The Atari Message Information System (AMIS) was one of the first BBS (

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 ...

) software packages available for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

of computers. It was known to crash pretty often and could not be left unattended for more than a few days. The autorun.sys file which contained the modem handler was at cause. Versions of the AMIS BBS were modified with the modem handler (written by Atari) supplied with the Atari XM301 modem and was deemed much more stable. The original AMIS BBS software was written in

Atari BASIC Atari BASIC is an interpreter (computing), interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with the Atari 8-bit family of MOS Technology 6502, 6502-based home computers. Unlike most American BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BAS ...

by Tom Giese member of the MACE (Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts). The program included instructions for building a "ring detector" circuit for the board maintainer's

modem 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 ...

(Atari 1030 modem) to enable it to answer incoming calls – modems at the time were most often capable of making outgoing calls, but not receiving incoming ones. The one exception being the Atari XM301 modem which had a ring detector built-in. A

sector editor A hex editor (or ''binary file editor'' or ''byte editor'') is a computer program that allows for manipulation of the fundamental binary data that constitutes a computer file. The name 'hex' comes from 'hexadecimal', a standard numerical format f ...

was required for the BBS maintainer to manually allocate message space on their disk, one hex

byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

at a time. As of March 2021, there is still an active AMIS BBS, called Amis XE, that one can connect to using

telnet Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet control i ...

(amis86.ddns.net:9000) or a web client provided by the Telnet BBS Guide.

Alternate versions

The software was released into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

, and was heavily modified by enthusiasts and BBS maintainers. As such, several versions of AMIS exist, including: * Standard AMIS – original version by Tom Giese * MACE AMIS – from the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts, by Larry Burdeno and Jim Steinbrecher * Fast AMIS * Carnival BBS * Comet AMIS – by Matt Pritchard & Tom Johnson of Algonac, Michigan; originally designed for the MPP modem (which used the joystick port, not the regular I/O or 850 Interface ports. At the time this was a very popular low cost modem, that had no software written for it, until John Demar developed a driver to enable software to communicate with the joystick port as if it were the I/O port) and modified to be used with other types of standard modems. The final version featured many automated tasks, usage logs, passwords, private mail, multiple message bases and support for hard drives and MYDOS, and was on the cutting edge of AMIS/Atari 8-bit BBS technology. * TODAMIS 1.0 – for 1030/XM301 modems, written in 1986 by Trent Dudley * AMIS XM301 was a heavily modified version of AMIS written by one of the original AMIS programmers, Mike Mitchell (Baudville BBS - Garden City, MI), and newcomer Mike Olin (Molin's Den BBS, Northville, MI), written in Basic XE by Optimized System Software. * Reed Audio BBS was a modified version of Carnival BBS that added multiple forum support & support for the Atari 1030 modem by way of a hardware ring detector (relay). Created by Todd Gordanier in 1986. *FujiAmis Modified version of AMIS to include modem configuration for the FujiNet Device, telnet IP based deployment, SpartaDos conversion to HSIO, and unlimited message base. Created by Robert Sherman in 2020 *Amis XE Modified version of Fuji AMIS to work with emulators and FujiNet Modem configuration, telnet IP based deployment optimized in Basic XE.Created by Robert Sherman in 2021

References

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External links

Screenshot of the Welcome Screen for Mike Mitchell's Baudville BBS

Screenshot of the Logon Screen from Fuji Amis BBS

Screenshot of the Welcome Screen from Fuji Amis BBS

Screenshot of the SysOp's Waitcall Screen from Fuji Amis BBS
Bulletin board system software Atari 8-bit family software