Rusty and Eddies BBS from the 70's/80's reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 16:47 I was going through some very old boxes and came across a multitude of floppy disks. So I ordered a floppy disk drive that'll plug into my computer to get off any sentimental files, like pictures. There was this one floppy disk which was labeled weird and couldn't really make out what was label was trying to convey. So upon looking in the floppy disk I was greeted with bunch of nonsense I am not familiar with. I attempted to open the allread.me file with notepad and it said what is pictured below in the screenshot I took. Upon looking up who rusty and eddie was, I saw that they had servers that people used back in the day to exchange information, but mostly "adult" content was exchanged before the FBI raided their place and took all their servers. I thought this was interesting enough to share to those in this sub and to also get more information about this particular BBS, just out of curiosity. Also how would I access any of these files? Perhaps there's a youtube tutorial I could follow? https://preview.redd.it/cnpdnccm507b1.png?width=3463&format=png&auto=w ebp&v=enabled&s=ed03b168d8d9a8ee531dab3bd435d62fe20b988b ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phelix808 · 2023-06-19 17:14 Nice. I fondly remember this infamous BBS very well! Looks like a DOS game no doubt. checkout DosBox to run this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RealGianath · 2023-06-19 17:15 I’m not familiar with this site, but if the FBI raided it you may be in possession of illegal material, I’m not going to speculate as to what type but it is probably much more serious than just cracked warez. I’d be careful if you start finding image files. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2023-06-19 17:21 Rusty n Edie's was busted for copyright/piracy, not for obscenity. And it is likely they attracted attention because they were a hugely successful/active BBS. They also dropped watermarks/ads on a lot of the images they published, which still exist today all over the Internet. Software Publishers Association and Playboy Enterprises. The adult stuff in question here was Playboy magazine scans. As for Playboy Enterprises, every page of every Playboy ever published is available on the Internet with a little searching. There is a [fairly incredible photo of the BBS here](https://web.archi ve.org/web/20080314061254/http://timeline.textfiles.com/1987/05/11/1/F ILES/page-22.htm). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2023-06-19 17:22 http://textfiles.com/bbs/r&estory.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2023-06-19 17:29 [John Dvorak writes about this - with some bluster - in the May 1993 edition of PC Magazine](https://defacto2.net/images/uuid/original/dd46 f3c3-dd89-4133-92ab-351fbb1c2022.png). and [A Vice article](https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkpzw7/rusty-n-edies- bbs-fbi-raid). This is how it started: > A report in Boardwatch Magazine claims that this all started because of a tip from a small-time software developer named Bob Fairburn, whose pastoral life (literally, he was renovating a farm) was threatened by shareware stealing meager royalties that kept his family afloat. Fairburn found his CAD program, “Expert Home Design,” available for free on a Wisconsin-based BBS called Exec-PC. He called the sysop and demanded his program be removed, and then found a file within that shareware package advertising that it originally came from Rusty n Edie’s. > Fairburn told Boardwatch that when he contacted Rusty, he received a rather rude reply: that he wasn’t responsible for every one of the megabytes of files uploaded to the system every day, and would get around to removing it when he felt like it. A week went by, and Expert Home Design was still available on Rusty n Edie’s, he claimed. So Fairburn called the FBI. and then > Playboy.com launched in 1994, and the company prepped for its arrival on the web by seeking out and suing anyone posting scans of the magazine’s photographs online. The company had an employee on this task full-time, posing as a regular subscriber to access bulletin boards and check them for Playboy’s pictures. > In the early 1990s, PEI employee Anne Steinfeldt was given the job of scanning on-line systems to determine whether such photographs were available to subscribers via their home computers. (2nd Steinfeldt Aff. Para. 1.) In November of 1992, Ms. Steinfeldt subscribed to Rusty-N-Edie's BBS under the pseudonym "Bob Campbell." (Id. at Para. 2.) She conducted key word searches in the files available on the BBS, and claims to have downloaded approximately 100 GIFs from the BBS which contained reproductions of PEI's photographs. (Id. at Para. 5.) She transferred these files to floppy disks, and then delivered the disks to PEI photo-librarian Timothy Hawkins. (Hawkins Aff. Para.Para. 2, 3.) Mr. Hawkins states that he examined the files by displaying the images on his computer monitor and comparing those images with photographs from Playboy Magazine. (Id. at Para.Para. 3, 4.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2023-06-19 17:52 OP: If you want help knowing what those files are, a complete file listing would be helpful. Look for a .bat, .exe, or .com file, in particular. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 18:43 heres a full list of all the files https://preview.redd.it/bjsdafigs07b1.png?width=1145&format=png&auto=w ebp&v=enabled&s=13b3dce2e4483cee07b421d3c25493ae1339c7e7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2023-06-19 18:46 [DOSBox](https://www.dosbox.com/) is free. You can probably run **GOLF.COM** and that should run it. You can also try running **DESIGN.COM**, although I would guess that allows you to design either miniature golf courses, or golf courses. I am guessing that this is very old and very primitive, but that might be interesting in and of itself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 18:46 thank you for the blerbs about this topic, truly is interesting to look into the past, especially about something I know very little about! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phelix808 · 2023-06-19 18:50 Confirmed. That's Jack Nicklaus' Unlimited Golf & Course Design. https://www.abandonwaredos.com/abandonware-game.php?abandonware=Jack+N icklaus%27+Unlimited+Golf+%26amp%3B+Course+Design&gid=1004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 18:51 that was the idea for posting this, to help give someone a 'blast from the past' moment, since im too young to reminisce in any way. also posted to see how to actually use the files, youve put me on a path of googling about the DosBox, so thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phelix808 · 2023-06-19 18:56 DAMN NFO Viewer program is best to view the "info" (NFO) files. JACKVGA.NFO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 18:57 awesome! thanks for the help and all the information! ill look up how to use DOSBox now, at least it wasn't my father/mothers' old 'adult content' collection lmao ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 18:59 ![gif](giphy|vEgtLzJo8n7qg) thanks for finding that, dunno how you were able to extrapolate the exact game just from the files, very cool ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 19:06 hmm okay ill look up more about that, would you know what would even be in those file(s)? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phelix808 · 2023-06-19 19:11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.nfo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phelix808 · 2023-06-19 19:15 it tells you what the software is. etc . it's the first file you look at 😎 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefanzerker · 2023-06-19 19:17 hmm very interesting indeed, thank you kind sir or Madame ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dmine45 · 2023-06-19 22:11 They even had a strip mall where their BBS was located in Youngstown, Ohio. In the past the sign said "Home of Rusty and Edie's BBS". Sadly by the time I made it up there a couple of weeks ago that part of the sign is gone. https://preview.redd.it/acx387wha27b1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto =webp&v=enabled&s=4c0d7b3cf994bedf36b405d15fa8198e883bd0c8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 530_Oldschoolgeek · 2023-06-20 20:31 Google Street View shows it being up as late as 2018: ​ https://preview.redd.it/snpemcpig87b1.png?width=3799&format=png&auto=w ebp&v=enabled&s=e395ee2bf2a35c9f4590bb95561bad333224e058 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dmine45 · 2023-06-20 22:00 Yep, but it's gone now. The photo I posted was from May 31, 2023. So it was within the last 5 years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sneekeruk · 2023-06-21 23:33 I guessed Jack Nicklous from the following. [Golf.com](https://Golf.com) The File to run.. so its a golf game. JackVGA.nfo An .nfo with the details of the release, Jack golf vga, so its Jack Nicklous Golf More modern releases the .nfo is just named after the release group, but early stuff usually has some of the title in it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PaulLee420 · 2023-06-22 03:56 I love everytime this comes up. :P I went to the R&E strip mall a few times when they were open - and a few times when they were shut down... R&E never meant to be a pirate BBS - they were just into the nudey pics. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- codefenix · 2023-06-22 13:23 Guessing it was probably replaced after storm damage or something, and they just decided to keep the BBS language out since no one knows what a BBS is anymore, and those left who do might be misled into thinking there's actually still a BBS in that strip. Still sad to see it go. At least it's still called R&E Center as a fun throwback.