Celerity BBS was a descendant of the freely distributed source of TCS BBS 1.43, and ultimately nearly completely rewritten.

Origin

It originally began as a project of Brendon Woirhaye (The Byter) and David Hicks (Moebius) in 1990 to quickly modify an existing BBS

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...

 package to meet a simple organizational need (separate conferences for IBM PC

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...

 users and Amiga

Amiga

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...

 users), and to meet the needs of high speed (9600 bit/s) communication, as most BBSes of the time could not pump data to the modem quickly enough. The I/O and display subsystems were rewritten, and the BBS package got its name.

Use

It wasn't long before others became interested in the BBS software, and it went on to have over 500 authorized BBSes and about three times that number using it in an unauthorized manner. It was very popular in the underground pirate, hacking, and phreaking community as well as with legitimate systems, including church BBSes, non profit group BBSes, many shareware distribution systems, and a governmental BBS in Portugal.

Features

Celerity BBS had over 50 discrete releases between 1990 and 1995, and pioneered a number of new technologies which were not commonly seen, including split screen multiuser chat (8 node maximum), a file distribution network, an early "liveupdate" system where BBS updates were distributed, a cross BBS message board and email network (CelerityNet, adopted by some non-Celerity BBS programs), QWK offline reader support, the ability to completely change the look and feel of the system, "geek speak" mode that transformed normal text to g33< 5p33k

Leet

Leet , also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters...

, and early internet FTP

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...

 and Telnet

TELNET

Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...

 connectivity.

Alacrity

Alacrity BBS was a premium version of Celerity BBS which was not broadly distributed. Its most notable feature was an AI sysop chat which incorporated ELIZA

ELIZA

ELIZA is a computer program and an early example of primitive natural language processing. ELIZA operated by processing users' responses to scripts, the most famous of which was DOCTOR, a simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Using almost no information about human thought or emotion, DOCTOR...

-style logic, sprinkled with references to current posts on the message boards and recently uploaded files.