ATA :: Your old board, answering again

▓▒░ Why ATA

A board nobody can visit is a tree in an empty forest.

Standing up a classic board the old way is a project. Keeping it reachable is a second project. And even then, almost nobody will install and configure a terminal program just to look around, so the callers never come. ATA removes both problems at once: it is effortless to set up, and effortless to call.

The Telnet way

A computer that never sleeps, at home or on a VPS you rent and maintain.
A fixed address or dynamic DNS, and ports opened on your router.
A DOS BBS configured by hand, plus a telnet bridge and a loader to feed it callers.
A visitor willing to find, install, and set up a terminal program before they can see a thing. Most give up here.

The ATA way

Install ATA on the shared hosting you already pay for. One folder, one web form.
One click installs a supported board, or import the one you already have. The real DOS software, laid out exactly as its own installer would.
Send people a link. They click, and they are on your board, in the browser they already have.

▓▒░ How a call goes

Someone opens your URL.

RINGINGTheir browser boots a small DOS machine, about two seconds, and mounts your board.
CONNECT 38400Your board answers on the line and its logon screen streams in, CP437 and ANSI, drawn with a real VGA font.
Password:The board checks it the way it always did. The server confirms it underneath, and no password ever reaches a browser.
NO CARRIERThey log off and the line frees itself. If the nightly event is due, the last caller out runs it on the way out, 1993 style.

Read how it actually works: the emulator in the tab, the drive that is not there, the serial line, and the credential relay that keeps passwords off the wire.

▓▒░ What runs

Supported boards, one click to install.

ATA runs each board as a known quantity, and that is the point, not a limitation. Keeping callers' passwords off the wire and every caller inside their own lane means ATA knows exactly how a package lays out its files and its user records. So "supported" means a tested, packaged board, never a guess. The board's own software runs unchanged: its menus, its message bases, its user list, its door games.

An RBBS-PC welcome screen drawn in ANSI, showing a desktop computer and the words dedicated to the free exchange of information.

A Fido BBS welcome screen for the fictional American Tie Clasp Association, running in a browser tab.

A Citadel-86e login screen running in a browser tab, noting the board has been up since 1983.

An Asgard-86 conference menu in red, cyan and magenta ANSI, running in a browser tab.

A Maximus BBS connect sequence and welcome screen, running in a browser tab.

T.A.G. 2.7d2

Menus all the way down.

Call the live demo ›

A QuickBBS welcome screen in orange, teal and red ANSI panels, running in a browser tab.

A RemoteAccess connect sequence and welcome screen, running in a browser tab.

A PCBoard version 15 login screen with a large magenta banner, running in a browser tab.

The Major BBS by Galacticomm answering a call in a browser tab, offering ANSI or RIP and then its welcome screen in green.

A TriBBS main menu in blue and orange ANSI, running in a browser tab.

GAP 6.6

Commercial and polished, shipping until 2000.

Call the live demo ›

A Spitfire BBS main menu in magenta and grey ANSI panels, running in a browser tab.

The Searchlight BBS welcome screen, yellow block letters on a blue and red banner, running in a browser tab.

VBBS 6.14a

Brought its own network, VirtualNET, with it.

Call the live demo ›

A Virtual Advanced main menu drawn in a framed blue window, running in a browser tab.

A Telegard BBS login screen with a large block-letter WELCOME banner, running in a browser tab.

Renegade 1.40

The art-scene favorite, still maintained.

Call the live demo ›

want yours? ask, and it goes on the list

Each board ships at its last supported version, or its current one where the package is still in development.

A note on shareware. Some of these were shareware, and their registered-only upgrades are not mine to hand out. QuickBBS 2.849 does not understand dates past 2012; registering and upgrading to 2.90 fixes it. VBBS and Virtual Advanced run unregistered unless you hold a registration or import a board that already has one, and VBBS 7 is a registered-user upgrade you can apply yourself, untested. A shareware build also stops where it stopped on lines: two on RemoteAccess, VBBS and Virtual Advanced, three on GAP. Citadel-86e and Asgard-86 are single-line boards by design.

Not on the list? Ask for a board

Door games too: LORD, TradeWars, Usurper and the rest, because the board runs them, exactly as it did then. On The Major BBS that goes as far as its native modules: Galactic Empire runs inside the board itself.

▓▒░ Your side of it

A console, not a command line.

Everything a SysOp needs sits in a web page: who is on, calls today, the log, the nightly event, the node cap. And when the board wants its own tools, ATA knows what they are and puts them on buttons, with the machine's real screen underneath and a DOS prompt when you want one.

The ATA SysOp console dashboard: calls today and ever, one caller on the line of six, tripwires, upload room, the board's status lines, the line list and the log. — **Dashboard.** The lamps, the lines, the status and the log, on the RBBS-PC demo. The caller's address is blurred here.

The ATA DOS page running RBBS-PC's own CONFIG program, with preset buttons for the local logon, CONFIG and a DOS prompt above the machine's screen. — **The machine room.** RBBS-PC's own CONFIG program, on a button. The host path is blurred here.

▓▒░ Where it stands

The alpha is out.

ATA 0.1.67 Alpha is out for download: all eighteen boards, file transfers, SysOp paging and chat, and multi-node tested. It carries everything the roadmap promised for the beta, released early so it can run on strangers' hosts before it wears the beta label. It is built on the DOS machine that already runs door games in ATDT: the boot, the network drive, the record locks.

The release: One small file, eighteen boards to pick from, and a manual that covers every page of the console and every board. Download it.
The demos: All eighteen supported boards are answering in public. It is an early alpha, so expect bugs. Call one.
The build: One build, free and MIT licensed, with as many lines as your host can carry. No license keys, no tiers, no crippled version.
Your existing board: Bring the one you already have. ATA checks its version against the tested profile and imports it, or tells you exactly what is needed first. See the road ahead.
The library: Every supported board is a one-click install: the official archive, unchanged, laid out exactly as its own installer would.

The SysOp side: The console knows each package's own tools, config, index rebuilds, mail, and puts them on buttons, with a raw DOS prompt underneath for when you want it. Upgrades run from the same panel, with a snapshot taken first.
The rule: Everything the other approach requires, ATA skips. No DOSBox on a Windows box, no telnet port, no dynamic DNS, no machine left running.
The family: ATDT BBS is free, MIT licensed, and running today. ATA shares its terminal, its console, its DOS machine, and its license. Both, along with ATO Doors and Usurper, are part of the BBS Preservation Project, with one support forum for all of them.

▓▒░ Be on the line

Install a classic DOS board in one click. Anyone can call it from a browser.

A board nobody can visit is a tree in an empty forest.

The Telnet way

The ATA way

Someone opens your URL.

Supported boards, one click to install.

RBBS-PC 17.4

Fido BBS v12u

Citadel-86e 2.19

Asgard-86 1.49q

Maximus 3.01

T.A.G. 2.7d2

QuickBBS 2.849

RemoteAccess 2.62.1

PCBoard 15.3

The Major BBS 6.25

TriBBS

GAP 6.6

Spitfire 3.7

Searchlight 5.1

VBBS 6.14a

Virtual Advanced 2.10

Telegard 3.09.g2

Renegade 1.40

A console, not a command line.

The alpha is out.

Hear when a release lands.