How would you view an old BBS backup offline? (OS virtual machine /
emulator etc)
reddit / bbs

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r0ck0 · 2017-01-10 15:44

I've still got my BBS from the 90s zipped and burnt on CD.  Would be
fun after all these years to set it up again in a VM to take a look
through it offline.  What's the best way to go about this in terms of
host OS?

* Official old version of MS-DOS virtual machine
* FreeDOS virtual machine
* DOSBox
* something else?

I'm guessing MS-DOS VM makes sense seeing that's what it actually ran
on, but there could be some reasons to use something else?

My BBS software was Iniquity.

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[deleted] · 2017-01-10 16:40

[deleted]

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alteresc · 2017-01-10 17:45

I restored my Iniquity BBS about 5 years ago. You can just log in
locally like you did when it was running. I don't think I needed emu
to run it. If I remember there was a command line parameter to run it
local without a modem and it would open the call waiting screen. One
thing I found out quickly is that it has no ability to understand the
year, it is hopelessly stuck in the 90s due to Y2K bugs.

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r0ck0 · 2017-01-10 18:15

Ah right, so you probably just ran it in a Windows XP or 7 cmd window?

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r0ck0 · 2017-01-10 18:16

Thanks for the info.  This should be useful to some people, although
I'll just be using offline mode.

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alteresc · 2017-01-10 18:22

Yes. I'm running Windows 10 these days so I am not sure if there is a
difference but just running locally I don't think would be a problem
(cmd.exe).

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r0ck0 · 2017-01-10 18:23

Cool, I'll give it a go.  Would make it easier, and it never even
occurred to me!

If no luck with default settings, I'll try "compatibility mode" on set
to win95.

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nolageek · 2017-01-10 18:58

You'll also likely need a 32 bit version of Windows too. I run a
synchronet BBS a d a mystic board on my 32 bit Windows 10 - although
I'm thinking about switching to using 32 bit VirtualBoxs under 64 bit
Windows 10 since I also need a 64 bit Linux VM for another board.

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r0ck0 · 2017-01-10 19:33

Ah good point.  My box is 64bit, so will see how I go and otherwise
install a 32bit VM.

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the-crotch · 2017-01-11 03:50

Got my TAG BBS running under Linux with DOSEmu inside of KVM. It even
has a virtual modem so it can take telnet connections. I only fire it
up when I want to play with it because an open Telnet port is like
crack to Chinese IP addresses.

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[deleted] · 2017-01-16 20:27

[removed]

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mro_1337 · 2017-01-17 06:20

vmware on windows xp or win 7 32 bit