Aviva Directory » Computers & Internet » Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) » BBS Door Games & Utilities

A BBS door is an interface between the bulletin board software and an external application, but the term is also used to refer to the application.

Doors are the most common way to add games, utilities, and other extensions to a BBS. As traditional BBSes depended on telephone dial-up connections, BBSes and door programs tended to be local, in contrast to modern Internet games and applications.

Early computer bulletin board systems didn't have the ability to run door programs but, from the 1990s and on, most BBS software had the ability to drop to doors. Standards created to pass connection and user information to a door was usually done with drop files, which are small binary or text files that were dropped into known locations in the BBS's file system.

Most door programs were designed to operate the serial port or other communications device directly until control was returned to the BBS, but later development of FOSSIL drivers allowed BBS's and doors to communicate without the door having to take the direct operation of the communications hardware.

The most common use of doors in a BBS was to allow users to play games, known as door games, but other uses included such things as classified ads, BBS lists, recipes, and parting comments from recent BBS callers.

Popular BBS door games included Food Fight, Freshwater Fishing, Global War, Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD), Nukem, Operation: Overkill, PimpWars, Solar Realms Elite, The Pit, Trade Wars, and Usurper. Inter-BBS leagues allowed users of different BBSes to compete against one another in the same game, which was especially popular with the role-playing games.

There were many other door games, some of which are still being played on BBSes today.

The focus of this category is on BBS door games and other door utilities.

 

 

Recommended Resources


Search for BBS Door Games & Utilities on Google or Bing