BBS door

From Free net encyclopedia

A BBS door was a mechanism to execute and communicate with an external program, commonly a game on bulletin board systems (commonly referred to as door games). The BBS software would start the external program, and the door system would pass data back and forth between the door program, the BBS, and the remote user. To supply the door program with the user's information (such as the user's alias and the amount of time they had spent online), the BBS software would create a drop file containing information for the program to read. FOSSIL was a popular communications hardware/software interface standard used by MS-DOS compatible BBS software and door programs which has helped these legacy programs remain compatible with modern communications technologies such as Telnet and Rlogin.

While many of the most popular and memorable BBS doors were games, numerous doors had non-entertainment applications such as user polls or the time bank, permitting users to time-shift their rationed BBS use. Frequently they would act as a front-end to themed databases on subject such as astrology, numerology and fortune-telling, recipes, weather prediction, personal ads (sometimes with additional match-making functionality), classified ads and "for sale" listings (sometimes permitting auctions), BBS lists and parting comments from the most recent BBS callers.

Popular door games included: