About TuxedoCat Lounge

I have always loved dial-up bulletin boards as they were my first and only way to connect to other systems and people in the 1990s. In 1995 ran The Big City of Kinta BBS, named after my small hometown. Everything was long distance to me so I didn't get many callers but I loved the hell out of customizing my board and curating my collection of files. It was running Wildcat! 4 under Windows 95 with my Zoom 14.4k modem. This lead me to getting on the Internet and starting an ISP very shortly after so that people in rural areas didn't have to pay long distance to get on-line. The BBS didn't last very long and was shelved.

At the beginning of 2023 for whatever reason I got the urge to buy a US Robotics Courier modem on eBay. After all, I'm an adult now, I can finally afford to buy one (or four)! This lead to dusting off my old Wildcat! sysop manual and setting up the TuxedoCat Lounge, named after my two cats Felix and Charlie. The BBS is looking for a niche to fill, if anything it's a spot for people to try out their modems.

I try to stay true to the vintage MS-DOS world and still run 16-bit BBS and door software where I can. I also try to make sure as much as possible works over old school dial-up modems as telnet is kinda boring. Some modern convieniences won such as modern hardware so I can remotely manage the system, Voice over IP to support dial-in modems (which certainly is not great but works most of the time), and a Netfoss+FOSSIL driver to support incoming telnet connections. I'm especially proud of using dial-up UUCP as an Internet e-mail gateway to the BBS, as this is a truly vintage way of handling messages like the old days!

Maybe someday I'll get around to having the patience to draw ANSI graphics again and add some color to my pitifully stock BBS.

--bwann

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