Journey to Ixtlan

Way back in the day I was the sysop (system operator) for a BBS (bulletin board system) in Phenix City AL, Atlanta GA and Greenville SC between the years of 1994 to 1996.

Proof!

From 334 BBS List

From 770 BBS List

From 864 BBS List

What was The Cat House? It was a BBS using the QuickBBS software. It ran on an 486 AT computer using Desqview, allowing multi-tasking in DOS. This meant we could have one BBS node running on the modem (2400 baud!) and one local BBS node. Anyway, the BBS had an open public side and a private adult side.

The public side included the hottest games of the time, including Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) and Tradewars.  Fun for all!  There was also messaging, both local and nation wide through the use of Fidonet.

The adult side included chat, messaging, games and files. It was quite adult and we had to be sure that no kids got to that side of the BBS. People logged on with their aliases and let the fun begin after they were approved for the adult stuff... but how to be sure about the users?

Our solution was to have a set time to hang at a local Denny's and wait for people to come by and present their adult bona fides. It allowed us to match their BBS alias with a real adult persona. The event became so popular that the established members of the BBS came by and just hung out. A very social event... in real life!

More another day about the alias side of the 90's BBS scene!