The Major BBS (sometimes MajorBBS or MBBS) was bulletin board software (a

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

server) developed between 1986 and 1999 by Galacticomm. In 1995 it was renamed Worldgroup Server and bundled with a user client interface program named Worldgroup Manager for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Originally

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

-based, two of the versions were also available as a

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

-based edition, and the last versions were also available for

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems sc ...

-based servers. Galacticomm headquarters 1994-08

History

The Major BBS was developed by

Tim Stryker Timothy J. Stryker, better known as Tim Stryker or Stryker (9 December 1954 – 6 August 1996) was a computer programmer who created MajorBBS, a computer bulletin board software package. With Ken Wasserman he wrote the 1980 game ''Flash Atta ...

and launched in 1986 by Stryker's company, Galacticomm, Inc., as a demonstration of the abilities of the Galacticomm Software Breakthrough Library (or GSBL). The GSBL was a powerful set of

assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of A ...

routines written for IBM and compatible PCs that allowed up to 32 simultaneous

serial port In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. ...

dialup Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

connections to a single software instance without the need for an external multitasker. The "breakthrough" was that the library polled the serial ports, rather than allowing them to interrupt the processor, which was the against the accepted wisdom of the time, and through use of polling and making use of the FIFO buffers that were by this time standard on UART chips, an - at the time - unheard of number of serial ports could be attached to a PC. Because interrupts were not used, there were no issues relating to interrupt conflicts on PC hardware of the day. The GSBL was licensed to developers for varied uses, such as communications systems, bank systems, and real estate systems. Eventually, The Major BBS was enhanced enough that it became a marketable product in its own right. By late 1987, Galacticomm was licensing more copies of The Major BBS than the GSBL by itself. The GSBL continued to be enhanced, expanding to 64 users by 1988, then 256 by 1992, with The Major BBS's line capacity expanding as a result. Because it was one of the few multi-line bulletin board systems, MBBS software was known for fostering online communities and an interactive online experience where users were able to interact with each other via Teleconference (

chat room The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

s) and multiplayer games. This flexibility spawned a small industry of Independent Software Vendors (ISV) who began developing MBBS add-ons, which ranged from shopping malls (what would now be called

shopping cart software Shopping cart software is a piece of e-commerce software on a web server that allows visitors to have an Internet site to select items for eventual purchase.Farris, Paul W.; Neil T. Bendle; Phillip E. Pfeifer; David J. Reibstein (2010). ''Marke ...

) to

online role playing game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...

s. The Major BBS allowed incoming connections via modems on telephone lines,

IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol suite. IPX is derived from Xerox Network Systems' IDP. It also has the ability to act as a transport layer protocol. The IPX/SPX protocol suite was very po ...

networks, and

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts a ...

packet-switched network In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the pack ...

s. In the mid-1990s, the offering expanded to include

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

by the ISV Vircom, a Canadian company that has since become well known for its anti-spam/anti-virus software, shortly followed by Galacticomm's own TCP/IP add-on, the Internet Connection Option (ICO), which was derived from another ISV's offering. In 1992, the Major BBS was selected by the

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

as the access mechanism for the Grateful Med medical journal system, just prior to universal access via the World Wide Web.

Worldgroup

Seeking to compete with

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

, Galacticomm extended The Major BBS software to communicate in a

client–server model The client–server model is a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between the providers of a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters, called clients. Often clients and servers communicate over ...

with a custom program. The MBBS software was renamed Worldgroup Server, and released in 1995 with the version number restarting at 1.0; the included user-side client software was named Worldgroup Manager (but sometimes known as Worldgroup Client) and ran in Microsoft Windows. Version 3.0 in 1997, the first 32-bit version of Worldgroup Server, was released for

. Other versions, like the

compatible version continued in development simultaneously. Version 3.0 finally focused on an active HTML

web community Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

, after three years of concentrating on the original client–server strategy. Version 3.1 was the final version of the Worldgroup Server to support

Demise

Although Worldgroup initially had some success, the initial proprietary client/server model was an unfortunate strategic choice, as the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

was just emerging as a dominant phenomenon. The popularity of the text-terminal-based

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

es, as well as America Online's proprietary client model, faded as online use became web-oriented. Galacticomm's slow response in adapting to the web-based online model probably was fatal. Founder

committed suicide on August 6, 1996, in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, and the company was sold by his widow Christine to a group headed by Yannick Tessier, owner of Tessier Technologies, who developed software as an ISV. As Galacticomm Technologies, Inc., Tessier and Peter Berg led the company toward an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

, which failed in 1998. The company discontinued operations in 1999 and was foreclosed upon by their primary lender; the lender acquired the company's assets through the

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

in 2002. The company's assets were purchased by an ISV from the bank in 2005.

Timeline

* 1986: MajorBBS 1.0 — not released * 1986: MajorBBS 2.0 —

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

* 1987: MajorBBS 3.0 — commercial software * 1988: MajorBBS 5.0 * 1989: MajorBBS 5.07 * 1990: MajorBBS 5.2 * 1991: MajorBBS 5.3 — includes

Novell NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in 19 ...

support * 1992: MajorBBS 6.0 — included

Phar Lap Phar Lap (4 October 1926 – 5 April 1932) was a champion New Zealand–bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest racehorse ever. Achieving incredible success during his distinguished career, his initial ...

protected mode In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units (CPUs). It allows system software to use features such as virtual memory, paging and safe multi-tasking d ...

capability * 1993: MajorBBS 6.1 — multilingual * 1994: MajorBBS 6.25 — Internet Connection Option (ICO)

; Unix version available * 1995: Worldgroup 1.0 — introduced

client; final Unix server version * 1996: Worldgroup 2.0 — included plug-in for

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

* 1997: Worldgroup 3.0 — first server version for 32-bit

* 1999: Galacticomm ends operations after failed

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

* 2002: Galacticomm assets foreclosed upon by lender * 2005: Galacticomm assets sold by lender to a current ISV

Technical information

Software

* Initially, a system's linecount depended on the user limit of the GSBL purchased with the BBS. The GSBL (and thus the BBS) was offered in 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 user editions. Later, with the release of version 6, the concept of ''user six-packs'' was introduced. System operators (SysOps) purchased as many packs as they needed to add additional lines, up to 256. * Due to a limitation of the 16-bit architecture of MS-DOS, Major BBS was limited to a maximum of 255 incoming lines (plus one 'local console'). In practice, it was extremely difficult to scale to this level due to the 16MB

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

limitation of the Phar Lap 286 memory extender in use, as well as the physical limitations on connecting 255

modems A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

to a single computer. * Developers were sold development kits that allowed add-ons to be written in C/C++ * All data files were stored using a

Btrieve Btrieve is a transactional database (navigational database) software product. It is based on Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM), which is a way of storing data for fast retrieval. There have been several versions of the product for DOS, Linux, ...

format. * It was necessary for the system to go down for ''

maintenance Maintenance may refer to: Biological science * Maintenance of an organism * Maintenance respiration Non-technical maintenance * Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English * Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doctrine ...

'' each evening in order to re-index data files as well as running the cleanup routines for the main system and its addons.

Hardware

MBBS ran on standard Intel PC hardware. However it relied on serial ports the number of which was limited to 4 by the standard PC/MS-DOS architecture. Therefore, Galacticomm provided some of their own hardware to increase the number of communication channels. * multi-line modem cards * Galactiboard - an 8-port serial interface for connecting external modems * Galactibox - a 16 slot extender that could house multiple Galactiboards and/or internal modem cards

Add-on software

Connection add-ons

* Vircom TCP/IP — allowed the system to link to the Internet, provide both inbound and outbound FTP and Telnet services, and provide e-mail service. The add-on also allowed MajorBBS to provide

Internet access via

SLIP Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...

and PPP. Vircom later went on to produce software solutions to combat

spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

. * Vircom RADIUS — a

RADIUS In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

server which allowed MajorBBS to act as the central authentication and billing server for any number of applications such as Internet services.

Games

* Flash Attack * Fazuul by

* Quest for Magic by

Scott Brinker Scott Brinker, born 28 September 1971 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, is a computer programmer and entrepreneur. He currently serves as the VP of platform ecosystem of HubSpot, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and is known for his m ...

and

(copyright held by Elwynor Technologies, source was previously released) * Quest for Sorcery by

(source code missing, but rights held by Elwynor Technologies) * Quest for Sorcery II by

(source code missing, but rights held by Elwynor Technologies) * Quest of the Alchemists by

(currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) * Kyrandia by

and Richard Skurnick * Alchemy II: The Hangover by

(currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) * Infinity Complex by Steve Neal (currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) * MajorMUD by West Coast Creations (currently owned by Metropolis Gameport) * Tele-Arena by Sean Ferrell * Sub Striker by Tim Stark / Mark Enriquez agicomm* Tournament Backgammon by Mark Enriquez agicomm* Tele-Arena/II by Sean Ferrell (currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) *

Swords of Chaos A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon. Sword, Swords, or The Sword may also refer to: Places * Swords, Dublin, a large suburban town in the Irish capital * Swords, Georgia, a community in the United States * Sword Beach, code name for t ...

by Mark Peterson (currently owned by Metropolis Gameport) *

Mutants In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It ...

by Majorware Inc.(currently owned by Metropolis Gameport) * Phantasia by Ewe-Nique Creations (Bil Simser, based on Edward Estes UNIX version) * Sceptre by Ewe-Nique Creations (Bil Simser) *

Trivia Party Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forked ...

and Word Party by Ewe-Nique Creations (Bil Simser) * Galactic Empire by Mike Murdock (DOS version maintained by Bil Simser) * Galactiwars by Don Arnel/Logicom (currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) * War of Worlds by Richard Skurnick (currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) * Crossroads of the Elements by High Velocity Software * Trade Wars 2002 by High Velocity Software and Martech/EIS * Farwest Trivia/ Tele-Trivia (currently owned by Datasafe (only DOS version owned by Metropolis Gameport)) * Lords of Cyberspace (currently owned by metropolis Gameport) * Wilderlands/II by Wilderland Software (currently owned by Elwynor Technologies) *

Androids An android is a humanoid robot or other artificial being often made from a flesh-like material. Historically, androids were completely within the domain of science fiction and frequently seen in film and television, but advances in robot techno ...

by Tim Stryker * Hangman's Secret Cove by Galacticomm *

Super Nova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a mass ...

by Galacticomm * T-LORD by Robinson Technologies Inc * Oltima 2000 by Tessier Technologies Inc * Swords & Sorcery by Logicom Inc * BladeMaster by Logicom Inc * CyberTank by InfiNetwork * Foodfight by Jabberwocky Inc * Teleconference Trivia by Jabberwocky Inc * RingMasters by InfiNetwork * Archery by GWW * The Casino by Logicom Inc * Forbidden Lands Book I: The City of Falchon by Computel * Forbidden Lands Book II: The Vale of Grimyre by Computel * Forbidden Lands Book III: The Islands of Dawn by Computel

International Versions

German

* A german version of The Major BBS was published by ONLINE STORE AG in Liechtenstein * A german version of Worldgroup was published by ONLINE STORE AG in Liechtenstein

Spanish

* A spanish version of The Major BBS was published

References

External links

Elwynor Technologies
nbsp;— largest active ISV for Major BBS/Worldgroup; actively locating old TPD/ISV people and acquiring their software
The Major BBS Restoration Project
nbsp;— dedicated to preserving the history of Galacticomm, The Major BBS/Worldgroup, and the TPD/ISV add-on software
Swords of Chaos FOREVER! BBS
- dedicated to preserving and restoring Swords of Chaos and its userbase
Dialsoft
- one of the few remaining active ISVs for Worldgroup
Universal Interactive
nbsp;— ISV for Worldgroup releated software (ISV code: UII); active

nbsp;— archive of only known MajorBBS for Unix material, maintained by one of the MBBS-for-Unix developers
The MajorBBS Emulation Project
nbsp;— An emulator that allows running MajorBBS & Worldgroup Modules on modern Linux, Windows and OSX
SEC EDGAR filings for Galacticomm Technologies Inc
(CIK# 0001043003). U.S. government-required filings concerning failed 1998 stock offering {{DEFAULTSORT:Major Bbs Bulletin board system software DOS software Proprietary software Windows file sharing software