Graphics reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- potentialpiper · 2021-03-03 17:14 I used BBSes back in the day and was always amazed at the creative solutions people came up with to share graphics over what was extremely limited bandwidth. In the beginning were ASCII and ANSI art. Then people adapted NAPLPS graphics from videotex services and Prodigy to also work on BBSes. Then of course there was ripscrip, which was like NAPLPS on steroids. Then in the twilight years there were GUIs that took full advantage of the graphical capabilities of Windows, looking no different than something like AOL 3.0. The BBS client Excalibur comes to mind The reason I bring this all up is to ask if any art from the NAPLPS era was saved, and if any NAPLPS or Windows GUI BBSes survive today? Most BBSes I find these days are strictly ANSI, though I have stumbled upon a few running ripscrip as well. I've got a nostalgic itch to scratch, and I'm having a hard time finding anything that may have survived these brief periods of time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 13_0_0_0_0 · 2021-03-04 15:38 I was peripherally aware of NAPLPS based systems at the time but never saw it on BBSs. The only thing I saw it on was Prodigy (I can’t believe I almost got a job with them to implement their smtp/pop services - I didn’t want to move our commute to White Plains. Oddly enough, later in my career I worked with the people who took that job when the company I worked for bought them). I really liked RIP at the time. This may sound silly, but I really loved the creativity that some sysops put in to their menu lines, especially creative spinner prompts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- potentialpiper · 2021-03-05 20:12 Thanks for the reply. NAPLPS stuff has been especially hard to find. I thought maybe I was misremembering for a while - confusing some time on a BBS that was actually an online service similar to Prodigy. But then on archive.org I did find some BBS software that supported NAPLPS output, as well as RIP and two I don't recall ever hearing of before: CONDOR and BIG. So I think I am remembering correctly, but that this was just really rare for BBSes and I just happened to stumble on one or two back in the day ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2021-03-09 13:17 The first board that I set up was running on Roboboard/FX which was pretty much a Windows 3.1 GUI across a dialup connection. If I recall correctly, it didn't require pre-downloading of any graphical assets, either. While it was a cool little "proof-of-concept" the main drawback was lack of functionality and integration with external applications such as doors, message boards, and so on. I ultimately moved onto Synchronet after testing countless other products. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- potentialpiper · 2021-03-11 19:48 Nice to hear more stories from the GUI era. It hardly ever gets mentioned in the BBS community it seems!