Blue Board
Encyclopedia
Blue Board was a BBS
software system created by Martin Sikes (1968-2007) for the Commodore 64
in the early 1980s in Vancouver, Canada, and sold worldwide. Due to optimized code and memory allocation, Blue Board boasted very fast performance for a BBS on that hardware platform. This speed combined with its use of the ASCII
character set and XModem
file transfer protocol
rather than CBM ASCII and the Commodore-specific Punter protocol
sometimes led users to believe that they were calling a BBS running on a much larger and faster computer.
Developer Sikes originally created Blue Board for his own BBS, called Blue Hell, which he ran from his home under the pseudonym
"Beelzebub." He later went on to an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia
, then a long career in the video game industry, including as co-founder of Black Box Games
(now part of Electronic Arts
, where he worked as a programmer on the Need for Speed
series of racing games, among others), before his sudden death while sleeping on December 24, 2007 at age 39.
space, including the shadow RAM behind its ROM
s, to store frequently-referenced data such as usernames, password
s, and message headers. This allowed the BBS to bypass the C-64's notoriously slow floppy disk system for many functions. The text of the message bases was kept on floppy disk in random access mode, bypassing the performance limitations of the 1541 floppy disk drive
's file system. In addition, the entire BBS program was written in 6510
assembly code, further improving both speed and memory efficiency.
Blue Board was one of the first BBSes, and probably the first Commodore 64 BBS, to support features such as voting and one-liners which they called "scribbles." Additionally, it reserved a small block of the C-64's memory space for external programs that could include additional file transfer capability, or rudimentary games that presaged the door games that would become enormously popular on later BBSes.
Each time the BBS was started, the sysop
would have to enter the time of day, because the Commodore 64 has no real-time clock hardware.
In addition, starting up the program was cumbersome. First, the program itself had to be loaded and run, then the RAM-resident user and message data had to be loaded, and then the disk had to be replaced with the message text disk. The whole process took several minutes.
, Macintosh, and entry-level PCs made feasible the development of more powerful BBS software in high level languages without the need for the kind of extensive optimization employed by Blue Board. However, Blue Board was instrumental in the social development of online culture in Vancouver which relied on text messages and email rather than file downloading, so it remained perfectly suited for that purpose long after the C64 platform became obsolete. It was not unusual in the early 1990s to find Blue Boards still thriving while BBSes run on far more powerful computers languished or were relegated to shareware file despositories. The real death-knoll to Blue Board was the rise of multi-line chat systems, starting with DDial and progressing to STS and MajorBBS. It is not known whether any Blue Boards are still operational today.
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
software system created by Martin Sikes (1968-2007) for the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
in the early 1980s in Vancouver, Canada, and sold worldwide. Due to optimized code and memory allocation, Blue Board boasted very fast performance for a BBS on that hardware platform. This speed combined with its use of the ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
character set and XModem
XMODEM
XMODEM is a simple file transfer protocol developed as a quick hack by Ward Christensen for use in his 1977 MODEM.ASM terminal program. XMODEM became extremely popular in the early bulletin board system market, largely because it was so simple to implement...
file transfer protocol
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
rather than CBM ASCII and the Commodore-specific Punter protocol
Punter (protocol)
Punter is a generic term referring to any of various protocols for file transfer developed in the 1980s by Steve Punter, or their variants.- PET Transfer Protocol :...
sometimes led users to believe that they were calling a BBS running on a much larger and faster computer.
Developer Sikes originally created Blue Board for his own BBS, called Blue Hell, which he ran from his home under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Beelzebub." He later went on to an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, then a long career in the video game industry, including as co-founder of Black Box Games
Black Box Games
EA Black Box is a video game developer based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1998 by former employees of Radical Entertainment....
(now part of Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, where he worked as a programmer on the Need for Speed
Need for Speed
Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including Canadian-based company EA Black Box and British-based Criterion Games...
series of racing games, among others), before his sudden death while sleeping on December 24, 2007 at age 39.
Technical innovations
Among BBS software available in its day, Blue Board was notable in that it made creative use of the computer's limited RAMRam
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
space, including the shadow RAM behind its ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
s, to store frequently-referenced data such as usernames, password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....
s, and message headers. This allowed the BBS to bypass the C-64's notoriously slow floppy disk system for many functions. The text of the message bases was kept on floppy disk in random access mode, bypassing the performance limitations of the 1541 floppy disk drive
Commodore 1541
The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...
's file system. In addition, the entire BBS program was written in 6510
MOS Technology 6510
thumb|300px|Image of the internals of a [[Commodore 64]] showing the 6510 CPU . The chip on the right is the [[MOS Technology SID|6581 SID]]...
assembly code, further improving both speed and memory efficiency.
Blue Board was one of the first BBSes, and probably the first Commodore 64 BBS, to support features such as voting and one-liners which they called "scribbles." Additionally, it reserved a small block of the C-64's memory space for external programs that could include additional file transfer capability, or rudimentary games that presaged the door games that would become enormously popular on later BBSes.
Limitations
Because all user accounts and message headers are stored in the 64's limited RAM, which had to be shared with the program itself, the program only supported up to nine message areas and nine download file areas. Further limitations include a maximum of 239 user accounts, and a four-character password length.Each time the BBS was started, the sysop
SysOp
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system or an online service virtual community. It may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services....
would have to enter the time of day, because the Commodore 64 has no real-time clock hardware.
In addition, starting up the program was cumbersome. First, the program itself had to be loaded and run, then the RAM-resident user and message data had to be loaded, and then the disk had to be replaced with the message text disk. The whole process took several minutes.
Supported hardware
- Commodore 64Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
or 128Commodore 128The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines... - Commodore 1541Commodore 1541The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...
, 1571Commodore 1571The Commodore 1571 was Commodore's high-end 5¼" floppy disk drive. With its double-sided drive mechanism, it had the ability to utilize double-sided, double-density floppy disks natively. This was in contrast to its predecessors, the 1541 and 1570, which could fully utilize such disks only if the...
, 1581Commodore 1581The Commodore 1581 is a 3½ inch double sided double density floppy disk drive made by Commodore Business Machines primarily for its C64 and C128 home/personal computers. The drive stores 800 kilobytes using an MFM encoding but format different from both MS-DOS , and the Amiga formats. With...
disk drives
- If the primary drive was the double-sidedDouble-sided diskIn computer science, a double-sided disk is a disk of which both sides are used to store data.Early floppy disks only used one surface for recording. The term "single sided disk" was not common until the introduction of double-sided disks, which offered double the capacity in the same physical size...
1571, Blue Board could use both sides of the disk, one for the message text and one for download files.- Hard drives that interfaced as floppy disks, with a device number and CBM-DOSCommodore DOSCommodore DOS, aka CBM DOS, was the disk operating system used with Commodore's 8-bit computers. Unlike most other DOS systems before or since—which are booted from disk into the main computer's own RAM at startup, and executed there—CBM DOS was executed internally in the drive: the DOS...
compatible command set. - EpyxEpyxEpyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
Fast Load CartridgeEpyx FastLoadThe Epyx FastLoad is a floppy disk fast loader cartridge made by American software company Epyx in 1984 for the Commodore 64 home computer. It was programmed by Epyx employee Scott Nelson, who later designed the Epyx Vorpal fastloading system for the company's games.Epyx FastLoad allowed programs... - 1650, 1670 and compatible modems
- Hard drives that interfaced as floppy disks, with a device number and CBM-DOS
Decline in popularity
At the peak of Blue Board's popularity (the latter half of the 1980s), many Blue Boards were in operation, and the software was widely pirated. As 8-bit computing fell into decline, so did Blue Board. The availability of more powerful hardware such as the AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Macintosh, and entry-level PCs made feasible the development of more powerful BBS software in high level languages without the need for the kind of extensive optimization employed by Blue Board. However, Blue Board was instrumental in the social development of online culture in Vancouver which relied on text messages and email rather than file downloading, so it remained perfectly suited for that purpose long after the C64 platform became obsolete. It was not unusual in the early 1990s to find Blue Boards still thriving while BBSes run on far more powerful computers languished or were relegated to shareware file despositories. The real death-knoll to Blue Board was the rise of multi-line chat systems, starting with DDial and progressing to STS and MajorBBS. It is not known whether any Blue Boards are still operational today.