A rainy Friday evening's entertainment may be had by downloading the BBS section tarball from textfiles.com. I found myself engrossed in the ASCII and ANSI art banners from these bulletin boards of yore. I decided to render some of them and make screenshots to post here, both in the interest of further preserving this bit of history, and to offer a highlight tour to those who lack the patience and resources to view them directly. Click on any thumbnail to see the fullsize image.

Less common are the places where one gets a respite from urban grime to find a board with an almost heartland atmosphere. These are just solid home folk, running a board as a hobby or perhaps as a means to reach out to the world with this wonderful new communication tool that was just discovered. A small range of miscellaneous interests are found here and there. Perhaps some people just ran a board to keep them company on nights when sleep is far away and the sound of crickets is near.

The whole ANSI-Art tour:
Can I play too?
Part 8
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1