Classic multiplayer BBS games.
One reason BBSes were such a success is that computer users finally had a place to experience content and discuss it at the same time. What better topic for a BBS message board than the game you and your friends were playing?
Slow transfer speeds limited BBSes to ASCII and ANSI characters. A board often had only one phone line, so multiplayer games had to be asynchronous: each player took a limited number of turns, signed off, and returned later to see what everyone else had done.
Programmers turned those limits into persistent game worlds filled with exploration, cooperation and competition. Listed below are a few of the most popular games available on The ROCK.
First Release: 1991
Creator: Gary Martin
Trade Wars is a series of popular computer games dating back to the early days of personal computing. Inspired by Hunt the Wumpus, the board game Risk and the original space trader game Star Trader, Trade Wars became the preeminent BBS game during the height of its popularity in the early 1990s.
Players trade resources, upgrade their ships, establish planets and star bases, and fight for control of a persistent multiplayer galaxy.
First Release: 1989
Creator: Seth Robinson
Legend of the Red Dragon, commonly abbreviated LORD, remains one of the best known and most popular BBS door games. Its simple design distilled a fantasy role-playing game into combat, leveling and equipment upgrades.
Multiple players compete over a period of weeks to advance their skills and ultimately defeat the Red Dragon. Third-party IGMs allowed individual BBSes to customize and expand the game.
First Release: 1989
Creator: Eric Hamilton
Freshwater Fishing Simulator is exactly what its title says: a simulation of the freshwater fishing experience, down to the rod and bait you choose and the underwater terrain of the lake you explore.
Its ANSI graphics offer a relaxing change of pace from the fantasy and space-combat games that tend to dominate the BBS door platform.
First Release: 1990
Creator: Paul Martino
PimpWars is a DOS-based door game created in 1990 by Paul Martino. The community continued development after the original author moved on, including later DOS, Windows and Linux releases.
The game combines resource management, business simulation and territory-building with an intentionally off-color theme associated with the era in which it was created.
First Release: 1989
Creator: Sheldon Pasciak
Murder Motel is a death-match-style door game in which the player checks into a hotel and tries to find and eliminate other players while avoiding the same fate.
The motel is a maze of rooms, hallways and one-way passages. Players search for weapon parts, defenses and their chosen target, then find a safe room before their daily turns run out.
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