My kids are getting into BBSing! reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2019-01-12 19:54 So my 10 year old daughter has been pretty inquistive about my past lately, and we got to talking about games I used to play when I was "a kid". Told her about dialing into BBS's long before the internet was a thing, and then I described Trade Wars to her. My 13 year old son overheard this conversation and wanted to see it right this second. To be fair, my daughter did too. So we went over to my computer, big ol 40" monitor and all, fired up a full screen SyncTerm session (man that text is huge! hah!) and telnetted into the first board I could find. First we played Jezebel (a door game *I* wrote, 25 years ago, which I open sourced at one point and some asshole replaced my name in the intro screen on, but whatever, he also made a Win32 version, for whatever good that's worth). Man the Jo Momma jokes and other odd humor I put into that game are cringe worthy 25 years later. heh.. Anyways, next we played Trade Wars 2002, which was the one they were really interested in. I guided him through the concept of the game, and he did really well, even finding a planet to sell the resources on, and then buying a better ship. He then insisted we install SyncTerm on his computer so he could "call" this same board. So we did and when we called back, he played some LORD, because he wanted to know what other games were great back then. He enjoyed that one too, didn't quite make it to the second level that first day, but he did make enough to buy a better weapon. I really knew he'd fallen for the game when I get a text from him at work, asking for the password I'd set on that BBS (he's still on my account). When I got home from work, he told me all about his adventures over dinner. Turns out he'd run into a mined sector and blown up his ship. Fun times. We'll see if he continues to play daily. Really warms my heart to see my son getting into the same games I was into at his age, 20+ years after my local BBS scene vanished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloverskull · 2019-01-12 21:42 Any chance you’d share the tw2002 instructions you gave your son? :) What board did you telnet into? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2019-01-12 23:33 Two of my daughters also play TradeWars occasionally. I have a local game at guardian.synchro.net, as well as a telgate to Valhalla's TW server. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NuSkooler · 2019-01-13 00:15 I need to figure out a way for my daughter to try out BBSing. So far, she has shown zero interest. RE: the game - http://www.dreamlandbbs.org/jezebel/ this guy is fairly active, you should contact him! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2019-01-13 01:02 Good idea! Just for you, I went and did a screencast to my YouTube channel, walking people through this whole process. If this gets more than a handleful of views (I wouldn't be surprised if it gets like 60 total views, ever), I might do some of the other games I'm familiar with. edit: hah, forgot the link: https://youtu.be/ldfdU7F0H5Q ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2019-01-13 01:58 Hey cool, thanks. I should get in touch with him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloverskull · 2019-01-13 03:15 Awesome, thanks! :) If you need any more ideas, any of the BRE / SRE / Falcon's Eye / Falcon's Honor type games would be my next vote...that is, unless you're familiar with Ultimate Universe :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- samalex01 · 2019-01-29 21:32 I introduced my kids to Trade Wars 2002, and though they liked it they didn't get into it much -- though they were like 6 and 9 years old. Now they're a few years older, and I'm thinking of trying it again as my son is getting more into gaming. Would be fun to see a kids/teens league start-up.