itch can be scratched and for many of the classic role-playing and strategy titles of yesteryear to be preserved and enjoyed for what I hope will be many years to come. In order to bring the BBS online with a bit of fanfare, though, I’ve also conducted interviews with several of the developers who brought us these titles – Seth Robinson (Legend of the Red Dragon), John Pritchett (Trade Wars 2002), John Dailey (Dungeon Master), Amit Patel (Barren Realms Elite), Michael Preslar (LORD and LORD 2), and Scott Baker (Land of Devastation). Here’s a sample from the Q&A with Seth:

GB: Considering that your games were released as shareware with the option to buy a registration code, was your plan always to make your BBS development a for-profit venture? Can you give us some idea of how many registrations were sold during the most popular BBS years and what sort of impact the revenue had on your life?

Seth: LORD was a “Darkside” (my bbs name) original for quite a while. I was proud to have a game nobody else had. At some point, some people asked if they could purchase the game for their own BBS and I packaged it up. I sold seven copies or so the first year before deciding to write it again for the PC, as that’s where all the action was. (Until that happened, it only ran on only one rather unpopular Amiga BBS software)

The money did roll in and I sold maybe around 30k registrations of my various DOS doors, and then moved on to special versions created for Major BBS with extra real-time multi-player features that kept the income flowing. During the DOS door days at the peak I made $500 a day, all from receiving letters in the mail. Later with MajorBBS, I remember a few $1200 days. (LORD for that version sold for $300 a pop, so it didn’t take many sales to add up)

It was a fun time. Bought a house with a giant barn to work in. Furnished it with arcade and pinball machines and 8 phone lines: partly for the BBS I ran, and partly for my friends and I to have all night Ultima Online sessions!