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..:://BIO
..::// STARGATE (BBS)
When I was in my teens and twenties I used to write music. Aside
from forming a group - with my now wife and brother, I ended up
writing many tracks that were used in games and demos that I helped
produce with a friend Nick
Button. We programmed for the Amiga and very nearly ended
up producing a commercial game.
Whilst doing the games stuff, I also ran a BBS (Bulletin Board)
called Stargate I ran it for about 3-4 years, and it ended up
as something pretty good (IMO). Initially starting on a free and
simple application called MaxsBBS I then moved soon onto a program
called Recoon. This new bbs software, was quite amazing, totally
customizable, so I could produce a BBS that felt nothing like
others - even those running the same software. The only (initially)
awkward thing was learning the programming language to program
the BBS, something akin to C or C++ - and for all those that know
me - I HATE PROGRAMMING!
I eventually decided to close the BBS - it was a VERY tuff decision,
but timed with a move to a new house, I thought it was time to
move on - after all the Internet was growing pretty much into
he beast we know today!. I left behind behind 700+ members, of
which approximately 30 paid me for special access, and far too
many new friends to recall. I was getting about 60+ calls a week
with some even from other European Counties. The closure, although
sad, did leave quite a vacant gap in my time. I had asked my regular
users for feedback on the plan to close, and on the whole they
understood and thanked me for the effort. I did consider moving
the bbs to a website, but back in 1996 the cost was quite prohibitive
for web space.
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How Stargate looked for the sysop angle. The BBS
started on an Amiga A600, then moved to an A1200.
The last year or more it ran on the same A1200 but
was stripped down to fit into a tower case, compete
with CD drive and having nearly 1 gig of files on
disk. The system was on 24 hours a day and in latter
years ran on a 33.3k modem.
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One particular feat of advertising I achieved was to produce
some photo-montages of famous woman's bodies onto nude/seminude
bodies. Each one carefully produced, featuring a girl I felt would
really make people talk, and detailing the BBS name and number.
It worked like you would never imagine.
..:://CYNET
Cynet was formed by Nick and I since we both worked together
in graphics, and spent most of of time either talking graphics,
games and software. Eventually Nicks talent for writing code and
and lots of talking led to a name and onto some titled releases.
Initially released via the BBS, we then approached magazines and
distributors.
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It still came as a shock when we got our first review (despite
it not being brilliant). The next review however (Jinx)
was fantastic
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and spurned us onto going down a route to a commercial
release, however work commitments interfered too much and
the plan went on indefinate hold.
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For more info on Cynet, the games, demos, background info
and downloads, visit the site:
www.cynetsoftware.co.uk
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PICTURE AREA LINKS:
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