MajorBBS

This page is a work-in-progress and is intended to link to all current relevant online resources today.

Background

The Major BBS was a popular DOS-based BBS software developed by Galacticomm Software [wikipedia link]. It was different from other popular BBS packages because it could handle lots of simultaneous dial-in callers (a.k.a. “nodes”), so it was used by larger BBSes that could support dozens or even hundreds of simultaneous callers. The software transitioned into Worldgroup. Galacticomm went bankrupt, and the rights were acquired by Rick Hadsall.

Rick Hadsall later sold the rights to a gentleman in Australia who goes by the handle of Duckula, and controls the https://www.themajorbbs.com/ website. At this website you can get a free version of MajorBBS 6.25 (DOS), and they are also working on a project called MajorBBS 10 which is an evolution from the WG codebase to work on Win32.

ISVs

Galacticomm enabled SDKs for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to develop add-ons for MajorBBS. Some of the more popular ones were MajorMud and Tele-Arena. Unlike typical BBS door games, ISVs could create their add-ons which were DLL files, executed from MajorBBS/WG.

Vircom created “Vircom TCP/IP” which was a popular was for operatoers to add Internet functionality to MajorBBS. Vircom was acquired(?) by Galacticomm, and this TCP/IP add-on was repackaged as the Galacticomm Internet Connection Option

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