Back to the BBS - Part five: The Underground

In this episode of Back to the BBS, we take a step down memory lane to look at where the darker side of the Internet came from. We examine Warez BBSes and explain what HPAVC boards were all about (Hacking, Phreaking, Anarchy, Virii, Cracking & Carding).

We interview Dan Smolders who recalls what life was like for the average underground BBS user, and chat with 'deathr0w', who talks about the race to release warez, and how modern day warez is released. Despite being involved with some illegal activity more than 20 years ago, 'deathr0w' still requires anonymity today.

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*** Full credits at end of video. ***

Intro sequence: Scrolling ANSI: Acid Trip (2013) provided by Blocktronics. Computer user is from "Intro to ANSI 8-bit Animation / Happy Birthday" also by Blocktronics.

Thank you to Oliver Payne and Kevin Bouton-Scott / Safe Crackers for excerpts from "The Art of Warez": https://safecrackers.com/video

Music credits:

Mod Music by Onky "Back to the BBS"

Synth music exclusively

Audio included under license from Adobe Stock: Catch Up by Falcon Dives / Epidemic Sound Midnight Safari by Lupus Nocte/Epidemic Sound

Stock Music:

Dynamic Thinking by StockMusic / AudioHero Go Further Than You Can See by Stockmusic / AudioHero Subtle warning by Stockmusic / AudioHero Live Streaming Sports by Stockmusic / AudioHero Clouded Vision by Stockmusic / AudioHero

Pathway Under.

#BBS #HPAVC #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

0:00 Introduction

1:58 Shooter Jennings recalls his experiences of Underground BBSes 3:57 Dan Smolders recalls the C64 and Amiga 5:12 Mail trading 6:19 Modems and 0-day warez 10:26 HPAVC: Hacking and Phreaking 14:42 Kim 'Kimble' Dotcom: Showing the world how to phreak 15:08 Max Louarn / Bowser bust 19:25 Public Domain boards vs Elite boards 25:42 HPAVC: Anarchy 26:42 HPAVC: Virii (Viruses) 27:35 HPAVC: Cracking 34:39 Deathr0w recalls cracking challenges 36:46 Game authors and the relationship with crackers and suppliers 41:29 How cracking was done 45:34 HPAVC: Carding 47:51 What happened to the people in the scene? 51:40 Conclusion & What's up next on Back to the BBS ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_heZ-lgzq0