PCBoard
Encyclopedia
PCBoard was a bulletin board system
(BBS) application first introduced for DOS
in 1983 by Clark Development Corporation. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid expansion of BBS systems in the early 1990s. Like many BBS companies, the rise of the Internet
starting around 1994 led to serious downturns in fortunes, and Clark Development went bankrupt in 1997. Most PCB sales were of two-line licenses; additional line licenses (in ranges of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250 and 1000) were also available.
A native 32bit IBM OS/2
version became also available with PCB V15.22 and higher. There were also a few tools available for PCBoard, which were specifically developed for the OS/2 2.0 and OS/2 Warp operating system.
), such as 16550 UART
("Fifo"), 16554 UART and 16650 UART, which made it possible to run multiple nodes of the BBS on a single (multitasking
) computer using either using IBM OS/2 or the DOS multitasking tool DESQview
in combination with the memory manager QEMM
. Some sysop
s tried to run PCBoard on the (then) new Windows 95
operating system
by Microsoft
and reported mixed results. Stability was critical for a BBS, which was usually running 24/7
and the early version of the Microsoft 32bit operating system lacked it. Windows 95 was never officially supported by CDC.
Standard PCs then and today have only one or two (if any) serial port
s (COM ports), which are needed to connect an external modem
to a computer. This made multiport cards like the G-Tek "BlackBoard", "BBS550" or "SmartCard" and the "DigiCard" by Digi International
popular among sysops. Other options were internal multi-modem cards and multiple computers connected by local area network
.
PCBoard also supports ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network
) and Telnet
access via the Internet. The open source communications terminal program
SyncTERM, available for Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X can be used for example to connect to the few remaining PCBoard BBS installations that are connected to the Internet.
, also known as RIME for RelayNet International Mail Exchange, allowed BBS's running PCBoard to join a network that exchanged messages with other BBS's in a system similar to the older FidoNet
.
Clark Development Company (CDC) pioneered the FILE ID.DIZ
format as well as a powerful scripting language (PPL), which supported modifications and to a large degree replacement of most standard commands and processes. A compiled interpreter script written in PPL was called PPE (PCBoard Programming Executable). PPEs were generated by the PCBoard Programming Language Compiler (PPLC), which was an optional tool provided by Clark Development Company and was also available for purchase as stand alone tool. It was less than $100 by itself and less than $50 in combination with any BBS license. This allowed programmers to develop PPEs for PCBoard without having to purchase a PCBoard BBS license.
Also optional and available by itself were the printed PCBoard manual and the printed PPLC reference handbook.
The script language was introduced with version 15.0 and made this version of PCBoard even more successful than PCBoard V14.5.
Various door programs
were in use, including Sam Smith's Prodoor, which added a full screen editor and other features which were later included in PCBoard itself.
The script language PPL and PPE's which became more and more available, increased the popularity of PCBoard and emerged by the mid nineties as the de facto-standard BBS system for warez
BBS
on the IBM PC. The warez BBS's used mostly pirated versions of the BBS software and thus did not appear in any official sales or usage statistic for the software. What PCBoard was for warez BBSes on the IBM PC, was Amiexpress
for BBSes running on Commodore Amiga computers.
Despite the high price tag Clark Development Company sold more than 50,000 PCBoard licenses by 1995.
The last full release of PCBoard by Clark Development Company was version 15.3 in September 1996.
Clark Technologies, a division of Clark Development Company announced on July 29, 1996 the availability of source code and OEM licenses for the PCBoard BBS software.
The final release was 15.4 beta, which had a one-month trial period. Later, the lead software engineer from Clark Development Company released information on how to bypass the trial period timeout; the timeout had been inserted as a reminder and had not been intended to permanently disable the software.
Clark Development Company went bankrupt
in July 1997 and closed its offices without prior warning and leaving a great number of upset customers behind. Customers were never notified by the company, and customers who had just purchased licences for the software were not notified, refunded or provided access to the software they had paid for..
The company did not exist anymore when the Year 2000 problem
, also known as the Y2K problem or millennium bug, made headline news. Fortunately PCBoard only had a few minor problems with the year 2000 (and 2001) and fixes were made available by several individuals.
The last full release version of PCBoard, version 15.3, never really caught on and most systems that were online after 1997 continued to use the previous 15.2x versions of the software.
PCBoard is still in use today by nostalgic BBS fans. There is a freeware FOSSIL
driver called NetFoss
which allows PCBoard to be accessible via telnet
under Windows. There was also a DOS based PCBoard add-on "PCB Internet Collection" which allowed telnet access by installing a (DOS-only) packet driver.
BBS Software
PCBoard/M
licensing model was used for the majority of non-free PPEs. A number of release groups who were specialized in PPE and other PCB/BBS tool developments were formed, such as the French group Aegis Corp, the Russian group Brutal PPE/PCE/PRO Coders (BPC) and the German groups Peanuts (PNS) and Paranoia (PNA).
Warez groups like PWA
and DOD
released several PPEs which were used by a lot of Sysops. Examples are the PWA "NewScan" PPE, the PWA "Files-Reverse" PPE and the DOD "LARS Upload Processor".
The French group Aegis Corp became famous for their PPE De-compiler (PPLX) written by Lone Runner, which allowed the de-compilation of PPE binaries back to human readable PPL code. Lone Runner also wrote the Aegis PPL compiler which produced smaller and faster code than Clark Development's original PPL compiler. Other helpful tools for PPE developers followed. Another PPE De-compiler was PPLDecompiler (PPLD) written by CHiCKEN, a member of the "Swiss Coding Division" of the group Electronic Rats (EcR).
based PCBoard BBS software and used Microsoft SQL Server
as underlying database. A runtime-version of Microsoft SQL Server came with the Metaworlds software. CDC went out of business before Metaworlds was finished. Metaworlds was developed by CDC to make the transition to the Internet when the decline of the BBS became apparent.
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...
(BBS) application first introduced for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
in 1983 by Clark Development Corporation. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid expansion of BBS systems in the early 1990s. Like many BBS companies, the rise of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
starting around 1994 led to serious downturns in fortunes, and Clark Development went bankrupt in 1997. Most PCB sales were of two-line licenses; additional line licenses (in ranges of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250 and 1000) were also available.
A native 32bit IBM OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
version became also available with PCB V15.22 and higher. There were also a few tools available for PCBoard, which were specifically developed for the OS/2 2.0 and OS/2 Warp operating system.
Multinode support
PCBoard supported the 16C550 UARTS (universal asynchronous receiver transmitterUniversal asynchronous receiver/transmitter
A universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter, abbreviated UART , is a type of "asynchronous receiver/transmitter", a piece of computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms. UARTs are commonly used in conjunction with communication standards such as EIA RS-232, RS-422 or...
), such as 16550 UART
16550 UART
The 16550 UART is an integrated circuit designed for implementing the interface for serial communications...
("Fifo"), 16554 UART and 16650 UART, which made it possible to run multiple nodes of the BBS on a single (multitasking
Computer multitasking
In computing, multitasking is a method where multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is actively executing instructions for...
) computer using either using IBM OS/2 or the DOS multitasking tool DESQview
DESQview
DESQview was a text mode multitasking program developed by Quarterdeck Office Systems which enjoyed modest popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
in combination with the memory manager QEMM
QEMM
Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager , was a memory manager produced by Quarterdeck Office Systems in the late 1980s through late 1990s. It was the most popular memory manager for the MS-DOS and other DOS operating systems.-QEMM product ranges:QRAM: A memory manager for 286 or higher CPU. It...
. Some 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....
s tried to run PCBoard on the (then) new Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
and reported mixed results. Stability was critical for a BBS, which was usually running 24/7
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
and the early version of the Microsoft 32bit operating system lacked it. Windows 95 was never officially supported by CDC.
Standard PCs then and today have only one or two (if any) serial port
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...
s (COM ports), which are needed to connect an external modem
Modem
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...
to a computer. This made multiport cards like the G-Tek "BlackBoard", "BBS550" or "SmartCard" and the "DigiCard" by Digi International
Digi International
Digi International was founded in 1985 as DigiBoard and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA. The company went public as Digi International in 1989 and is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol DGII. The company initially offered intelligent ISA/PCI boards with multiple...
popular among sysops. Other options were internal multi-modem cards and multiple computers connected by local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
.
PCBoard also supports ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network...
) 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...
access via the Internet. The open source communications terminal program
Terminal (application)
Terminal is a terminal emulator included in Apple's Mac OS X operating system. It originated in Mac OS X's predecessors, NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, and allows the user to interact with the computer through a command line interface. By default it provides a bash shell, which allows the OS X user to...
SyncTERM, available for Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X can be used for example to connect to the few remaining PCBoard BBS installations that are connected to the Internet.
Multi-BBS Networks
Starting in 1988, the RelayNetRelayNet
RelayNet, also known as RIME for RelayNet International Mail Exchange, was an e-mail exchange networking protocol supported by the PCBoard bulletin board system. It was in most respects similar to FidoNet in purpose and technology, although it used names for its nodes instead of Fido's numeric...
, also known as RIME for RelayNet International Mail Exchange, allowed BBS's running PCBoard to join a network that exchanged messages with other BBS's in a system similar to the older FidoNet
FidoNet
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...
.
History
The first version of PCBoard was released in 1983.Clark Development Company (CDC) pioneered the FILE ID.DIZ
FILE ID.DIZ
FILE_ID.DIZ is a plain text file containing a brief contentdescription of the archive in which it is included.It was originally used in archives distributed through bulletin board systems ....
format as well as a powerful scripting language (PPL), which supported modifications and to a large degree replacement of most standard commands and processes. A compiled interpreter script written in PPL was called PPE (PCBoard Programming Executable). PPEs were generated by the PCBoard Programming Language Compiler (PPLC), which was an optional tool provided by Clark Development Company and was also available for purchase as stand alone tool. It was less than $100 by itself and less than $50 in combination with any BBS license. This allowed programmers to develop PPEs for PCBoard without having to purchase a PCBoard BBS license.
Also optional and available by itself were the printed PCBoard manual and the printed PPLC reference handbook.
Various door programs
BBS door
A door is a computer program, on a bulletin board system, that runs outside of the main bulletin board program. Sometimes called external programs, doors are the most common way to add games, utilities, and other extensions to BBSes. From the 1990s on, most BBS software had the capability to...
were in use, including Sam Smith's Prodoor, which added a full screen editor and other features which were later included in PCBoard itself.
The script language PPL and PPE's which became more and more available, increased the popularity of PCBoard and emerged by the mid nineties as the de facto-standard BBS system for warez
Warez
Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...
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...
on the IBM PC. The warez BBS's used mostly pirated versions of the BBS software and thus did not appear in any official sales or usage statistic for the software. What PCBoard was for warez BBSes on the IBM PC, was Amiexpress
Amiexpress
AmiExpress - also known as /X - by Synthetic Technologies was a popular BBS software application for the Commodore Amiga line of computers. AmiExpress was extremely popular among the warez scene for trading software....
for BBSes running on Commodore Amiga computers.
Despite the high price tag Clark Development Company sold more than 50,000 PCBoard licenses by 1995.
The last full release of PCBoard by Clark Development Company was version 15.3 in September 1996.
Clark Technologies, a division of Clark Development Company announced on July 29, 1996 the availability of source code and OEM licenses for the PCBoard BBS software.
The final release was 15.4 beta, which had a one-month trial period. Later, the lead software engineer from Clark Development Company released information on how to bypass the trial period timeout; the timeout had been inserted as a reminder and had not been intended to permanently disable the software.
Clark Development Company went bankrupt
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in July 1997 and closed its offices without prior warning and leaving a great number of upset customers behind. Customers were never notified by the company, and customers who had just purchased licences for the software were not notified, refunded or provided access to the software they had paid for..
PCBoard after CDC
Sysops continued to use PCBoard around the world, even after support by CDC stopped when the company went out of business. Help was available from many individuals who created tools and documentation for the PCBoard system.The company did not exist anymore when the Year 2000 problem
Year 2000 problem
The Year 2000 problem was a problem for both digital and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.In computer programs, the practice of representing the year with two...
, also known as the Y2K problem or millennium bug, made headline news. Fortunately PCBoard only had a few minor problems with the year 2000 (and 2001) and fixes were made available by several individuals.
The last full release version of PCBoard, version 15.3, never really caught on and most systems that were online after 1997 continued to use the previous 15.2x versions of the software.
PCBoard is still in use today by nostalgic BBS fans. There is a freeware FOSSIL
FOSSIL
FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer. Fido refers to FidoBBS, Opus refers to Opus-CBCS BBS, and SEAdog refers to a Fidonet compatible mailer...
driver called NetFoss
NetFoss
NetFoss is a popular Network FOSSIL driver for Windows.A FOSSIL is a serial communications layer to allow DOS based software to talk to modems without dealing with hardware I/O and interrupts....
which allows PCBoard to be accessible via 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...
under Windows. There was also a DOS based PCBoard add-on "PCB Internet Collection" which allowed telnet access by installing a (DOS-only) packet driver.
Awards
PCBoard Programming Language / PPLC Compiler- 1994 - Dvorak Award for "Outstanding PC Telecommunications Technology"
BBS Software
- 1995 - PC Magazine Editors Choice Award (August 1995 Issue)
- 1995 - Dvorak Award for "Best OS/2-based BBS software"
- 1997 - Inducted (Clark Development) into the Shareware Hall of Fame in 1997 by the SIAF board
Features
- Packet switch support
- Full Internationalization of dates & code page
- FOSSIL support for virtually any intelligent serial card(/M code)
- File attachment to messages
- Multiple daily events
- Full support for 2 byte international character sets
- Built-in .QWK message packet support
- Jukebox & "slow" CD-ROM support
- Incoming Fax support
- Carbon-Copy list support
- Return Receipt message support
- Caller-ID support
- ALIAS support by conference area
- RIPscrip support for remote callers
- PPL (PCBoard Programming Language Compiler) (Optional)
- Automatic 16550 UART recognition & support
- Intelligent & non-intelligent multi-port serial card support
- Full screen text editor
- ANSI graphics support
- Full color operation
- Thread reading of messages
- Supports up to 65,535 conference (message base) areas
- 36 file transfer protocols supported
- Supports 32,767 DOORS per conference
- Real-Time 255 channel node chat (CB chat)
- Long message headers for all NetMail programs including Internet, Usenet & others.
- Local network logins for in-house e-mail support
- Direct connect support for in-house serial networks & PADS
- Communicates directly with OS/2 COMM drivers to allow large number of multiple nodes under OS/2
- Automatically detects OS/2 operation for time-slice control
- Full network support for any NetBIOS compatible network, including Netware, LAN tastic, 3-Com, Vines & more.
- Full remote DOS access for SysOp if desired
- True & complete multi-lingual language support
Requirements
- IBM PC compatible
- Minimum 320k RAM
- DOS 3.1 or higher
- Modem to support remote dial-in, a Virtual Modem such as NetSerial, or the NetFossNetFossNetFoss is a popular Network FOSSIL driver for Windows.A FOSSIL is a serial communications layer to allow DOS based software to talk to modems without dealing with hardware I/O and interrupts....
telnet FOSSIL for Windows.
PCBoard/M
- Needs 80386 CPU or higher since code is written using 80386 instructions for maximum speed
PPLC Versions
- PCBoard V15.00 PPLC V1.00
- PCBoard V15.10 PPLC V2.00
- PCBoard V15.20 PPLC V3.00
- PCBoard V15.21 PPLC V3.10
- PCBoard V15.22 PPLC V3.20
- PCBoard V15.30 PPLC V3.30
- PCBoard V15.40 PPLC V3.40 (both beta)
PPE/PPL Groups
Thousands of PPEs were developed and published, often for free, by either individuals or scene groups. A number of commercial PPEs were also developed. The sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
licensing model was used for the majority of non-free PPEs. A number of release groups who were specialized in PPE and other PCB/BBS tool developments were formed, such as the French group Aegis Corp, the Russian group Brutal PPE/PCE/PRO Coders (BPC) and the German groups Peanuts (PNS) and Paranoia (PNA).
Warez groups like PWA
PWA
PWA may stand for:* Patients' welfare association* Pacific Western Airlines* People With AIDS* Pirates With Attitude, a warez release group* Prince Willem Alexander, Crown prince of the Netherlands* Printed Wiring Assemblies, Printed Circuit Boards...
and DOD
DrinkOrDie
DrinkOrDie was an underground software piracy group and warez trading network during the 1990s. On December 11, 2001, a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer - forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement. DoD, as a rule, received no financial profit for their...
released several PPEs which were used by a lot of Sysops. Examples are the PWA "NewScan" PPE, the PWA "Files-Reverse" PPE and the DOD "LARS Upload Processor".
The French group Aegis Corp became famous for their PPE De-compiler (PPLX) written by Lone Runner, which allowed the de-compilation of PPE binaries back to human readable PPL code. Lone Runner also wrote the Aegis PPL compiler which produced smaller and faster code than Clark Development's original PPL compiler. Other helpful tools for PPE developers followed. Another PPE De-compiler was PPLDecompiler (PPLD) written by CHiCKEN, a member of the "Swiss Coding Division" of the group Electronic Rats (EcR).
PCBoard Metaworlds
Metaworlds was an attempt by CDC to establish a BBS-like environment on the Internet, basically a closed mailbox in HTML format online. Access to the content was only possible for registered users who had to authenticate themselves with username and password to access the system. Metaworlds supported the parallel operation with the standard ANSIAnsi
Ansi is a village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia....
based PCBoard BBS software and used Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
as underlying database. A runtime-version of Microsoft SQL Server came with the Metaworlds software. CDC went out of business before Metaworlds was finished. Metaworlds was developed by CDC to make the transition to the Internet when the decline of the BBS became apparent.
External links
- Piranha (ACiD) Telnet PCBoard BBS telnet://piranha.acid.org - a PCBoard system
- Mercury Opus Forums - Full and latest version of PCBoard (with source code)
- PCBoard Support Forums - Modded PCBoard 15.4b release with full telnet server package.
- 15.3/100 Node + 15.4beta Upgrade - DOS/OS2 Release Install Disks Download
- Brief history of PCBoard from bbsdocumentary.com (and software downloads)
- 153 PCBoard PPE's by PWA at The BBS Archive
- PCboard File Archive A-C (556 PPE's), D-F (333 PPE's), G-I (188 PPE's), J-O (358 PPE's), P-R (354 PPE's), S-Z (337 PPE's) at The BBS Archive
- PCBoard file archive,Filegate.net
- DOS BBS software, Mpoli.fi
- All PPE's released by SAC/PNS (Peanuts)
- Sysop's corner list of PCB related sites