BIG TOP
=======

Also listed as: Big Top Games System

Run by Neal Patrick of the "414's" fame. The headquarters of the
414 until they were caught. Taken down and re-appeared as a
"legit" BBS. Run on a TRS-80 Model III.
Neal Patrick writes "Hi, my name is Neal Patrick, so I know a fair
amount (but remember less) about the Big Top system. I wrote the
BBS software (lifted a lot of the code from a CP/M BBS system) by
myself, since there was no s/w for a TRS-80 Model II (not III as
someone else mentioned). I also had to write some assembler to
handle the connects and disconnects (since the Model II didn't
have PEEK and POKE to determine connect status). My favorite part
of the BBS was "George, the Assistant SYSOP". He was ELIZA with a
few of the phrases changed to fit the BBS better. He would show up
for chats if I was not available. I remember those days when I had
to enforce a 1 hour time limit on the BBS because people played
games. That was a pain to code. Yes, there was a hidden sub-board
for the hacker community, but it was only available if you were
approved (and since the line was busy so much of the time, it
wasn't used much). Nice to recall those old days! I still feel
nostalgic when I hear a fax machine connect (it reminds me of the
old dial-up modem connect sounds)."

Phone   : 414-259-9475
Place   : Milwaukee, WI
Years   : 1981 - 1986
Sysop   : Neal Patrick
Software: Homegrown!

Listed by telephone number, as they all were. A few of
these boards did reach the web: see recoveries-002.txt.
Source  : bbslist.textfiles.com, compiled by Jason Scott

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