Night Owl BBS

The Night Owl BBS operates in the evenings GMT 7.30-11pm, running over a little out-with these times quite frequently. Runs on an Acorn BBC Master 128. A Viewdata / Videotex BBS from the UK which runs on an original 1980’s Terminal Host written in BBC Basic. Operates via Telnet strictly @ 2400 baud 8N1

Dialup available + 44 01756 664433 or +44 020 3422 8439 1200 baud, 7E1 ( for dialup only)

The board offers 3 Message Boards; Sysop Chat & Blog; a Viewdata Art Portrait Gallery and a Classical Composers & Guest ART Gallery; a Retro YouTube channel section; Interview section; a profile and history section of the most popular 1980’s 8 bit machines, a Teletext database of news and trivia from the UK (1981-84) called BEEBFAX) and a fun adventure game. There is also an RSS reader for Tech, Sport and Science News plus a Joke a Day. The BBS also boasts an archive of the 1980’s Telelink Magazine with several articles on computer comm’s from that era.

There are nearly 2000 pages of info on the BBS. A Viewdata / Videotex client is needed to access the graphic capabilities of the BBS. Vintage home computer systems will need a suitable client program that was capable of accessing services like Prestel and Compunet in the 1980’s. There are many client programs still around for these machines. Apple 2, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, IBM and all Acorn systems all have their own still available. Indeed there are historic details of all known programs for various platforms on the BBS in the Library section.

Modern PC/Mac/Linux client programs are also available on Github, for example

IcyTerm https://github.com/mkrueger/icy_term

SyncTerm now also does Viewdata.

http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/

https://www.erb.pw/how-to-install-syncterm-for-linux-from-source/

Other clients for PC/ Mac / Linux are available here.

Telstar Viewdata Client – GlassTTY https://glasstty.com/telstar-viewdata-client/

There also is Web Browser Access:

http://fish.ccl4.org/js-nightowl/

The aforementioned Web Access link will take you instantly to the Login screen..

There is a guest login that anyone can use to browse the board.

Name GUEST

Surname GUEST

Password NIGHTOWL