A little sneak peek

This is a little something I’ve been working on as a side project. A good, full featured, native OSX BBS terminal program was something that seemed missing. It felt like there should be something there. But there wasn’t anything there that scratched that itch for me…

I wanted something to make me feel that same feeling I got. Dialing local BBS’s using things like Telemate, or Telix. Playing door games, MUDs, downloading and uploading files.

Hearing the modems negotiate, the clicking and clacking of the old mechanical keyboards as I frantically typed late into the night. Seeing the glare of the light on the curved faces of the CRT screen surrounded by an old beige plastic monitor casing. The old pixelated fonts. The ingeniously beautiful ACSII and ANSI art. The excitement of writing and sharing little scripts between friends.

All of it.

So I set out to make something that makes those people who are nostalgic about how being “online” in the 80’s and 90’s feel something. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not necessarily authentic, or exact, but it’s got that FEEL. I hope it does, at least.

I got a little help. Maybe a lot of help…

I have to admit that, while I am a programmer by trade I am not an OSX developer. So I have leaned heavily on AI getting this created. Part of this was the finding out: Can a vibe coded app be lovingly crafted? Does the use of AI, even heavy use of AI have to produce an inferior product? Does that HAVE to be a bad thing? I guess we shall see. What I can definitely say is that I poured a lot of love into it so far, and I sincerely hope you like it.