Excalibur BBS
Encyclopedia
Excalibur BBS was a Windows
-based GUI
BBS
client, developed by Excalibur Communications. Excalibur was released in 1993, and it has not been officially supported since 1999, when Excalibur Communications ceased operations.
or over a TCP/IP connection with the Excalibur Client. For its time, the client provided a rich graphical environment allowing users access to instant messaging
, message boards, and web
-like hyperlinked navigation screens.
Excalibur provided the platform for add on functions called plugins.
These plugins included games with/without animation/sound and expanded functions for file searches, local and Internet E-Mail, Fido net, Who's on, chat, change handle/password, edit your account info etc. Some systems used wave files for background music incorporating a "jukebox" like interface with multiple music choices. Others used very clever screen changes to provide different degrees of visual input. Multiple themes for low, medium and high end graphics cards.
The original program was written in Borland C++
by Tim Robinson, who is also the originator of the 99 Bottles of Beer
website.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
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...
client, developed by Excalibur Communications. Excalibur was released in 1993, and it has not been officially supported since 1999, when Excalibur Communications ceased operations.
Client Software
Users connected to the BBS by modemModem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
or over a TCP/IP connection with the Excalibur Client. For its time, the client provided a rich graphical environment allowing users access to instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
, message boards, and web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
-like hyperlinked navigation screens.
Excalibur provided the platform for add on functions called plugins.
These plugins included games with/without animation/sound and expanded functions for file searches, local and Internet E-Mail, Fido net, Who's on, chat, change handle/password, edit your account info etc. Some systems used wave files for background music incorporating a "jukebox" like interface with multiple music choices. Others used very clever screen changes to provide different degrees of visual input. Multiple themes for low, medium and high end graphics cards.
The original program was written in Borland C++
Borland C++
Borland C++ is a C and C++ programming environment for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was the successor to Turbo C++, and included a better debugger, the Turbo Debugger, which was written in protected mode DOS....
by Tim Robinson, who is also the originator of the 99 Bottles of Beer
99 Bottles of Beer
"99 Bottles of Beer" is a traditional song in the United States and Canada. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. In particular the song is frequently sung by children on long bus trips, such as class...
website.